Mavis Staples joined the Band on “The Weight” after their famous ‘Last Waltz’ concert on Thanksgiving 1976 – and something amazing happened.

Even at 13 tracks, the gorgeous ‘FM’ almost seems too short. Farewell Milwaukee always leaves you wanting more.

As an angry young man, Bob Dylan had very few rivals. “Pay in Blood” shows that he is still in a league of his own as an angry old man, too.

Even as shadows gathered around the superlative ‘No Better Than This,’ released this week in 2010, John Mellencamp clung to his weathered optimism.

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

There’s a gutsy musical experientation surrounding ‘Restless Ones,’ but the perfect Heartless Bastards album is still yet to be made.

‘Jimmy Choos,’ the lead track off the first album of original Rickie Lee Jones material in 10 years, sounds both familiar and different.

Released on May 26, 1992, ‘Kiko’ is still, by any measure, Los Lobos’ most unusual album. That’s what lures me back, again and again.

Free of the expectations surrounding the Allman Brothers Band and Gov’t Mule, Warren Haynes emerges with a sound both familiar and new.

This, quite clearly, is a labor of love, and every element speaks to Amy Helm’s steely focus on making the album she always wanted to make.