Best Acoustic Songs - June 2026

June offered a particularly nice balance between established names, smaller independent artists, and new discoveries. Some of the biggest artists in the acoustic world returned with new music, while a few familiar names once again proved why they keep finding their way into these monthly selections. At the same time, I came across artists I had never featured before, which is ultimately one of my favorite parts of putting these blogposts together.

begged - Olivia Rodrigo

The only truly acoustic song from Olivia Rodrigo’s latest album you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love, and unsurprisingly the one I had to pick. Intertwining acoustic guitars and harmonies create the perfect setting for a song built around emotional imbalance. The narrator keeps convincing herself to be patient, cool, and forgiving, while slowly realizing that affection loses something when you have to beg for it. A tutorial for this one is coming soon!

Like a Man (Acoustic) - Chandler Marie

Chandler Marie gives us another acoustic track, but this time an original song rather than a cover. The lyrics turn a breakup into a sharp country flavored confrontation, calling out someone who refuses to communicate but still cannot bring himself to leave properly. There is plenty of attitude here, especially in the repeated challenge to at least “leave like a man,” which gives the song its personality and bite.

Potter and the Clay - Cocolarosa

Cocolarosa is another artist I discovered this year, blending Americana and blues in a way that immediately caught my attention. Potter and the Clay reflects on the slow loss of control that can come with time. The central image is particularly effective: once feeling like the potter shaping life, only to eventually feel like the mud itself. It is a thoughtful song about changing perspectives, crushing lows after extraordinary highs, and the uncomfortable realization that sometimes change happens too slowly for us to even notice.

Repeat It (Acoustic Version) - Ed Sheeran, Martin Garrix

It had been a while since the last Ed Sheeran acoustic version, so this is always a pleasure. Even better, both Ed and Martin Garrix play guitar here, accompanied by piano. Stripping the song back brings its romantic urgency to the surface, with the idea of rewinding and repeating a moment becoming a way of holding onto love while everything outside feels uncertain. If the world ends tonight, the song suggests, being frozen in time with the right person might be enough.

Seaside - Lila Dupont

You know how much I love the combination of guitar and strings, and Seaside feels made to simply let yourself be carried away. Written as a love letter to the years Lila Dupont spent in Scotland, the song turns a place into something almost human. The seaside becomes both a home and something she has to leave behind, with the tide working as the perfect image for a connection that keeps pulling her back. The contrast between chasing dreams in Tennessee and losing pieces of the life she knew gives the song its bittersweet core.

up in flames - Kevin Atwater

Another beautifully stripped back song that immediately creates a sense of calm, even if the lyrics themselves are far less peaceful. Up in Flames explores a love so intense that devotion starts bordering on destruction. There is something fascinating in that contrast: a gentle arrangement carrying lines about crashing planes, burning everything down, and being willing to disappear together rather than explain what went wrong.

I’ve Never Been Anywhere - Nicholas Jamerson

A touch of Appalachian acoustic music is always necessary in these monthly selections, and here we get nothing more than guitar and voice. The lyrics find beauty in the unfamiliar through the eyes of someone who admits he has barely spent time outside his holler. Small details such as family photos, gospel tunes, kudzu, and an above ground pool create a vivid world, while the recurring shades of blue suggest the quiet wonder of realizing how much remains unseen beyond the place you call home.

Without You - Kodaline

Another winning combination of guitar, strings, and piano. Without You is a love song about finding happiness after being broken, to the point where past pain starts to feel like part of the path that led somewhere better. I particularly like the shift in perspective around getting older: instead of fearing time, the narrator can finally imagine a future because there is someone he wants to share it with.

Grenadine Red - The Wildwoods

The Wildwoods return to this selection with another beautifully crafted folk song. Grenadine Red revolves around the idea of home, not as something spectacular, but as the familiar place where we can finally rest. Against images of fading spirit, long drives, closed freeways, and distant disasters, that brick house painted grenadine red becomes an anchor. Sometimes knowing where you will land is enough.

Lillies on the Water - Cillian Leddy

Cillian Leddy encapsulates his love for nature and its impact on human experience in a song supported by excellent guitar work. Rivers, dandelion moons, and lilies become part of a wider reflection on time, second chances, and the fragility of our lives. The image of lives as lilies floating on water is simple but effective, suggesting beauty, movement, and the impossibility of staying still forever.

Forever - Dusty Boots

Yes, another guitar and saxophone combination! You already know I am always happy when these two instruments meet. Forever keeps its message beautifully simple: waiting, staying, loving, and holding onto something even as days pass and circumstances change. The repetition is part of the charm, making the song feel less like a story and more like a promise.

Lighthouse - Bertie Newman

I had the pleasure of hearing this one live in Amsterdam, and knowing that it is a song about grief makes its imagery even more powerful. Lighthouse captures the strange contradiction of loss: wanting closure while also fearing what letting go would actually mean. The idea of building “another lighthouse by the sea” feels like an attempt to keep guiding someone back who can no longer return. The healing is slow, memories appear in the evening light, and the person who is gone remains present “all the time.”

Nobody Knows - Stu Larsen

One of the many acoustic guitar driven songs from Stu Larsen’s latest album Solitude, and a track that immediately reminded me of Leskernick Hill. The lyrics question identity, memory, and what remains after we are gone. Larsen wonders whether anyone truly knows him and whether his life will eventually fade into nothing more than a distant memory. Yet there is also a beautiful answer hidden in the song: even without many possessions, the music he leaves behind can become his “quiet legacy.”

June might be one of the best examples so far of why I started this monthly series. In the same selection, we have globally established artists, independent musicians I have followed for some time, and completely new discoveries that deserve a much wider audience.

That balance is exactly what I want these blogposts to offer. Familiar names may bring us here, but sometimes the most exciting part is finding the artist we did not know we needed.

You can find them all spread across the All of Acoustic 2026 playlist!