But Big Kenny manages to dodge that “duo-gone-solo” curse. Is he the best vocalist in Nashville? No, and he seems okay with it, and since he’s one of the best songwriters working, we’re okay with it, too. With Quiet Time, Big Kenny gained freedom to create without the restrictions of label suits who prodded him for more polished, commercial “Big and Rich” tracks that made them, well, big and rich.

Not coincidentally, the song “Free Like Me” begins,“When I’m in these walls/I’ll say anything I want.” Bucking the norm, Big Kenny enlists the Canadian Blackfoot Confederacy to open “Wake Up,” a song not necessarily about Native Americans but having a melody that apparently lends itself well to tribal chants. “Go Your Own Way” is a ballad chock-full of minor chords and a full orchestral string section for backup. Not your typical Nashville fare. “Long After I’m Gone” is already a commercial hit, and I’d bet a few more songs on here will be, as well.

Big Kenny reaffirms that an artist can go solo because he/she actually has something to say rather than just wanting to be heard. Hats off!

— Phil Pyle

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— Matt Fink

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No matter. A-Plus, Opio, Phesto and Tajai have returned with the best album since their debut — a lyrical tour-de-force with fantastic production courtesy of Domino and the legendary Prince Paul. The group has clearly matured a bit, but their sound is classic ‘90s backpacker hip-hop, with tag-team rhyme patterns and a cohesive sound that never grows old.

“Won1” rides atop a typically creative Prince Paul beat, with distorted guitar, slamming syncopated beats and soulful singers supporting fierce lyrical flows that will leave you rewinding to catch every word. Elsewhere, the subject matter ranges from dealing with crazy women ( “Postal”) to leaving them ( “Lickity Split”), from crime-based storytelling (“Dead Man Walking”) to laid-back paeans to the joys of summer (“Home Game”). This sort of old-school throwback may not have a place on commercial hip-hop radio, but it is a refreshing reminder of what made groups like Souls of Mischief great in the first place.

— Bret Love

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— Matt Fink

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— Coy King

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A gut-wrenching film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, “The Road” follows a man (Viggo Mortensen) and his young son (newcomer Kodi Smit-McPhee) as they make their way across a bleak, post-apocalyptic landscape destroyed by an unnamed cataclysm. Director John Hillcoat balances touching scenes of father-son bonding with terrifying sequences involving roving gangs and human cannibals, and the music treads similarly disparate emotional ground.

From the pastoral gentility of the opening “Home” and the haunting beauty of the title track to the discomforting dissonance of “The Cannibals,” Cave and Ellis adroitly tailor each song to suit the scene, yet never lose sight of a cohesive sound. Cave’s piano, Ellis’ violin and various woodwinds create moments of elegiac beauty, which only make the disturbing loops and frenetic percussion of the uptempo tracks all the more effective.

As with their previous soundtracks, you don’t need to have seen the movie to enjoy this music. But if you have, the emotional impact of their compositions seems all the more impressive.

— Bret Love

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Divide maintains a folky veneer even as it experiments with various styles. “We Have The Light” paces into a lively rumba while Matthew Morgan and Victoria Cockrum jaunt through a genteel duet. The title track lilts along with a happy ukulele, while the stellar “Paper Crown” waltzes by before being swept up in a myriad of strings. It would be easy to scold Stella StageCoach for its scattered display of musical modes if it wasn’t so subtle and confident at every turn.

Are there some issues? Sure. “He Won’t Stop” would easily be the best song if it weren’t so long , while “The Night the Angels Cried” lumbers in repetition midway through the album, slowing down Divide’s powerful momentum.

But that’s no real reason to fuss. The album’s best song, the riotous “What Have I Done,” gives rise to a simple answer. What have they done? They’ve created a lasting piece of elegance. Newnan should be proud.

— Ed Morales

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“Choose Your Poison” kicks things off in a moderate third gear, and you’ll find yourself singing the line “Momma hit me with your whippin’ stick” long after you’ve put your iPod away. The standout on the album is the title track, penned by the singer himself. Every writer has his/her version of the “Sorry, baby, I gotta keep movin’ on” theme, but this just may be the banner song for the genre. Listening to “Water to Wine” reminds you of breaking up with your first girlfriend (if only I’d chosen these words to do it, I would have spared myself five hours on her doorstep).

Still, it’s Nakia’s voice that carries the album. He has major league pipes that can both gently pull and painfully rip passion from his gut. Still not sure what Nakia is about? Think of Joe Cocker mixed with the Southern touch of The Black Crowes. He’s been touted as one of Austin’s best vocalists, but even Austin can’t hold back a Texas-sized talent like Nakia for too much longer.

— Phil Pyle

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Hard Luck Stories

Ike Reilly’s got something to say, and dammit, you’re gonna listen — just like his audiences have been for over a decade. Reilly’s been developing, branding, re-developing and re-branding his raspy-voiced storytelling for some time now, and he’s back with Hard Luck Stories, a 10 song collection of whiskey, women and wine (whine, maybe) that follows the logical progression of this genre-bending journeyman, sampling the good (and sometimes bad) sides of everything from lazy lounge pop to grungy R&B and furious acoustic punk.

Reilly comes out of the gate swinging with Stories opener “Morning Glory” getting right to the point. Musically, we get the laid-back grooves that will become Reilly’s calling card for the next 43 minutes. The upward trajectory of the opening tunes carries Reilly strongly into the terminally catchy pop number “Girls In The Backroom,” probably the strongest track on the record (complete with a guest appearance by Cracker’s Johnny Hickman). But as “Girls” fades away, and just as we’re getting comfortable, it becomes evident that Stories has three definite phases: the good, the painfully mundane and the good 2.0, which follow respectively from start (tracks 1-3), to middle (4-6) to end (7-10). “The War On The Terror And On The Drugs” should be the album’s heavy hitter, featuring Reilly’s kindred spirit (and Waylon’s kin) in Shooter Jennings, swapping acoustic tidbits over a heavy blues groove. But Shooter sets the tone from the outset, asking Reilly jokingly, “What’s this song about, anyway?” And he nails it. “War” never finds a center of gravity and comes off as nothing more than a four minute meander with a big-time contributor.

Hard Luck Stories is a good collection. Above average, not great, but plenty good. Like one would suppose a good story should be, Stories twists and turns, pushes and pulls, excites and bores — but never allows the listener out of the storyteller’s shoes. An overall victory for a songwriter not accustomed to much less.

— Alec Wooden

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Your Side Now

Trent Dabbs makes his own music. Seems a silly statement to make at the outset of a music review, but chances are you’ve missed Dabbs’ own tunes for the sake of the attention given to his other works. Between co-writes for artists like Mat Kearney and Joy Williams and the attention given to his brainchild Ten Out of Tenn, Dabbs remains in the spotlight for things other than his own solo work. Your Side Now, then, presents the perfect opportunity to right the ship.

Dabbs’ previous songwriting efforts garnered placement on everything from “The OC” to “Grey’s Anatomy” and Your Side Now reveals several more tunes ready-made for the same broad spotlight. Heartfelt tracks like “Wishful Thinking” allow Dabbs to cry familiar singer/songwriter tears in unfamiliar ways. That’s the magic of Dabbs — his ability to remain completely within and yet firmly apart from the genre.

“Wake Up Call” playfully introduces the album, playing coy with plucking strings before letting the same instruments breathe deeply in the chorus. The dreamy production on “Dear Jane” is fantastic, even though the song itself is as straightforward as it comes. The title track sounds like a Matthew Perryman Jones offering, a gentle construct longing to switch viewpoints in a relationship.

As beautiful as the talent Trent Dabbs helps to introduce to the masses, it’s his own music that merits the most attention. Your Side Now deserves every bit of acclaim it can muster.

— Matt Conner

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