With Mark Olson returning as co-leader of The Jayhawks after 16 years away, Mockingbird Time marks a long-awaited reunion for nostalgic fans. Its familiar noises are pleasing, too â€" though it’s hard to believe this was ever a band which made music that sounded new.

Long ago, The Jayhawks...

Fans of Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty and The Gaslight Anthem will lap up the ersatz blue-collar Americana of Danny Wilson, a south Londoner who appears to have been born to the sound of the screen door slamming and the sight of Mary’s dress waving. Wilson was...

Ending an eight-year recording break that set in soon after Gillian Welch’s profile-boosting appearance in O Brother, Where Art thou?, The Harrow and the Harvest marks a lovely return.

Simplicity is often the hardest thing to achieve, and it’s a challenge this wistful singer-songwriter has always embraced. In fact, her...

Steve Earle’s latest â€"his first set of new tunes in four yearsâ€"shares its title with the singer/songwriter’s forthcoming first novel, and with one of Hank Williams’ classic tunes. While, sonically, there are few similarities between themâ€"other than both slotting as countryâ€"there are truths and miseries at the core of this...

Personally, I think Ryan Adams is at his most enjoyable when he lets the rock creep into his music. His country-influenced work is his hallmark, but there's something about a happier sounding Adams that makes me want to reach for those records.That makes his latest album with The Cardinals, III/IV...

Steve Earle’s talent has never been in doubt, and his commitment to the rootsy genre he dragged into popularity in the 80s has never wavered. And if this T-Bone Burnett-produced album isn’t a standout, it still has plenty going for it.

In the last decade Earle settled into the sort...

Lucinda Williams’ diverse musical nature is her second-greatest strength, next to her voice. Her ability to shift seamlessly between country, folk, rock and the blues has defined her musical career. That being said, as diverse as her musical style is, after time it has a way of seeming one track...

Blessed is only Lucinda Williams’ tenth studio album in a career that’s now been going for more than three decades. She takes her time carefully crafting her words and melodies, and it pays off; Williams always leaves the listener with a head full of thoughts worth mulling. Blessed isn’t an...

"Everybody Needs Love"from the album Go-Go Boots2010iTunesApparently, backing up Booker T. Jones and Bettye LaVette put these ferocious Southern rockers in a more contemplative mood. To those soul veterans we say thank you, because Go-Go Boots is a knockout. The album encompasses a...

There’s a story that weaves through Drive-By Truckers’ Go-Go Boots about a preacher and his mistress that begins with the album’s title track and ends with “The Fireplace Poker,” which happens to be the instrument the preacher uses to bludgeon his wife. No one is better at crafting creepy Southern...