Music

The Lee County, Iowa-based singer-songwriter is a calming voice amongst chaos, the friend you call when you need advice, and these nine songs are him working through a number of knotty spiritual equations posed by the cosmos.

A rough-and-ready seven-song chronicle of a band putting down their roots, but foreshadowing realized greatness. Even in this early stage of her career, Shook's signature brand of country music—wry and irreverent, high and lonesome—sent up the smoke signals for a much-needed alternative to the feigned-authenticity of middle-of-the-road "Americana" singer-songwriters.

ROOKIE’s modern take on timeless American rock ‘n’ roll pulls from all corners of the sonic map; it’s familiar but fresh, lived-in but blown-out. It’s the ‘70s/’80s pop-rock sheen of recent tour-mates Cheap Trick; 3-minute precision songwriting of Big Star; loose Neil Young Americana; and the hazey, psych-flavored boogie of The Allman Brothers and Thin Lizzy.

Too Late to Pray: Defiant Chicago Roots is a redux of For A Life of Sin. It is a current magnifying-glass look at some—but not even close to all—of the artists and groups making unique and special music in the city’s roots scene. Some of the artists you may have heard of; some are woven so tightly into the fabric of the city, it’s hard to imagine a time without them; some we’ve claimed, whether they like it or not, as natives; some you might be hearing for the first time; and some you may never hear from again.

A career-spanning collection of the finest honky tonk, country, and Western Swing tunes from Texas country legend Wayne “The Train” Hancock, pressed for our 25th anniversary.

Walks a line that touches on Lyle Lovett’s lyrical frankness, John Moreland’s punk cerebralism and Judee Sill’s mysticism and orchestral sensibility. Plus the literate and sonic audacity of an early Steve Earle---an outlaw unafraid to embrace harmony.