Steve Earle has worked hard to perfect his image as one of Nashville’s true outsiders.
The lingering impression the album leaves is that it could have been a real knockout were Stanley still anywhere near his peak.
Alison Krauss & Union Station’s Paper Airplane doesn’t offer an “in” for the unconverted.
Were Kirwan’s production a bit meatier, Bloodless Coup might be able to overcome the lapses in the band’s songwriting.
The album loses entirely too many of the elements that made the singer-songwriter such a singular Southern artist.
Countrypolitan Duets is respectful of both Wilson’s jazz-singer aspirations and her day job as an in-demand pop-country songwriter.
Laserbeams and Dreams is perhaps a bit too glum for its own good.
Raven in the Grave is a sloppy misfire.
Collins has enlisted a fine lineup of collaborators to ensure that Losing Sleep sounds modern.
Early Winters disappoints because it’s riskless music from artists who’ve proven capable of far more.
On Skins, Buffalo Tom digs a little bit deeper than they have on their earlier work.
The record emphasizes rhythm in a way that’s uncommon for the generally stuffy Americana scene.
Rose distinguishes herself as a singer with real warmth and a songwriter of poise and maturity.
The recording of Sexsmith’s latest album, the workmanlike and pleasant Long Player Late Bloomer, serves as a loose framing device for the film.
Long Player Late Bloomer is a significant step forward for Sexsmith.
Considering how its style draws from each era of R.E.M.’s evolution, Collapse Into Now plays as something of a greatest-hits package.
It’s ultimately on Lavigne’s slight shoulders that Goodbye Lullaby is such a strident, ineffectual attempt at a serious pop record.
Even the songs that skew more heavily toward the band’s shoegaze roots still defer to the album’s overall aesthetic of forward-thinking dance.
Blessed finds Lucinda Williams remembering that she’s supposed to be one of America’s greatest songwriters.
Americana and modern folk are often dismissed for their dour self-seriousness, and Smart Flesh, unfortunately, falls into the worst of those trappings.