Music

Transatlantic Folk Storytellers Sons of Town Hall Release ‘Of Ghosts and Gods’ and Head to the UK in June

May 9, 2026

‘Of Ghosts and Gods,’ the sophomore album from transatlantic duo Sons of Town Hall, is out now, and it delivers on nearly a decade of creative promise.

Ben Parker and David Berkeley first dreamed up the project in a London pub, and the result is one of the more genuinely distinctive folk records to arrive this year. Part storytelling adventure, part atmospheric song cycle, the album draws comparisons to Tom Waits-like lyricism and Everly Brothers-style harmonies, and earns both of them.

The album’s sonic architecture is rich and carefully constructed. Strings arranged by Will Robertson, horns from Jordan Katz (De La Soul, Father John Misty, Macy Gray), and percussion from Mathias Kunzli (Regina Spektor) give ‘Of Ghosts and Gods’ a cinematic sweep that never overreaches. The songs breathe inside it.

The duo has built an elaborate fictional world around the record. Parker inhabits George Ulysses Brown and Berkeley becomes Josiah Chester Jones, 2 Victorian-era travelers navigating the globe on a self-built mythical raft. Their live shows combine music, humor, and theatrical storytelling in a way that The Observer described as “seamless vocal harmonies, stories of sea voyages, betrayal and desolation.” NPR called it simply “one for the dreamers.”

Berkeley frames the project’s spirit plainly: “We are characters in a fiction we’ve dreamed up and re-create with our audiences every night. Given the woes of today’s world, it feels more important than ever to collectively imagine something better.” Parker adds that the costumes “somehow enable us to be more ourselves.” There’s genuine warmth and wit in how these 2 approach their craft.

The album’s universe extends beyond the record itself. The duo launched the Madmen Cross the Water podcast, hosted by fictional superfan Elias B. Worthington, played by British actor Oliver Maltman. Equal parts globe-spanning travelogue and classic radio theatre, it features original score, sound effects, and a script Folk Radio UK called “a splendour to behold.”

Sons of Town Hall return to England this June for a run of dates including a London show at Islington Assembly Hall with Police Dog Hogan.

‘Of Ghosts and Gods’ Tracklist: