This week features the triumphant return of Gillian Welch and David Rawlings.
Warren Zeiders
Relapse
Points for ambition, I guess, for attempting a concept album in the current mainstream milieu. But it’s also less a “concept” than it is shoehorning addiction metaphors into pedestrian Nickelback Country songs, and he sounds the most like Chad Kroeger of all of these guys.
Ruthie Foster
Mileage
As always, Foster dances nimbly on the line between being a great blues vocalist and a great soul singer, and she knows precisely when to lean in which direction. Here, she reflects deeply on matters of aging with grace in a hostile world. She’s such a treasure.
Jared Deck
Head Above Water
Easily the best album I’ve ever heard by a sitting state legislator, Deck’s voice is just tremendous. Some of the blues licks are a bit rote, but he works up a good bluster on songs that highlight his empathetic worldview and a solid cover of a Garth hit.
Pete Yorn
The Hard Way
I’ve gone to bat for him many a time over the years, but this set lives down to his (unfair) reputation for being dull: A record of hookless, plodding AAA radio fodder that aims for “moody” but just feels like it’s a days long mope.
India Ramey
Baptized By the Blaze
A “bull-shitkicker” uses her extraordinary voice to work through some heavy stuff, and she’s both more fiery, more joyful on the other side. For her mastery of trad-country and honky-tonk, there’s also a whole lot of Wanda Jackson, X, and Hank III stoking Ramey’s fire.
Gillian Welch & David Rawlings
Woodland
They lean into the crediting as a duo here, finding balance between their individual idiosyncrasies and identities, and they both shine throughout. The writing’s as sharp ever, too, tempering the usual adherence to traditional forms with modern concerns.
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