West of the West is Dave Alvin's tribute to the songs and songwriters of California. It's the fourth-generation Californian's latest excursion into the sounds and history of his home state, continuing the high standard he set with King of California and Blackjack David. Produced by Greg Leisz (Wilco, Lucinda Williams, Beck, Brian Wilson), the new album mixes much loved songs by Merle Haggard, John Fogerty, Tom Waits, Brian Wilson, Jackson Browne, Jerry Garcia, Kate Wolf, Robert Hunter and Los Lobos' David Hidalgo and Louis Perez, with unearthed gems from such previously overlooked talents as Blackie Farrell and Jim Ringer. Dave's first collection of cover songs (2000's Public Domain) won a Grammy for Best Traditional Folk Album and his most recent album of originals (2004's Ashgrove) garnered praise from USA Today, Rolling Stone, Mojo and the Los Angeles Times who said, "Few songwriters capture the way music can provide escape or solace to the lonely, the lost and the desperate as Alvin".

Lonesome Drifter is the new album from GRAMMY Award-nominated artist Charley Crockett. Crockett co-produced the album alongside multi-GRAMMY® Award-winning musician and producer Shooter Jennings. Over the course of just 10 days, they cut 12 tracks live at the legendary Sunset Sound in Los Angeles, CA. Crockett’s Island Records debut is a culmination of all that has come before, with the same unapologetic spirit, die-hard work ethic, and no-nonsense honesty that has driven his artistry across his 14 previous studio albums. In the end, Lonesome Drifter takes stock of Charley’s road in the rearview as it paves a path into the future.

Underground folk legend Malcolm Holcombe releases his twelfth full length album, Another Black Hole. Comprised of 10 new songs, Malcolm is accompanied by his usual recording ensemble of Jared Tyler on dobro, David Roe on bass, and Ken Coomer on drums. Very special guest Tony Joe White is also featured on several tracks, with his inimitable swamp guitar sound, propelling Malcolm's distinctive Appalachian folk into regions previously untapped. Also appearing are Future Man percussion and Drea Merritt on vocal harmonies. Another Black Hole is sure to captivate both long term fans as well as be a revelation to the uninitiated.

Critically acclaimed Chicago band initially connected to the No Depression neo-country scene, later emerging as an experimental-pop powerhouse. Collection includes: 'A.M.' (1995); 'Being There' (1996); 'Mermaid Avenue, Vol. 1' (with Billy Bragg) (1998); 'Summerteeth' (1999); 'Mermaid Avenue, Vol. 2' (with Billy Bragg) (2000); 'Yankee Hotel Foxtrot' (2002); 'A Ghost Is Born' (2004); 'Kicking Television: Live in Chicago' (2005); 'Sky Blue Sky' (2007); 'Wilco' (2009); 'The Whole Love' (2011).

Kristoffer "Kris" Kristofferson is an American country music singer, songwriter, musician, and film actor. He is known for such hits as "Me and Bobby McGee", "For the Good Times", "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down", and "Help Me Make It Through the Night". Kristofferson is the sole writer of most of his songs, and he has collaborated with various other figures of the Nashville scene such as Shel Silverstein. In 1985, Kristofferson joined fellow country artists Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash in forming the country music supergroup "The Highwaymen". In 2004, Kristofferson was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Collection includes: Kristofferson (1970); The Silver Tongued Devil And I (1971); Border Lord (1972); Jesus Was A Capricorn (1972); Breakaway (1974) with Rita Coolidge; A Star Is Born (1976) with Barbra Streisand; Natural Act (1978) with Rita Coolidge; A Moment of Forever (1995); The Austin Sessions (1999); The Essential Kris Kristofferson (2004) 2CD; This Old Road (2006); Closer To The Bone (2009); Please Don't Tell Me How The Story Ends: The Publishing Demos 1968-72 (2010); Feeling Mortal (2012).

One of the brightest young luminaries in roots music today, Sierra Ferrell brings a dose of beautifully strange magic to everything she touches. On her new album Trail Of Flowers, brought to life with producer Eddie Spear (Zach Bryan, Brandi Carlile, Chris Stapleton) and additional production by Gary Paczosa (Alison Krauss, Dwight Yoakam, Gillian Welch) she expands her sound while deepening the urgency of her songs, often revealing a wealth of wisdom within her wildly imaginative storytelling.

It’s hard to be ambivalent about Zooey Deschanel. She’s a polarizing personality, one whose deadpan movie roles and big Bambi eyes are either charming or too cute for their own good. The same can be said for She & Him, a soft rock duo that features Deschanel doing what she does best as a film star: acting utterly adorable alongside a quiet, talented male character. Her co-star in this case is M. Ward, who produces the band's second album and frames Deschanel’s voice with a Spector-sized pile of instruments. Those who already take issue with Zooey’s acting will almost surely pick this record apart – it’s too reminiscent of her cutesy turns in movies like (500) Days of Summer to change many minds – but for fans of retro pop (and Deschanel in general), Volume 2 is a gem. Whether they’re copping the Brill Building sound or resurrecting ‘70s beach-pop, She & Him always seem to have nostalgia on the mind.

It was one of the more unlikely major-label releases of 1992: it had nothing to do with grunge, and was certainly not a last holdout from '80s mainstream sludge. On the flipside, it wasn't really the incipient alternative country/No Depression sound, either; for all that, there was a clear influence from the likes of Gram Parsons and fellow travelers throughout the grooves. This wasn't a sepia-toned collection of murder ballads or the similarly minded efforts that were almost overreactions to Nashville's triumphalism throughout the '90s. At base, Hollywood Town Hall found a finely balanced point: accessible enough for should-have-been success (sclerotic classic rock station programmers were fools to ignore this while still playing the Eagles into the ground) but bowing to no trends. Its lack of variety tells against it a bit – while there are certainly stronger moments than others, most of the songs do have a tendency to blend into each other – but the core strengths of the group come through. George Drakoulias fleshed out the sound just enough, with the side help of performers like Benmont Tench and Nicky Hopkins adding fine extra touches without swamping the identity of the group.

2009 acoustic album by Cowboy Junkies, available only at shows. Packaged in card sleeve.

Who says you can't make a great record in one day – or night, as the case may be? The Trinity Session was recorded in one night using one microphone, a DAT recorder, and the wonderful acoustics of the Holy Trinity in Toronto. Interestingly, it's the album that broke the Cowboy Junkies in the United States for their version of "Sweet Jane," which included the lost verse. It's far from the best cut here, though. There are other covers, such as Margo Timmins' a cappella read of the traditional "Mining for Gold," a heroin-slow version of Hank Williams' classic "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry," "Dreaming My Dreams With You" (canonized by Waylon Jennings), and a radical take of the Patsy Cline classic "Walkin' After Midnight" that closes the disc. Those few who had heard the band's previous album, Whites Off Earth Now!!, were aware that, along with Low, the Cowboy Junkies were the only band at the time capable of playing slower than Neil Young and Crazy Horse – and without the ear-threatening volume.

Two years after 2013's The Beast in Its Tracks, the good news is Josh Ritter is feeling better about things. While The Beast in Its Tracks documented Ritter's often unsettled state of mind after the collapse of his marriage, 2015's Sermon on the Rocks is the sound of a man on the rebound, and while the album is hardly sunshine and cold beer throughout, these songs clearly reflect Ritter's tenacity and spirit rather than the damaged emotions that were front and center two years earlier. "Getting Ready to Get Down" finds Ritter offering a small-town girl some advice to forget Bible college and see a bit of the big bad world, and the tale is told with the swagger of a guy who wouldn't mind showing her a few things himself.

Lambchop hails from Nashville and claims to play a "refined, and redefined" style of country music, but the songs the band creates on its second album, How I Quit Smoking, have more in common with Brit crooners the Tindersticks than Chet Atkins and Billy Sherrill (whom the Lambchop members claim as heroes). Boasting 13 players on this album, Lambchop feels more like an art collective on a mission of enlightenment than a country band bent on AM airplay. Still, with subtlely threads of clarinet, sax, organ, and even a full string section integrated into the mix alongside a double-necked lap steel and an impressive lineup of vintage guitars, the music is so lush, lovely, and thoroughly hypnotic you can see their point. The country element lies buried in the subtle rhythms and melodies, surfacing in the quiet moan of the lap steel or the melancholic flutter of the strings. Spooky as often as it is soothing, Lambchop's music may not be the fireside countrypolitan of Atkins or Sherrill – I don't think either would put up with the babbling rhymes of "Smuckers," the sinister guitars that mark "The Militant," or the existential undercurrents of "The Scary Caroler".

Influential alt country band whose sound evolved into a crisp mix of swing, country, rock and beatnik lyricism. Giant Sand was the primary outlet for the stylistic curveballs and sun-damaged songcraft of Howe Gelb, a Pennsylvania-born singer/guitarist who formed the four-piece Giant Sandworms after relocating to Tuscon, Arizona in the mid-'70s. After releasing the EP Will Wallow and Roam After the Ruin in 1980, Gelb fired everyone but bassist Scott Gerber (although founding guitarist Rainer Ptacek returned to the fold many times in the future) and started over as simply Giant Sand, essentially a one-man band backed by a revolving cast of players.

Between 1992 and 2007, Golden Smog, the engagingly shambolic alt country stupor-group featuring members of the Jayhawks, Wilco, Soul Asylum, and Run Westy Run, cut two EPs and three full-length albums. That may not seem like much of a catalog from which to draw a "Greatest Hits" album, but Stay Golden, Smog: The Best of Golden Smog, The Rykodisc Years doesn't even dig that deep. Stay Golden, Smog gathers eight of the fourteen songs from the Smog's first full album, 1995's Down by the Old Mainstream, and eight of the fifteen tunes from the follow-up, 1998's Weird Tales. As the title would suggest, Golden Smog's two most recent efforts, released by Lost Highway Records, aren't represented here, and their debut EP, 1992's On Golden Smog – originally released on a small Minneapolis indie label and later reissued by Rykodisc – is ignored. At this writing, the entire Golden Smog catalog is in print, and all of this begs the question: what exactly is the point of this album? There's no arguing that there's plenty of fine music on this collection; Golden Smog may have started as a drunken goof among a handful of friends, but there was an undeniable chemistry between the participants, and with the likes of Jeff Tweedy, Gary Louris, Dan Murphy, Marc Perlman, Kraig Johnson, and Jody Stephens on board, it's no surprise that this disc features some really fine songs played by friends who know how to make them work in the studio.

Tift Merritt has become unexpectedly (and thankfully) prolific since she signed with Fantasy Records in 2008, after going four years without releasing a record. See You on the Moon is her third album in as many years, and from the first track, the gentle and soul-infused love song "Mixtape," she demonstrates that she can maintain solid quality control at this pace and does so with ease. See You on the Moon is a more spare and intimate-sounding set than 2008's Another Country, as if she learned a bit about the value of concision with her 2009 solo acoustic live set Buckingham Solo, but Merritt clearly works well with others (the backing musicians are uniformly great, and Jim James of My Morning Jacket contributes some solid harmonies on "Feel of the World"), and while the arrangements wisely avoid cluttering the clean landscapes of her melodies, producer and engineer Tucker Martine gives the recordings a full-bodied sound even when the performances are purposefully simple. As on Merritt's other albums, the real key to See You on the Moon lies in her songs and her voice, and both are in splendid form here.