Jon Young

Editor’s Note: Here at No Depression there’s too much great roots music in a year for us to cover it all. So in December, when new releases slow down, we ask writers to review some of the best albums we missed throughout the year in an on-going series

There’s one big problem with the new album from the veteran funk sextet Lettuce. Sweet and sunny, Cook is a warm-weather record, perfect for a backyard cookout or a lazy drive with the windows down – not a soundtrack for chilly days. Still, the band’s smooth amalgam of feelgood

Jesse Sykes will not be rushed. On her first album in 14 years (and fifth overall), the Seattle explorer takes a leisurely excursion to the folkier side of psychedelia without pandering to ‘60s nostalgia, raising cosmic questions yet never presuming to provide answers. A beautiful exercise in haunted contemplation, Forever,

Mavis Staples has kept the faith since the 1950s, delivering a message of uplift and determination in hopeful and dark days alike. First as the young powerhouse of The Staple Singers and later as a solo artist, she has brought an inspiring gospel-fired fervor to both secular and spiritual settings.

In its mid-‘50s heyday, Sun Records launched the careers of some high-wattage talents, among them Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, and Roy Orbison. Though not the first name that comes to mind when you think of the revolutionary Memphis label, Carl Perkins got his start there, too.

While undergoing treatment for cancer last year, the country-inclined troubadour Joshua Ray Walker worried that his creative life might be nearing an end. Determined to carry on, the Dallas-based artist set out to record enough music for three albums. The first, the familiar-sounding Tropicana, was released four months ago. Now,