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...

Fort Myers solo artist JR unpacks the heavy, digital baggage of contemporary isolation on his new country-rock single, "Back In The Day". Spurred by a life-threatening pulmonary embolism, the devoted father and husband found himself staring down mortality. He emerged from that scare with a poignant call for unity, cutting through today's profit-driven tech divisions and political unrest. We exist in a fractured landscape,...