Music Reviews

Marc Ribot has spent nearly three decades as a guitarist on the margins. Critic Robert Christgau explains why Ribot's new hard-rock album with Ceramic Dog ranks among his most daring pieces of music.

On his new album, Dad Country, the Nashville singer-songwriter emerges from behind the moniker Jonny Corndawg to reveal a more serious side. In several songs on the new record, he draws on a year he spent trying to salvage a relationship.

The L.A. roots-rock quartet is often described as a band on the verge of greatness. Its new album, Stories Don't End, features disarmingly beautiful, refreshingly unflashy songwriting. It may not make the musicians superstars, but that's just fine.

"Accidental Racist" launched an Internet firestorm and threatened to overshadow everything else on the country singer's fine new album, Wheelhouse. Even in that polarizing song, Paisley's biggest sin is that he's well-meaning in a way that topples too easily into sentimentality.

Cash spent half a century in the limelight as a country singer turned American icon. Between 1958, when he first recorded for Columbia, until 1986, when it didn't renew his contract, he recorded more than 50 singles and 60 albums for the label.

Mosaic Records has released Classic Earl Hines Sessions 1928-1945, a seven-disc showcase for the jazz pianist and bandleader. Hines' right hand played lines in bright, clear octaves — and his left hand had a mind of its own.

With tracks like "Southern Comfort Zone" and "Accidental Racist," the superstar's new album performs a balancing act of cultural examinations. But there are still enough twangy guitar solos and all-purpose love songs to engage country-music tradition.

The Black Keys' Dan Auerbach produced the Tuareg guitar virtuoso's latest album and adds sonic heft rarely heard on African guitar recordings.

The talented young singer-songwriter has as much in common with John Prine as she does with Kenny Chesney. With any luck, Same Trailer, Different Park is the start of a long career that will make both Musgraves' core audience and other open-minded listeners sit up and take notice.

On her major-label debut, the 24-year-old singer-songwriter explores themes steeped in tradition, yet views them through the lens of youth culture.