Brian Q. Newcomb 
Ron Sexsmith HermitageCooking Vinyl [2020] While I’ve practically made it a personal mission to bring Canadian singer/songwriter Bruce Cockburn to the attention of American audiences whenever possible, there are numerous other Canadian artists who haven’t really gotten their due here in the lower 48. Ron Sexsmith came to American attention early in his career with … Read more
Joseph Arthur Come To Where I’m From (20th Anniversary Edition)Real World Records [2020] In 2000, the T Bone Burnett and Rick Will co-produced sophomore album from folk rock singer songwriter Joseph Arthur on the relatively new Real World label, created to give Peter Gabriel an outlet to expose folk to many of his world music … Read more
Bob Dylan Rough And Rowdy WaysColumbia Records [2020] At this point, there’s really no easy way to explain the unique place that Bob Dylan has marked out for himself in the rock music pantheon to those who set themselves beyond the reach of his artistic influence. In 2016, when Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize … Read more
Neil Young HomegrownReprise Records [2020] This long “lost” Neil Young album was recorded late in 1974, two years after his classic solo, commercial breakout album, Harvest, which contained some of Young’s best known and loved songs – “Heart of Gold,” “Are You Ready for the Country,” “Old Man,” “Alabama,” and “The Needle and the Damage … Read more
Muzz MuzzMatador Records [2020] According the dictionary, “muzz” is a transitive verb which is British slang that means “to confuse” someone, or make them muzzy, which suggests that someone might be ill or drunk, while to make a picture “muzzy” means it’s unclear or out of focus. Which makes it a curious choice for a … Read more
Jaime Wyatt Neon CrossNew West Records [2020] Over the decades, county music has loved a hard luck story, a tears in your beer weeper about a romance gone bad, hard livin’ and hard lovin’ with the promise of a party on the weekend. But it also came with the expectation of authenticity, the idea … Read more
The 1975 Notes On A Conditional FormDirty Hit/Interscope Records [2020] By now, there are some constants that we can assert about The 1975. They like to dream big, and they love a wide concept with lots of room for experimentation. They come up with cool, often long album titles. Oh, and musically, well, they are … Read more
Dion Blues With FriendsKeeping The Blues Alive [2020] There are different levels of fame. There’s “one hit wonder” famous, and “once upon a time” famous, where you are remembered for your hits, and people flock around to remember when they were young. There’s that level of fame where the whole world knows you by just … Read more
Victor Wainwright And The Train Memphis LoudRuf Records [2020] Keyboard player Victor Wainwright may have grown up in Georgia, as he suggests in the title from his 2005 debut Piana from Savannah, but as he sings on the title track of his new album he is now Memphis Loud. That track alone goes a long … Read more
Perfume Genius Set My Heart On Fire ImmediatelyMatador Records [2020] You get the sense listening to the fifth album from Perfume Genius, aka Mike Hadreas, that at heart he’s a torch singer. Whatever the musical direction or production style an individual track takes – and he does just about everything here, from dirge-y electronica to … Read more
Kip & JJ Loui Show Me StateSelf-Released [2020] Show Me State is a country rock/Americana love letter from songwriters and spouses, Kip & JJ Loui to their home state of Missouri, with music support from members of The Bottle Rockets and Loui’s local club band, Diesel Island. Kip Loui has been a significant presence in … Read more
Steve Earle & The Dukes Ghosts of West VirginiaNew West Records [2020] In 2010, the worst mining disaster in American history happened at the Upper Big Branch coal mine in West Virginia, killing 29 miners in the explosion. Early this Spring, an Off-Broadway play telling the story of the victims and their families titled “Coal … Read more
EOB EarthCapitol Records [2020] EOB is the moniker used by Radiohead guitarist Ed O’Brien for this debut solo venture, Earth, the music of which he has said was inspired by a year of living in Brazil with his family and, oddly enough, the 1991 album from the band Primal Scream, Screamidelica. While we’ve heard several … Read more
Jason Isbell And The 400 Unit ReunionsSoutheastern Records [2020] In one of the songs on Jason Isbell’s seventh solo album since stepping away from the Drive-By Truckers, the singer sings again about his struggle to maintain his sobriety, “It gets easier, but it never gets easy.” He could just as easily be describing the work … Read more
John Finbury American Nocturnes – Final Days of JulyGreen Flash Music [2020] This one comes with an admission that age has changed my musical tastes. In my teen years and college days I studied while listening to classic rock and The Clash, but here as I enter my 7th decade I can’t read or write … Read more
The Dream Syndicate The Universe InsideANTI- [2020] Generally speaking, I hate it when a press release for a new album suggests something like “this is what all the reviewers will be saying.” (I once reviewed a Meatloaf concert for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and after making a huge gaff, he told the audience what the … Read more
Lucinda Williams Good Souls Better AngelsHighway 20/Thirty Tigers [2020] Lucinda Williams has a remarkable, ragged, resilient singing voice, that is the perfect instrument for her honest, world-weary songs. I’m often reminded when I hear her singing that it was to Williams that Elvis Costello turned to in 2004 to share vocals for his song “There’s … Read more
Local H LifersAntiFragile Music [2020] It’s one thing to make compelling music as a hard rocking duo – just guitar and drums –delivering music that matters while holding an audience’s attention for 40 minutes during a live set, it’s a feat on an altogether other level to keep pulling that off for 30 years, as … Read more
X AlphabetlandFat Possum Records [2020] Of the bands that came out of the L.A. scene in the late 70’s and early 80’s, I tend to connect X with those bands that had a strong roots music connection that fueled their creativity. X arrived on the punk scene playing hard, fast sounds, sparked by the unique … Read more
Red Dirt Boys Red Dirt BoysSelf-Released [2020] Emmylou Harris has a way of picking great back-up players for her band. Nevermind that she sang with Graham Parsons, Mark Knopfler and nearly every major country and Americana act in the last b decades, but back in the day she had the Hot Band with James Burton … Read more
Brendan Benson Dear LifeThird Man Records [2020] Brendan Benson has the enviable position of being the other front man in the Raconteurs who shares the stage with Jack White, and the rhythm section of Jack Lawrence and Patrick Keeler. He shares half the vocals, plays guitar and somehow fades into the shadows every-time White steps … Read more
Fiona Apple Fetch The Bolt CuttersEpic Records [2020] The title of Fiona Apple’s fifth album is telling. Drawn from the British crime-drama “The Fall,” which featured Gillian Anderson as a detective who, discovering some shackles where a woman has been abused, cries out: Fetch The Bolt Cutters. Those words become a metaphor for an artist … Read more
Soul Asylum Hurry Up And WaitBlue Élan Records [2020] Soul Asylum came of age in the early 80’s in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis/St. Paul playing the same clubs as Husker Du, The Replacements, The Suburbs, who all went on to sign major label record deals. Led by singer David Pirner and guitarist Dan Murphy, … Read more
M. Ward Migration StoriesANTI— [2020] On the 10th solo album from M. Ward it’s unlikely that anyone who’s encountered his music over the recent decades is expecting any surprises. In the brief label bio, Ward describes this collection of Migration Stories as “characters in a dream,” which is also a way of describing the hazy … Read more
The Strokes The New AbnormalCult/RCA Records [2020] It’s been long enough since the band’s 2016 EP Future Present Past, which was little more than a solid single with a couple of extra B-sides, to have concluded that the return of The Strokes at the top of their game on a full-length release was not in … Read more