Yes, Billy Strings is a real person’s name, and a more apt moniker would be difficult to find. This is Mr. Strings’ first album and he’s a young guy, but he’s already a seasoned pro ...

The Replacements had reached a crossroads when they recorded 1989’s Don’t Tell A Soul. With five albums behind them, they were far too good of a band to warrant the modest sales they received even ...

From his early Suzuki method training starting at age four, to his stints with hot jazz/swing revivalists Squirrel Nut Zippers and bandleader of his Bowl of Fire group, followed by a dozen studio albums, Andrew ...

Robbie Robertson has always taken a distinctly cinematic approach to his multicultural melting-pot style of North Americana songwriting, a narrative attribute well in place due to the indigenous Canadian’s weighty workload with The Band long ...

Warnes’ first album in 17 years reminds us how much this singular talent has been missed. A benediction about finding resilience in the face of personal misfortune and political uncertainty, it touches on themes of ...

From the moment your stylus saddles into the opening grooves of the Chuck Berry-tinged “Love Struck Baby,” to the final strains of the Hendrix-dipped slow blues “Lenny,” prepare to be electrified by MoFi’s latest release ...

Verging on a concept album, The National’s eighth studio release reflects a ripening extension of their estimable talents and evolving style, bringing into the foreground the band’s collaborations with women—particularly the many musicians and featured ...

Like Bizarro World Frank Sinatras on acid, the Flaming Lips have always done it their way. This longstanding alt-rocking Oklahoma collective consistently paint their music outside the lines of sonically acceptable society, and they’re at ...

Housed in a circular tin shaped like a NYC manhole cover, the expanded edition of Zappa in New York commemorates the 40th (technically 41st) anniversary of the original live double album released in March 1978 ...

For their 13th LP, the Ohio-based husband-and-wife team of bassist Linford Detweiler and vocalist Karin Bergquist offer 11 meditations on love and loss. The sparse arrangements—marked by Bergquist’s aching vocals, chiming acoustic guitar, and Greg ...

This is soulful music played by gifted artists who bring vision and virtuoso chops to their work. The contemporary-folk group Ranagri enchants while living up to the promise of the SACD stereo format, putting the ...

Kudos to Mobile Fidelity for this extraordinary release of Marvin Gaye’s 1971 masterpiece, What’s Going On. A major artistic step, this brilliant psychedelic-soul song-cycle’s themes of social and economic injustice, the horrors of war, displaced ...

It’s hard not to feel a little conflicted about aging in tandem with a musical hero. But Wilco founder Jeff Tweedy, now nearly a rock elder statesperson, aims to soothe his longtime listeners into bittersweet ...

Exploring the themes of unity, inclusiveness, and social justice from a spiritual perspective, Eric Bibb delivers a double-disc masterpiece in Global Griot, an album ideally suited to the temper of progressive times, or “challenging times,” ...

Father John Misty is the alter ego of Josh Tillman, who played drums for the Fleet Foxes before becoming a popular indy rock singer-songwriter. His studio albums favor a soundscape so lush and dreamy that ...