Starting off with a groove that lays N.C. Thurman’s Hammond B-3 licks over Mike Dillon’s drums and David Hood’s bass, Donnie Fritts’ One Foot In The Groove plays fine as a humane, southern-specific rehab record. So when the Alabama-born singer and songwriter declares, “Feelin’ low and flyin’ high/I didn’t know what to do,” or reaches [...]

Charles Thompson’s records of late aren’t exactly flying off the shelves, but the fact that only the faithful are keeping track of his work seems almost liberating for the occasional Pixies leader, who’s back to recording under the name Black Francis. Not that he ever worried much about other people’s expectations, but his past few [...]

The third album by this Portland, Oregon, band is awash in the glorious shimmer of melancholy. Just as beauty and sadness come together in that resonant emotional state, so too these fourteen songs combine contrasting sonic possibilities. Singer Teisha Helgerson has a voice that is at once fragile and robust, with a crystalline clarity not [...]

The regal, elegant voice of Fayssoux McLean drips with a graceful ease that comes only with experience. In her case, that includes singing with Emmylou Harris for many years and a first marriage to the Seldom Scene’s John Starling. Somehow this is the first album with her name at the top. Produced by fellow Spartanburg, [...]

Even by the standards of Michael Doucet, who has extended the traditional Cajun and Creole fiddle styles of his personal heroes such as Dennis McGee and Canray Fontenot into the future, this one’s a wild card. Playing octave violin, guitar and accordion in addition to fiddle, working solo or with fiddler Mitchell Reed or guitarist [...]

The guitar tone hits you right away, a beautiful, rich, clear, thick sound, perfectly suited for the arpeggios being plucked. With allusions to “The Star-Spangled Banner” in the lyrics, Scott Kempner is lost in the political wilderness, wondering what has happened to the American Dream. “Beyond The Pale” is a search for answers that never [...]

A preacher’s son and former Baptist seminary student, Thad Cockrell has perhaps returned to his roots on this six-song, gospel-themed EP. At the same time, the Nashville-by-way-of-North-Carolina resident has largely stepped away from the trad-country sound of his previous albums, favoring a more sonically expansive approach. Delivered in Cockrell’s distinctive lonesome, sweet tenor, these songs [...]

Sure, these Seattle honky-tonkers are cutting a familiar path, one paved in hardwood slick with beer and littered with broken hearts, but with such a swell bunch of songs, that’s not a problem. Their sophomore full-length, with producer Conrad Uno back on board, mines country and rock’s past glories with swagger and skill. Ruby Dee’s [...]

Though violinist Jenny Scheinman has made her biggest mark in cutting-edge jazz, she cut her teeth on folk and country while growing up in rural California and may be best-known for accompanying rootsy singers including Lucinda Williams and Norah Jones. On her self-titled disc — one of two being released simultaneously — she reveals herself [...]

Pow! Biff! With a pounding rush of fear-fueled adrenaline, we “run with out sabers and our guns” in a futile attempt to escape the apocalypse. We feed the war machine to save our wives and babies from the vampires and the aliens, until we break ranks and escape to an even worse fate. Chris Mills [...]