Lamplight

Lamplight is the texturally dense, homegrown alt-folk project of Virginia-based songwriter Ian Williams and his band of trusted collaborators. Raised creek-steeped in the foothills of Appalachia, Williams moved to the city and back again, and after nearly a decade of dormancy, returned to the practice of song — culminating in Lamplight's acclaimed 2024 self-titled debut. Their sophomore album, Lick The Spoon, Let It Soften (Western Vinyl, October 2026), was born from a year of rearranging: leaving one home for another, returning to native Virginia, and again turning to song. The result is communal and private at once: an album about grief and a transformed understanding of love in all its forms, featuring tighter arrangements and sharper songwriting than its predecessor. The album turns from inventory toward contact — tracing loss, new love, and the unsteady work of readiness through intimate, quilted arrangements of harmony, piano, strings, and horns. It's a record that stumbles forward without pretending to be graceful, and finds, by its close, that joy arrives right alongside everything else.