This year has brought us some intriguing records that fuse the worlds of pop and Americana. Created largely by women -- Hannah Miller, Jesse Baylin, and Kasey Chambers, to name three -- their soldering of styles both modernist and traditional have had a thought-provoking effect our ears and redefined what we mean when we discuss…

To channel the White Stripes is to channel Led Zeppelin is to channel the misty mountain hop of agrarian England and the spooky science of rune stones and rock guitars. The fogs of Kent draw certain parallels to the vapory evenings of Marion County, MS: a dark night in the hollows of Jamestown is not unlike…

Inspiration for Whitney Rose’s sophomore set starts with the late, great Patsy Cline, whose spirit sings along on songs like “Little Piece of You,” the heartbreak jukebox ballad “The Last Party,” and swinging, swooning slow dancer “Ain’t It Wise.” The great girl groups of the '50s and '60s make an obvious imprint on the proceedings (especially on…

The ghost of Sam Cooke seems a little restless these days. Back in June, soul-man-of-the-moment Leon Bridges resurrected the smooth side of Sam with his debut set, Coming Home. This month, Missouri-raised folkmeister Nathaniel Rateliff and his band, the Night Sweats, reincarnate the dirtier side of the original Soul Stirrer with this set of 11…

On this Steve Berlin-produced longplayer, Jackie Greene adeptly inhabits the same neighborhood of fashionable yet forthright pop and roll that was built 40 years ago by Andrew Gold and Stephen Bishop and has been regularly reinhabited by the likes of Matt Nathanson and Howie Day.Greene’s somewhat more soulful, though -- more a mix of Daryl Hall…