Maria finds Carminho at her most intimate and personal, a collection of original tunes that honor the past while still defining her own voice as a trailblazing vocalist.
Devendra Banhart's latest album, Ma, is a tender, beautiful meditation on the bonds that ties us together.
The Black Keys loudly rock out with Let's Rock, an album celebrating the directness and enjoyment of the electric guitar.
MacArthur genius grant winner Rhiannon Giddens' new album, there is no Other, invites us to do more than share our misery. It asks us to see ourselves as part of something bigger.
Composer William Brittelle's "electro-acoustic song cycle", Spiritual America, attempts to capture non-religious spirituality in musical form.
Jazz pianist Brad Mehldau creates another hybrid project built on a layering of keyboards, drums, woodwinds, voices, and strings—with a gloss of politics and religion along the edges. Occasionally brilliant.
Composer and New Amsterdam Records co-founder William Brittelle discusses his latest work, Spiritual America, with PopMatters and talks about faith, genre, and his genre-fluid electro-acoustic music.
Joshua Redman Quartet's Come What May is not just a strong contender for 2019's best jazz album, but also one of the year's essential releases overall.
The beauty of Mountain Man's three voices singing together will seduce many listeners on Magic Ship. Unaccompanied human expressions have a powerful impact when artfully combined.
Gabriel Kahane creates a musical travelogue that seeks to capture the fractured and fragmented psyche of America following the 2016 election.
Olivia Chaney's Shelter is a purposely intimate record. She uses the sheer beauty of her vocals and the wood and wire instruments to create reflective and spiritual music.
On their fifth studio outing, Punch Brothers sound more assured in their identity than ever -- which isn't necessarily a good thing.
Lake Street Dive wanted to capture the energy of its live shows as well as its unique at its finest. So the quartet went into the studio without a producer and leaned on each other instead.
Reunited with drummer Jeff Ballard and bassist Larry Grenadier, Brad Mehldau dives back into the trio format with gusto.
In Americana music the present is female. Two-thirds of our year-end list is comprised of albums by women. Here, then, are the women (and a few men) who represented the best in Americana in 2017.
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