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After 2002's storming Hollerin' At A Woodpecker, Minnesota-based Weaver's latest compounds his promise. The song, essentially, remains the same—chilly steel, sparse banjo, stroked acoustic—but these vignettes sound like gutter-pulpit sermons in a disturbed netherworld. Weaver's voice—which makes Lee Marvin sound like Aled Jones—lends biblical portent to the most mundane detail. Standout track "John Martin"—its protagonist duped by a sinister drifter—is claustrophobic as hell. A one-man Brothers Grimm with no happy endings. Enjoy.

Already touted as the next big thing, this 26-year-old Idaho native retains the folk-country purr of first album Golden Age Of Radio, and there's an obvious debt to Dylan in the subtle phrasing. Mostly set to quietly rolling acoustic guitar—with Sam Kassirer's Hammond adding an Al Kooper-like undertow—Hello Starling casts Ritter in the same wry glow as early Jackson Browne or James Taylor. Celtic ballad "Kathleen" proves he's fully assimilated the traditional, and the lovely "Wings" was recently covered by Joan Baez.

Emerging in 2001, these Detroit brothers lash the hard-livin' loucheness to traditional country ache. Frontman/songwriter Kurt Marschke's wail is Jaggeresque and there's lonesome balladry aplenty ("27 Hours", "Such A Crime") plus enough "Happy"-like fretwork to suggest what might have been had Gram'n'Keef really got it on. "Entitled" pits the sideways chug of The Breeders' "Cannonball" against early Replacements sneer, and dobro/pedal steel player Peter Ballard tints the big skies with a yearning airiness. Seriously impressive.

Cut from classic troubadour cloth, North Carolinan Holcombe has been recording for 20 years, though dogged by bad luck (dropped by Geffen, his previous album, A Hundred Lies, was only released after fans Steve Earle and Lucinda Williams found him a label). His husk of a voice and country-blues finger-picking is reminiscent of Eric Andersen and Tim Hardin, but closest to JJ Cale. The 48-year-old's stream-of-consciousness lyricism is unique, though, bearing the scars of a troubled past.

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