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After the shocking, and for many, demoralizing result of the 2016 election, “I didn’t buy the silver lining some were promoting that ‘well, at least art and music will be great now!’,” says Superchunk co-founder and frontman Mac McCaughan. “Obviously, any sane person would gladly trade four to eight years

Combining mellow, atmospheric rock and swirling, retro power-pop, it’s more Big Star than Swampers, but it’s an ideal gateway into the blissed-out world of Belle Adair, a group that manages to make even worry and isolation sound inviting. Recorded at Muscle Shoals’ legendary FAME Studios with Wilco producer/engineer Tom Schick, Tuscumbia calls to mind everything from The Byrds to Teenage Fanclub

It’s often said that the distilled essence of composers can be heard in their string quartets. And so it is with Glass, whose quartets here show a craftsman of considerable invention. String Quartet No. 6 begins as a bustling burst of dense energy, its second movement beautifully meandering, rich, and complex. The single-movement String Quartet No. 7 is almost Beethovenian in its restless questioning. Arranged for string quartet (with two violas), the Saxophone Quartet is warmly scored and yet shows Glass at his most forensic, with each bar stunningly sculpted.

As the album notes for The Study of Touch indicate, Bates had little interest in adding another piano trio to the jazz world but while teaching at the Copenhagen Rhythmic Music Academy in 2005 he came into contact with bassist Petter Eldh and drummer Peter Bruun and the Belovèd Trio was born. Their two previous albums Beloved Bird (2010) and Confirmation (2012), both on the Lost Marble label,

“I wanted to evoke the classic Christmas album feeling without leaning too heavily on sweet baby Jesus and good ol’ Little St. Nick,” says McCaughey. “Yet I also wanted to curb my cynical tendencies as well. I feel we succeeded on both counts, and the results are a holiday record that should work for any and all.” The resulting album, Dear December, brings holiday cheer and a fresh batch of seasonal songs that include the generous talents of

Béla Fleck & Abigail Washburn, the king and queen of the banjo, have a musical partnership like no other. Béla Fleck is a fifteen-time Grammy Award winner who has taken the instrument across multiple genres, and Abigail Washburn a singer-songwriter and clawhammer banjo player who re-radicalized it by combining it with Far East culture and sounds. The two met at a square dance, began collaborating musically and eventually fell in love. Over the years, they played together most visibly in the Sparrow Quartet alongside Ben Sollee and Casey Driessen and informally at a pickin’ party here, a benefit there, or occasionally popping up in each other’s solo shows. Fans of tradition-tweaking acoustic fare eagerly anticipated that Béla & Abigail would begin making music together as a duo.