Jim Hynes

In Glide’s review of Richard Thompson ’s 2018 13 Rivers, we closed by saying “…nothing else labeled ‘folk rock’ sounds like Richard Thompson. Like Hendrix, he’s his own genre, one the major virtuosos of our time.” With certainly nothing to prove, Thompson sallies forth six years later with Ship to Shore,

Seven decades in, it should come as no surprise that the Virginia-born, Los Angeles-based multi-genre-oriented artist, songwriter, and producer Swamp Dogg (AKA Jerry Williams, Jr.) would deliver a bluegrass album. Of course, that’s just the foundation as he melds into his stew strains of soul, funk, R&B, and even gospel for his first album on Oh Boy! Records, founded by the late John Prine. Blackgrass: From West Virginia to 125th Street features guest vocalists Margo Price and Jenny Lewis, each singing one tune, guitarist Vernon Reid, and harmony group The Cactus Blossoms.

Blues-rock guitarist and singer-songwriter Joanne Shaw Taylor (JST) telegraphs her album theme or approach as directly as any artist. Heavy Soul is her twelfth release, and like 2021’s The Blues Album, she tells us straight out what she is aiming for. This is the first time she’s worked with renowned producer Kevin Shirley. Together, they recruited a bunch of Nashville ‘cats,” some of whom you often see on Americana releases, such as Doug Lancio, Anton Fig, Allison Presswood, Jimmy Wallace, and Rob McNelly. JST also worked with co-writers on three tracks, mostly notably Beth Nielson-Chapman on the single “Change of Heart.” The album appears on Joe Bonamassa’s Journeyman Records, but unlike her past few albums, Bonamassa is absent here. Along with seven originals either penned by or co-written by JST, there are covers of tunes by Gamble & Huff, Joan Armatrading, and Van Morrison.

Chicago’s most famous bus driver, Toronzo Cannon, has now retired, devoting his full energies to his songwriting and fiery left-handed electric guitar playing. Shut Up & Play! is Cannon’s third release for Alligator Records and sixth overall, yet it’s been five years since his last one.

South African pianist, composer, healer, and philosopher Nduduzo Makhathini is one of today’s few spiritually transcendent artists, as heard on his previous two Blue Note releases. Unlike some artists who gravitate toward the spiritual side of jazz more for musical reasons, Nduduzo (easier to use his first name) is a Zulu healer and educator by profession, and spiritual music comes naturally to him. As one writer said, “…trust a musician who has truly devoted his life to divination practices.” The vowel-filled album title references the Zulu Goddess uNomkhubulwane, the Zulu name for God’s only daughter, also deemed to be a mythical rain goddess, a regulator of nature, light, and fertility. As a shapeshifting force, she can take the shape of an animal, a hurricane, or a rainbow.

Human Decency is the third collaboration between blues and soul powerhouse vocalist Sugaray Rayford

Friends for over 30 years, singer/songwriter/guitarist Dave Alvin and singer/songwriter harmonicist Jimmie Dale Gilmore found special chemistry in the studio and subsequent touring with Alvin’s band, The Guilty Ones, upon the release of 2018’s Downey to Lubbock. During the intervening almost six years, Alvin has battled cancer, undergone treatments successfully, and gradually resumed touring with both this group and his psychedelic folk-rock project, The Third Mind. In fact, you may have heard this band within the past year, playing some of the songs from their second release, Texicali.

The voice of Americana, Jim Lauderdale, has explored bluegrass, roots music, several albums with Robert Hunter, and pure country over the course of 37 records. From the opening notes of Tommy Detamore’s pedal steel on the opening title track, we know immediately which vein he’s in on “My Favorite Place.” This is as pure as country gets.

That distinctive, quiet, sweet croon of former busker Madeleine Peyroux doesn’t seem to fit a bold and outspoken singer. That is, until now. These ten songs, co-written by Peyroux and longtime collaborator Jon Herington (Steely Dan), delve into the personal, the political, the playful, and the yearning.

Johnny Cash ’s Songwriter certainly arrives unexpectedly as one of 2024’s biggest surprises. Most of us assumed that after Cash’s passing in 2003, just about anything worthwhile in his catalog had been issued. Yet, during a lull between contracts and before the famous Rick Rubin recordings that revitalized Cash’s career, Cash recorded an album’s worth of demos at LSI Studios in Nashville of songs that he’s written for over 40 years. However, once he met Rubin these songs, all but two of them were shelved. Cash may be known to many, certainly through those Rubin years, as a purveyor of cover songs, but his son, John Carter Cash, who rediscovered these songs that had full band instrumentation, stripped them down to just his dad with an acoustic guitar. So, the thrust here is to present Cash as a vital songwriter. Hence the album title.