This Mid-Year Best of 2015 list also includes Boz Scaggs, Pops Staples, Papa Mali, Wes Montgomery, Robben Ford, the Word, Steve Earle and Beth Hart.

Here is a review of Sam Trapchak’s solid second album, ‘Land Grab,’ with Greg Ward, Tom Chang and Christian Coleman.

The hard-rocking, unjustly overlooked Rugbys certainly had good ideas and a rich imagination, so there’s a lot of neat stuff going on here.

‘Planetario’ may be Novalima’s most accessible release to date, but the Afro-Peruvian electronica group still packs quite a wallop.

‘Hydra,’ Toto’s second album, confounded critics and fans alike upon its release in October 1979, but it has aged well.

Bad Company was better than they were given credit for. And Paul Rodgers, these reissues make clear, ranks among the best rock singers of all time.

It had been 35 years since I’d seen the quintessential prog-rockers Yes, led by the recently departed Chris Squire. They didn’t disappoint.

Warren Haynes’ “Common Man” is just what you want from a collaborative effort like this, something that shines a new light on a long-treasured figure.

Alan Parsons Project’s prophetic ‘I Robot,’ issued this month in 1977, focused on the uneasy relationship between human and machine.

‘Steve McQueen,’ released this month in 1985, should’ve hurtled Prefab Sprout to fame in MTV-era America. Instead, they remained curiously anonymous.