About five years ago, Adam Cohen, son of Leonard, released a pleasantly forgettable disc of jazz-tinged singer-songwriter material and got slammed for not being more like his father. That won’t be a problem this time. While Cohen writes the songs, Low Millions sounds like a rock band now, and the…

From 1971 to 1974, the New York Dolls were the best rock ‘n’ roll band on the planet. They never rose above their cult following, but they planted the seeds of glam and punk, and fanned the flames of guttersnipe art in the grim years of singer/songwriter hegemony. The Dolls…

Oakland’s Phenomenauts produce an energetic mash of ’80s dance beats — fueled by the sci-fi sound of the theremin, the primitive synthesizer favored by early prog rockers — and rockabilly thrash. They have the energy of the Clash, the party vibe of the B-52’s and the merchandising savvy of Devo,…

She’s Hank’s granddaughter, blessed with one of country music’s most famous last names, but she sounds more like a sensitive West Coast singer-songwriter than the third generation of a family of infamous Nashville crazies. Williams has a pleasing conversational tone, a gentle voice that doesn’t call attention to itself, and…

Junior Brown is a country artist — if you still think country means drinkin’, cheatin’ and hard-core honky-tonk music — but his omnivorous musical appetite and monster chops defy easy categories. Down Home Chrome opens with “Little Rivi-Airhead,” a Beach Boys-meets-Ernest Tubb rocker that also tips its cowboy hat to…

Kimya Dawson was half of the Moldy Peaches, the New York City-based anti-folk supergroup she formed with Adam Green in the late ’90s. The Peaches merged primitive guitar whacking with lyrics that gloried in childlike obscenities. “Who’s Got the Crack?” was a surprise hit in England, but the self-imposed naivet…

Why a trio with such a sunny, uplifting vibe named itself after one of the most annoying insects on the planet is anybody’s guess, but on its second outing, it offers up another generous 15-track helping of twinkling pop gems that fuse the bright, cheery vibe of ’60s bossa nova…

Steve Earle created a firestorm when he wrote a sympathetic song about John Walker Lindh, the “American Taliban,” so he’ll probably take monster flak for this anti-Iraq war, anti-Bush set. With the exception of “Rich Man’s War,” an atypically folky and acoustic ballad that delves into the economic and social…

Curran and his band, the Nightlifes, sound like they just stepped out of a time machine sent back to 1949. They’re all young cats, but they perfectly capture the raw vibe of what was in the air when rockabilly, jump blues, electric East Texas blues grit and juke joint R&B…

Ben Weaver is a folk/Americana songwriter, guitarist and singer with a rough sing/say voice that brings to mind the younger John Prine, a sly growl perfectly suited to his downbeat tales of lost love and hopelessness. He has a gift for startling images and melodies that stick in your mind…

Like Dave Matthews, Canadian singer-songwriter Sam Roberts is a bit charismatically challenged. Despite his long hippie hair and Christ-like beard, Roberts is an average-looking guy who can appear a bit dorky when he strikes a rock star pose on stage, but that’s offset by an ability to crank out anthemic,…

PolyGram, now a part of Universal Music, established a market presence in Brazil more than 50 years ago, and its back catalogue includes bossa nova, tropicalia, MPB, samba, post-samba and today’s fusions of folk and electronica. These three compilations launch a projected series designed to introduce American ears to this…

Erin Moran, a.k.a. A Girl Called Eddy, must have one heck of a record collection. This set echoes everything that made pop music exciting 40 years ago; think Burt Bacharach composing for the Velvet Underground or Ennio Morricone writing saloon songs for Nancy Sinatra. Moran’s voice, halfway between Marianne Faithfull’s…

This is the Velvets’ last stand, captured on a portable cassette recorder on August 23, 1970, shortly before Lou Reed left the band. Containing an extra hour of performances, the release of the expanded version gave us a chance to speak to guitarist Doug Yule, who still plays music but…

Songwriter/pianist/vocalist Leroy Carr, whose two-disc CD set is one of the highlights of the new Roots N’ Blues Series, was one of the first recording artists to make full use of the new electric microphone. With a crooning style akin to the coming generation of jazz singers, he cut 190…

Two years ago, Ms. Holland sat in her bedroom with a couple of friends to demo up a couple of sophisticated folk tunes and make a CD she could sell from the edge of the stage at gigs. She called it Catalpa, and her fans quickly began burning copies and…