Few contemporary pop artists have the track record of Neil and Tim Finn. Their stints in Split Enz and Crowded House yielded few American hits, but both had more chops than your local carniceria. Everyone Is Here, equal parts meditation on mortality and love song to life, stands with the best work they have ever [...]

The Houston Brothers, it should be clarified, are not from that fair Texas burg, but from Charlotte, North Carolina. Their surname? That’s not Houston either. It’s Faircloth. The band’s music? Dead-on Houston, or anywhere where there’s plenty of room to roam. Ostensibly a mix of steel, hazy pedal-driven guitar and brushed drums, it’s driving music, [...]

Sam Beam is of that sort, it should be said. The demented genius one-man-band archetype. You know, the same sort as Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails) and Conor Oberst (Bright Eyes). Which really just means two things, likely: 1) Sam Beam doesn’t sound near as cool as “Iron And Wine”, and 2) like the chaps [...]

Dan Bern’s new American language is pretty age-old, truth be told. Bern’s songs in the past have referenced Marilyn Monroe, Mother Teresa, Tiger Woods, and Charles Manson. Language contains nods to Eminem, Britney, and Keith Richards. Bern, god help him, is commenting on the American Tradition through symbolic touchstones, those archetypal figures who have gained [...]

Dar Williams has never been afraid to see herself as a work in progress, and, as usual, it makes for fairly good art. Her acknowledgement of an ego apart from the Earth Mother most other female folkies bow to allows Williams to have true familiarity with her subjects and narrators — usually different parts of [...]

As a sort of unlocked diary, Ghost Of David can be fascinating stuff, a real-time look inside Damien Jurado’s world (his head, primarily). Like that great conversation you might have with a friend, it opens up new vistas and insights even as the darkness pours out your mouths. However, while therapeutic, you’d rather not have [...]