NEW YORK, NY: NYC-based folk-pop artist and activist Rachael Sage, alongside her longtime band The Sequins, presents Under My Canopy, a warm and intimate acoustic reimagining of songs from their critically acclaimed 2025 studio album Canopy. It is out 9th October via MPress/Virgin/Universal.
Built on fresh acoustic instrumentation, adventurous new arrangements, and a remarkable roster of guest musicians, Under My Canopy is among the most soulful and thought-provoking works of Sage’s prolific career. It is reflective and mournful, yet irrepressibly optimistic. Sage describes it as “an intimate musical refuge” woven from resilience, longing, and the determination to find light in the darkest of places. It moves across Americana, pop, and neo-folk, and finds common ground in themes of purposeful and joyful living rooted in inclusivity, equality, and non-violence.
Under My Canopy is a record of remarkable breadth and emotional range. It moves from sun-drenched Americana warmth to achingly intimate balladry, and from joyful pop exuberance to quietly devastating reflection. Across its tracks, Sage and The Sequins navigate self-acceptance, political disillusionment, queer identity, grief, and the stubborn insistence on hope, all with an acoustic intimacy that invites repeated, close listening.
The album was preceded by a run of releases across the summer and early autumn:
- “Everyday” (7th August): Sage’s long-awaited take on Buddy Holly’s beloved classic, reimagined with finger cymbals, claps, violin, cello, and acoustic guitar from Christie Lenée. Sage has called it perhaps her very favourite pop song, one she has carried with her since childhood, and she recorded it in two distinct arrangements once the sessions began. She will donate proceeds from the Maxi-Single to the Buddy Holly Educational Foundation.
- “Canopy (Acoustic)” (28th August): The title track, featuring Kristen Ford, is an inspirational anthem about radical inclusivity, pacifism, and environmental consciousness, built around one of the most memorable hooks of Sage’s career. It arrives as an emotional exhale and, in her words, an invitation “to gather, to feel safe, and to start by doing no harm.”
- “Underneath (Acoustic)” (18th September): A quietly devastating response to the epidemic of school shootings in America, first performed the very day Sage wrote it, at an intimate show at New York’s Rockwood Music Hall. On the album it is preceded by an acoustic rendering of Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America,” which Sage frames as a deeply patriotic act: caring enough about the human cost of gun violence to demand change.
- “Colorized World (Acoustic)” (2nd October): A deeply personal coming-of-age love song written in Sage’s mid-twenties, around the time she came out as bisexual. Revisited with lilting accordion and cello, it carries new emotional weight following the recent passing of the woman who first inspired it. “I hope that by including this coming-of-age love song in the record, it makes even just one person feel more seen, and less alone,” Sage shares.
Among the album’s highlights is “Nexus (Acoustic),” already available alongside its acclaimed music video directed by Nick Clark. The song honours Nex Benedict, the nonbinary student who lost their life after being violently beaten by school peers, and it stands as one of the most powerful moments in Sage’s live set to date.
Under My Canopy was produced by Sage with Mikhail Pivovarov (Tom Rush), a Grammy®-nominated engineer and bassist who also mixed and mastered the record.
The Sequins, violinist Kelly Halloran (Lainey Wilson), drummer Andy Mac (Pete Muller and the Kindred Souls), harmonica player Trina Hamlin (Susan Werner), and cellists Dave Eggar (Paul Simon) and Ward Williams (Sara Bareilles) are joined by an exceptional roster of guests:
- Guitarists: Christie Lenée, Ben Butler (Dar Williams), James Mastro (Jill Sobule), and Jack Petruzzelli (Joan Osborne)
- Percussionists: Doug Yowell (Suzanne Vega) and Quinn (Tracy Chapman)
- Accordion: Rob Curto (The Klezmatics)
- Clarinet: David Krakauer (John Zorn)
- Upright bass: Kerry Brooks (Amy Ray Band)
- Vocals: Cassandra Kubinski, Kristen Ford, and Americana duo Annalyse & Ryan
- Guest: UK Blues Award Winner Will Wilde
Under My Canopy arrives just ahead of a run of UK dates supporting British singer-songwriter Emma Stevens, with Rachael Sage & The Sequins joining her at the following shows:
- 22nd October: The Bedford, Balham, London
- 23rd October: Chapel Arts Centre, Bath
- 25th October: Heartbreakers, Southampton
- 28th October: The Greystones, Sheffield
- 29th October: Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh
- 30th October: The Castle Hotel, Manchester
- 31st October: The Stables, Milton Keynes
Sage has performed thousands of shows across the world and shared stages with artists including Imelda May, Rufus Wainwright, Jamie Cullum, Howard Jones, and Judy Collins, and most recently supported Wet Wet Wet on tour.
Sage’s official video for “Albatross (Reimagined)” is the musical and cinematic culmination of several years of creative reflection on the loss of loved ones, Covid, political divisiveness, cancel culture, sociopolitical unrest, and the ever-present quest for global justice and equality. Against colourful, fractured urban landscapes and the yearning improvised movements of an expressive contemporary dancer, Sage sings the question so many of us have asked in these tumultuous times: “What does it mean to be human? / What cruel misdeeds cannot be undone…”
Directed by first-time director Pearl Flanagan, filmed by Mike Flanagan, and edited by John Shyloski, it may be her most artful and thought-provoking video yet.
