From roots rocker to song-writing impressionist to sonic adventurer, the musical progression of Joe Henry resists category and defies expectation, nevermore so than on Scar. The album-opening "Richard Pryor Addresses a Tearful Nation" is Henry's most audacious move to date, as his smoky voice channels the comedian's tragic spirit while a saxophone break from free-jazz titan Ornette Coleman provides achingly poignant punctuation. The rest of the song cycle ranges from the sophisticated atmospherics of "Stop" (adapted by Henry's sister-in-law Madonna into her hit single, "Don't Tell Me") to the insistent funk of "Rough and Tumble". The production by Henry and Craig Street gives the music plenty of room to breathe, augmenting the organic interplay of guitarist Marc Ribot, pianist Brad Mehldau and bassist Me'shell Ndegeocello with bittersweet string arrangements. Though there are echoes of Van Morrison in "Mean Flower" and the Band in "Cold Enough to Cross", Henry is less a classicist than a restless visionary. -Don McLeese.

In his thirties and no longer the poster boy of the post-grunge generation, Evan Dando returns a wiser and seemingly chastened man on Baby I'm Bored, his first studio album since the Lemonheads' 1996 finale Car Button Cloth. It's well documented that the late 1990s were difficult years for the singer as, narcotic-addicted, he struggled to locate his muse and motivation. It's heartening, then, that he has returned with a set of such genuinely lovely songs. Visceral, vital and yearning, Baby I'm Bored boasts a wealth of gems. The opener, "Repeat", is vulnerable and touched with intimations of mortality, yet quietly resolute; "It Looks Like You" is as spectral and plangent as the Byrds; "Hard Drive" even rehabilitates that widely despised genre, the list song. However, the ambience isn't always so positivist. "The Same Thing" hints darkly at mental turmoil endured ("I can't believe how far I slipped") while "Why Do You Do This to Yourself?" berates a kamikaze party animal over the most muted of acoustic strums. So, is this Dando's autobiographical meisterwerk? Well, if it is, there is resolution: "All My Life" gratefully delineates newer, sounder perspectives ("All my life I thought I needed / The things I didn't need at all") while the giddy, bucolic closer "In the Grass All Wine Colored" sounds as pristine and pure as a baby's conscience. Members of Calexico, Giant Sand, Come and Spacehog chip in their support on the album but the focus is fully on Dando, an artist reborn, restored and-palpably-far from bored. -Ian Gittins.

Sixteen Horsepower are crusaders in the traditional and musical sense of the term, and Folklore is further proof of this. While much of what has been written about this extraordinary band has concentrated on the religious fervour of singer/songwriter David Eugene Edwards, Sixteen Horsepower's equally passionate zeal for the music that inspires them has been overlooked. This extraordinary band see themselves as heirs to two apparently contrary, but-Sixteen Horsepower believe-spiritually akin lineages: old-school American folk and New Wave punk rock. On their previous albums, they've started acknowledging some of these influences, covering Bob Dylan's "'Cept You", Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Bad Moon Rising" and Gun Club's "Fire Spirit", among others. Folklore is also, in part, a work of homage, containing typically ferocious readings of Hank Williams' "Alone and Forsaken" and the Carter Family's "Single Girl", as well as a selection of traditional songs-all of which sound here like they've always been Sixteen Horsepower songs. Folklore also contains four new Sixteen Horsepower originals, which demonstrate that their capacity for making banjos and violins sound like the onset of the apocalypse remains undimmed. -Andrew Mueller.