Sometimes the most honest music comes from the spaces between certainty and doubt. Blake Kelly knows this territory well. The Charlotte-based artist has spent his time moving between basketball courts, college classrooms, and recording studios, collecting experiences that fuel his latest EP, Guidance. "Left or Right" serves as the centrepiece of this four-track collection, and it arrives with the kind of laid-back confidence that suggests Kelly...

The Jacksonville band John Muka Band turns hunger, horns, strings, and live-band heat into a single built for repeat plays. Press play and "More & More" starts acting like it already knows where your feet are going. John Muka Band does not creep into the room; the Jacksonville group walks in with a groove, a grin, and enough moving parts to make the speakers feel...