Folk music and indie folk have become more mainstream in recent years, to my surprise. The uplifting and soothing vibrations of this clean and global form of music are something we should all have more of in our lives. Two years ago, Lee Leffler (guitars, keyboards, vocals and lyrics), along with Michael Frackleton (drumming and bass), formed the Boston-based band, Dream of a Man...

Shawn Brown’s EP, "Into the Furious Light," doesn’t slip quietly into the stream of modern indie-folk releases; it instead cups its hands around your soul like you’re a candle in danger of flickering out. The Portland troubadour crafts songs that feel like fragments of conversations—maybe ones you walked in on too late or letters unsent to someone dear but no longer near. You’re never...