Your backstage pass to the DFW music scene and beyond.
Johnny Cash
American VI: Ain't No Grave
Recorded in 2003, just months before his death at the age of 71, this collection of covers (and one original) is all the more poignant given its posthumous status. Opening with the genuinely creepy title track, complete with sinister rattling chains and ominous banjo, this 32-minute record finds the Man in Black tackling material from Sheryl Crow, Kris Kristofferson and Joe Ely, among others. Stark beauty and profound anguish mingle here more than once, serving to reinforce the ache of his loss.
Download this: For the Good Times
The Rocket Summer
Of Men and Angels
Colleyville native Bryce Avary's ebullience is tempered somewhat on his fourth full-length record. Three years and several label-related delays after his well-received major-label debut, Do You Feel, Avary, performing as the Rocket Summer, still crafts miniature pop-rock epics that genuflect toward emo even as they strive to be something more profound. The glimmers of strife evident on even the sunniest songs suggest interests beyond gleaming hooks and good times.
Download this: You Gotta Believe
Daniel
Merriweather
Love & War
Mark Ronson protégé Merriweather has been generating buzz ever since he first popped up on Ronson's eclectic 2007 omnibus Version, crooning a new take on the Smiths' Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before. The Aussie's ease with fusing blue-eyed soul and a hip, throwback style (see also: Paolo Nutini, Adele) endeared him to music critics and tastemakers like Kanye West and Justin Timberlake. Although the retro-soul craze has cooled somewhat, Love & War deserves a better fate than the discount pile at Starbucks.
Download this: Impossible
