Emily Scott Robinson has announced the release of her highly anticipated new album, Appalachia, due January 30, 2026, on Oh Boy Records. The 10-song collection, produced by Josh Kaufman (Grateful Dead, Anais Mitchell, Bonny Light Horseman) at Dreamland Recording Studios in upstate New York, finds Robinson at her most fearless and tender, singing about love and loss, grief and hope, and the power of community in the face of devastation. The album’s title track, “Appalachia,” is released today (October 15) alongside a new music video.
Inspired by the stories of resilience following Hurricane Helene, which ravaged Western North Carolina in September 2024, the song centers on a mother determined to endure. “The song is less about what we can control and more about how we can care for one another,” Robinson says. “We’re so much stronger when we have a community. Then we have hope.”
Appalachia marks Robinson’s third release on Oh Boy Records and her fifth album overall. Over five days in the spring of 2025, she and Kaufman transformed Dreamland, a century-old church sanctuary tucked away near the Hudson River, into an ethereal recording space. The sanctuary’s creaking floors, cobwebbed windows, and natural reverb gave life to Robinson’s most expansive work to date. Robinson’s roots run deep in North Carolina, where she first discovered her love for songwriting as a teenager. Since releasing her debut Magnolia Queen in 2016, she has become one of Americana’s most distinctive voices. Her records Traveling Mercies (2019) and American Siren(2021) landed on Rolling Stone’s “Best Country and Americana Albums” lists and earned praise from NPR, The Washington Post, Billboard, American Songwriter, and more. With Appalachia, Robinson continues a career defined by songs that move people to tears and, more importantly, to hope. “There’s this thing I do with every record I make,” she says. “I knit a prayer into it and ask for the songs to find their way to everyone who needs them. If my music can be of service in that way, then I’ve done my work.”
Appalachia Tracklist
Hymn for the Unholy
Appalachia
Sea of Ghosts
Cast Iron Heart ft. John Paul White
Time Traveler
Dirtbag Saloon
Bless It All
The Time for Flowers
The Water is Wide The Fairest View
Kelsey Waldon's new record Every Ghost is out now! Available Here.
Kelsey Waldon has earned wide praise for her “self-penned compositions [with] the patina of authenticity” (Rolling Stone). On her new album, Every Ghost — recorded at Southern Grooves studio in Memphis with her band, The Muleskinners — she confronts addiction, grief, generational trauma, and even herself, and comes through it stronger and at peace. Since signing to John Prine’s Oh Boy Records in 2019, as the independent label’s first new signee in 15 years, Waldon has earned the title of “Kentucky Colonel” — an honor recognizing goodwill ambassadors of Kentucky’s culture and traditions — and a spot in the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s 2024 American Currents exhibit, among other accolades.
This is her story, told in full. Give it a listen!
Track Listing:
1.) Ghost of Myself
2.) Comanche
3.) Tiger Lilies
4.) Falling Down
5.) Nursery Rhyme
6.) Let it Lie
7.) Lost in My Idlin’
8.) My Kin
9.) Ramblin' Woman
Rising Virginia trio Palmyra have announced their debut album for Oh Boy Records. Restless, will be out on March 28th and is available for pre-order today. To mark the occasion, the band has released the first single, titled “Shape I’m In,” along with a live performance video of the song. The track is a centerpiece of the album and was the band’s submission for the Tiny Desk Concert in 2024 which led NPR to naming them one of their ‘Best New Artists’. “Shape I’m In,” is a mind map that band member Sasha Landon wrote as they began to navigate their bipolar diagnosis. Every verse includes a new apology—their face, their demeanor, their tone. But as the song builds to a climax fit for vintage Bright Eyes, it becomes clear that it’s also a call for acceptance, to be taken not as an error but simply as they are.
Pre-order your copy here:
“We’re so excited to welcome Palmyra to Oh Boy! The energy and vitality of their performances grab you right away, but what really stays with you is the depth of their songwriting - songs that tackle the struggle to make sense of yourself and the world around you. I think they’ve been able to resonate with audiences so deeply because of the honesty and vulnerability in their songs. This is music that is much needed in the world.” - Jody Whelan, Managing Partner, Oh Boy.
"Since its inception with John, Oh Boy has always championed honest, intentional, damn good songwriting, and we are honored that they're holding us in that same reverence as the folks we look up to - Arlo, Dan, Kelsey, Swamp Dogg, Tre, Emily, and of course, John. What a gift." - Palmyra
Belladonna is available now with new music coming in 2025!
Read more about the band here: https://www.palmyratheband.com/