“a follow-up that, brimming with confidence and style, both consolidates and takes her to the next level as one of the best new names in folksy Americana… An album informed by hope, love and light when faced with the darkness, both internal and external, it deserves to find a place in all those end of year best of lists. ” - Mike Davies
“The operative quest within these songs is to consider how do we hold onto hope, and what does hope feel like? Sometimes it’s tested, sometimes it mulls over self-doubt but ultimately it never gives up as it walks among ghosts, walks through nature, and overall, looks for the meaning of home...A great album with a restrained contemplative approach to learning to know oneself from within, while finding the best way to flourish, which is never straightforward and never easy." ” - Elise Cady
Nicole Mish’s Hope Is Restless is a collection of 13 self-written folk-Americana and contemporary folk songs exploring what it means to hope when one’s world feels broken. Through the characters in her songs, Mish defines hope as a restlessness, taking listeners on a journey from a stagnant hope to an adventurous one. Originally this album was ready for final mixing when Mish’s first producer, Aeron Z. Jones, tragically died on Sept 19, 2025. In shock, Nicole reached out to Kris Górski, who had already contributed as a pianist and engineer on several tracks. He graciously stepped in as a co-producer to help finish the album. Besides producing the album with Nicole, Aeron Z Jones and Kris Górski arranged and contributed as instrumentalists, along with Noah Gothelf on banjo, Cooper Lower on guitar, Thomas Vang on bass, Daniel Sobiesiak on cello, and Kenny Blacklock, Katy Bridges and Sylwia Namroży on violin. Most of the album was recorded in Mish’s home studio in the San Francisco Bay Area with later work completed at Gorski’s Studio Audioplanet in Lakie, Poland. (Emily Shirley, Album Cover Design; Stephanie Mohan, Photography)
About
Nicole Mish
Nicole Mish writes contemporary folk music with a voice always searching for light in darkness, balancing wonder and disappointment, fear and hope. Her 2024 debut album, Whole Damn Sky, has been featured and played on radio stations all over the world. Americana Highways described Whole Damn Sky as “Unique and special." Mish has an Advanced Professional Songwriting certificate from Berklee and was a finalist in the 2024 UK Songwriting Contest. She has charted in the top 25 of the Folk Alliance International charts and has recorded with musicians internationally and in her California home studio. Her second album, Hope Is Restless, released in October 2026 and is available now.