Belfast Folk artist Joshua Burnside has announced his new album, It’s Not Going to be Okay, arriving on March 20, 2026. Alongside this news, he shares his latest single and video “Moon High.”

For Burnside, “this is a record born out of loss and the fragile act of continuing.” It was written and recorded in the wake of the death of Joshua Burnside’s closest friend.

Burnside shares about the album:

I wrote and recorded this album after the death of my best friend Dean Jendoubi. He was an incredible person, and I miss him every day. He drifted unawares into the deepest sleep and died of a drug overdose on August 17th last year.

Grief has always been a big part of my music; it’s the reason I started writing songs when I was 13. And so, as I did all those years ago, I reach for the guitar, try a few chords and sing a few words and for a brief moment I feel like it’s going to be okay.

Discussing “Moon High,” he explains:

When grief is just too big to process your mind has some tricks up its sleeve for self-preservation. Not long after Dean had died, I started telling myself that I didn’t care about it at all, that I didn’t care about him, or anyone even, and that I was an unemotional rock that could handle anything thrown at me. So, I just kept myself busy and kept my head down and soldiered on as if nothing had happened. Of course, that could only last so long, but that was the only way I could deal with it at that particular time. I completely broke down whilst parked at the side of the road, something about the crescent moon, high up in the blue sky that afternoon made me feel sad and it all came out then.

Burnside usually uses “intricate production and layered storytelling,” but here, he “pares everything down to its rawest form.”

Where previous albums explored folklore, politics, and myth, here we find that “each track serves like an entry into a grief journal.”

It’s Not Going to be Okay UK/IRE Tour Dates:

Feb 7 – Letterkenny – Lasta Festival
Mar 21 – Manchester – Hallé St Peter’s
May 1 – Cork – Cyprus Avenue
May 2 – Dublin – Button Factory
May – Glasgow – Oran Mor
May 7 – Leeds – Brudenell Social Club
May 9 – Stroud – Prince Albert (2 shows 14:00 & 21:00)
May 10 – London – EartH Theatre
May 11 – Bristol – Beacon
June 17 – Falmouth – Cornish Bank
June 18 – Totnes – Barrel House
June 19 – Frome – The Tree House
June 20 – Milton Keynes – Craufurd Arms
June 21 – Beverley – Beverley Folk Festival
August 15 – Belfast – Custom House Square (Foy Vance show)