1) The music of Tyler Childers / New Childers material sent me back to the beginning of his career, where tracks like “Coal” from 2011’s “Bottles and Bibles” sound a testimony. The Kentucky kid showed up on the scene like a fully-formed, Appalachian Dylan: “Now let me tell you something 'bout the gospel / And make sure that you mark it down / When God spoke out ‘Let there be light’ / He put the first of us in the ground.”
2) Molly Tuttle and Golden Highway, “City of Gold” / The reigning guitar queen of California and her band spin delightful bluegrass yarns, inhabit world-weary duets with Dave Matthews and find the unique forks along every lyrical and musical trail.
3) The Clientele, “I Am Not There Anymore” / From gorgeous chamber-pop revelries to R.E.M.-adjacent folk-rock and noisier fare, the veteran British band covers a serious amount of territory (all of it with skill and grace) on their latest.
4) Strange Ranger, “Pure Music” / This NYC collective casts a glorious and blurry vision of pop music, all chilled synths and distant vocals on the surface, but warmed by the neon lights within.
5) Colson Whitehead, “Crook Manifesto” / Readers’ second voyage into furniture store owner/sometimes fence Ray Carney’s world is a stylish pleasure, somehow both a love letter and a cautionary tale where the delicious decay of 1970s New York City, pesky ethical dilemmas and idiosyncratic criminals (all of whom could inspire volumes) shape one another.