Son Little has announced his fourth studio album Cityfolk, due for release on March 20, marking his first full-length project since 2022 and a significant new chapter in a career defined by fluidity, curiosity and deep musical heritage. Co-produced with Ben Tanner of Alabama Shakes, Cityfolk is a richly layered work shaped by Southern history, personal ancestry and the enduring spirit of Muscle Shoals.
Born Aaron Earl Livingston in Philadelphia, Son Little emerged from a background steeped in gospel and soul. As the son of a preacher, music was present early, but his path has never followed a straight line. Across releases including Son Little, New Magic, Aloha and Like Neptune, he has consistently drawn from rhythm and blues, folk, rock, hip-hop and country traditions without settling into a single stylistic lane.
Cityfolk continues that trajectory while grounding the songs in place and lineage.
Although often grouped under the broad banner of roots music, Cityfolk resists simple categorisation. The album places storytelling at the centre, allowing melody, rhythm and texture to support narratives shaped by memory, identity and resilience.
Livingston has long spoken about the tension between how artists are framed and how they hear themselves, particularly for Black musicians whose work is frequently filtered through narrow industry definitions. On Cityfolk, those constraints fall away, replaced by an expansive musical language that reflects the full scope of his influences.
The album’s creation is inseparable from its setting. Now based outside Atlanta, Livingston travelled further south in January 2025 to record in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, a town synonymous with American musical history. It was there he connected with Ben Tanner, a two-time Grammy-winning musician and producer whose work spans Alabama Shakes, St. Paul & The Broken Bones, John Paul White and Foy Vance. What began as rough sketches soon evolved into fully realised songs shaped by a shared instinct for groove, space and emotional clarity.
Muscle Shoals carries a weight that few recording locations can match. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, its studios produced landmark recordings that blended protest, romance and soul, often created in defiance of social divisions beyond the studio walls. That legacy was not lost on Livingston, who found the town’s history resonating with his own exploration of family roots. While he had a clear understanding of his father’s lineage, his maternal history remained less defined, a mystery that began to unfold during the sessions. The convergence of personal discovery and creative chemistry gave Cityfolk its emotional spine.
The process began with voice note demos, sparse recordings built around acoustic guitar and vocal ideas. These early sketches formed the album’s framework before being paired with drum machine rhythms and later expanded through live instrumentation. Drums, bass and horn arrangements were introduced during jam sessions, bringing warmth and movement while preserving the intimacy of the original performances. The result is an album that feels lived-in and immediate, shaped as much by collaboration as by reflection.
The first taste of Cityfolk arrives with the release of Be Better, a song that captures the album’s spirit of forward motion. Built around themes of release and self-belief, the track speaks to transformation without grand gestures. Its power lies in restraint, offering a quiet resolve that mirrors the album’s broader tone. As an opening statement, Be Better sets the emotional register for a record concerned with growth, endurance and the spaces between certainty and hope.
Throughout his career, Son Little has maintained strong collaborative ties, working with artists including The Roots, RJD2 and Mavis Staples, whose influence on his songwriting and vocal approach is well documented. Those experiences inform Cityfolk, not through imitation but through an accumulated understanding of songcraft and collective expression. In Muscle Shoals, that understanding found a natural home, supported by a community whose musical legacy was built on unity and shared purpose.
Cityfolk stands as a continuation of Son Little’s evolution, shaped by history yet firmly rooted in the present. It is an album that honours the past while speaking in a contemporary voice, drawing strength from place, ancestry and the enduring possibilities of collaboration.
Cityfolk Tracklisting
Rabbit
Whip The Wind
Let’s Get Involved
It’s Your World
Cherry
Bottomless
Be Better
The Valley
In Orbit
Paper Children
Breathe
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