Photo courtesy artist

We know it's a big day for new music on this New Music Friday, but one album we're excited about today is Marc E. Bassy's new full-length Folk Hero Funk.

The Bay Area crooner has been teasing this one for most of the year, with a string of singles, some of his own and some as collaborations with other artists. Earlier this year, he and Jay-Way released the song "Running Out of Love" and he teamed up with Cimón on the song "See Me Out," while his own song "Bloom" arrived in June followed by "Express My Love" earlier this month.

This is the latest project Bassy has released independently on his own New Gold Medal. When he released his 2021 album Little Men, the singer chatted with Variance and acknowledged the challenges of being indie versus on a major label, but he seemed to relish the freedom.

"It crazy because there's no more adults in the room. We're the adults now," said Bassy at the time. "So it was really on me to make sure that the mixing, the mastering, the engineering—everything—was at the highest level possible. When I started off with major labels, that's one thing they generally do for you." 

This week, ahead of the album's arrival, Bassy announced a North American tour which includes stops in San Francisco, Vancouver, Seattle, Denver, Chicago, Toronto, Atlanta, Nashville, Los Angeles and more.

Hear the new album now.