Article Contributed by Calabro Music Media
Published on 2026-07-22
Upstate :: Photography by Julia Ross
Indie folk quartet Upstate has announced its fourth studio album, Abalone, due November 6 via RPF Records/Royal Potato Family.
Recorded live in the studio directly to tape, the 10-track collection is the purest distillation yet of both the band’s collaborative songwriting and elemental sound.
Founding members Melanie Glenn, Mary Webster and Harry D’Agostino, who formed Upstate as college students, alongside newest member Dylan McKinstry, who joined in 2019, captured the album’s central themes of time and light, a reflection inspired by all four members stepping into adulthood through various stages of marriage, parenthood and relocation.
“There’s a consistent idea of light and illumination bringing a kind of sensibility to circumstance throughout the songs on this record,” says D’Agostino. “And likewise a theme of time, with personal histories leaving a kind of crooked trail that we might only see for what it is when it’s in the rearview. It’s fitting for us now, in different seasons of marriage and children, to kind of reappraise the past in the light of where it has brought us.”
“As we get a little older and our lives take on very different rhythms than they did 10 years ago, the songs have begun to reflect the kind of looking back you do when you transition from one chapter to the next,” continues McKinstry.
“What’s also interesting is that although the lyrical content of the songs may be unique to the individual experiences of the four songwriters in the band, the process of becoming more yourself through time and reflection is true for all of us.”
Abalone’s first single, “Circumstance,” is out today on all streaming platforms.
Built upon an earthy electric guitar figure that would sound equally at home on a Big Thief record as it would on a long-lost Tom Petty classic, the track finds Glenn singing of remorse and disillusion before coming to terms with acceptance and the need to persevere in a resonant and infectious chorus.
“Sometimes life can feel completely out of your control, and for the most part it is, but it’s what you do with the hand you’ve been dealt that can shape your outcome into something beautiful,” says Glenn.
“The song ‘Circumstance’ is a look into those moments in life that feel the hardest. When your foundation is cracked and you need to start again. It’s a song to remind people to keep hope close during hard times, which we all know takes a lot more effort than it sounds.”
Upstate will introduce the songs on Abalone to fans this fall with an 18-date East Coast tour running through September, October and November.
Upstate 2026 Tour Dates:
September 18 – Shelton Lake, CT – Veterans Lake Memorial Park
September 19 – Round Lake, NY – Round Lake Auditorium
October 1 – New York, NY – The Bitter End – Evening With
October 2 – Washington, DC – The Hamilton
October 4 – Spring City, PA – The Gem
October 15 – Montgomery, NY – City Winery
October 16 – Hartford, CT – Arch Street Tavern
October 23 – Boston, MA – City Winery
October 24 – Plymouth, NH – The Flying Monkey
October 30 – Portland, ME – One Longfellow Square
October 31 – South Burlington, VT – Higher Ground
November 5 – Ithaca, NY – Sunwood Recording
November 6 – Buffalo, NY – Buffalo Iron Works
November 7 – Syracuse, NY – Funk ’n Waffles
November 8 – Rochester, NY – Three Heads Brewing
November 12 – Albany, NY – Lark Hall
November 13 – Turners Falls, MA – Shea Theater
November 20 – Manchester, VT – Billsville
Abalone Track Listing:
1. “Corner”
2. “Slow Down”
3. “Circumstance”
4. “Adrianne”
5. “Dirt & Light”
6. “Louie”
7. “Someone to Save”
8. “Cassandra”
9. “Abalone”
10. “Being”
Abalone is available to pre-order on limited-edition cumulus white vinyl, CD and digital download, and to pre-save on streaming platforms.
Pre-order or pre-save Abalone:
Listen and pre-order here
