Johnny Cash's fourth project with producer Rick Rubin continues on the same path as many of their previous releases: Cash's warm and rumbling baritone over minimal production and gentle duets with some surprising guests. One of the things that sets American IV: The Man Comes Around apart from the others is Cash's song selections. The success he experienced with his previous interpretations of contemporary songwriters (Soundgarden's "Rusty Cage," Nick Cave's "The Mercy Seat") is applied to this album with varying degrees of success. His throaty reading of Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt" easily fits into his "Man in Black" persona…

The Following Mountain, the newest solo album by experimental folk artist, singer, and multi-instrumentalist Sam Amidon. Created with producer Leo Abrahams (Brian Eno, Regina Spektor) and Amidon's frequent collaborator Shahzad Ismaily, it represents a new approach for Amidon, who shifts here from his previous norm of re-working traditional folk songs and presents nine wholly original compositions, with some lyrics drawing on traditional sources. The album features a rare guest appearance by drummer Milford Graves, known initially for his work in the 1960s with free jazz legends Albert Ayler and Sonny Sharrock.

The Man in Black shows hints of gray on American III: Solitary Man, his first studio album since being interrupted by a series of serious illnesses in 1997. While the inevitability of aging has been the downfall of many of his contemporaries, Johnny Cash's dark convictions and powerful presence have gone from rough hardwood to solid stone. The stark beauty of his 1994 release American Recordings and the warm, friendly collaborations on 1996's Unchained combine to create two distinct moods: one of living-room jam sessions with invited friends, and another of stark solo (and near-solo) songs highlighting Cash's years and stories…

Dancing After Dark is the latest full-length studio album from Milwaukee singer/songwriter Jay Matthes. Songs range from the upbeat, Clapton-esque barn dance 'Left the Yard' to the solo acoustic, emotional 'Dancing After Dark' about the loss of his father in 2014.

Carolina Blue is a Brevard, NC based band whose roots run deep in the tradition of Bill Monroe and Flatt & Scruggs. The band was formed in 2007 after the release of the album "Nothing So Blue" by Bobby Powell and Tim Jones. Carolina Blue won the South Carolina state bluegrass championship at RenoFest in 2011. The band's repertoire consists of original songs (including Tim Jones' "Spring Will Bring Flowers", which was recorded by 2014 IBMA entertainers of the year Balsam Range), many bluegrass favorites, and gospel too, all done in the traditional style.

With their fresh sound, original material, strong vocals and innovative musicianship, Breaking Grass is doing exactly what their name implies. Although not quite traditional, the music they present is without a doubt steeped in the timeless genre they grew up listening to. Comprised of Cody Farrar on guitar; Tyler White on fiddle; Jody Elmore on banjo; Zach Wooten on mandolin; and Britt Sheffield on bass; this innovative band formed with one goal in mind - to make music that all ages could enjoy.

With Last Forever, songwriter/composer Dick Connette released four albums based on American folk and popular traditions. His new project, Too Sad For The Public, expands upon his earlier work with Vol.1 - Oysters Ice Cream Lemonade, featuring vocals by Suzzy Roche, Ana Egge, Rachelle Garniez, and Gabriel Kahane. The new album has 6 originals, 2 covers (Carole King and Van Morrison), and tributes to Jaco Pastorius and go-go superstar Chuck Brown.

In the musical landscape of Quebec, Gaston Mandeville towers as a landmark. Here’s a lyricist-composer who for close to twenty years has been fine-tuning his art, adding layers with a persuasive, committed interpretation. A reference in terms of writing, Mandeville was well educated: the school of folk and country music. A direct, hard-hitting style, sometimes tender, sometimes ironic, always with the same amount of talent, he uses songs to express life. No compromises, no complacency.

Blues With a Message isn't just about lost love and the toils of specific lives, the blues (particularly within the folk-blues traditions) spent some time dealing with sociopolitical issues on the side, primarily before the rise of electric blues. Here, Arhoolie has compiled a set of pieces related to a surprisingly large number of issues. Among them: Minstrel shows, the mechanization of cotton farming, and its related exodus to the North, sharecropping, segregation, the Korean War, the influenza epidemic, the New Deal, civil rights movements, Chicago employment opportunities – all are given a song or two here. The music quality is roughly equivalent to many of the folk-blues recordings available, though the "big name" artists are largely absent from this one (Lightnin Hopkins does make an appearance singing about sharecropping, however). The songs are deliberately focused on the issues more than the music, but the music can still carry its soul. This one probably won't be on many highest-sales lists in the blues, but it's both historically important and musically enjoyable.

The Gipsy Kings are a group of flamenco, salsa and pop musicians from Arles and Montpellier in the south of France, who perform in the Spanish language with an Andalusian accent. Although group members were born in France, their parents were mostly gitanos, Berber-Moroccan and Spanish gypsies who fled Catalonia during the 1930s Spanish Civil War. They are known for bringing Catalan rumba, a pop-oriented music distantly derived from traditional flamenco music, to worldwide audiences. The group originally called itself Los Reyes. Their music has a particular rumba flamenca style, with pop influences; many songs of the Gipsy Kings fit social dances, such as salsa and rumba. Their music has been described as a place where "Spanish flamenco and gypsy rhapsody meet salsa funk".

Born in Lérida in 1975, Catalan singer/songwriter Roger Mas studied clarinet and saxophone from his early teens, and gradually became interested in ethnic music. A 1996 local radio award kick-started his recording career, which up to 2012 included eight albums, from 1997's Les Flors del Somni to 2012's Ciutat de Barcelona, a collaboration with Catalan folk music ensemble Cobla Sant Jordi. Mas' investigations into traditional, ethnic, and modern musical and linguistic forms have earned him a place as one of the leading Catalan singer/songwriters of his generation.

53 songs from the legendary singer/songwriter on 3CDs, packaged in a fold out card digipack. Includes 'Rocky Mountain High', 'Take Me Home, Country Roads', 'Back Home Again', 'I'm Sorry', 'Annie's Song', 'Fly Away', 'Leaving, On a Jet Plane', 'Sunshine On My Shoulders', 'Daydreams', and many many more!

Résolument moderne, cette 31e édition se veut représentative des courants actuels qui soufflent sur les musiques du monde, de plus en plus hybrides et sans frontières. Du rock endiablé des Malgaches de The Dizzy Brains, de la voix envoutante de l’indomptable Emel Mathlouthi, au son traditionnel de la tornade mexicaine Las Cafeteras, un vent de liberté s’empare de cette compilation. Ajoutez à cela une pointe de blues créole de Delgrès, une once de soul avec le Français Ben l’Oncle Soul et un trait de reggae revival à la Jesse Royal et vous aurez le cocktail parfait pour vous laisser emporter!

Treasure of the Broken Land: The Songs of Mark Heard album for sale was released Jun 02, 2017 on the Storm Weathered label. Give me the reasons to go on. Treasure of the Broken Land: The Songs of Mark Heard buy CD music Soften the sorrow that shatters and bends, and mend broken dreams. Treasure of the Broken Land: The Songs of Mark Heard songs Singer/songwriter Mark Heard wrote those words in House of Broken Dreams on his Dry Bones Dance LP in 1990. Treasure of the Broken Land: The Songs of Mark Heard album for sale There was a prophesy buried within the lines, whether he knew it or not. Treasure of the Broken Land: The Songs of Mark Heard CD music Heard passed away two years later, in August of 1992, but his words have echoed on in the hearts of all who knew them. And now, with Treasure of the Broken Land: The Songs of Mark Heard, many more hearts can join the chorus while marking the 25th anniversary of his passing.

Peasant will grab newcomers to Richard Dawson’s work by the scruff of the neck and refuse to let them go until they have signed a pledge of life-long allegiance. Dawson spent years incubating his singular art on the Newcastle experimental scene. Devotees of his earlier recordings will be at once intrigued by and slightly fearful of the prospect of a record that could make his three landmark releases - 2014’s Nothing Important; 2013’s The Glass Trunk’s; 2012’s The Magic Bridge’s - look like formative work. Peasant is that album.