Steve Horowitz

Like Patsy Cline and Dolly Parton, one can easily recognize Leah Blevins' articulations. Her country music voice is idiosyncratic in a completely positive way.

Ashley Monroe is not happy with the way she's been treated by Music City. Dear Nashville is a concept record about her professional experiences.

Dale Watson sings and writes about love, life, and liquor with equal fervour. He's a passionate man, whether he's crooning about yellow mustard or his own death.

The beauty of this EP lies in Sarah Blasko's creative use of her personal demons to share deep feelings without being overwhelmed by them.

Whitehorse have returned to their folk-rock roots on their latest full-length record, All I Want Is All of It. The Canadian husband-and-wife team of Luke Doucet and Melissa McClellan recorded the album in a 19th-century farmhouse to capture the mood of past spirits in the ancient place. Of course, only a New World denizen would consider a place built 200 years ago old. Its semi-rural setting on the other side of the tracks offers a haunting aural landscape. The musicians said the location functioned as the creative inspiration behind the new disc.

Braxton Keith's charm lies in part in his ability to keep things light. Let's sing about love, cheating, drinking, and forget about our heavy concerns.

As the old philosophical question goes, “If a tree falls in an empty forest, does it make a sound?” That query feels newly relevant in the age of modern music-making. We live in a world where anyone can hear virtually any song ever recorded, anytime, anywhere (provided there’s an internet connection). Today’s artist isn’t just competing with peers for attention, but with the entire history of recorded sound. The forest is so dense with trees that it becomes impossible to hear anything at all.

Jenny Reynolds' story songs on Willow & Stone keep things simple. Her lyrics wryly address our existential challenges with a nod to love as the redeemer.

Life is but a dream, and the dream has a life of its own. We wake up only when we sleep. Tucker Zimmerman's final opus offers a lullaby of love.

These 1970s jazz albums can generally be described as "post-bop" and were made during the mid-to-late 1970s, with top-notch sonic quality for live recordings.