THE CHIEFTAINS - VOICE OF AGES

Irish traditionalists The Chieftains are known for their collaborations: most of their recent albums feature them collaborating with other artists.  Personally, I was turned on to them via their 1995 LP The Long Black Veil, which saw them working with the members of The Rolling Stones as well as Sting, Sinead O'Connor, Van Morrison, Mark Knopfler and Tom Jones.  I'd heard that their new album, Voice Of Ages, was going to be an album of tracks with "indie rock" artists, which didn't sound like a good idea to me. But it's not an accurate description of the album.

Yes, Bon Iver, The Decemberists and The Low Anthem appear on the album. (I really like The Decemberists' track, a cover of Dylan's "When The Ship Comes In.")  But it also includes some great artists, notably The Pistol Annies (Miranda Lambert's posse), The Civil Wars and Imelda May.

Most of the pairings work really well and connect the dots to show fans of the younger artists that traditional Irish music has influenced folk and country music.   And that's really what The Chieftains albums do best: use artists with different (and usually larger) fanbases to expose the beauty and power of traditional Irish music to a larger audience.

It's interesting that this album came out at the same time as The Hunger Games soundtrack, and both were produced by T-Bone Burnett (or as I sometimes call him, "Him Again"). And a number of the artists - including Carolina Chocolate Drops, The Civil Wars, The Decemberists, The Low Anthem, The Pistol Annies, The Punch Brothers and The Secret Sisters appear on both. I actually made an iPod mix combining songs from both. The albums are not interchangeable, but they work together as companion pieces: The Hunger Games has more of an Appalachian feel, while The Chieftains album is more Irish (obviously). But it does demonstrate the similarities of the music of American and Ireland and the timelessness of the music as well.

THE HUNGER GAMES SOUNDTRACK

I was a bit surprised to hear that T-Bone Burnett was producing the "soundtrack" to the film The Hunger Games. I know that the film is based on a series of books that are aimed at teenagers, and based in some sort of futuristic world. Didn't seem like his beat. My understanding was that The Hunger Games was meant to appeal to the Twilight crowd.  Again, T-Bone's greatest film music has seemed aimed at an older crowd: O Brother Where Art Thou, The Big Lebowski, Walk The Line, Crazy Heart. Generally folk, bluegrass, country, a bit of classic rock. I wasn't so surprised that T-Bone would do it as I was that he'd be asked.

But then I found out that none of the songs are actually in the film (I think one or two play during the closing credits).  What would be the point of getting a well-known (and probably well-paid) producer to put together a group of songs for a movie, but they won't be used in the film?

Well, it turns out that it worked quite well! Having seen the movie, I now know that the "District 12" referred to in the subtitle to the soundtrack is the coal mining territory where the main character, Katniss Everdeen, comes from. The music that T-Bone specializes in completely works among that backdrop.  And while none of the songs are heard during the actual film, all of the songs are actually based on the original novel.

I saw the movie this weekend and thought it was great. Pretty dark for a book for young people, but I respect that it doesn't pander to kids.  The soundtrack doesn't either.  Taylor Swift is on the soundtrack (and her collaboration with The Civil Wars works quite well)... but if they had the budget for her, that means they had the budget for Katy Perry or Drake or LMFAO.  It would have been really easy to fit those acts into some of the scenes in the film.  So I tip my hat to the producers for coming up with an idea that is much more cohesive, and will age well.

Other than the Taylor/Civil Wars track, I really liked Arcade Fire's "Abraham's Daughter," The Carolina Chocolate Drops' "Daughter's Lament," The Pistol Annies' "Run Daddy Run" and the one hip-hop track on the album, Kid Cudi's "The Ruler And The Killer" (which is more of a Nine Inch Nails vibe than an appalachian sound).

The packaging seems to have two slots for CDs even though it only contains one.  Any guesses as to why?

T-BONE BURNETT - "THE PRODUCER"

Musician Joseph Henry Burnett is more well known as T-Bone Burnett, but I've been calling him "Him Again." He has produced so many of my favorite albums of recent years, including Gregg Allman's Low Country Blues, Steve Earle's I'll Never Get Out Of This World Alive, Willie Nelson's Country Music, and the Robert Plant/Alison Krauss collaboration, Raising Sand, as well as the soundtracks to O Brother, Where Art Thou, The Big Lebowski and Crazy Heart.

A neat new compilation that I bought at Starbucks (but I don't believe it's exclusive to the chain) collects lots of the cool music he has produced over the years.  T-Bone himself writes about all the songs, which is really cool.  The collection does a good job of hitting many of his recent high points, although it omits the Willie album.  Still, definitely worth getting, particularly if you don't have a lot of these records.

BEST OF 2011 - #6 - GREGG ALLMAN "LOW COUNTRY BLUES"

Gregg Allman is one of the great blues singers still walking the earth.  He just needs to have good material.  Happily, he decided to work with T-Bone Burnett for his new solo album, Low Country Blues.

People who aren't familiar with the guy may wonder why he even needs to make a solo album, since he is the leader of The Allman Brothers Band. The difference is that the Allmans are a jazz-influenced blues band, and are the gold standard in improvisational rock music (what is now known as "jam band" music). But Gregg is mainly interested in singing blues and soul, and seems happy to keep the length of his songs under five minutes.  While I love the Allmans, and they've undeniably had a huge influence on rock music, I also love to hear Gregg belting out blues tunes without all the jamming that is sometimes part of the Allmans music.

It's not the most innovative record of the year, and I don't care. And I don't see it on many (or any) "Best of 2011" type lists... again, I don't care.  It seems that the main "heritage" artists being celebrated this year are Paul Simon for his excellent So Beautiful Or So What, and Robbie Robertson for his great How To Become Clairvoyant. But this album needs to be recognized.  Gregg's last solo album, released in 1997, was called Searching For Simplicity.  But this one could just as easily have gotten that title. And sometimes what I want to hear is simplicity.  Especially when it sounds as soulful as this.

BEST OF 2011 - #8 - STEVE EARLE "I'LL NEVER GET OUT OF THIS WORLD ALIVE"

Steve Earle's I'll Never Get Out Of The World Alive is a great album that I felt didn't get enough attention in 2011. I'm a huge fan of Steve's but I didn't really enjoy his last album, 2009's Townes.  This LP was produced by T-Bone Burnett, who is currently on an incredible streak of working with great artists (including the Elton John/Leon Russell, Robert Plant/Allison Krauss collabs, and albums by Jakob Dylan, John Mellencamp and B.B. King).

I feel like Steve always has relevant things to say, and one of my favorite songs on this album is "Little Emperor," about our last President. In this era of Obama bashing, it's worth mentioning that, for all of his failings, he's way better than what we had for eight years before he took office.

This album saw Steve return to the rock band format after doing two solo albums.   And the tour also saw him using a band for the first time in years.  I was fortunate enough to catch the show at Tarrytown Music Hall, and it was incredible. See a bunch of amazing photos from the show, shot by my lovely wife, here. And while I'm writing about Steve, I should mention his weekly SiriusXM show on Outlaw Country, read more about it here.

O BROTHER, TEN YEARS ON

I just picked up a copy of the deluxe reissue of the O Brother, Where Art Thou soundtrack.  It's well worth the money, especially if you didn't get it the first time.

It's the rare soundtrack that stands apart from the film, even though the film is an absolute classic.  I'd liken it to Saturday Night Fever in that it really introduced a genre of music to the general public.  SNF introduced disco, and O Brother kind of re-introduced bluegrass and mountain music to America and the world.  Both movies were huge (I barely remember SNF, but O Brother is one of my favorite films ever, I enjoy it more every time I see it) but still the soundtracks stand as their own creations.

I'd also argue that O Brother introduced some great talent to larger audiences, namely Gillian Welch.  Alison Krauss was doing quite well before the film, but I think a lot of people discovered her through the album. And without a doubt, Ralph Stanley really benefitted from the exposure he got from his haunting version of "O Death." And as producer T-Bone Burnett says in the liner notes, people who didn't have houses were now able to afford houses.  That's an amazing thing.  Another great story in the liner notes is about James Carter, who leads a group of convicts in a field recording of "Po' Lazarus," from 1959, which is used at the beginning of the film. After the soundtrack went to #1, he was tracked down: out of jail for decades, he didn't remember recording that song, but now he gets performance royalty checks from one of the best selling soundtracks of all time. "So a movie about these prisoners on a prison work farm down South recording a song and having it become a hit song unbeknownst to them, started off with a song recorded by a prisoner on a prison work farm which became a bit hit unbeknownst to him."

This is all the context of the film and the soundtrack.  But how is the expanded reissue?  Well, it adds some songs from the film that didn't make the original version, as well as a couple of songs that weren't used in the film. Many are different versions of songs from the film: "Hard Time Killing Floor Blues" (by Colin Linden, in addition to Chris Thomas King's from the original soundtrack), "I'll Fly Away" (by The Kossoy Sisters with Erik Darling, complimenting the Krauss/Welch version), and another haunting field recording, Ed Lewis and other prisoners singing "Tom Devil," recorded by Alan Lomax the same day he recorded "Po' Lazarus."

I'm not sure the album necessarily needed an expanded edition, but I found the other versions of the songs a welcome addition to an album that I've listened to many times.

THE BIG LEBOWSKI SOUNDTRACK

The other night I watched The Big Lebowski for maybe the 50th time.  I lent out my DVD, so I bought it on iTunes so I always have it on my computer. It's a perfect film on every level: it's fun, funny, holds up to repeated viewings, has a great story, it's quotable, the acting is great. Even Tara Reid shines.

But it struck me how great the music is. The Coen Brothers definitely know their music (further proof of that is O Brother Where Art Thou). The often use T-Bone Burnett to be music supervisor, and he did an incredible job here.

Bob Dylan's "The Man In Me" which opens the film sets the tone perfectly.  Kenny Rogers & The First Edition "Just Dropped In" during the freakout sequence: genius. The Gipsy Kings cover of "Hotel California" during Jesus' bowling scene: awesome. Especially given that The Dude hates The (fuckin') Eagles. Also the choice of fairly obscure artists: Captain Beefheart, Moondog and Meredith Monk is cool.

The Dude's music choices make sense: he loves Creedence Clearwater Revival. He's listening to Elvis Costello at the doctor.  But sometimes he just listens to tapes of bowling.

The movie rocks even more with its choice of cameo actors. Aimee Mann as the nihilist who cuts off her toe. Flea, another nihilist with a ridiculous accent.  Jimmie Dale Gilmore as Smokey, did he really step over the line? Jeff Bridges as The Dude is just perfect, and he's a rocker in his own right (he actually releases his second album tomorrow. It's produced by... wait for it... T-Bone Burnett).

I've often talked of my respect for music supervisors who do their job really well.  So, I have to tip my hat to the Coens and T-Bone for this one.

STEVE EARLE "I'LL NEVER GET OUT OF THIS WORLD ALIVE"

Interesting album title for a left-wing country singer who has endured drug addiction, the slammer and seven marriages.  I was starting to think that Steve Earle might just be a durable as Keith Richards!

I'm a huge Steve Earle fan (he was one of my favorite artists of the '00s), and I was excited to get an advance copy of his new album, I'll Never Get Out Of This World Alive, which is a reference to a Hank Williams lyric (and also the title of Steve's upcoming novel, about Hank's doctor, who is haunted by Hank's ghost). I did not get the advance from the label by the way, and I have also pre-ordered the album. I am happy to pay for a Steve Earle album.  Steve's albums always have cool artwork, which is part of the whole package.  Anyway, you know me: I like to have the "official" version.

This album is produced by T-Bone Burnett (or as I sometimes call him, "Him Again!"), and features Steve reunited with his band The Dukes, and also features his wife Allison Moorer. That's a lot of stuff going on, but everyone works well together.  Not all of the songs are "new," per se: "This City" is from the HBO show Treme (which features Steve as an actor), and "God Is God" and "I Am A Wanderer" are songs that Steve wrote for Joan Baez's 2008 album Day After Tomorrow, which he produced.

So those are the details: the album is a really rootsy affair. I always figured if Steve and the Dukes got together again, it would be a rocking affair... maybe next time.  I don't mean to say that I don't like the album, though, I do.  I love it, it's one of my favorites of the year. It sounds like The Dukes went back in time a few decades... which is what I guess you hire T-Bone for. (By the way, I'm not putting him down, he's one of my favorite producers!)

I love the opening track, "Waitin' On The Sky," if I didn't know Steve wrote it, I would have thought it was an obscure traditional piece.  It's that timeless.  Both of the Baez songs are great - I prefer Steve's versions (disclaimer: although I love Joan's politics, and I think she seems like a really cool lady, I've never enjoyed her music).  I think Steve was really inspired when he had the opportunity to write for such a legend (although I think it's funny that they recorded the album in Nashville, it's not exactly where you'd think they'd be welcomed!).  "Heaven Or Hell" is also great - it's a duet with Allison Moorer.  I don't ever really get into the personal lives of artists, but I'll just say that I think this relationship will last.  I've seen them perform on stage, they have such a chemistry when they sing together, you can see the love and respect.  You can hear it on the record.

I've said it before - Steve Earle seems to be more "relevant" and important with each passing year.  He has an incredible catalog of music to live up to, and he pretty much always comes through (I didn't love his last album, Townes, but I would recommend all of his other albums). I'm looking forward to seeing Steve's tour, which will feature The Dukes with Allison on keyboards.  If you have a chance to catch this tour, do so.

GRAMMY WATCH: BEST AMERICANA ALBUM

Out of all the categories in this year's Grammy Awards, the most difficult for me as a voter was the Best Americana Album category. All five of the albums are incredible.

First is Rosanne Cash's The List, which came out in early 2010. The title is a reference to an actual list that her father, Johnny Cash, made for her of some of the greatest songs of all time, like "Long Black Veil," "Motherless Children" and "I'm Movin' On." It's mostly a solo album, but there are duets with Bruce Springsteen, Rufus Wainwright, Jeff Tweedy and Elvis Costello. It's a really great and moving album (and kind of seems made for the Grammys, I was kind of surprised it didn't get more nominations, but the fact that it came out so long ago probably worked against it).

Los Lobos' Tin Can Trust was one of my favorite albums of 2010, I've written about it before. I'll just say that Los Lobos never seem to get their due. I love this album, I love the band. In 2011, I'm planning on completing my Los Lobos CD collection. I've never seen them live, this year I hope to change that. It shouldn't be hard, they seem to tour very frequently.

Willie Nelson's T-Bone Burnett-produced Country Music was another album that I loved, and I'm sorry that it didn't get more attention. I guess part of Willie's problem is that he is so prolific, people can hardly keep up with all of his albums. Country Music really was great... of course, it wasn't "country" in the current mainstream Nashville sense, but it did have great songs like "Dark As A Dungeon," "House Of Gold," "Satan Your Kingdom Must Come Down" and "House Of Gold." Willie and T-Bone's regulars cooked up a great brew (among other things, probably) of amazing music.

Robert Plant's Band Of Joy was another of my favorite albums of 2010. I listen to it all the time, and am still amazed by it. Also amazing is the strength of his vision and his commitment to it. At this point, he's not only turning down lucrative Led Zeppelin tours to do his own thing, he's turing down the follow up to his multi-Grammy winning collab with Alison Krauss, Raising Sand.

Ultimately the album I loved the most was my second favorite album of 2010, Mavis Staples' You Are Not Alone... the title track was my favorite song of the year and one of my favorite songs of all time. Also - I don't vote based on this - I was surprised to learn that Mavis has never won a Grammy! This is a career record for her, and I'd love to see her get the recognition, so here's hoping she wins on Sunday.

GREGG ALLMAN - LOW COUNTRY BLUES

2011 is starting out great, musically, there's already been two albums that I love: the new Social D album, and also Gregg Allman's latest solo effort, Low Country Blues.

Some may ask what the point of a Gregg Allman solo album is. Years ago, I got it: Gregg and Allmans guitarist/singer Dickey Betts famously didn't get along, so I figured when he did his last solo album, 1997's Searching For Simplicity, it was to do an album without having to deal with Betts. But these days, he seems to get along well with all his bandmates.

But here's the real deal: despite being the namesake and the main voice of one of the quintessential "jam bands," he's not really into that scene! He is a blues and soul guy, and blues and soul songs are generally between two and a half and five minutes long. The jazz influence of the late '60s, which entailed lots of improvisation and musical exploration, led to long jams and songs that broke the ten minute barrier. My understanding is that isn't really his thing, it was more Betts, his brother Duane and the other guys in the band. But it's become what The Allman Brothers Band are known for, and he's OK with that. But when he goes off on his own, he is more song oriented, and not as "jammy." The problem I sometimes have with his solo music is that it's a bit too laid back (and he even released a solo album called Laid Back!).

For his new album, he teamed up with T-Bone Burnett, or as I sometimes call him, "Him Again!" I say that with great respect and admiration though, in recent years he's produced good and great albums by Elton John and Leon Russell, Ryan Bingham, John Mellencamp, Robert Randolph, Willie Nelson, Jakob Dylan, Elvis Costello, B.B. King, the Crazy Heart soundtrack, and of course the Robert Plant & Alison Krauss album. Burnett definitely has a sound, it's a rustic, down-home kind of thing. And it totally suits Gregg. He's singing blues the way they were meant to be sung, not a supper-club version or a psychedelic super-extended version of it (not that there's anything wrong with either of those). Burnett gets some of the best vocal performances out of the guy in decades.  Save for one original, co-written by Gregg with Brother Warren Haynes, it's all covers, but doesn't come off like some novelty project. It's really tight: he uses some of Burnett's regular musicians, plus Doyle Bramhall on guitar and Dr. John on piano.  It just works.  It is the most innovative thing I've heard? No.  But it is a great blues and soul singer, singing great blues and soul. It's not some old guy hitting the studio because it's "time" for a new album, it's a legend who just rediscovered a fire in him, and he's letting it out. I predict it will be one of my favorite albums of the year. Even if you don't like The Allmans (I am a huge fan by the way) I think you may enjoy it.

JOHN MELLENCAMP - NO BETTER THAN THIS - TIE FOR #11

John Mellencamp put out a great album in 2010, and I feel like it didn't get enough attention.  In a way, I can see why.  He's been pretty prolific over the past decade, and although I'm a big fan, I haven't enjoyed all of his recent stuff. The last album that I loved - and I really loved it - was 2003's Trouble No More. One of my favorite songs by John, though, was "Walk Tall," a
collaboration with Babyface from John's 2004 best-of, Words and Music.

But No Better Than This is 180 degrees different from "Walk Tall." Produced by T-Bone ("Him Again") Burnett - the second record in a row they worked together on - it was recorded in mono on reel-to-reel tape in a few places with lots of mojo: the Sun Records studio, a church basement and in the Gunter Hotel in San Antonio, where Robert Johnson recorded. Those locales set the bar pretty high, and while it isn't going to change the world the way Johnson's sides, or the records made at Sun did, it lives up to high expectations.

In recent years, Mellencamp has become sort of a "greatest hits" guy live, so I don't know if his audience really goes for the ride with him when he plays newer material (the way, say, Springsteen's audience does). It would be a shame if they didn't: the songs here are really great and are among some of his best.

WILLIE NELSON - COUNTRY MUSIC - TIE FOR #11

One album that I felt was really overlooked and underrated in 2010 was the latest from Willie Nelson, Country Music. Produced by T-Bone ("Him Again") Burnett, The name of the album may seem odd or obvious, as Willie is kind of synonymous with country music, but he often makes excursions into other genres: in 2009, he released an album of standards (American Classic) and Texas swing (Willie & The Wheel, a collaboration with Asleep At The Wheel, which I loved). So, in one regard, it's a return to classic country music.

But the title can also double as a reminder to Nashville that this is country music. The Nashville establishment respects Willie, but don't ever support his new music (the same is true for Merle, it was true for Cash and Waylon during the last few decades of their lifetimes).

Actually, "country music" may be a bit deceptive, unless you consider the roots of the genre, which were tied to gospel music. The album features some old gospel numbers like "Satan Your Kingdom Must Come Down" (coincidentally, former Burnett client Robert Plant covered it on his latest album, Band Of Joy), "Satisfied Mind," and Hank Williams' "House Of Gold."  Other country classics include Merle Travis' "Dark As A Dungeon," Doc Watson's "Freight Train Boogie" and "You Done Me Wrong," written by Ray Price and George Jones. The album isn't some gimmicky marketing project though, it is a collection of well-chosen songs that Willie takes and makes his own.

Willie Nelson is so prolific it can be hard to keep up with all of the albums that he puts out (I am a huge fan of his more recent music).  This album isn't a stretch into different waters for him, as (you could argue) his forays into standards, blues, children's music or  reggae have been.  (Let's forget that reggae album ever happened, actually.) This is a master artist picking songs that are classics but not overplayed, and he actually brings new life to all of them.  Highly recommended.

JAKOB DYLAN - WOMEN AND COUNTRY - TIE FOR #11

The latest solo album by Jakob Dylan, Women and Country, was another album that I really enjoyed from 2010. Reuniting with T-Bone ("Him Again") Burnett - who produced The Wallflowers classic Bringing Down The Horse - Dylan went for a more "full" sound than on his solo debut, Seeing Things (produced by Rick "Him Again" Rubin).

Most of the album has a quiet and laid back sound, but there is one notable exception, "Lend A Hand" which has a Tom Waits goes to New Orleans type marching band sound. It's my favorite song on the album, and one of my favorite songs of the year. Other highlights on the album include "Nothing But The Whole Wide World" and "Everybody's Hurting."

It's a bummer that the press seems to have lost interest in Jakob Dylan, and seem to regard him as a '90s artist who is past his prime.  I don't want to make any comparisons to any other artists, but I think that he'll be making great music for the rest of this decade and well beyond that. Don't sleep on this album just because the press has been.

TOMORROW ON OUTQ: STUFF YOU MAY HAVE MISSED - MUMFORD & SONS, SECRET SISTERS, GREENHORNES

For those of you who are new to No Expiration: every Wednesday morning at 9 am ET (ish) I can be heard on the SIRIUS XM OutQ show The Morning Jolt With Larry Flick. This week I'm talking about music you may not have heard yet.

The first artist is Mumford & Sons. Actually they are pretty huge, their music video for "Little Lion Man" has been viewed 13 million times or something on YouTube. But lots of people are just finding out about them now.  I describe them as a smaller, British version of Springsteen's Seeger Sessions Band. I had the opportunity to film them recently (I'll hopefully post a video soon) and was knocked out by how great they were.  Their debut album, Sigh No More, is probably one of the best albums of the year.

Another new group is Secret Sisters, an actual duo of sisters. They sound like they are straight out of O Brother, Where Art Thou, so no surprise that their self-titled debut album was exec produced by O Brother music supervisor T-Bone "Him Again" Burnett. I first heard the Sisters on a Third Man 7" single, produced by Jack "Him Again" White, and it has a much heavier, edgier sound than the album. But the album, which features originals, but also covers by Hank Williams and George Jones, is really good.

Speaking of Jack White and Third Man, they've just put out the first album in eight years by the great garage rock trio The Greenhornes, called ****. The reason the band were away for so long is because two of their members, bassist Jack Lawrence and drummer Patrick Keeler, played with Jack in The Raconteurs (and Lawrence in Dead Weather).

Black Dub is a new band led by the great producer Daniel Lanois and featuring singer Trixie Whitley, daughter of the late, great Chris Whitley. I just got this album, and it is really good. I'm going to write more about all of these albums, hopefully soon.

ELVIS COSTELLO STILL DELIVERS!

I've got a lot of respect for Elvis Costello. I'm not the hugest fan, but I have to admire that he follows his muse, and never takes the easy path. He still has the fire. I have said this before, but I think I can be a bit more objective about his newer material because his '70s and '80s stuff wasn't the soundtrack to my life.

I definitely dig his new album, National Ransom.   I've read that some people are calling this a "bluegrass" album.  I think that might be a fitting way to describe his last one (last year's Secret, Profane and Sugarcane), although both albums were produced by T-Bone Burnett. but this one sort of splits the difference between that album and the previous one, 2008's Momofuku. It has elements of garage rock and but a rootsier more country or rustic feel. The musicians on the album are the guys from The Sugarcanes (from his last album) and The Imposters (his go-to rock band these days, 2/3 are former Attractions). He still rocks: the title track is as good as "American Gangster Time" which I rate as one of his finest moments.  But on other songs, it feels like he is still discovering new things to try, and three decades into his career, that's pretty cool. 

I had the opportunity to watch him do a solo acoustic performance at my place of work, which was really cool. I don't think he does that too often. Anyway, here's his solo acoustic - but rocking - version of the very timely "National Ransom."

TOMORROW ON OUTQ:GREAT TEAM-UPs

For those who are new to No Expiration, every Wednesday morning at 9 am-ish, I go on SIRIUS XM OutQ's The Morning Jolt with Larry Flick (co-hosted by Keith Price) to talk about music. Sometimes I have a theme, and tomorrow I'm going to be talking about recently released "team-up" albums. (We may also talk about the late, great Solomon Burke as well).

First off is the album by John Legend & The Roots, Wake Up. It's an album of covers of socially conscious R&B and soul covers from the '60s and '70s (as well as one new song written for the documentary Waiting For Superman). Yes, the album was inspired by Barack Obama's election, and was originally supposed to be an EP, but ended up becomming a full length album. Some people think that John Legend is too polite and that he lacks grit. ?uestlove who co-produced the album helped to change that. And as smooth as John is, he is very socially conscious, and you can definitely hear grit and fury in the cover of Bill Withers' "I Can't Write Left Handed." Lots of the songs are pretty obscure, I'd chalk that up to ?uestlove, who probably chose the songs. My one criticism: why have guest MCs, even such great ones as Common and C.L. Smooth when Black Thought is in the group (he's only on two songs). Anyway, I really dig this album.

Fistful Of Mercy is a new group that features one of my favorite artists, Ben Harper. The band also features Joseph Arthur and Dhani Harrison. They just released their debut album, As I Call You Down. It isn't my favorite thing Ben has done, but it has some really great songs. I recently filmed a performance by the group, I'll be posting a song soon.

Finally, the new duo album by Elton John and Leon Russell, The Union (produced by - of course! - T-Bone Burnett!). Leon was a huge influence on Elton, and Elton reached out to him a while back. Discovering that Leon wasn't in a great place, and bummed that he seemed to be forgotten, Elton invited him to do an album together. It shows what a giving and generous guy Elton is, despite the whole "tantrums and tiaras" thing. So that makes me want to like it. I think it is his best album since 2001's Songs From The West Coast (one of my favorite Elton albums), but not quite as good as that one. Still, there are some great songs, including the first single "If It Wasn't For Bad" (written by Leon) and "Hey Ahab" (written by Elton and Bernie Taupin).

THIS WEEK ON OUTQ: FISTFUL OF MERCY, RAY LAMONTAGNE, ISOBEL & MARK AND MORE

For those of you who are new to No Expiration, every Wednesday morning at 9 am ET (-ish), I discuss music on The Morning Jolt With Larry Flick on SIRIUS XM's OutQ channel. I should also mention Larry's co-host, comedian Keith Price. Going on the show is always a fun time.  This week I have some great new music to talk about - there isn't a theme as such, but all of these records show a certain restraint and subtlety.

First off is Fistful of Mercy, a new "supergroup" featuring Ben Harper, Joseph Arthur and Dhani Harrison (son of The Quiet Beatle). I wrote about them last week - I hadn't heard of them at all (and I'm usually up on Ben Harper's doings) and then all of the sudden a video arrived in my email box! Well, you know that I'm a huge Ben Harper fan. I don't know much about Joseph Arthur, but I love his song "In The Sun" (which Michael Stipe covered a few years ago). I haven't heard Dhani's music with his band thenewno2, but I will check it out. Anyway, I have the band's title track to play.

I'm getting really into Ray LaMontagne & The Pariah Dogs' God Willin' and the Creek Don't Rise, which I wrote about last night. I have all of Ray's prior albums, and generally I like a couple of songs from each, but not the whole album. This one, I love the whole thing. It's really quiet (opener "Repo Man" is uncharacteristically funky) but I really dig it. It is actually inspiring me to go back and listen to his other albums and see if they've grown on me. He has lots of songs that I love: "Trouble," "Shelter," "Hold You In My Arms," "You Are The Best Thing," "Meg White" (yes he wrote a song about Meg White!) and "Three More Days." But I'm going back and revisiting his entire albums.

I've been a fan of John Mellencamp pretty much as long as I've been a fan of rock and roll. And as No Expiration readers know, I'm loyal to artists who have been around for a long time. I'll admit it, I haven't liked many of John's albums over the past decade or so (with the exception of 2003's Trouble No More, and I think his song 2004 song "Walk Tall" is maybe his finest moment). His new album, No Better Than This, like his last one (2008's Life, Death, Love and Freedom) was produced by T-Bone Burnett. They recorded it with a ribbon mic onto a reel-to-reel recorder at Sun Studios, a baptist church in Savannah, Georgia, and in the hotel room where Robert Johnson recorded some of his sides. You would figure that those places are a bit haunted, and so is this album (as Burnett points out in the liner notes). There aren't any arena anthems here, so it's too bad that he probably won't be able to play too many of these songs in concert: it's a really good album. I'm still getting used to it, but I like it a lot.

There are high expectations for Ryan Bingham & The Dead Horses' Junky Star. With two albums behind him, Ryan seemed to come out of nowhere to win an Oscar for his song "The Hurting Kind" from last year's film Crazy Heart. Like that song (and like Mellencamp's new album), Junky Star was produced by T-Bone Burnett (him again!). He seems to not be taking advantage of his higher profile - he's just doin' what he does. Which I guess is the smartest response to his situation. It's hard to imagine how this album will get too popular, but he doesn't seem to be too worried about it. He sounds a bit like a (less political) Steve Earle - the people who are going to like him are going to like him, but he isn't trying to sell himself to people who aren't interested. The Oscar makes it a bit easier to find the people who are going to like him though.

Mark Lanegan and Isobel Campbell released their third album, Hawk. They are as good of a team as Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, and they've actually been compared to Lee Hazelwood and Nancy Sinatra, which is probably a better comparassion (rougher, countrier guy and poppier gal). Lanegan got his start as the singer of Screaming Trees, was briefly in Queens Of The Stone Age, collaborated with Greg Dulli in The Gutter Twins, collaborated with a dance music group called Soulsavers and has done a bunch of great solo albums as well. Campbell is formerly of a indie-pop group (often described as "twee") called Belle & Sebastian. So, it is sort of an unlikely combo, but it really works (much like Plant/Krauss). They sing well together - you get the impression that they are listening to each other. On this album, Campbell seems to be the boss: she's the producer and she wrote almost all of the songs herself (Lanegan didn't write any). But it's not about who wrote what or who produced, the final results are really great. Like with the LaMontange album, this is making me want to revisit their past collaborations. And also Mark's past solo stuff (and maybe even look into Isobel's solo stuff, I know I don't like B&S too much).

David Gray has quietly released a new album, Foundling. That's appropriate, because it is a pretty quiet album, even by his standards. I've read interviews with him where he's pretty much say he has no expectation that this album will be a commercial success. I think a smart music supervisor for a TV show can use some of these songs effectively. But Gray is probably right. I have a lot of respect for him, so I'm giving the album a chance, but it hasn't stuck with me. But, like Ray LaMontange, most of his records just have a few songs that I really like (I love "The Other Side," "The One I Love," "The World To Me" and "Draw The Line" to name a couple)... but maybe I need to revisit them also. That's one of the great things about music, it can hit you in different ways at different times.

TOMORROW ON OUTQ: SINGER-SONGWRITERS

For those of you who are new to No Expiration, every Wednesday morning at 9 am ET I go on the SIRIUS XM channel OutQ. I am a weekly contributor to The Morning Jolt with Larry Flick. Tomorrow I'll be talking about some great singer-songwriters, including one of Larry's favorites.  

A while ago, I wrote about James Taylor's tour with Carole King. It turns out that it is one of the hottest tours of the year! In the early '70s, James and Carole shared a backing band and did gigs together.  They actually did a few shows at the Trobadour in L.A. a while back, and have just released an excellent live album from the shows. It's easy to make fun of this and call it boomer soft-rock or whatever.  But James is an incredible songwriter and in my opinion, Carole is even better. She is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame - as a "non-performer." For her career as a songwriter for other people (along with her former songwriting partner and ex-husband, Gerry Goffin). I would argue that she should be inducted for a second time, this time as a performer. 

Speaking of Carole King, Sony Legacy has just released The Essential Carole King. It is a bit different than the many other releases in the Essential series, in that one disc is Carole performing her own songs, the other disc features other artists, including Aretha Franklin, Little Eva, The Cookies and Billy Joel, performing her songs.  Before she was a performer, she worked as a songwriter in the Brill Building (Neil Diamond worked there as well). She wrote a lot of great songs for other people: but her own album Tapestry is a stone cold classic. 

A lot of people classify Jackson Browne along with James and Carole: a singer-songwriter who came of age in the late '60s and early '70s who seemed to be the drier next movement after the hippie era. And like James and Carole, he was never part of a band to reunite with.  James and Carole had both done some stripped down and solo tours, and without a band to reunite with, they reunited with each other (and their former backing band). Jackson has also done the stripped down thing in recent years, but for this live album, he reunited with his multi-instrumentalist collaborator David Lindley.  Their live album was recorded on a tour of Spain in 2006, and features some collaborators from Spain. I'm not a huge Jackson fan.  I love his politics, but I'm not totally into his music.  He is one of Larry Flick's favorite artists though. I interviewed Jackson once, and he was very cool.  

Jakob Dylan just released his second solo album, Women & Country.  His first one was produced by Rick Rubin and was stripped down a la double R's productions of Johnny Cash and Neil Diamond. This time around he worked with T-Bone Burnett who produced his most successful album, The Wallflowers' Bringing Down The Horse. Women & Country is great. I think Jakob is always going to be underrated. First of all, there's dad. Second, that Wallflowers album was so big, he isn't likely to get another album that is that popular. But you have me, so you don't need hype!  Trust me, get this album. 

Jack Johnson has just released his latest album, To The Sea, which apparently had one of the best first week sales numbers of 2010.  Of course, that doesn't mean as much as it used to, but good for Jack. I think even he is surprised at how successful he's been.  I've interviewed him, and he seems to be such a good guy. People think he doesn't have any edge to him, but he grew up listening to Fugazi and Metallica.  It's just not his thing to make that kind of music. Anyway, I like a lot of his songs (I don't know if I'd go to a concert, but I've enjoyed seeing him open for other people and at festivals), and I really like his new song, "You and Your Heart." 

Finally, Karen Elson a new artist who took me totally by surprise. I promise to write more about her pretty soon.  I really like her self titled debut album. 

ELTON JOHN/LEON RUSSELL ALBUM IN THE WORKS

This is pretty cool. Elton John and Leon Russell are recording an album together, produced by T-Bone Burnett. Some people seem to find this a surprising combo, but when Elton was Elvis Costello's guest on Spectacle, he talked about Leon Russell's influence on him. All the songs for this album have been written by Elton and Bernie Taupin. Taupin wrote about it a bit on his website, saying that it is different from the classic Elton/Bernie songs, and that there are "Stones like rockers, country tinged ballads, gospel and even a Sinatra-like weepy similar to 'In The Wee Small Hours.'" That sounds pretty awesome.

PRODUCER OF THE YEAR, BRENDAN O'BRIEN

Brendan O'Brien has produced some of my favorite artists, so I'm glad he got the Grammy for Producer of the Year. Some of the recent albums he produced: Bruce Springsteen's Working On A Dream, Pearl Jam's Backspacer, AC/DC's Black Ice, Killswitch Engage's self-titled record and Mastodon's Crack The Skye. I thought T-Bone Burnett would have also been a good choice, but so was Brendan.