On their third album, the core members of I See Hawks in L.A. are joined by Chris Hillman (Byrds, Flying Burrito Brothers), Rick Shea (Dave Alvin Band) and other heavies from L.A.’s alt-country gang. It’s the songwriting of the principal bandmates, though, that grabs your attention. Lead vocalist and guitarist…

Because a pedal steel guitar is featured prominently in their sound, The Court & Spark often get pegged as an alt-country band, but nothing could be further from the truth. The steel guitar is just part of a multilayered sound that can include cello, hammered dulcimer, Mellotron, and the percussive…

Mark Pickerel, onetime drummer for Seattle cult faves The Screaming Trees, and who even did a short stint with Nirvana, steps up to center stage with a collection of dark, sullen tunes that blend country, rock and pop into a vaguely supernatural stew. Pickerel has a deep, sinister baritone with…

New York City-based Lansing-Dreiden produces videos and art projects as well as music, but eschews interviews and live performance. Exactly how many members there are and what they play is unknown, the same ploy The Residents once used to force people to focus on the music, rather than the musicians…

Lila Downs wowed audiences as the tango singer in Salma Hayek’s Frida and won a Latin Grammy for Best Folk Album for Una Sangre (One Blood), which blended Mexican folk music with hip-hop and world beats from the Caribbean, Latin America and the Middle East. The arrangements on La Cantina:…

Edvard Munch once wrote, “Illness, insanity and death are the black angels that kept watch over my cradle and accompanied me all my life.” The Black Angels tuck this cheery little epigram into the triptych of the beautifully eye-popping design of their debut album. They make good on their implied…

Norwegian singer Sondre Lerche speaks (and sings) English as a second language, but that hasn’t stopped him from penning dozens of perfect pop gems. He’s been building an international buzz since his dazzling debut with Faces Down in 2002. Duper Sessions may be more acoustic, stripped down and retro than…

In a previous incarnation, Robinella and her husband, multi-instrumentalist and arranger Cruz Contreras, cut Robinella & the CC Band, an album that blended the swing of Bob Wills and Duke Ellington, with a side of Bill Monroe. Solace is less eclectic and more focused, living up to its name with…

John Fahey was an original, a guitarist with an instantly recognizable style, a conglomeration of ragtime, country, blues, Indian classical music, and electronica. With his usual self-effacing sense of humor, he called his music “American primitive,” but it was a sophisticated kind of acoustic psychedelia that no one has ever…

Using the B-word when describing a new young band can be the kiss of death, but the sonic palette Happy Bullets use on The Vice and Virtue Ministry brings to mind a psychedelic-era Beatles album as produced by Ray Davies and recorded on an indie rock budget. Strong melodies, lush…

Bobby Bare’s always recorded a blend of country, folk, pop and singer-songwriter material that kept fans guessing. The Moon Was Blue is no exception, a combination of country and pop classics that give Bare a chance to show off his weary, soulful vocals to great advantage. “Everybody’s Talkin'” combines a…

Ray Raposa, the singer-songwriter at the core of Castanets, makes oddly elusive music. The lyrics are oblique, the delivery is matter-of-fact, almost spoken as much as sung, and the playing is minimal, just enough music to make the tracks into songs rather than poems or conversation. First Light’s Freeze balances…

Clint Black got tired of hassling with his label a few years ago and started his own logo. This is his second outing for his own outfit (not counting last year’s Christmas album), and being his own boss obviously agrees with him. The title track has the sound of a…

Fans expecting more crushing feedback, pile-driver drumming and arty, late-’90s-style British bluster will be shocked by the quiet, introspective vibe BRMC displays on its third outing. There’s plenty of overdubbing — Autoharp, congas, piano, organ, drums and electric-guitar noise — but the mix has an unplugged feel that leaves the…

Gogol Bordello, New York’s only Ukrainian Gypsy punk band, has a planetary musical vision. The band’s strong Ukrainian roots — evidenced by the furious accordion work of Yuri Lemeshev and the mad fiddling of Sergey Rjabtzev — are augmented by morsels of reggae, flamenco, Balkan wedding music, heavy metal guitar…

Brazilian chanteuse Lilian Vieira went to study voice in Rotterdam, where she met drummer Stefan Kruger and keyboard wiz Stefan Schmid. And although their collaboration is based in Holland, the sound is pure Brazil. The trio is continually finding unique ways to blend electronic beats with samba, afoxé and other…

It’s hard to believe that the Fleshtones have been at it for 30 years. Beachhead sounds as youthful, snotty and out of control as anything they’ve ever cut, brimming over with joyous garage-band enthusiasm. They kick things off with “Bigger and Better,” in which they shout: “It’s nothing new, it’s…

You could file Danny Barnes’ new album under folk, blues, old time, alt-country or gospel, but there isn’t a single category that defines his free-flowing acoustic alchemy. Barnes’ sparse banjo picking, and the high lonesome fiddling of Brittany Haas, makes the Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil” sound like an ancient…

The Knitters — X members John Doe, Exene Cervenka and D.J. Bonebrake, augmented by then-Blaster Dave Alvin and current Red Devil Johnny Ray Bartel — recorded Poor Little Critter on the Road in 1985. The album consisted of the country and folk songs that inspired the music of X as…

Way back in 1976, Graham Parker’s commanding vocal presence and acerbic songwriting — given extra fuel by The Rumour, one of the greatest backing bands in rock history — made him a contender. While he was lumped in with the rest of the so-called angry young men of the New…

With the exception of Phil Spector, Jack Nitzsche was the greatest arranger, musician and producer of the early rock era. Unlike Spector, Nitzsche didn’t allow himself to get stuck in a musical rut. He kept producing vital work, including soundtrack scores for films like One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,…

In the 1980s, when Sunny Ade and other African stars surfaced, critics hoped their “world beat” blend of styles would lead to cultural respect and an international vision of pop music. It didn’t happened on the concert stage, but since the early ’90s, DJs and producers of club music have…