Emily Scott Robinson Announces New Album 'Appalachia'
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