The Congress’ Whatever You Want is a good-ass record, plain and simple. The album, a southern rock tribute to everyone from Molly Hatchet to The Grateful Dead, plays strong from start to finish with little let-up along the way.

When Head for the Hills Fiddle-man Joe Lessard was asked in our recent interview what it is about Colorado that makes us Bluegrass Country, he replied “It must be something in the water, or a lack thereof.” The boys in the Fort Collins, Colorado born bluegrass band are at a pinnacle peak in their career.

Ian Tyson is a cowboy, sure as Hell.

Unyieldingly pleasant, that’s what it is. Lisa Biales’ “Just Like Honey” is nearly the perfect companion to a rainy day on the couch, a sunny day in the garden, a road trip or a night on the town. It’s the record’s strength and maybe its weakness, too. That depends when you’ve got the blues.The sixth album on her own Big Song Music label, “Just Like Honey” covers 11 Americana and blues tunes and includes a co-write and two originals.

Classic. The word more properly evokes a feeling than a concrete meaning. The meaning would be flatly explained as something from the past that has gained a memorable status. When applying “Classic” to the bluegrass genre a whole new set of meanings and associations surface. Bluegrass is classic Americana. A genre that is wholly American and comes loaded with stories and fables that define less of a time than a mentality. The workingman’s blues.

There is a lot going on in Trace Bundy's newest studio release, "Elephant King." Fans of Bundy should instantly recognize his signature style, laced with looping harmonies, percussion on the guitar body, and complex music theories and melodies that could only come from him.

Trevor Robbins’ solo project, Lowlander, is a Folk infused singer/song writer’s safe haven.  In his self-released album “Criminal Mischief”, Robbins’ soft howl steals away like a reverb wind into the western hillside. The acoustic landscape of this album has rich finger-picked textures which blend warmly with Robbins’ dusty, melodic voice.

Mysterium Tremendum, the latest release from the Mickey Hart Band, has the former Grateful Dead drummer digging yet deeper into his ever-expanding knowledge and love of sound for another fine record. Hart’s merry band of musicians plays along to sound waves transformed from electromagnetic radiation given off by the sun, planets, stars and galaxies.

Dot Hacker, the experimental rock band based in Los Angeles, California was formed in 2008 by Josh Klinghoffer.  Klinghoffer, Clint Walsh and Eric Gardner were all previously members of the touring incarnation of Gnarls Barkley, and were subsequently joined by Hella bassist Jonathan Hischke to record the much-anticipated “I

I don’t know quite what to think of T.J. Courtney.