Illustrator and multi-instrumentalist Adam McElreath has been making D.I.Y. records in his room for the past six years under the moniker Big Big Buildings. After a string of EPs, Big Big Buildings released the first full-length album, Be Not Aglow, on October 13. It’s for you to stream at Soundcloud.

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As the story goes, Yuzima’s new EP Glasnost was inspired by the fall of the Berlin Wall as well as U2′s legendary album, Achtung Baby. In the final hour, Yuzima turned in this fiery remake of Mysterious Ways to honor the connection of the two albums.

Although performing on stage with the likes of Nicole Atkins, A.C. Newman (the New Pornographers), Parlor Mob, and Craig Wedren (Shudder to Think), Stephen Warwick is a musician most of us haven’t heard of. He hails from Charlotte, NC, one of the largest banking cities in the southeastern United States. Not the most likely of places for a musician to grow creatively.

But according to Warwick, there are a lot of great bands coming out of this area. He released his debut album, Talking Machine, at the end of last year and received Critic’s Pick for one of the top 10 album’s of 2010 in Shuffle magazine, a quarterly music zine based out of North Carolina.

The music is an amalgam of acoustic driven indie-rock, folk, and magic. Warwick’s words are puzzles that keep the listener piecing the stories together. He just recently released a new single entitled Werewolf and upon downloading it, I discovered a hidden song. A cover of the 1983 dance classic Let the Music Play by Shannon. Can’t get enough of him, and I think you’ll agree.

There is a few things we all seem to know about Finland: it is in the cold North, people are depressed, and their music is heavy. Just look at Nightwish, Children of Bodom or HIM. But if you dig deeper, you’ll find that at least the latter is not the only truth. Historic traditions, Russian influence and a captivating melancholy. Or simple beauty. That’s what Jalava embodies, with haunting folk melodies and heart-breaking lyrics. In Finnish, of course.

Do folk artists usually call themselves folk artists? Seattle-based Stacey Rozich does, but there’s not a hint of irony in her work. Her images look like illustrations from a forgotten Eastern European tribe that intermarried with the Native American tribes of the Pacific Northwest.

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Toronto-based Timber Timbre’s third self-titled studio release keeps a soft and moody vibe with eight simply structured songs that seem meant for listening to in the dark. Taylor Kirk, the man behind the project, has a singing voice that’s both folky and restrained. He calls on other artists to fill in strings, banjo and accompanying vocals, while his percussive backdrops anchor the low-key tunes.

I may not have a drop of Viking blood in me, but when I hear bands like Wardruna, I feel like lighting a fire and breaking out the cask of mead. A side project of occasional Gorgoroth drummer Kvitrafn and featuring Gorgoroth frontman Gaahl on vocals, the band attempts to capture the lost sounds of pre-Christian Norway, generating an ambient, folk-based sound that invokes pagan spirits and Nordic gods. Many black metal bands have put out acoustic albums, but the absence of guitars and the use of goat horns and other such traditional instruments sets this apart from other pagan folk projects.

Micah P. Hinson is like every rustic, broken down, and pieced back together country great that’s ever been. Only hipper and slightly less sombre. This track, Diggin’ A Grave, is a button-up hoe down with a classic pop chorus and a jangly banjo accompaniment. Yup, some folk have all the fun.