We Speak Country

Fanny Lumsden Reflects on Family and Roots in New Album Traditions

Published

2 hours ago

November 1, 2026

Fanny Lumsden. Photo via @fannylumsden.

Australian country artist Fanny Lumsden has released Traditions, her fifth studio album, out now as of October 30, 2026. The 11 track record turns its attention to family and roots, and to the question of which traditions a person keeps, which ones they reshape and which ones they finally let go.

Lumsden launched the album the way she has built her whole career, in person and close to home. Her release week celebration in Tooma, the small New South Wales community at the heart of her story, brought her band and her people together for a live launch she described as insane, the kind of night that only happens when a town shows up for one of its own. That setting suits the record. Traditions is an album about where a person comes from and what they carry forward, written by an artist who has always treated rural Australia as more than a backdrop.

The new record follows Hey Dawn, the album that won Best Country Album at the 2023 ARIA Awards, an honor announced by Dolly Parton. That win confirmed Lumsden as one of the defining voices in Australian country music, a storyteller whose work pairs small town detail with big, singable choruses. Traditions now takes the next step, gathering 11 songs that weigh inheritance against independence. For longtime listeners, it is a homecoming. For new ones, it is an open door into one of the most distinctive catalogues in modern Australian country, the work of an artist taking stock of her life with gratitude and clear eyes.

We Speak Country

Dustin Lynch Opens a Reflective New Chapter With Clean Slate

Published

4 hours ago

November 1, 2026

We Speak Media

Dustin Lynch. Photo via dustinlynchmusic.com.

Dustin Lynch has released Clean Slate, his seventh studio album, which arrived on October 30. According to the press release issued by his record label, the album finds Lynch looking at where he has been, what he has learned and where he wants to go next. Across twelve tracks, love comes into view from every angle, from imagining the life you could build to recognising the one worth coming home to, chasing a new spark, revisiting the one that got away and confronting the heartbreak that refuses to disappear at last call.

The track list opens with Made In A Bottle and continues with Real Fine Reason, the title track Clean Slate, She Don’t Know, Lightning Don’t, Built Us A Life, One Tennessee, Talkin’, Old Man Knows and Easy To Love. Ashley Cooke joins Lynch on How You Been, and MC4D appears on the closing track, Home To You.

There’s a lot of life on this record, Lynch said in a statement. Falling for somebody, missing somebody, looking back at things you might do differently now, going out and having a damn good time, and figuring out what matters when everything else gets quiet. I’ve lived a lot of life since my first record, and I wanted this album to feel true to where I am today while still sounding like me.

Lynch cowrote seven of the tracks on Clean Slate. The album also features songwriters Zach Crowell, Justin Ebach, Josh Thompson, Jameson Rodgers, Brent Anderson, Hunter Phelps, Ben Johnson and John Byron. Ross Copperman, Zach Crowell and Austin Shawn produced the album, along with MC4D on the closing track. The opening song, Made In A Bottle, was written by Jesse Frasure, Mark Holman and Geoff Warburton and produced by Copperman. Lynch and his band played the song live through the summer, and he said the reaction was immediate, with the energy of the chorus pulling audiences along from the first listen.