Being the son of a Boston roots-rock legend hasn’t done Jake Brennan, son of Dennis, any harm. For one thing, genetics aside, the singer and songwriter seems to have a good handle on his dad’s record collection, which possibly includes many original Sun Sessions discs and a good number of Elvis Costello records, two things [...]

The aptly named Honeychurch creates music that flows with a languid warmth (the “honey” part), while also projecting an introspective stillness (the “church” part). To use more musical touchstones, this Doyles-town, Pennsylvania, band blends influences of Neil Young, Nick Drake, Mojave 3 and the Byrds to make gorgeous pastoral music.
The two tunes that bookend the [...]

A quartet from Wichita, Kansas, Split Lip Rayfield plays with energy, passion and musical chops. Their bluegrass-based music often features four-part harmonies; then there’s the sometimes furious punk-metal pace of the group’s songs, with band member Jeff Eaton playing an upright bass nicknamed “the Stitch-giver” made from a gas tank and a single string of [...]

The Steep Canyon Rangers are among the younger crop of blue-grassers whose vocals sound like they cut their teeth on equal parts James Taylor and Jim & Jesse. Which, of course, they probably did — with a bit of newgrass, rock ’n’ roll and radio country thrown in for good measure.
An apt comparison would be [...]

Robert Gordon released his first album 27 years ago, and like all of us, he’s done a lot of living in the interim. That album, 1977’s Robert Gordon With Link Wray, presented him as a raw, upstart talent aimed starward. Satisfied Mind finds him seasoned, confident in his considerable scope, and richer for the life [...]

As a member of Rhett Miller’s Instigators and as someone who’s shared stages with Slobberbone and Miller’s Old 97’s, Dallas-based Salim Nourallah carries a connection to roots music that’s primarily a matter of proximity. He’s much more of a Davies and Lennon guy than a Cash and Haggard fan, something that becomes apparent five seconds [...]

With embroidered shirt and shaggy blond hair, Dave Gleason looks like he could have stumbled off the Flying Burritos’ bus in 1969. He and bassist Mike Therieau and drummer John Kent surely love California country, rock and its hybrids. It’s easy to hear Buck Owens’ twang, Merle Haggard’s straightforwardness, the Burritos’ and Byrds’ harmonies, even [...]

Since the late 1990s, the husband-and-wife team of Mike & Amy Finders (rhymes with cinders) have channeled their estimable talents into a catholic mix of vintage and original music that has made them one of the hottest roots acts in the midwest. Where You Are, their third disc, demonstrates yet another advance in sonic clarity, [...]