CD of the Week

Date
		Helplessness Blues Being that I was too young at the time, I cannot say that, if I had been of age in the 1960s, I would have been listening to the heady sounds of Crosby, Stills, and Nash, Fairport Convention, Jethro... Find out more about Helplessness Blues »
		Hard Bargain After 40 years in the music industry, after 25 albums, countless tour dates, and a dozen Grammy awards, is there anything that Emmylou Harris finds daunting about making music? It seems songwriting... Find out more about Hard Bargain »
		Live and Direct Volume 13 Live and Direct Volume 13 is here! We've collected 17 of the best live performances from the past year for Live and Direct Volume 13. Featuring tracks from local acts including Colonizing the... Find out more about Live and Direct Volume 13 »
		Gimme Some Everyone has his or her guilty musical pleasure. Often it’s an absurdly popular song or singer with mass audience appeal which makes them far too obvious a choice for you, the discerning listener. At... Find out more about Gimme Some »
		Rockpango As the United States' demographic changes so goes our cultural baseline. In the 1970’s rock was dominated by southern California vibes and Southern swamp boogie. There was one band, Santana, which... Find out more about Rockpango »
		Scandalous What is it that consumes young men’s thoughts? If, perchance, you’ve forgotten pick up a copy of Black Joe Lewis and The Honeybear’s sophomore release. Ah, yes, now you remember. Living up to its... Find out more about Scandalous »
		Blessed Lucinda Williams’ voice is a rugged, well-worn, vulnerable thing, transparent to the point of revealing a depth of emotion that evades many singers. Likewise, her songs aren’t conventionally pretty... Find out more about Blessed »
		Collapse Into Now R.E.M.’s 2008 release, Accelerate, lived up to its name as the band jettisoned softer ballads to jet through a collection of succinct blazing rockers. In comparison Collapse Into Now is a reflection... Find out more about Collapse Into Now »
		Fixin' To Die Throughout his career Garret Dutton, aka, G. Love has played at the shallow end of the pool of roots music. He’s splashed elements of blues and folk into his music from time to time albeit with hip-... Find out more about Fixin' To Die »
		100 Lovers Every cinematic adventure deserves an overture, in this case strings, delicate as butterflies that pair up with tentative piano chords that grow more assured as the song progresses. Rhythmic acoustic... Find out more about 100 Lovers »
		The People's Key The People’s Key, Bright Eyes 7th studio album, is a science fiction inspired opus that contemplates creation, the expanding universe, time travel, and alien enslavement of the human race. Conor... Find out more about The People's Key »
		Mondo Amore What would you expect from a musician who cites as her greatest influences New Jersey’s Shark River during a rain storm and the dark, surreal films of David Lynch? And what would you expect from this... Find out more about Mondo Amore »
		Kiss Each Other Clean Some artists are content to make a template of their first successful album, repurposing their original burst of creativity to lessening degrees of satisfaction. Not so with Sam Beam, the iconoclast... Find out more about Kiss Each Other Clean »
		Bright Examples Sarah Lee Guthrie... Find out more about Bright Examples »
		The Lady Killer Audacious, sly, witty, the music of Cee Lo Green is immensely entertaining, beautifully produced and delivered with such aplomb that I marvel that Green hasn’t attained superstar status long before... Find out more about The Lady Killer »
		Living Proof If you’re looking for a template for growing older, not just gracefully, but with power and dignity, take a good listen to Buddy Guy’s Living Proof. The man isn’t afraid of the numbers that stack up... Find out more about Living Proof »
		Contra After all the hype of their first release it was inevitable that Vampire Weekend would experience blow-back from some critics. The brainy four-man band who met as students at Columbia University... Find out more about Contra »
		The Suburbs The much maligned “suburbs” get a new appraisal thanks to Arcade Fire. Instead of rejecting the trappings of tract neighborhoods, the band offers a complex examination of how the boundaries, values,... Find out more about The Suburbs »
		Sound of Sunshine Life becomes dearer when one is confronted with serious illness. Big picture ideals fade to background while something as simple as sunshine on water, a sleeping child, or a lover’s smell comes into... Find out more about Sound of Sunshine »
		So Runs the World Away As Josh Ritter christened his career and set sail in search of his musical horizon many well-wishers nodded in approval at the one they deemed a new savior of the art of folk music. As Ritter’s... Find out more about So Runs the World Away »
		Sinners and Saints Raul Malo is speaking, or more appropriately, singing his mind. As the front man for The Mavericks, a member of Los Super Seven, a collaborator with dozens of artists and commander of a successful... Find out more about Sinners and Saints »
		Write About Love The Scottish band Belle and Sebastian have been producing great pop music for 15 years but only in the last several years have they begun to build an American audience beyond a small cult fan base.... Find out more about Write About Love »
		Fields Subtlety isn’t an adjective often used to describe pop music yet it is at the heart of Junip’s debut album Fields. Guitarist/singer Jose Gonzales, drummer Elias Araya, and keyboardist Tobias... Find out more about Fields »
		The Grand Theater Volume 1 The Old 97s built their career as one of alt-country’s most consistently smart, down-to-earth, energetic bands. Fans flocked to their shows and bought their recordings expecting to reveal in a mix of... Find out more about The Grand Theater Volume 1 »
		You Are Not Alone When fellow Chicagoan Jeff Tweedy signed on to produce Mavis Staples’s gospel record, he offered Wilco’s loft studio and asked for one of her father’s guitars. You Are Not Alone opens with the sweet... Find out more about You Are Not Alone »