Fionn Regan The End of History (Lost Highway)The End of History signals the auspicious beginnings of this Irish singer/songwriter who strikes up comparisons to Ryan Adams, Neil Young and at times, Conor Oberst. The occasional female backing vocal, banjo and violin are spun around herculean, plucked acoustic numbers and personal tales beaming with imagery and intelligent melody. “Be Good Or Be Gone” and especially “Put a Penny in the Slot” showcase the authenticity of......

Ryan Adams – Easy Tiger (Lost Highway): We like Ryan Adams: he’s witty, annoying, moody, talented, and 100% rock star. It’s unfortunate, then, that his output is so often uneven. Like a poster child for iPod album editing, Adams throws a handful of gems on each album, then adds lots of C+ songs with gratuitous swearing and purposefully off-key vocals. Easy Tiger isn’t the complete return to glory that early press suggested, but it......

Lucinda Williams West (Lost Highway) West finds (as is apparent just by a brief scan of the track titles) Williams in a thoughtful and tender place musically, as her private life and its rough patches sort of overwhelm her toe-tappin' hay-covered dance floor capabilities. The death of her mother and the end of a relationship both factor into the context of the album, but that doesn't stop big guitars and generous bass drum from......

Way back in 1995, Willie Nelson was visiting Jamaica with a few of his friends. After an afternoon of "taking in some local culture," Nelson had a vision. However, this vision had to wait until Willie ate a few plates of jerk chicken and took a long nap. Waking up refreshed, Willie remembered that he now had a mission -- he was to record a reggae album. So what took Willie so long to......