Death Cab for Cutie guitarist/producer Chris Walla is facling a lot of pressures -- huge primary band at its peak and partner Ben Gibbard has already found huge success with The Postal Service -- but his first solo album, 'Field Manual,' doesn't sound self-conscious or unsure. It's a casual affair, full of Indie Pop songs of varying stripes.  

Is Cat Power a better songwriter or song interpreter? If her latest two albums are any indication, the latter is true.  

The mere concept of releasing demo recordings is a bit baffling. They're "demos" for a reason, usually to save ideas or play for bandmates. They're certainly not meant for public consumption.  

Former Band drummer Levon Helm's voice was stilled by throat cancer for many years. But now, after radiation treatments and recovery, he's recorded his first solo album in 25 years, with production support from his daughter Amy and Dylan sideman Larry Campbell.  

Pop in Scott Bravo's new CD and get ready. Formerly of Indie rockers Seratonin, Bravo's new solo acoustic disc is nothing shy of magical.  

Country icon Charlie Louvin's in-store performance at Northside's Shake It Records back in May wasn't tied to a show later that night in the area. It was merely just a guerilla stop to promote his new eponymous album.  

The soundtrack to Todd Haynes' new movie about Bob Dylan is, in many ways, as inspired and daring (and successful) as the film. The 34 songs on two discs include only one actual Dylan recordi  

Twenty years ago, Memphis-based singer/songwriter Rob Jungklas had a breakout hit in Greater Cincinnati when WEBN-FM picked up a track from his debut EMI album 'Closer to the Flame,' the joyously propulsive "Memphis Thing."   

Joe Henry's 'Scar' (2001) and 'Tiny Voices' (2003) are two of my favorite records from the last 10 years. So I'll be the first to admit that I might be approaching his new release with unreasonably expectations.  

Neil Young is hearing voices again. They speak, and Neil follows their commands. This time they've convinced him to release the sequel to an unissued album from 1977. Only Neil Young releases a sequel to a record that never came out.  

From the opening track, it's clear that harmonica virtuoso Jason Ricci and Grammy Award-winning producer John Porter are determined to break free of the shackles of the "Blues" tag.  

Maynard James Keenan attributes his reputation for being enigmatic and mysterious to not being in the press much. Tool's trippy, strange Art Metal was the first tip-off for me; the weirdo stage costumes sealed it.  

It was for the late Arthur Alexander that producer Rick Hall created the Muscle Shoals, Ala., sound in 1961. The mid-tempo ballad "You Better Move On" featured plaintively soulful, conversational vocals surrounded by tightly-syncopated music with a rustic, countrified aura and a persistently underlying sense of melancholy and menace.  

As the original icons of Rock enter their golden years, their children are picking up their parents' banners and running them a little further up musical hills that were taken in the '60s and '70s. The latest case in point is Year Long Disaster, led by vocalist/guitarist Daniel Davies, the son of Kinks guitarist Dave Davies.   

The promotional angle for 61-year-old classic-soul veteran Bettye LaVette's follow-up to her 2005 comeback, I've Got My Own Hell to Raise, is that she's returning to Muscle Shoals, Ala., to rec