Some tracks refuse to ask for your attention politely; they kick the door off the hinges instead. That is exactly what happens when you press play on 'Father Time & Mother Nature'. Texas singer-songwriter Clay DuBose is back after a twenty-year break, and he brought the heat with him. This is not a quiet, acoustic reflection on getting older. It is a full-throttle Americana rock record...

The moment the jaunty guitar kicks in on John Smyths’ new single, "Now I'm Wiser", you feel a familiar, comfortable warmth. It’s the sound of a good chair in a bar where the floor is sticky with spilled truths. And then the story starts, a classic yarn of a hard-living past yielding to a peaceful present. Smyths, a Dutch ex-metalhead singing country out of...