Willie Breeding, whose recordings tip a cap to Hank and Willie, brings that old-timey, soaring white-boy country and blues back to the people.

The new project from Todd Albert Rittmann, D. Rider takes his work with U.S. Maple and filters it through avant noise and improvisation.

Clifton Anderson is Sonny Rollins’s nephew and longtime trombonist. While his new CD is titled Decade, representing the years since his last solo recording, the keyword is swing.

The recently reunited Odds instantly invite comparisons with Sloan but pack neither Sloan’s walloping punch nor their endearing shagginess.

D. Mawl is already back with a new mixtape and single. His style of hip-hop is vastly under-represented nowadays. It’s “conscious” without wearing that label as a marketing tool.

Saxophonist Billy Harper is the leader on the second volume of the Blueprints of Jazz series.

Springsteen’s fans have always wondered what would happen if he and his band cut loose a little more.

Volcano Suns was started by Peter Prescott, drummer for (late, great and now reformed) Mission of Burma.

Death [deth]: n. Proto-punk trio from Detroit comprised of African-American brothers David, Bobby and Dannis Hackney, formed in 1971.

Bottom line: Good but not excellent, familiar but not memorable. As the ringleader of New Pornographers, one would (rightly) expect a bit more from A.C. (or Allan Carl, as his mother calls him).