As the Black Keys continue to tour in support of their current release El Camino, drummer Patrick Carney says they’re recording every show — in the hopes of putting out a new live album. The problem? They keep playing places like the Bojangles Coliseum, and (no kidding) the 1-800-ASK-GARY Amphitheatre.

A haunting, ultimately uplifting examination on the transformational experience of loss, Ari Picker’s second album as Lost in the Trees follows the suicide of his mother.

Having weathered all kinds of bad luck and bad times – including, but limited to, breaking up, serious illness and having their dog hit by a car – Beth Tacular and Phil Moore reconvened for another go at Bowerbirds.

The Carolina Chocolate Drops, despite their rocket-ride to Grammy fame in 2010, hadn’t yet made an album that captured their live set’s boot-scooting, blues-belting string-band revivalist verve — until now.

A new tweet confirms that the Ben Folds Five are in the studio recording their first new full-length album since 1999. Folds, posting on his @BenFolds page, published a picture of the group at work on new music, with the message: “It’s happening fo sho. Day 1, in studio with Robert and Darren through March.”

The Carolina Chocolate Drops are working with producer Buddy Miller (Emmylou Harris, Robert Plant, Patty Griffin, Solomon Burke) on a follow up to 2010’s Grammy Award–winning label-debut Genuine Negro Jig.

All good music connoisseurs are already familiar with Jamie Hoover and Steve Stoeckel who for more than 30 years now, have been making the world smile with the ear candy they create with the Spongetones

There is a shambling, plain-spoken beauty to this track as Cary Morin, a Crow Indian from North Dakota, sings about dancing his way toward salvation.

The Gathering, a homey Christmas-themed Americana and roots album, features singer-songwriter Laurelyn Dossett and others recording in a suitably rustic locale: a house in Greensboro, North Carolina.