Music Reviews

There's something tender and specific about the ways elders like Frank Wess shaped their notes.

Church uses the power he's accrued from hit records to make exactly the kind of album he wants.

Penny Penny put down his broom and picked up a mic for his 1994 debut, now reissued.

On Sixteen Sunsets, the soprano saxophonist varies and honors melody like Billie Holiday.

Both Jon Pardi and Jason Eady have to confront the dilemma of all young country musicians: how to navigate the pop current that keeps country music commercially viable while connecting to a past that fewer and fewer listeners are aware of.

Todd Snider, Widespread Panic's Dave Schools and Duane Trucks perform in a new band that specializes in covering working-class songs.

Linnea Olsson grew up listening to ABBA and Bjork, but her debut album, Ah!, is a creation all her own. Her music is largely based in improvisation, with lyrics that resemble fanciful fairy tales.

On Gilchrist's The View From Here, go-go dance beats inform his piano the same way freight-train boogie-woogie does.

There was a time when people in the know in Memphis described James Govan as Otis Redding's natural successor. A new compilation collects some of his unreleased recordings.

His 18th album is a mixed-bag assortment of covers and originals brimming with undimmed eagerness.