Songlines - February/March 2026
The February/March 2026 issue (#215) of Songlines is out now. Steve Martin & Alison Brown drop by to discuss their new all-star bluegrass album. We catch up with Lebanese artist Yasmine Hamdan as she prepares to take her Songlines award-winning album out on tour, and we talk to Algerian desert rockers Imarhan about their latest, and perhaps best, album to date. We chat to Portuguese breakout star Slow J and Dino d’Santiago about fado’s African roots, calypso legend Mighty Sparrow gets the Beginner’s Guide treatment, we find out about the making of electro-bossa classic Tanto Tempo with Bebel Gilberto and hear from Ukrainian pianist Lubomyr Melnyk about his transcendent piano style. Glasgow-born Egyptian duo The Ayoub Sisters tell us about their Arabic classical crossovers, and we venture deep into Kashmir to speak to Yousuf Nassem, one of the last custodians preserving the Dard-Shin community’s oral traditions. Plus, we have an AI in Music focus, looking at the ethics and legalities of AI, as well as how it can be used creatively. Plus, The Ukrainians, Sabine McCalla, COLECTIVA, Sessa, Suntou Susso, Elijah Minnelli, Essential 10 Songs of Revenge, Icelandic Popular Music in the 1970s, klezmer flute and all the usual news, listings, reviews and competitions.
Print and digital subscribers will also receive our accompanying Top of the World compilation featuring our pick of the month’s best new music – Madala Kunene & Sibusile Xaba, Ye Vagabonds, Syran Mbenza, Philip Glass & Tenzin Choegyal, Goblin Band, William Prince and more – as well as five bonus tracks from Mighty Sparrow, Alison Brown & Steve Martin, The Ayoub Sisters, COLECTIVA and Sabine McCalla.
You can buy the latest issue or subscribe to receive this and future issues delivered to your door as soon as they're published. We also offer digital subscriptions that give you access to every one of our 215 issues from 1999 to 2026… and beyond.
