Joey Willis

Coming on twenty into their run as one of Austin’s most consistently inventive rock bands, White Denim’s 13 feels less like a reset and more like a snapshot of everything they’ve learned how to do and how comfortably they can shift between those ideas. The band has always pulled from a wide range of influences, but here that approach is pushed even further. It’s a dense, groove-focused record that draws on rock, funk, soul, country, and more. The result is a record that moves quickly, sometimes abruptly, but rarely loses its footing.

Few albums carry the weight of Pet Sounds, and even fewer have been reissued this many times with as much scrutiny. For its 60th anniversary, The Beach Boys’ landmark release returns as part of Interscope-Capitol’s Definitive Sound Series, cut from All-Analog tapes sourced from the highly regarded 1972 Brother Records pressing. Long thought lost, these newly rediscovered tapes of the 1972 Brother Records pressing are believed to be the best representation of the original Mono sound Brian Wilson recorded. This new One Step edition aims to present the original mono mix with as much presence and detail as possible. What stands out immediately is the sense of balance. Brian Wilson’s dense arrangements have always been the core of the record, but here they feel more organized without losing their complexity.

District Five’s Glut continues the Zurich band’s push into a sound that pulls equally from art-rock, jazz, post-punk, and experimental noise without fully settling into any one category. The four-piece has spent over a decade developing a sound that feels loose and spontaneous without losing focus, and this album captures that balance particularly well. Recorded with minimal overdubs, the record has the tension and unpredictability of a live performance, but the band’s control over dynamics and texture keeps it from spiraling into chaos. Instead, Glut feels like a document of a group constantly reacting to one another in real time.

Over the course of five decades, Don Williams built one of the most consistent careers in country music and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2010. In 2014, Williams released Reflections, his twenty-fifth and final album before his passing in 2017.

Tony Rice’s 1977 self-titled album arrived at a pivotal moment in bluegrass. Fresh from his time with J.D. Crowe & The New South and immersed in the musical experimentation of David Grisman’s circle, Rice was already pushing beyond the traditional boundaries of the genre. While later albums like

Few artists have had as profound an impact on regional Mexican music as Chalino Sánchez, who is widely regarded as the “Godfather of Corridos.” Decades after his death, his influence can still be heard throughout the modern corridos movement. Modern artists like Peso Pluma and Natanael Cano (both of whom have performed at Coachella) have brought corridos to international audiences, but much of the genre’s modern identity can be traced back to Chalino. His songs gave voice to immigrants, laborers, small-town figures, and families whose stories rarely appeared in mainstream music. Rather than presenting larger-than-life heroes, Chalino chronicled real people with such detail and authenticity that listeners felt connected to the lives behind the names. Originally released in 1991,

By 1977, Bluegrass was arriving at a crossroads. Questions about whether to stay in a strict acoustic framework or to push the boundaries and include non-traditional instruments like drums, pedal steel, and electric instruments. This is where the short-lived group Boone Creek took up the mantle of experimentation and laid the foundation for what would become “Newgrass.”

Gary Stewart’s reputation as “King of the Honky-Tonks” rests on the hard-drinking honky-tonk classics that made him one of country music’s most distinctive voices in the 1970s, but One Track Mind visits the years before the hits arrived. One Track Mind is drawn from demos, home recordings, and acetate transfers dating from 1967 to 1972 found by producer Mark Linn. This collection captures Stewart as a young songwriter finding his voice in Nashville soon after moving from Florida. One Track Mind stands as a surprisingly cohesive listen that highlights just how much of Stewart’s talent was already in place long before Out of Hand made him a star.

As a pianist, Bobby Timmons had already left a lasting mark on hard bop before recording This Here Is Bobby Timmons in 1960. As a member of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers and Cannonball Adderley’s Quintet, he helped shape some of the era’s defining recordings while contributing compositions that would become jazz standards in their own right. His debut as a bandleader gave him the chance to step out from behind those legendary groups and reveal the full scope of his talent. Rooted in the gospel music he grew up with in his father’s Philadelphia church, Timmons blended blues, soul, and swinging hard bop into his own unique style. More than sixty years later, This Here Is Bobby Timmons is joining Craft Recording’s Original Jazz Classics series on 180-gram vinyl cut from the original tapes by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio.

Australian songwriter Alex Cameron has spent the past decade writing songs about the outliers, the failures, and the tragic characters on the fringes. Initially performing in a persona as a failed entertainer, Cameron strived to embody the characters that he writes about. On his fifth album, Late to Set, those familiar characters remain, but the tone is noticeably more reflective. Following the polished swagger of Oxy Music, Cameron opts for a leaner, moodier sound. Sparse drum machines, brooding synths, and restrained guitars leave plenty of room for his unmistakable songwriting to carry the stories. The result is an album that often recalls the tension and literate songwriting of early Elvis Costello.