1) Gregory Alan Isakov, “Appaloosa Bones” / Isakov’s folk songs make their own weather and all the blues and grays and greens on his latest record both acknowledge the world as is and hold out hope that we are recreating life from here within the storm.
2) Cautious Clay, “Karpeh” / Gorgeous jazz, R&B and pop shapes swirl around and through the latest Cautious Clay joint, a collection of songs that thread that thin and oh-so-glorious needle between the specific and universal. Talents such as Julian Lage, Arooj Aftab, Immanuel Wilkins and Ambrose Akinmusire transmit their gifts, but the vision here belongs to the artist born Joshua Karpeh and that vision is dynamic.
3) Margaret Glaspy, “Echo the Diamond” / Glaspy’s work positively vibrates and crackles here, rock and roll that skips the sparks and goes straight to the fire. To hear an artist of Glaspy’s caliber and class just work from the gut like this is an inspiration.
4) Infinite River, “Space Mirror” / Joining some of the forces behind bands such as His Name is Alive, Slumber Party and Detroit Cobras, this trio crafts gorgeous, dusky instrumentals that somehow suggest noir and narrative while consoling listeners.
5) Jane Zwart, “Three Poems” for Bad Lilies / I am running out of words sufficient to describe the poetry of my friend Jane Zwart. In this gathered-up triptych, she delivers images of desire and identity, turns over the tools of our living and dying, unspools tragic sibling wisdom and does all this with phrases such as “before he knew a single thing / bitterer than the coffee / the janitor who paid him brewed,” “his nightlight heart” and “adding wattage to his eyes.”
To read Jane, across this growing canon of hers, is to see all of life touched with tenderness, mystery and deep, deep aching and to welcome it all inside your house.