“Cornbread And Whiskey” has no interest in sitting quietly in the corner. Kenny Mehler’s 2020 album walks in with a chorus ready for company, a band ready to push it forward and stories that smell like spilled wine and a long drive home. The title track turns a kiss, a curfew and a beat-up Chevrolet into a memory with a grin. “Moses Brown” heads for...

There's an intimacy to the new FREE/MAN release, "The Reconnection EP," that borders on a welcome invasion of personal space. It is the sonic equivalent of someone leaning in, not to share a secret, but to create the silence where your own might finally surface. Charlie Freeman hasn't built a grand cathedral of sound here; he's simply furnished a quiet room with stark, necessary...