Listening to Arnold J.’s new single, "Muddy Waters," isn't quite like anything else swirling around right now. It arrives with the gentle insistence of incoming tide, pulling you into its specific gravity. Arnold J., Ghanaian-born and now Canada-based, weaves a sound tagged as alt-country and folk, but those labels feel thin, like trying to contain smoke. There’s earthiness, sure, but his soulful vocal lines...

Gary Grant Chamberlain has released "Just Go to Church", a country ballad that stares completely unblinking into the void of human tragedy. The Indiana-born singer, songwriter, guitarist, and former police officer took up his craft again to honor the memory of his two-year-old son, Garrison, who perished in a house fire. At a time when the music industry flirts so heavily with artificial intelligence,...