Alex McManus knows how to play second fiddle…and guitar, and banjo, and just about anything else he might be called on to play. As part of the sprawling country orchestra that is Lambchop — not to mention his participation in electro/organic alchemists Empire State and stints backing Vic Chesnutt and Simon Joyner — McManus has [...]

Ex-Souled American guitarist Scott Tuma takes an ambient and painterly approach on his debut solo album, the all-instrumental Hard Again. Given the increasingly abstract direction taken during the past few Souled American albums, this doesn’t come as much of a shock. Guitar and organ apply the primary colors, joined by occasional banjo and percussion from [...]

It’s obvious from the leadoff/title track of their sophomore album that Louisville’s My Morning Jacket has big plans. Frontman Jim James is told to forget his musical dreams, to which he responds, “That’s when my knife rises, their life ends and my life starts again.” Such defensiveness might sound pretentious in the hands of lesser [...]