Some songs are protests. Others are warnings. But a rare few are something else entirely: they are stories that transport you to another place, another time, another possible future. Ted Stanley’s “Shoreline” is one of those songs. It’s a piece of music that feels less like a song and more like a modern myth, a folktale carried softly across a rising tide. It’s a story...

Rusty Reid is such an artist that his indie work is based on the folk-country rock tapestry element to emphasize protest and passion narrative. However, his most recent work “ American Villain ” stands as an alarm bell, reminiscent of the infusion between the sixties and today’s political constituency. After a short tenure with the University of Houston, he was under Nashville’s bright lights at 19....