Ryan Curtis - Ain't Ever EasyThe muscular, chooglin' beat of the country funk heater "Can't Take Back" opens Ryan Curtis' sophomore album 'Ain't Ever Easy.' Like a steam train gliding into some high desert station, it bears the strong vintage machinery of Curtis' "alt country from the high country" sound. The song lopes in on oozing guitar and keys over a backbeat that pulses sexier than a breakup song has the right to be. Regret has rarely sounded this happy, but Curtis is

and Keita Ogawa and Yousif Sheronick on percussion

She came to the fore as vocalist with Claude Thornhill's innovative orchestra

Another original

plus his Top 20 hit with The Bell Sisters "Hambone"

When Natsu opens her eyes

Ward adopted the lead-switching style

and one by the incomparable guitarist Larry Koonse

which explores sophisticated music with popular roots

the band has embarked on a truly original journey spanning three decades

I have always seen the world beyond the binary

singer and songwriter Lightnin' Slim (real name Otis Hicks) was born in Louisiana in 1913 and was a pioneer and first prominent exponent of the "Swamp Blues" style

but in some ways