Push the "late 60's/early 70's" button on your Wayback Machine, don that fringe suede jacket, light the patchouli incense and then close your eyes. Now you're ready for Gentle Stream, the lovingly retro new album from Swedish band The Amazing that British music bible Q hailed as “a gorgeously understated blend of gentle psychedelic pop, tranquil folk rock and gently stoned prog.” Released in Europe last year and finally washing up on American shores this week, this is the kind of music where a track named "When The Colours Change" just might not be about the fall leaves. Songwriter and vocalist Christoffer Gunrup and guitarist Reine Fiske lead The Amazing through extended Laurel Canyon folk/rock jams, the kind of gorgeous phantasmagorical flights of CSN+Y fancy fueled by chiming guitar riffs, Phil-Lesh-styled bass runs and jazzy drum workouts. The wonderfully titled "International Hair" pretty much sums up all that's floating in The Amazing's bongwater, a sunny-side up slice of astral sublimity that makes you pinch yourself even as the Wayback Machine heads into overdrive.

The Amazing - "International Hair" (from the album Gentle Stream)

The Amazing - "Gentle Stream" (from the album Gentle Stream)

We're pleased to report that the singing and songwriting gene has once again emerged intact with Lilly Hiatt and her band The Dropped Ponies. The daughter of master songcraftsman John Hiatt, the Nashville-based 28-year-old has been honing her own particular brand of countrified folk/rock and Americana the past few years with guitarist Beth Finney and now with the addition Jon Radford (Drew Holcombe Band) on drums and Jake Bradley (Over the Rhine) on bass, she's assembled a potent and promising outfit to flesh out her songs. The Doug Lancio-produced debut album Let Down has, says Hiatt, a distinctive "self-loathing theme" (hence the title) as well as what she terms a "spacey country" aesthetic. But there's also an edge to even her quietest moments and when things open up with a Crazy Horse kick, as on "Angry Momma", you realize that Hiatt's influences, like her dad's, may begin with the alt-country classic lineage but there's still plenty rock and roll roots not far underground ready to be tapped.

Lilly Hiatt & The Dropped Ponies - "Championship Fighter" (from Let Down)

Lilly Hiatt & The Dropped Ponies - "Young Black Rose"

Austin-based singer, songwriter, and guitarist extraordinaire Gary Clark Jr. doesn't just imbibe the blues, he appears to have the knack for absorbing the heart and -- most importantly -- the soul of the blues as well. Highly-anticipated full length debut Blak and Blu (October 23, Warner Brothers) is equal parts black and blue, an innately gifted modern funk proprietor who just happens to be a riveting and incendiary blues/rock guitar slinger to boot. It's fitting that he chose Jimi Hendrix for his inspired mashup "Third Stone From the Sun/If You Love Me Like You Say" as the groundbreaking icon inhabits the same revolutionary mindset: utilizing the blues as a touchstone for his own bruising,genre-decimating style. Clark co-produced the album with studio heavyweights Mike Elizondo (Dr. Dre, Mastodon, Fiona Apple), Rob Cavallo (Green Day, My Chemical Romance) and helps keep the canvas smudged, gritty and mostly stripped clean of production gloss. The blistering, nearly eight minute "When My Train Pulls In" is one of B'n'B's best - heavy and nimble simultaneously, densely packed with rumbling bass and Clark's fuzzed out guitar. And don't neglect "Bright Lights", a near-perfect example of Clark's ability to draw out a song from its blues core and morph it into a monstrous rocker replete with a soulful half-stepped rhythm and a slamming backbeat.

Gary Clark Jr. - "Bright Lights" (from Black and Blue)

Gary Clark Jr. - Ain't Messin 'Round" (from Blak and Blu)

“It's been a while since we've felt this energized and creative," says Jakob Dylan of his first recordings of The Wallflowers after the band's nearly seven-year hiatus. "We haven't changed our stripes so much as we're continuing to redefine the animal." The stark country folk songwriting that marked Dylan's two solo recordings during the break -- one produced by Rick Rubin, one by T Bone Burnett -- has been jettisoned for the rich, rock-driven sound of their earlier "One Light" mid-90's period. Producer Jay Joyce (Brandi Carlile, The Whigs) certainly had a hand in helping shape The Wallflowers return to the full aural textures and spacious arena-friendly power but it's the groove and grit and Dylan's fine return to form as a songwriter -- and loose-gripped bandleader -- that make the Glad All Over (October 9, Columbia) such a welcome and inspired surprise. On "It Won't Be Long (Till We're Not Wrong Anymore)" and our fave "First One In the Car" Dylan sings like an odd mix of famous father, Warren Zevon and Tom Petty as the band kicks hard with a sound that is as much layered key chordings as air-guitar-ready riffs. Catch The Wallflowers next week on Live From the Artists Den on PBS.

The Wallflowers - "It Won't Be Long (Till We're Not Wrong Anymore)" (from Glad All Over)

The Wallflowers - "First One In the Car" (from Glad All Over)

Ben Schneider's musical alter ego came from his Michigan boyhood and proximity to the body of water known as Lake Huron, a backdrop of natural splendor and wide open spaces that the 29-year-old songwriter and visual artist taps into for his impressionistic stew of cinematic folk/rock storytelling and tropical polyrhythmic undertow. Majestic new Lord Huron album Lonesome Dream (October 9) is not only one of the best albums we've heard this year, it's certainly one of the busiest albums to boot, a constantly shifting foundation of Fleet Foxes-styled clattering rhythm tapestry draped over songs that spring from Japanese folk melodies, Italian spaghetti western themes, jangling indie pop and crooning Laurel Canyon alt-country harmonies. “As I got older, I got more into world music," says Schneider. "I see it as layers on top of this American folk core.” That arresting stylistic mashup can be heard in all of its glory on "The Man Who Lives Forever" and "Ends of the Earth", songs that shimmy like dusty tumbleweeds along a Calypso parade. Check out the amusing "sub-titled" video for "Time To Run" below.

Lord Huron - "The Man Who Lives Forever" (from Lonesome Dreams)

Lord Huron - "Ends of the Earth" (from Lonesome Dreams)

Wearing two hats -- inventive solo performer and frontman for Canada's indie darlings the New Pornographers -- A.C. Newman has proven to be a reliably unpredictable songwriter and pop visionary. But things get even bigger, darker, bolder and more personal on Shut Down The Streets (October 9, Matador), an album the comes after a period mixed with grief and elation via the death of his father and the birth of his son. It also reflects an embrace of the sheer power of a great pop song, whether addressing a heartthrob or a heartache, bemused by life's little twists or contemplating the essence of what it means to be human. As with all Newman songs, Street's diverse tracks are brimming with witty smarts and brisk and brash pop melodies, as "I'm Not Talking" (with fellow "Porno"-star Neko Case) and "The Troubadour" gracefully demonstrate. "I felt the need to be more clear in the lyrics on this album than ever before," he explains. "Not worry so much about the poetry of it. It felt like the message really had to be clear. At the least, more clear than before."

A.C. Newman - "I'm Not Talking" (from Shut Down the Streets) Free Download

A.C. Newman - "The Troubadour" (from Shut Down the Streets)

If you tried to imagine what mountain music might sound like played by a folk orchestra of fiddles, banjos, mandolins and cellos you might come up with something akin to the music of Virginia's The Last Bison. With hirsute frontman and songwriter Ben Hardesty forging the way, the Chesapeake septet is less sturm and drang and more strum and twang as they take the front porch folk into new realms of sophisticated and intricate string arrangements. "At once epic and intimate", raves The L.A. Weekly, "great outdoorsy and fireside cozy". Drawing comparisons to Fleet Foxes, Mumford and Sons and The Decemberists (and their offshoot Black Prairie) their buzzed fall 2011 debut Quill caught the attention of local radio and music blogs and they recently signed with Universal Republic. As a prelude to a new 2013 album, a four track EP Inheritance, due October 23, features one new song and three re-recorded tracks from Quill including their signature song (and free download) "Switzerland."

No surprise that Sun, the first collection of original material in six years from Cat Power -- aka Chan Marshall -- is quickly shaping up to be one of the most eagerly anticipated albums of the of the year. And the first bits of music from the project aren't exactly tamping down the enthusiasm. Lead single "Ruin" entices with spry, overlapping piano lines that serve as an enticing hook before the song kicks off with an insistent beat, some chunky guitar riffs and Marshall's syncopated vocal delivery. It is, as the song repeats, "bitchin'". New radio track "Cherokee" continues with the pulsing atmospherics and skittering rhythms, competing chord progressions jumbled behind Marshall's cool, distant singing. Self-produced, mixed by Philippe Zdar (of French synth-pop pair Cassius), the album was recorded in hodge-podge style at a variety of studio spaces including Marshall's own in Malibu. Sun drops September 4 via Matador.

Cat Power - "Cherokee" (from Sun)

Cat Power - "Ruin" (from Sun)

Actual surnames once again get the bum's rush with Colour The Atlas, a foursome of British childhood friends who just last year went by The Jess Hall Band (how quaintly retro-sounding). Hall, the group's 18-year-old songwriter and frontwoman and Alex Stone (guitar/vocals) lead the band in creating some of the more interesting fusions of folk and electronica we've heard in a while. The tracks that make up their new EP retain most of the ultra-melodic appeal of their earlier works (the mellow, soulful "Let It Be Known" is a standout) but the new production moves headlong into a more Imogen Heap-styled synth-beat-driven territory, from "The Maker", relying too heavily on some gimmicky auto-tuned vocal effects but lovely nonetheless, to the drum-n'-bass influenced "Snow". If Hall and Stone can keep from getting tripped up on the trip-hop, Colour The Atlas could actually de-evolve into something even more intriguing. The CTA self-titled EP is available digitally in the U.K. now; disc due November 25.

Colour The Atlas - "The Maker" (from the Colour The Atlas EP)

Colour The Atlas - "Let It Be Known"

Harmony may be the "order of the universe" as well as the title of her new album, says Canadian singer and songwriter Serena Ryder, but it's also, she adds, "the merging of symbiotic notes that join together to make the music louder, bigger." If you can wade past the cosmic hyperbole, it's wise just to focus on the "louder, bigger" concept when it comes to Ryder's densely packed and diverse new album. The hip-shaking alt/pop and goose-bump inducing vocals are still very much on display on Harmony (November 27, EMI Canada) but the folky strumming core of Ryder's music has been supplanted by a more daring production edge. Ryder called on two producers for her first new full-length in five years: Jerrod Bettis (Gavin Degraw) and producer/songwriter Jon Levine (Nelly Furtado), both of whom served as multi-instrumentalists with Ryder in her home studio. Lead single, the perfectly titled "Stompa", is all that and more as the song moves from Adele-styled torcher to blistering funk/rocker with a killer bass line. New track "What I Wouldn't Do" is a more traditional Ryder pop/folk track, hand-clapped beats and acoustic urgency married to an infectious chorus hook.

Serene Ryder - "What I Wouldn't Do" (from Harmony)

Serene Ryder - "Stompa" (from Harmony)