Every Friday, BGS shines a light on some of our favorite new tracks in bluegrass, folk, Americana and beyond. Then we ask the artist about the inspiration behind the music and pass their wise words along to you.

This week, we have South Carolina bluegrass band Eighteen Mile with “Tears on the Altar,” an emotional new bluegrass song that sounds like it’s been around for years. We’re also sharing a new project from folk-influenced pop star Lizzy McAlpine; she filmed the video for “Ugly Things” herself to reflect the loneliness and heartbreak she was experiencing. Texas musician Israel Nash reimagines one of his favorite albums, The Byrds’ Sweetheart of the Rodeo, and shares his approach to recording “Nothing Was Delivered,” an enduring Bob Dylan song from that 1968 masterpiece.

Lightening things up, Los Angeles singer-songwriter Abby Posner shows a comical side to the ups and downs of dating on “Die Alone.” Grammy-winning group Ranky Tanky welcomes us into Gullah Heritage Month with a heartwarming song and video, “This Village,” while singer-songwriter Drew Ryder Smith teams with a musical hero, Steve Earle, on “Textile Town,” an ode to mill workers and days gone by. We wrap things up with the Suitcase Junket’s “Afterparty,” masterfully written from two viewpoints, and Uncle Lucius’ “Shadows Laid Bare,” inspired by the silver linings in difficult situations.

As we say every week, You Gotta Hear This!

Eighteen Mile, “Tears on the Altar”

Artist: Eighteen Mile
Hometown: Upstate South Carolina
Song: “Tears on the Altar”
Release Date: October 2, 2026

In Their Words: “We were playing at a church in Florida for a special service and the preacher that night encouraged everyone there to pray for their loved ones that didn’t know Jesus yet. When he got done, they had an old-fashioned altar call, where people came down to the front to pray. When we went up to play a couple more songs, I noticed that the stairs were actually wet in places from people crying as they prayed for their loved ones. I went back to where we were staying that night and wrote this song!

“This song almost feels like an old bluegrass classic. This kind of song, in its arrangement, sound and message, is not new to bluegrass. We are excited to contribute a song like ‘Tears On the Altar’ to that long and nostalgic tradition!” — Carson Aaron, guitarist and songwriter

Lizzy McAlpine, “Ugly Things

Artist: Lizzy McAlpine
Hometown: Born outside Philadelphia, Pennyslvania; now lives in Los Angeles
Song: “Ugly Things”
Album: Angel
Album Release Date: September 18, 2026
Label: Indigo Blue/RCA Records

In Their Words: “I made this video by myself in my house with my camcorder so I could capture the feeling of this song: loneliness and heartbreak. It’s about seeing someone you thought you knew move through the world in a way that is completely foreign to you, and wishing their path would lead them back to you somehow.” — Lizzy McAlpine

Israel Nash, “Nothing Was Delivered”

Artist: Israel Nash
Hometown: Dripping Springs, Texas
Song: “Nothing Was Delivered”
Album: Sweetheart of the Rodeo
Release Date: September 25, 2026
Label: Desert Folklore Music

In Their Words: “Part of reimagining Sweetheart of the Rodeo was asking what these songs could say nearly sixty years later. There’s a kind of Midwestern sensibility that runs from Twain through Dylan that I grew up around–that dry yet deep cutting wit, observing people, their strange ways and human nature itself. ‘Nothing Was Delivered’ is a good example: these broken promises become almost spiritual, yet we’re never told what was promised or who got screwed over. There’s no rage bait, no virtue dunking, no need to prove the other guy is an asshole. I love that restraint. Fools just aren’t worth the emotional weight most give them. That’s what makes these Sweetheart songs timeless: the world around them always changes, but the people inside them never really do.” — Israel Nash

Abby Posner, “Die Alone

Artist: Abby Posner
Hometown: Grew Up in Evergreen, Colorado, and based in Los Angeles for several years now
Song: “Die Alone”
Album: Rest and Rise
Album Release Date: October 30, 2026
Label: Golden Poppy Music

In Their Words: “‘Die Alone’ came out of thinking about what dating looks like when you’re over 40—and how completely bizarre it can be. There’s something both funny and incredibly depressing about trying to find a real connection through dating apps, where everyone is presenting the most carefully edited version of themselves. I wanted to play with all of that—the attachment styles, the emotional unavailability, the little lies and exaggerations, the people who say they’re ‘looking for something real’ while doing everything possible to avoid actual intimacy. We’ve somehow turned dating into a combination of marketing, psychology and detective work.

But underneath the humor, there’s something much more vulnerable going on. I think most of us, regardless of our age, are afraid of being alone. We want to find someone who really sees us, but the older we get, the more complicated that search can feel. So ‘Die Alone’ is really about that contradiction: the absurdity of modern dating and the very real loneliness underneath it. I wanted the song to be funny and self-aware, but also honest about how exhausting it can be to keep putting yourself out there and hoping that, somehow, you’ll find something genuine.” — Abby Posner

Ranky Tanky, “This Village”

Artist: Ranky Tanky
Hometown: Charleston, South Carolina
Song: “This Village”
Album: This Village
Album Release Date: July 17, 2026

In Their Words: “‘This Village’ is deeply personal because it comes from our home and our hearts. Growing up in South Carolina’s Lowcountry, our elders taught us the meaning of love, faith, courage, and resilience. Their stories, lived experiences, music, and traditions shaped who we are, and honoring them during Gullah Heritage Month means so much to us. It is a celebration of their perseverance through everything they endured and of the gratitude we will always carry for them.

“Recording and writing parts of this album together in our longtime Charleston studio, Truphonic Studios, felt like coming home. We wanted to capture the togetherness, memories, and connection that have sustained us through years of making music. Everyone has a village, not only family, but also the people who support, guide, and love us. We hope this album makes people think about the ones who have helped shape their lives and reminds them that we’re stronger because we have each other.” — Ranky Tanky

Drew Ryder Smith, “Textile Town” (Feat. Steve Earle)

Artist: Drew Ryder Smith
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “Textile Town” Feat. Steve Earle
Album: The Deep End
Album Release Date: October 28, 2026

In Their Words: “I drove through this little textile town in South Carolina, and it looked like a bomb had gone off. There were empty buildings, boarded-up storefronts, and hardly anybody around. But you could tell it had once been a thriving community. You could almost see the generations of people who had worked there, raised families there, and built their lives there. My grandmother and great-grandmother both worked in factories, so the story felt personal. The song isn’t really about a building or a factory. It’s about the people whose lives were tied to those places.

“What stayed with me was the feeling that an entire way of life had almost disappeared, and if you didn’t know what you were looking at, you might drive right through and never realize what had been there. These weren’t just places where people went to work. Whole communities grew up around those mills, and generations of families built their lives there. Having factory workers in my own family made me think about all the individual stories behind those empty buildings and what gets lost when a place changes that dramatically.

“My co-writer Jason Jones and I wanted to write about that without romanticizing how hard that work was or turning the people into characters from some distant past. There was pride there, but there was sacrifice too, and I wanted the song to hold both of those things at once. Having Steve sing it with me gave the story even more weight because he understands how to inhabit songs about working people without ever talking down to them. I hope ‘Textile Town’ feels less like looking backward and more like remembering that these people and places are part of who we are.” — Drew Ryder Smith

The Suitcase Junket, “Afterparty”

Artist: The Suitcase Junket
Hometown: Cavendish, Vermont
Song: “Afterparty”
Album: To Go On
Album Release Date: October 2, 2026
Label: Bad Chef Records/Symphonic

In Their Words: “I wrote this song from two angles. The first is the literal side, a sort of romantic sentiment of not wanting a good night to end. The second is basically about the afterlife and wanting to see the people we love, my sister Kate in particular in this instance, at the Big Afterparty. I don’t subscribe to any one particular belief system but I am curious of mind and I like the idea of joining the departed on some impossible to conceive of astral plane when we leave these bodies behind. ‘And when the night falls down into a sky so starry, I hope I see you at the afterparty.’” — Matt Lorenz

Uncle Lucius, “Shadows Laid Bare”

Artist: Uncle Lucius
Hometown: Austin, Texas
Song: “Shadows Laid Bare”
Album: Open Eyes, Broken Heart
Album Release Date: September 25, 2026
Label: Boo Clap Records

In Their Words: “‘Shadows Laid Bare’ is about the silver lining. It’s hope for humanity in the face of darkness. It’s a tune that came to me over a decade ago. It came from a place that I liken to a radio frequency that can only be picked up when you have moved out of your own way.” — Kevin Galloway

Photo Credits: Matt Lorenz (The Suitcase Junket); Keith Oshiro (Lizzy McAlpine)