LaCosta Tucker, the veteran 1970s country trailblazer who logged 14 singles on the charts and dropped five albums during her initial run, is opening her vault to share her new release, "It Matters to Me." The historical backdrop is fascinating. Tucker originally cut this song first, long before it morphed into a multi-platinum smash for Faith Hill. Now, decades later, she is officially sharing...

On his bracing new single “Jolie,” New York City songwriter and guitarist Owen Steib channels 1990s college-rock bite to reckon with a devastating story of lost innocence. The 18-year-old high school senior constructs a fragmented, out-of-order mystery around an exiled girl caught in the wreckage of an irreversible, violent incident. Instead of spelling out the tragedy cleanly, Steib drops cryptic, evocative breadcrumbs a denim...