File rodeo clown/bullfighter Kyle Yule under hardbitten romantic. The characters in his songs ride Greyhounds, bald-tire cars and wicked horses. They sleep down by the mission, die in back alleys, and enter the Pearly Gates, “old straw hat in hand.”
Yule’s voice — dusty-dry and gently weary — has the ability to invest his characters with [...]

Although singer-songwriter Doug Hoekstra is based in Nashville, he is as removed from that music scene as a Green Day tribute. While Hoekstra is comfortable in the folk/blues/pop niche he’s been hammered into, he exhibits a depth and range that goes beyond those genre tags.
On his fourth album, the subtle and startling Around The Margins, [...]

The Lonesome Trailers make what they call “rural rock” in Kent City, smack between Grand Rapids and Muskegon in western Michigan. Songwriter and rhythm guitarist Dave Vander Zanden’s lyrics address the inequities and injustices of contemporary society, which is no doubt why the Trailers publish under the name A Little to the Left Music.
The ballad [...]

On his major-label debut Pete Yorn has crafted a solid album of songs that run the gamut from moody, dreamlike pop to driving rockers, with beautiful melodies and introspective lyrics that constantly reveal something new.
The album features dense layers of acoustic guitars, organs, throbbing bass, and sometimes funky drumming. “Life On A Chain” opens the [...]

The Fountains, residents of Athens, Georgia, since 1993, like to dress up at Halloween for tribute shows honoring their favorite bands. In recent years, they’ve played evenings of the Clash, Creedence and Violent Femmes, in everything from dresses to Civil War regalia.
Similarly, their own work can’t be pinned down to any one style. Their fourth [...]

Larry Hosford’s two mid-’70s albums for Shelter, AKA Lorenzo and Crosswords, are among the great unsung alternative country albums of their era. The latter featured George Harrison and Leon Russell on several tracks. On those albums, the California-based singer evoked the spirit of Lefty Frizzell, to which he added a wry, self-deprecating sense of humor. [...]

Two traumatic events happened simultaneously in the life of Jack Smith: 1) His music-obsessed father left the family, and 2) Elvis made his first appearance on “The Tommy Dorsey Show”. To Smith, it was a cold front hitting a warm front, and the result was thunder and lightning that transmuted into raw-boned rockabilly. He was [...]

John Gorka’s thick, soulful baritone is as rich as homemade bread just out of the oven. Though Gorka was influenced by many ’60s folkies, including Stan Rogers and Tom Paxton, his most important model was Eric Andersen. Like Andersen, Gorka sounds rough and weathered enough to pull off incisive social critiques, yet sensitive and intimate [...]

Nickel Creek acoustic guitarist Sean Watkins’ splendid solo debut, Let It Fall, is a collection of original instrumentals that would fit nicely on the soundtrack for a romantic comedy about Emily, a young archer, and Mason, a graphic designer working on foolproof ballots for the 2004 presidential election. As the film opens, Mason drives past [...]

This is the record to buy and learn, as Bucky Halker says in the liner notes, “for rebels who ain’t so jaded as to think that what’s good for Bill Gates is gonna be good for the rest of us.”
Roughly 30 years in the making, Don’t Want Your Millions is a historic document of union [...]