Jim James Regions of Light and Sound of God (ATO) Rating: 4 stars (out of 5) Jim James has always written spiritual songs. Not preachy, not specific to a particular faith, but as deeply spiritual as anything else in modern rock – one man’s continuous, musically thrilling pursuit of pure love and enlightenment. Fronting My [...]

Holly Williams The Highway (Georgiana) Rating: 3 stars (out of 5) Despite its appearance in every album or show review, the fact that Holly is the granddaughter of Hank and the daughter of Hank Jr. hasn’t exactly made this Williams offspring a country star. After two well-reviewed but commercially disappointing attempts for major labels, she [...]

Josh Groban All That Echoes (Reprise) Rating: 4 stars (out of 5) Although rock and Josh Groban have rarely, if ever, been used in a sentence together, All That Echoes is a rewarding fusion of pop, rock, and classical music theories. With the assistance of veteran producer Rob Cavallo (Green Day, My Chemical Romance) manning [...]

Keegan DeWitt Keegan DeWitt, a Nashville-based songwriter and composer, is releasing a new limited edition 7″ single, featuring the songs “Two Hearts” and “Reluctance” (Theory 8 Records). DeWitt, who’s also scored several films (Dance Party, USA, Quiet City, and Cold Weather), released an EP this summer via Daytrotter, significantly marking the music website’s first foray [...]

Eric Clapton Clapton (REPRISE) Rating: Eric Clapton has always been a songwriter’s guitarist. Unlike many blues players who only look at a lyric as something that gives them a break between solos, Clapton has always respected the work of such writers as Bob Marley (“I Shot the Sheriff”), John Hiatt (“Riding With the King”), and, [...]

Kenny Chesney Hemingway’s Whiskey (BNA) Rating: Love him or hate him, it’s impossible not to respect Kenny Chesney. Here’s a guy who didn’t embark on a music career until he was college age, who’s kinda short and slight and prematurely bald, who decided what he wanted and went out and got it, and has only [...]

Old 97′s The Grand Theatre Volume One (NEW WEST) Rating: Saturday night is all right for fighting. Sunday morning is for coming down. The first part of the weekend? Well, that’s not so simple. “Every night is Friday night without you,” sings Rhett Miller on the Old 97’s latest album, The Grand Theatre Volume One. [...]

Elvis Costello National Ransom (HEAR MUSIC) Rating: On 2009’s Secret, Profane & Sugarcane, Elvis Costello teamed with producer T Bone Burnett and a talented string band for a set of heartfelt numbers which mined various stripes of the Americana ore. This 2010 follow-up features almost the same band (with guest appearances by Vince Gill, Buddy [...]

Some voices sound especially heartwarming wrapped in the authentic colors of acoustic instruments, and Tom Rush’s is one.

It’s easy to want to like them…

The Heartland’s been reduced to unseen flyover. Not hip enough, nor glamorous enough?

As much a study in sequencing as song craft, Junior Boys’ third LP Begone Dull Care is at once meticulously produced and emotionally charged.