1) Lucero, “When You Found Me” / I’ve long appreciated the sandpaper soul of these Memphis rockers. On its latest, Lucero shows a willingness to get a little weirder, adding a strange, cosmic edge to its Americana anthems. The result is something that digs deep, but also leaves room to exhale and to ponder.
2) The music of Sarah Jarosz / A few YouTube rabbit holes led me to Jarosz’ performances on the now-defunct “Live From Here” (the descendant to “A Prairie Home Companion”) and fleshed out my awareness both of her solo work and role as one-third of the Americana supergroup I’m With Her. In every instance and iteration, Jarosz contributes every little thing you didn’t know a song needed. Her keen musicianship and sense of timing is something to marvel at.
3) Arlo Parks, “Collapsed in Sunbeams” / I’m absolutely smitten with the full-length debut from this British singer-songwriter. Parks’ songs convey a certain world-weariness while maintaining inner buoyancy. She sounds her like the natural next-in-line behind Lauryn Hill and Alicia Keys, a true natural who unites eras of R&B while flipping the script over to embrace the new.
4) John Blase, “I Guess It’s Best to Pause” / One of the best of us, the poet Blase consistently calls us to slow and still ourselves and drink in the surrounding wonder. He does so quite specifically here, leading us into a Texas convenience store and introducing us to a small herd of suburb-dwelling deer. With every word, Blase reshapes our rhythms and asks us to stand with him in seizing each moment.
5) Lisa Deam, “3000 Miles to Jesus” / What a joy to get an early read of Deam’s book (out now), which gathers equal measures of spiritual memoir, church history and travel writing to guide us along the paths of historic pilgrimages. Deam’s writing steeps readers in the soul of the early church and, most important, teaches us to see all of life as a spiritual trek in which (as she writes with such clarity) God is both companion and destination.