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The genius of John Hiatt's music is that his best songs are at once John Hiatt songs, Willie Nelson songs, Linda Ronstadt songs... At least 90 different artists have covered some 80 Hiatt tunes over the past three decades; and then there are Hiatt's nineteen solo

A quick survey of recordings by contemporary old-time artists these days might well reveal a strong preference for dance music played by fiddle-driven string bands, with a few vocal numbers thrown in for good measure. This new disc by Beverly Smith & Carl Jones offers a differing perspective

A crude art historian might suggest that creative forms develop along a similar arc: They begin as rudimentary attempts to reproduce a natural account of life, but mature into complex, subjective re-creations of the artist's worldview. So the earliest, simple storytelling paved the way for the formal

Caitlin Cary has avoided the sophomore jinx and follows up her stunning 2002 solo debut, While You Weren't Looking, with an even better album. Every song on I'm Staying Out brims with confidence and an undercurrent of joy that makes the listener feel as if Cary

Alone with his grief, trying to find the expressions and tones that would, as the CD sleeve reads, "keep the loss alive and behind me," Portland's Matt Ward painted his masterpiece. Transfiguration Of Vincent, like portions of his second album, 2001's End Of Amnesia,

The historical record would argue that almost nothing I have to say about Will Oldham, and his various incarnations, should be believed. Years ago I reviewed an early Palace release for Spin, and while I can't remember which record it was, I know the review was a glowing