Troy Campbell is yet another Austin artist whose lack of renown isn’t quite commensurate with his talent. His band the Highwaymen moved from Dayton, Ohio, to Austin in the late 1980s and released an excellent cassette that was recently reissued on CD. The band changed its name to Loose Diamonds and made a few more [...]

Recorded at a house concert in New Mexico in 2002, this disc finds Katy Moffatt in her natural element, performing solo with just her acoustic guitar as accompaniment. Moffatt is at home singing folk, country or blues with a voice that’s grown richer with age. She can be soothing on “This Heart Stops For Railway [...]

True to the titular address, this ain’t Primrose Lane. Those populating Sam Baylor’s songs are a struggling lot, unlucky in love and anything else that requires one to stick around. (“If you want to see me Monday, take a snapshot on Sunday,” he offers on “Free Advice”.) In fact, when Baylor — best-known for his [...]

44 Long is Brian Berg. He writes the songs, sings them, performs them, and records them. At various times since forming a decade ago, 44 Long has also been a performing outfit with additional musicians, heard in venues around Portland, Oregon. Hangover Heights Part 2, the third 44 Long album, appears after a seven-year hiatus. [...]

Jimmy Peterson, leader of this Minneapolis quintet, has stylishness and a sophisticated charm reminiscent of Joe Henry, a casual way of expressing lust and regret cast against a backdrop of urban roots. His songs are jazzy musings all about the groove while his lyrics are images squeezed between beats, subtle descriptions floating in space before [...]

If you’ve missed Sparklehorse (it’s been five years since Mark Linkous’ last release), Mint could tide you over. In the hands of Sparklehorse producer John Morand, Mint’s opener “The Lake” sounds like a lost track from Viva­dixie­submarinetransmissionplot. But Morand also produced Cracker, and his jangle-pop credentials come in handier here. Mint’s pop harmonies soar like [...]

On Rough Shop’s debut album, Anne Tkach (formerly Hazeldine’s bassist) sings like someone who relishes sin so much that she can barely be bothered to exert herself about it. Tkach delivers lines such as, “Leaving all the dreaming to the true romancers/Just get me away from here/Destination anywhere,” with just the right combination of relish [...]

Dayna Kurtz seems to sing from another age, when her full-throated richness and deep range were not anomalous. Two years ago, on the album Beautiful Yesterday, she highlighted this anachronism to great effect by covering Billie Holiday and Duke Ellington. But Kurtz is a singer and songwriter, so she returns to the present with Another [...]

Lizzie West received acclaim for her 2003 disc Holy Road, originally a self-release before Warner Bros. reissued an altered version of it. Now on indie Apple­seed, West, supported mostly by Anthony Kieraldo (the White Buffalo) on piano, performs music that encompasses a range of themes and styles. “Rope Me In And Smoke Me” is an [...]