Steve Thorngate's Music Reviews

While it's hard to imagine many pop artists signing up to
write a song cycle based on the history of classical music, for
Amos—whom  Deutsche Grammophon approached with this idea—the project
seems almost inevitable.

Works Progress Administration is a loose collective of a supergroup, primarily a collaboration between Glen Phillips and Sean Watkins.

Earlier this year, NPR's All Songs Considered solicited Ryan Lott, aka Son Lux, for an experiment: could he write and record an album in one month? Lott agreed.

Nostalgic country-gospel records inhabit a liminal space between personal-historical document and genuine religious statement. Daniel Martin Moore's latest follows this path but enlivens it a bit.

This new band's sound has roots in the indie-folk scene, with its moody treatments of simple chord progressions and Americana rhythms. But the larger thread here is classic pop, and The Head and the Heart offers the complete feel-good package.

Alt-country is typically traced to Uncle Tupelo, but the early '90s Jay­hawks made better records. Where Uncle Tupelo found scrappy affinities between traditional Americana and punk, the Jayhawks brought '70s country-rock to the alt-rock '90s.

While the most tried-and-true way to say "I'm a serious American roots artist" is to book Emmylou Harris to sing backup, a close second is to get T-Bone Burnett to be your producer.

While Say Goodbye is no
straightforward salute to Mem­phis, soul is as good a word as any for this quiet, strange but above all groovy little record.

It's fine to eschew traditional bluegrass for intricate pop, but playing the latter with strict string-band instrumentation just sounds kind of gimmicky.

A special Christmas review of noteworthy books, movies and music.