Jon Young

Ambitious and proud of it, Carson McHone reveals where she’s coming from in the opening moments of her dazzling new album. Pentimento begins with a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson, standard-bearer of the 19th-century Transcendalist movement, which believed divine truths could be drawn from everyday experience. “Heaven walks among

When Grant-Lee Phillips declares, “Strange days have begun,” it’s hardly shocking news. Like so many others, this thoughtful bard is struggling to process the chaos of modern life. After chronicling his pandemic experience on the brilliant album 2022’s All That You Can Dream, Phillips has some thoughts to

“I can do whatever I damn well please,” proclaims Ron Sexsmith calmly on his latest standout album, voicing steely defiance with typical restraint. Regardless of his sentiments, which can range from placid to fraught, he wraps them in such lovely melodies that it’s easy to mistake these thoughtful songs

For Cass McCombs, it’s the song, not the singer. Over a career spanning more than two decades, this sly California-born troubadour has specialized in catchy tunes that shun easy categories, even as they flirt with familiar folk-pop tropes. Fascinating and exhausting, Interior Live Oak captures McCombs at full strength,

Conceived by producer Ralph Sall as a reggae counterpart to The Traveling Wilburys, The Mighty Rootsmen laid down tracks for their self-titled album in 2010, but the sessions went unreleased at the time. It wasn’t for lack of marquee names, though. The lineup features standout vocalists – Toots Hibbert (of

Murry Hammond likes to whistle. A lot. With his sophomore solo outing, the longtime second banana to Rhett Miller in Old 97’s shows the world he can put his lips together and blow with the best of them on every single song, sometimes dispensing with lyrics altogether. However, unless