Be warned: At least some of these CD reviews were written out longhand while I stared at beautiful Pickerel Lake while vacationing in northern Michigan. A good many of them were accompanied by a fairly well-stocked bar. For the Bob Pollard album, that was probably appropriate. I also check out new releases by Mike Stern, Mindy Smith and Peter Mulvey.  

Don’t get me wrong: There is nothing tedious or unpleasant about my job as music critic, and I still have a great abiding love for music in all its complex and sometimes baffling forms. In a lot of ways, I think the problem is that, as a working journalist, I am overinformed. And now my son has introduced me to the world of downloading. Wow.  

I'm a sucker for good holiday music. And by "good" I mean "weird." The thing is, the closer the holidays get the smaller my bank account seems to be — especially given the economic crisis.