Legendary saxman David Sanborn stays in the "key of Ray" with Only Everything (January 26, Decca), a second collection of songs influenced by the great Ray Charles and again produced by the equally legendary Phil Ramone. First volume of Sanborn's homage came in 2008 with the well received Here and Gone featuring a nice array of guests (Eric Clapton, Joss Stone, Sam Moore, Derek Trucks) and generating some solid critical buzz: "a disarming delight" summed up the New York Times. New album features a pair of guest vocals - Joss Stone again as well as James Taylor - but it is Sanborn and his fine band, including Hammond B-3 master Joey Defrancesco and noted drummer Steve Gadd, that are rightly in the spotlight here.

"If anyone would ask me what Ray -- or Ray's musicians -- meant to me, my answer might be, `only everything," says Sanborn. "As a concept, Only Everything is about gratitude. I'm grateful not only for the musical life I've been able to live, but the original sources of inspiration that continue to inform and excite me fifty years after encountering them." U.K. soul belter Stone again makes an appearance on the new album following up her explosive version of "I Believe To My Soul" from Only Everything (and her own recent Colour Me Free album) with a reworking of the classic "Let the Good Times Roll". "Joss is a young woman with an old soul," observes Sanborn. "She's a force of nature who understands the primal power of soul music." James Taylor's distinctive voice graces "Hallelujah I Love Her So", a song Taylor says he performed many times early in his career and one that could have easily been at home on his own recent Covers collection.

Myspace  Artist Site

David Sanborn w/ Joss Stone - "I Believe To My Soul" (from the album Here and Gone)

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Former New Orleans native now living in Brooklyn, 24-year-old Blair delivers her debut full-length Die Young on January 26 (Autumn Tone), an impressive collection of alt-country and jagged indie-pop that hovers somewhere between the bristling force of early Liz Phair and the melodic tw-angst of Rilo Kiley's Jenny Lewis. Recorded in the sultry summer steam of the Crescent City with producer Keith Ferguson, Die Young has the blurred fuzz of distorted guitar pickups and small, overheated amps, Blair's girlish voice bobbing above the fray with an unexpectedly vulnerable quality. Like her heroes The Replacements, she manages to find the sweet spot of frayed and shaggy edginess and hook-laden melodic tenderness.

"A record of violence and daydreaming" says her label of Die Young and with song titles such as "Murder", "Kamikaze" and "Rampage" you might think that this is primarily an exercise in blunt, caustic blood letting. And, in a more cerebral, mostly lyrical sense, it is. But below the surface on tracks such as "Hearts", with its gleaming, roll-down-the-windows splendor, a delicate balance of grace and power is found. Recommended.

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Blair - "Hearts" (from the album Die Young)

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Postdata is the new side project from Paul Murphy, guitarist and frontman for the excellent Nova Scotia band Wintersleep. What began as a low-keyed, fragmented songwriting excursion between Murphy and his brother Michael over a bottle of Scotch at their parent's home has morphed into what Paul describes as compositions spliced from "thirty or forty pieces of songs in a series of dreams." And it's just that particular nocturnal state that is so hauntingly evoked in the nine songs that make up this powerful, if understated, self-titled debut due January 26.  The original goal of writing laptop-recorded songs about members of their family - particularly their recently passed grandparents - as a gift to their mother became a series of musical vignettes that quietly get under the listener's skin with a shade of melancholy that may have been unintended but creeps through the music like fading light in the shadows of dusk. These are, says Murphy, "kinda sad dreams."

Unlike Wintersleep's dense rock sound (which we'll hear more of in 2010), Postdata keeps things spare and mostly acoustic, with Paul's husky, often near-whispered vocals adding to the songs' inherent sense of mystery and intimacy. Lead track "Tobias Grey" utilizes gentle minor chord guitar picking and a simple, mesmerizing melody to create a mood of hushed confessional storytelling while "The Coroner" turns a gentle folk tale inside out in less than three minutes, pushing the plea of "lie down with me" to a near-creepy insistence. Recommended.

Artist Site  Wintersleep Myspace

Postdata - "Tobias Grey" (from the album Postdata)

Postdata - "The Coroner" (from the album Postdata)

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For Patty Griffin, an admitted "elapsed Catholic", the chance to sing with the legendary Mavis Staples on a gospel tribute album recently had an impact way beyond recording one incredible version of "Waiting For My Child". Inspired by the music she had always admired and "always loved to sing", Griffin decided to create an entire album of gospel-influenced songs and with the help of renowned guitarist and producer Buddy Miller (and some famous friends such as Emmylou Harris), she recorded fourteen tracks at Nashville's Downtown Presbyterian Church. Now set for release January 26, Downtown Church proves once again that Griffin is not only a world class songwriter, she's also a gifted, soulful singer with a voice that is as clear and pure as, well, baptismal water.

Gospel, she says with a smile, is "right up my alley. It's dark and sad and tragic and it always makes me happy to sing it." Reflecting that clear joy of the music, the songs for Downtown Church range from the classic ("Wade In the Water", "If I Had My Way") to the more eclectic (Hank Williams' "House of Gold", the Spanish folk song "Virgen de Guadalupe") to Griffin's modern ballad ("Coming Home to Me"). But throughout the album, the thread of timeless music performed with love and emotional resonance (and gorgeously produced) is a powerful, unifying force. This is above all a Patty Griffin album; her unique interpretations spanning traditional country, folk, blues and traditional gospel styles make these gloriously spiritual songs all her own. Highly recommended. (Update: We've added a new track to the player: the lovely "Little Fire" along with an album sampler.)

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Patty Griffin - "Little Fire" (from the album Downtown Church)

Patty Griffin - Downtown Church sampler

Patty Griffin - "Waiting For My Child" (from the album Downtown Church)

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Four is the operative number today as Brit singer/songwriter extraordinaire Corinne Bailey Rae presents the followup to her genre-breaking, best-selling eponymous debut album. New project The Sea is arriving four years after the release of the triple-Grammy-nominated album that featured the international hit "Like A Star" -- an album that exploded in the U.S. upon the release a year later, entering the charts at #4 and going on to sell four million copies. But while beginning work on her new songs last spring, Corrinne's world came crashing down on the news that her husband and musical partner Jason Rae had died of an accidental drug overdose. "My life was going in one direction, then, in an instant, it was turned around," she tells The Guardian. Immersed in her own overwhelming grief, Bailey Rae retreated from music into her own private world for almost a full year.

Beginning late last year, however, she began to emerge back to songwriting, performing in a couple of small clubs and then, this spring, recording again. The difference this time, though, was the emotional support of performing live in the studio with a band rather than simply singing her songs to crafted backing tracks that she had overseen with her producer on her first outing. Also at play is Bailey Rae's voice, described by those that have heard the new songs as deeper, richer and even more jazz-nuanced, more Nina Simone and Sly Stone than the soulful folk/pop voice of "Star" or "Put Your Records On". New tracks include the plaintive ballad "Are You Here" and the powerful anthem "The Sea", reflecting what she calls her "more serious" outlook for the new project.

"You find out there's a lot of beauty and grace even in the darkness," she reflects.  "In the way people treat you, in nature, in the things you maybe took for granted. There is something miraculous that pushes you along, makes you keep going, makes you carry on. It's really about the mystery of that. In fact, the whole album is about that in a way; it's about loss but it's also about hope, about keeping going and trying to find that beauty."

Check out the message from Corinne and read the full interview with The Guardian here.

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The idea for a full-fledged collaboration may have come in 2006 when French actress Charlotte Gainsbourg made her return to recording with her album 5:55 and utilized arranger/composer David Campbell for the string orchestrations. Campbell is also known as the father of indie-God Beck who, as it turns out, was supposed to work on the album as well, but, as he puts it, "couldn't get over there." The payback now comes back bigtime as Beck shepherds her new IRM project as producer, songwriter, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist. "I pulled a bunch of songs out," says Beck of the pair's early meetings. "And then I wrote a few, with her in mind, but when we spent time together they changed because I got more of a feeling of where she wanted to go. We got in the studio and I could see all the possibilities.

Scheduled for release January 26, IRM is, says Gainsbourg, the result of trying "very different things." The songs, she adds, "are all in different styles but one proper album." Following the release of the monotone, electronica/industrial workout of the title track last month, Gainsbourg and Beck join voices for new single "Heaven Can Wait", a slithering, piano-punctuated ditty that comes alive in a completely surreal video (watch it after the jump).

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Charlotte Gainsbourg - "Heaven Can Wait" (duet with Beck) (from the album IRM)

Charlotte Gainsbourg - "IRM" (from the album IRM)

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After 25 years and a dozen or so albums of what in retrospect has been truly groundbreaking countrified rock, Canada's near-legendary Blue Rodeo have returned for what is arguably one of the band's finest moments: The Things We Left Behind (January 26), a sprawling yet dramatically cohesive album, at once both timeless and remarkably contemporary. While many bands at this stage of their career are either on autopilot or simply rehashing the "hits" for aging fans, Blue Rodeo, led by the songwriting duo of Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor, still have the spark (and the creative chops) to make their music as essential to the alt-country/rock genre as their younger American (and Americana) counterparts like Wilco, Ryan Adams and the Cardinals and Son Volt.

Left Behind works, to a great extent, because the band imagined the album as a throwback to the era of the vinyl double album, where moods and pace would ebb and flow and songs could stretch out instrumentally. Taking the album's sixteen songs and spreading them out in a rather luxurious and unhurried manner proved to be "a very enjoyable little conundrum for us", says Cuddy. Chances are that tracks like the ten-minute, gorgeously languid Neil Young-styled opus "Venus Rising" probably wouldn't appear in the form it does here without this distinctive, defining mindset. Another serious plus is Blue Rodeo's ability to wear it's many influences lightly but assertively, proving again that the best bands are comfortable enough to nod to past masters without overt genuflection or imitation. From raging honky tonk splendor to personal ballads as clear and crisp as an autumn sky, The Things We Left Behind finds a band comfortable with their past and equally at ease with what the future holds. Highly recommended.

Myspace  Artist Site

Blue Rodeo - "Venus Rising" (from the album The Things We Left Behind)

Blue Rodeo - "You Said" (from the album The Things We Left Behind)

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"We’re the same people, but this record has changed our directions,” says Beach House's Victoria Legrand of the Baltimore duo's forthcoming third album Teen Dream (January 26). “We were forced to let go of people and things we were holding onto as individuals: normalcy, daily rituals, the ability to take care of ourselves. We were dropped into a wilderness, but we had more clarity than we’ve ever had before." As the eagerly awaited successor to their 2008 Devotion, the new Dream was created with Legrand and co-conspirator Alex Scally in virtual seclusion, first in an isolated rehearsal space and then in a converted church recording "studio" with producer/engineer Chris Coady (Blonde Redhead, Yeah Yeah Yeahs). The result is a more personal album of impressive scope and clarity of message, something Scally refers to as "instinctual" and "private."

“There’s a different level of intimacy, a physicality on Teen Dream,” Legrand enthuses. “Rhythmically, there’s new motion. This record touches you. On your chest.” Reflecting that aesthetic is lead track "Norway", a song that is both expansive in sound, all droning celestial layers of rich instrumentation, and a slightly left-of-center, woozy, note-bending edginess. This Dream truly does have a drifting, nocturnal feel, a surreality of half-sleep and early hour tossing andturning. Imaginative currents stream through the album. art-pop that remains centered around striking melodic twists and novel new-meets-old production touches. As a visual bonus, Teen Dream comes packed with a companion DVD containing a special music video for each of the disc's ten tracks by a different director. Recommended.

Myspace  Sub Pop Label Site

Beach House - "Norway" (from the album Teen Dream)

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A certain rustic, old-fashioned folksy attitude is stitched through the musical fabric of Ontario, Canada's Basia Bulat, a heartfelt and straightforward sensibility that emerges fresh-faced and clear-eyed, fusing simplicity of style with innate, effortless sophistication. As a follow up to 2007's acclaimed debut album, the perfectly titled O My Darling, Bulat's new January 26 release Heart of My Own again charts a path positioned between smart, modern indie pop and classic folk/pop traditions. Often clutching an autoharp in concert, encouraging audience handclaps and singalongs (sometimes joining her onstage) Bulat isn't as fearless as she is simply, unpretentiously committed to her craft. Boisterous choruses soar, feet stomp and her rhythms sway and then gallop as she moves easily from mood to mood, a spirited burner followed by a sweet and tender ballad.

First single "Gold Rush" epitomizes what we've come to love about Bulat's special talent for making music that seems to spontaneously tumble from the speakers while still sounding so focused and assured. In just under three minutes, "Gold Rush" is indeed a rush, fusing influences that range from the fiddling flurries of rural Appalachia to busking Celtic folk melodies to breakneck pop a la Arcade Fire. Produced again by Howard Bilerman and glowing internally with a self-generated source of energy, Heart's eclectic punch promises to be a sweet and swooning knockout.  “I think it is at times extremely sparse and, well, spacious, with big choirs singing,” Bulat says, “and then it gets really dense with really spirited and rolling drums.” Recommended.

Myspace   Artist Site

Basia Bulat - "Gold Rush"  (from the album Heart of My Own)

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* = DC recommends checking out...

Algernon - Ghost Surveillance (Post Rock/Alt/Jazz)

Basia Bulat - Heart of My Own (Folk/Pop/Alt)

Beach House - Teen Dream (Alt/Pop)*

Bei Bei and Shawn Lee - Into the Wind (Electronica/Jazz)

Blair - Die Young (Pop/Alt)*

Blue Rodeo - The Things We Left Behind (Rock/Americana/Alt/Country)*

Celtic Woman - Songs From the Heart (Pop/Classical Crossover/Celtic)

Charlotte Gainesbourg - IRM (Pop/Alt)*

Citay - Dream Get Together (Pop/Rock/Prog/Art/Psychedelic)

Corinne Bailey Rae - The Sea (Pop/R+B/Folk)*

David Bowie - A Reality Tour (Pop/Rock/Classic)*

David Sanborn - Only Everything (Jazz)*

Deas Vail - Birds and Cages (Pop/Rock)

Enigma - Platinum Collection (Pop/Electronica)

Eric Bibb - Booker's Guitar (Blues/Folk/Pop)

Gigi - Maintenant (Pop/Alt/Retro)

Grada - Natural Angle (Irish/Pop/Folk)*

Hiromi - BQE (Jazz/Piano)

Jeremy Kittel - Chasing Sparks (Celtic/Acoustic/Jazz/Folk)*

Joe Firstman - El Porto (Pop/Rock)

Joe Locke - For the Love of You (Jazz)

Lady Antebellum - Need You Now (Country/Pop)*

Los Campesinos - Romance Is Boring (Alt/Pop/Indie/Rock)

Magnetic Fields - Realism (Pop/Rock/Folk/Alt)*

Maysa - Woman In Love (Jazz/R+B/Vocal)

Memphis - Original Broadway Cast Recording (Pop/Shows)

Mondo Drag - New Rituals (Rock/Alt)

Never Shout Never - What Is Love (Pop/Rock)

Number One Gun - To the Secrets and Knowledge (Pop/Rock)

Oh No Ono - Eggs (Pop/Rock/Indie)

Owl City - Ocean Eyes (Deluxe Version) (Pop/Electronica)

Pat Metheny - Orchestrion (Jazz/Guitar)*

Patrick and Eugene - All Together Now (Pop/Alt/Jazz)

Patty Griffin - Downtown Church (Pop/Gospel/Country/Americana)*

Postdata - Postdata (Pop/Folk/Alt)

Scanners - Submarine (Rock/Pop/Alt)*

Steve Kilbey and Martin Kennedy - Unseen Music Unheard Words (Pop/Ambient/Folk/Rock)

The Happy Hollows - Spells (Rock/Alt/Indie/Pop)

The Heligoats - Goodness Gracious (Pop/Rock/Alt/Indie)

The Henry Clay People - For Cheap or for Free (Pop/Rock)

The Throwdowns - Don't Slow Down (Pop/Reggae/Rock/Punk)

The Wonder Years - The Upsides (Punk/Rock/Pop)

Three Six Mafia - Laws of Power (Hip Hop)

Tim Barry - 28th and Stonewall (Folk)

Time For Three - 3 Fervent Travelers (Acoustic/Jam Band/Folk)

Whitney Houston - Whitney Houston (Deluxe Anniversary Edition) (Pop/R+B)

Youssou N'Dour - Music From the Motion Picture I Bring What I Love (Afro/Pop/International)