The superb, three-volume Boots No. 2 proves there’s no need to worry about Welch running out of material any time soon. Sometimes you have to almost lose something in order to realize just how much it’s worth. Such is the case with Boots No.…
The Truckers are no less biting than usual, but The New OK reflects the group’s discernible joy in making a ruckus amidst society’s grimness. The Drive-By Truckers are no strangers to grandiose sociopolitical statements; in their catalog you’ll find a rock opera that navigates their identity…
A hip-hop album for old heads and connoisseurs, made by two guys who grew up in the golden age of rap and love it too much to surrender it to obsolescence or nostalgia. The fourth Run the Jewels album is dense with wisecracks, hysterical…
All hail Taylor Swift: Our most productive quarantiner, our most essential pop star, and the redeeming poet laureate of 2020’s malaise. The two albums she recorded and surprise-released during the pandemic represent not just a coherent body of work, but also her most seismic…
Edwards’ Total Freedom is a subtle, assured submission that brings a sense of calm and acceptance to her catalog of raw, unrestrained works. “Glenfern,” the opening song on Kathleen Edwards’ Total Freedom, chronicles a relationship that ended in collapse — though it might take you a…
Aftermath showcases Cook’s ability to speak her truth without getting trapped inside the standard country music box. In the 1680s, a Puritan woman named Mary Webster was accused of witchcraft, then hung from a tree. Not only did she survive the lynching, but she lived…
For the Good Times brings a welcome rawness and spontaneity to Welch and Rawlings’ typical fare. Many of us have turned to distraction to help weather the long days of quarantine. Maybe that was found in breadmaking. Maybe it was your neighbor’s Disney+ subscription. For…
Nelson’s octogenarian status doesn’t keep him from cranking out more of his typical charm on First Rose of Spring. Willie Nelson has always been prolific, but ever since he hit his mid-80s, he’s really been on a tear. Starting roughly with 2016’s For the…
The Chicks shed more than their former name with Gaslighter, showing a new side to their classic sound. In her Netflix documentary Miss Americana, Taylor Swift admits to long viewing the Dixie Chicks as a cautionary tale. Referencing their anti-Bush comments from the height…
Nobody denies that Johnny Cash was a legend; his mythos looms large in Ken Burns’s Country Music documentary, as good a bellwether as any for how Cash remains one of the genre’s defining personalities. On what foundation does his legacy truly rest, though? For decades, the Man in…
