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November 30, 2012 Thorn has recorded a holiday album, Tinsel and Lights, that critic Ken Tucker says might just work for warmer weather, as well. Tucker praises Thorn's voice as "bolstered by a firm intelligence," and says she avoids the fatty treacle that often weighs down Christmas albums.

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November 28, 2012 Buddy Miller and Jim Lauderdale just released a new album of duets. Critic Ken Tucker says Buddy and Jim recalls an earlier era of country music. The pair's voices, Tucker says, connect through "shared emotion in a song."

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November 14, 2012 The country-music star has enlisted the help of Merle Haggard, Elvis Costello and others to salute the man behind songs like "Make the World Go Away."

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November 9, 2012 ChesnuTT is the best sort of egomaniac: On Landing on a Hundred, he's preachy but delightful.

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November 5, 2012 Critic Ken Tucker says that, like all good pop artists, Swift continues to evolve in a manner which challenges her diehard fans while inviting naysayers to give it another listen.

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October 19, 2012 On Blak and Blu, you can hear the roar in Clark's blues guitar. But critic Ken Tucker says Clark remains a work in progress.

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October 10, 2012 Sing the Delta is the roots-folk singer-songwriter's first album of new songs in 16 years.

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October 3, 2012 The band's new Call Me Sylvia is as raucous as its debut, though it's slightly more self-conscious.

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September 24, 2012 Ken Tucker says that Charmer is a song cycle about getting rid of a cynical frame of mind; about distancing yourself from people who are dragging you down.

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September 19, 2012 The singer-songwriter and actor may not fit the country-music mold, but he carves out his own sound on his new album, 3 Pears.

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September 11, 2012 Critic Ken Tucker says that some songs on Tempest sound less like concentrated efforts than outpourings of rambling thoughts; others are as precisely crafted as any Bob Dylan has written.

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September 4, 2012 Despite its title, When I'm President isn't as political as Hunter's past couple of solo albums. Critic Ken Tucker says Hunter reaches back into rock's past while linking it firmly to the present.

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August 31, 2012 The members of Shoes have cobbled together albums like stubborn craftsmen who know that their trade is at once outmoded and valuable. Ken Tucker says Ignition retains the same pop-rock rigor heard in the band's 1970s records.

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August 6, 2012 Ken Tucker says the Black Keys member works wonders producing JEFF The Brotherhood and Hacienda.

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July 30, 2012 The prolific, and often risque, crooner's 14th album explores sounds from earlier eras with surprising restraint.

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