Old friend looking for acoustic folk inspired music

Milk Carton Kids
Rihannon Giddens/Carolina Chocolate Drops

Hiss Golden Messenger: "Poor Moon" (2012); "Bad Debt" (2014)

Dave Rawlings Machine: "A Friend of a Friend" (2009); "Nashville Obsolete" (2015)

One of my "new favorites" is Antje Duvekot, especially her Live from all over the place CD.  Matraca Berg is a killer songwriter with an angel's voice and a good sense of humor, (Honey, your husband's cheatin' on us).  Also, Hank's granddaughter, Holly Williams. 

One disc I can highly recommend (and that I've been using as a reference for the past year or so) is "The Elizabethan Session" album produced in 2014. This is a recording of 13 songs from 8 different current UK folk artists all inspired by the times of Queen Elizabeth I. There are a number of standout songs and performances and this is a good introduction to the work of all of these artists, in addition the album is very well recorded in a period house with great sense of space on many of the tracks

http://www.folkbytheoak.com/tes.aspx

Marc Carroll "Stone Beads & Silver"
John Moreland "In The Throes", "Earthbound Blues"
Eric Bachman of  Archers of Loaf & here Crooked Fingers, "Breaks In The Armor". While not normally classified as "folk", I think this lp is.