Much is made in the promotional materials about the aggregation of guests: Sarah Jarosz, Charlie Sexton, Bonnie Whitmore, Bukka Allen, and others, but their contributions are mostly subtle. McMurtry and his core band of guitarist Tim Holt, bassist Cornbread, drummer Daren Hess, and harmony vocalist BettySoo do most of the heavy lifting. McMurtry is, for whatever reason, a vastly underrated guitarist and vocalist, yet he shines on both accounts in these ten songs, all but two of which he wrote.

An album that redefines collaboration on a spiritual level. ... 12 poetically moving pieces of art that focus on emotions and environments most would attempt to ignore. The Record hit our speakers with high expectations, and not a single second let us down.

This is a much-needed dose of Silver with young cats Shaw and Henderson, guaranteed to lift your spirits.

It takes a while to get through this collection, but it’s time well spent. This collection is full of songs that will get your head bobbing and your body moving. On top of that, it is a must-have for collectors due to the rarity of some of the tracks and the presentation of the box set.

Funeral for Justice finds the band flying high while creating songs they believe passionately in, resulting in the strongest album of Mdou Moctar’s career.

That! Feels Good! nimbly catapults Ware from being beholden to What’s Your Pleasure?, to cementing herself as one of the most agile and important dance artists working today. ... A punchier and more immediate album than What’s Your Pleasure?, slicker and far funkier, but equally iconoclastic.

Getting Killed establishes the band as amorphic, an ever-growing blob of raucous rock that thrives in the unpredictability it has put into place. Rather than select one of the many sonic worlds that gave Geese this pedestal they stand on, the band decides to dive deeper into their loftiness on Getting Killed, creating a sprawling LP that never loses focus, yet never feels the need to linger too long.

All Mirrors belongs in the canon of essential break-up albums, but more Exile in Guyville than Rumours or Blue. ... The resulting instrumentation is impressively cohesive and resoundingly huge.

There is a certain struggle to be found in these songs but it is hidden underneath her self-assured cadence. Her storytelling on this album is direct and authentic and introduces us to a new side of Archives’ creative personality.

Highway Butterfly: The Songs of Neal Casal leaves the very distinct impression of that project that is a true labor of love.

Apart from McLorin’s Salvant’s singular voice and compelling musical arrangements, it’s her courage and imagination for such heady projects that set her apart from any contemporary singer.

Auerbach and Finley stick closely to the format of Sharecropper’s Son – a mix of raw blues, gospel, soul, and funk. This one does feel a tad more personal and musically more on the swampy side, weighted that way by “Alligator Bait,” as memorable a story as you’ll hear, where Finley’s anger seeps through convincingly.

Rather than completely reinventing himself via the new moniker, Sturgill Simpson delivers more of his same idiosyncratic stylings. Passage Du Desir uses a classic Nashville base that allows ‘Johnny Blue Skies’ to springboard to more pop-oriented sounds and slightly tripped-out structures with varying degrees of success.

Tigers Blood album is yet another big step forward in her evolution from critic’s darling to one of the most dependably great indie artists performing today.

While this work may not be as riveting and stunning as its predecessor, due mostly to the familiarity of many of the tunes, that dynamic cuts both ways because there are few interpreters as adept as Giddens for traditional fare. Also, the remarkable musical chemistry between the duo just continues to grow.

This record, their most adventurous so far, pairs the band with a new producer, James Ford, who has worked with everyone from Blur and Depeche Mode to Arctic Monkeys and the Pet Shop Boys. The new pairing seemingly pushed the band to expand their sound a bit, making for a strongly compelling evolution.

If you are unfamiliar with the band’s music, this release may be the perfect place to start.

The hour of music on The Clientele’s I Am Not There Anymore flies by with a widely entertaining gusto while satisfying the band’s restless creativity.

Cuts like “Shakin’ All Over” illustrate how Petty and the Heartbreakers are individually and collectively rediscovering themselves as players and singers as they move out of their shared comfort zone. Even when the ensemble is sharing the stage, they transcend mere showmanship to depict their recommitment to the roots of their music.

There was no coasting on any front in the formulation of Long Gone. “Disco Ears” is decidedly peppier all around, though hardly redolent of the environs its title suggests or the beat-laden leanings of Redman’s Elastic Band in the mid-2000s. Instead, it is, like “Statuesque,” an unpredictable progression rendered with utter fluency all around, no less in McBride’s basswork or Blade’s drum activity than the lead instruments of their long-standing comrades.

It’s hard not to agree with what might otherwise sound like hyperbole: this is one of, if not the finest effort of the great iconoclast’s career.

Ozarker finds Nash tapping into an entirely different genre for inspiration and the result makes for one of his best albums so far. From the big guitars to the anthem-like choruses, Nash’s latest manages to update a sound that resonates both comfortably and refreshing at the same time.

By design, Lives Outgrown does not have the danceable grooves of Portishead’s music, but fans of the more experimental aspects of Gibbons’s former band should love the album. The orchestral compositions and atmospheric tension paint bleak portraits well-suited for Gibbons’s somber voice. That voice is as good as ever, able to wring drama from each utterance of her poetic tales of loss.

An extremely cerebral approach to experimental music, which tend to feel more disjointed. Every movement has a purpose and every song on the album combines to make a fantastic album.

This is one of Griffin’s most introspective albums, as she continues to move in this direction. Her fans will enjoy the lyrics and her, unique passionate vocals.

As captivating and hypnotic as it is, the album may have been even stronger if it had ended with the title track, but Goodman loves the long narrative, a gifted bonus. All told, the album is unforgettable on so many dimensions.

All these tracks are infused with percussion and amazing richly textured rhythmic patterns as you’ve already gleaned. Throughout, as on his other albums, Adjuah’s trumpet tone is clear and majestic sounding but it’s as if it resides on a higher plane above the rhythms and mix of acoustic and electronics taking place below. Together, the music remains unique, unlike almost anything else you’ve heard, unless it was from Adjuah or his label mate, Logan Richardson.

The record starts off with “Lowland Trail,” a solid folk/country hybrid, but it’s on the next two tracks where she really shines; the horn-laden, unrushed “Keep It on A Burner” and “I Remember Carolina,” an undeniable earworm up there was with John Prine when it comes to charmingly sly wordplay. Across 11 tracks, the album is a near flawless exercise in songwriting.