Year's best music more authentic, less stylistic

Album cover for Luke Bell's "Luke Bell"
Album cover for Luke Bell's "Luke Bell"

Hungry for something new, maybe something a bit off the beaten path, away from the highly polished slickness of today's pop and country?

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Album cover for Adia Victoria's "Beyond the Bloodhounds"

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Album cover for William Bell's "This Is Where I Live"

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Album cover for Sarah Jarosz's "Undercurrent"

Maybe something with less style and a lot more substance?

These recordings just might have what you need. The styles vary, but one quality these men and women share is authenticity. These are, to date, among the year's best recordings.

• Luke Bell, Luke Bell, Bill Hill/Thirty Tigers

What kind of music? Classic country rooted in traditional, keening steel guitar and performed with honky-tonk fervor by this 26-year-old former ranch hand.

What does it sound like? It has the rootsy feel of the Bakersfield sound of Buck Owens and Merle Haggard, a touch of the lonesome soul of Hank Williams and the spaciousness of Texas singer-songwriters such as Joe Ely and Guy Clark. Bell clearly has learned from these masters, but his music is distinctively his own. Several of the songs were previously issued on an indy album titled Don't Mind If I Do.

Bell is a strong writer, capturing the essence of heartache on "Hold Me," when he sees his ex with another man: "Hold me closer I think I just might cry/ Well, I'm dustin' off some memories that are waking up inside." And, on "The Great Pretender": "I hope that you remember when our fires turn to ember/ That if you found me kind and tender/ it may hurt when you realize that I am the great pretender." He sings with emotional authority.

Fans of Dwight Yoakam, Brandy Clark and Margo Price should love this.

Best songs: The twangy "Sometimes," the cool "The Great Pretender," the piano-driven "Loretta" and the kickin' "Working Man's Dream," yodel and all.

• Adia Victoria, Beyond the Bloodhounds, Atlantic

What kind of music is it? An often ferocious mix of blues, folk, punkish rock, country and R&B; an unsettling Southern Gothic.

What's the album like? The vibe that hangs over this excellent album is loneliness, melancholy, a sometimes unnerving tension. Victoria sets the tone with a haunting a capella passage from Ray Charles' "Lonely Avenue." A native of South Carolina and daughter of Seventh-day Adventists, Victoria assesses her upbringing and roots bluntly and with raw emotion. "I don't know about Southern belles/but I can tell you something about Southern hell when your skin give 'em an excuse to take and take," she sings on "Stuck in the South."

Life in the South is complicated, and sometimes the social realities are ugly. But we stay. Victoria explores that mindset with a musical palette that explains to a degree why she stays -- she has absorbed and embraced the music of her home region as she wrestles with race, the demons of her upbringing, estrangement from home and culture. Yet, the South is hers, troubles and all. Muse and tormentor.

Fans of Meshell Ndegeocello, Lauren Hill and maybe even Nina Simone should find this interesting.

Best songs: "Stuck in the South," the swampy, Gothic garage rock of "Dead Eyes," the bluesy "Head Rot," countryish "Mexico Blues."

• William Bell, This Is Where I Live, Concord

That name sounds familiar. It has been nearly four decades since his last album. William Bell has written several enduring R&B/blues songs of the rock era: "Born Under a Bad Sign" (Albert King, Cream), his own hits "You Don't Miss Your Water," "I Forgot to Be Your Lover" and "Private Number." His biggest hit was 1977's "Tryin' to Love Two," which reached the Top 10. He is closely associated with the Memphis sound.

What kind of music is it? Soulful, deeply heartfelt R&B and blues with a great horn section. Think Al Green.

What's the album like? Teaming with producer John Leventhal (Rosanne Cash), Bell's voice is strong, rich and deeply expressive. He has a rare intimacy that remains undimmed at age 76. Cash and Marc Cohn are among the guest artists. Leventhal's production feels recent and vintage, evoking a real timelessness. Greil Marcus wrote the liner notes.

Love's joys and pains imbue "The Three of Me," as Bell sings about "the man I was, the man I am and the man I want to be." He shares his fears and hopes, yet it feels he has somehow learned ours too. Cash and Leventhal wrote one of the album's high points, "Walkin' on a Tightrope," which at first one would swear was a '60s hit.

Best songs: His cover of Jesse Winchester's "All Your Stories" is magnificent, as is his remake of "Born Under a Bad Sign," the vulnerable "I Will Take Care of You," "Walkin' on a Tightrope"

• Sarah Jarosz, Undercurrent, Sugar Hill

What kind of music is it? Sarah Jarosz emerged as a child prodigy of sorts from the bluegrass community, known for a great voice and killer banjo and mandolin chops. She still has all that, but Jarosz's music has steadily evolved into a fusion of contemporary bluegrass, folk and other influences with a compelling new direction.

What's the album like? On her fourth album, Jarosz digs deeper as she makes the transition to singer-songwriter, writing or co-writing all the songs here. She walks a fine line between introspective and engaging, but the melodies and her emotional voice bring us into the experience. The arrangements and instrumentation are spacious. Her songs are more intimate, loose and unpretentious. Guitars are the main workhorses here, along with her excellent work on the octave mandolin.

The mood is reflective, somewhat melancholy. "Comin' Undone" is sultry and sexy; the duet "Take Me Back" (with Rodney Crowell guitarist Jedd Hughes) is filled with raw emotion. There is a simplicity in the vocals and harmonies that draws a listener in. Friends Sara Watkins and Aoife O'Donovan give "Still Life" a buoyancy and energy; their harmonies are riveting. On "Early Morning Light," Jarosz gripes about her problems and then says she will make things better by moving on.

Best songs: the bluesy "House of Mercy," "Take Me Back," "Early Morning Light."

• Mike Eldred Trio, Baptist Town, Great Western Recording Co.

What kind of music is it? Blues, rock and rockabilly.

What's the album like? Baptist Town, a black neighborhood in Greenwood, Miss., was the final home of blues legend Robert Johnson, who died outside Greenwood in 1938. This album's origin story is that musician Mike Eldred and his daughter drove the Mississippi Blues Trail, visiting the places Johnson played and where he died. Eldred, inspired by his experiences, wrote some songs and recorded them at Sun Studios in Memphis.

The trio, which includes Blasters bassist John Bazz and former Blasters drummer Jerry Angel, are joined by guests Robert Cray, David Hidalgo of Los Lobos and John Mayer. Their contributions flesh out the tunes and add to their -- and the trio's -- firepower. The songs speak of the divisions -- between black and white, rich and poor, birth and death.

Several tunes evoke a sense of Johnson, particularly the unsettling "Somebody's Been Runnin'": "You can't hide from the dealings that you've done/you can't hide from the mess you've made .... Time is up can't go no further." And "Papa Legpa" has the sense of mystery and hoodoo one hears in early Dr. John and howlin' Delta blues.

Best songs: "Somebody's Been Runnin'"; the soulful "Bess" with Hidalgo's accordion and vocals; "Papa Legpa"; the rockabilly powered "Hundred Dollar Bill"

Email:

ewidner@arkansasonline.com

Style on 07/24/2016

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