Lynne's follow-up to 2003's Identity Crisis works the same sparse, moody territory, but if the title of the former spoke to her self-esteem at the time, Suit Yourself shows her being more confident in every way. Again acting as her own producer, Lynne took the demo tapes she made in her California home studio to Nashville, where she augmented her first-take vocals with guitar (the Wallflowers' Michael Ward), keyboards (Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers' Benmont Tench), bass, drums, pedal steel, Dobro, and mandolin, employing those instruments merely as brush strokes on a wide-open canvas of voice and emotion. Throughout, Lynne strives to make the project so relaxed that a listener feels as if he's sitting cross-legged in the room-the first track begins with studio chatter, and elsewhere you can hear ice cubes clinking in a glass and the sound of someone pushing the stop button on a tape recorder. For those who prefer a more polished production, this fly-on-the-wall approach may be disconcerting, especially as the occasional track seems unfinished or a bit too rough, with an out-of-tune guitar or a rhythmic disconnect between singer and players. But ultimately, the album satisfies with the honesty and strength of the material, which ranges from Lynne's killer cover of guest Tony Joe White's "Rainy Night in Georgia" (here titled simply "Track 12") to the smoky groove of "I Cry Everyday," the wistful ballad "Old Time's Sake," and the Waylon Jennings-like "Iced Tea. " Speaking of outlaws, "Johnny Met June," one of the most memorable tracks, details the Cashes' "meeting" on the far banks of the Jordan. Lynne wrote it the day Johnny died. -Alanna Nash.

With a legend like Hank, than man who largely dragged country music into the modern age, the question is how do you pick just 40 of his songs? There were the immediately obvious biggies like "Hey Good Lookin'", "Jambalaya", and "Move It On Over", but almost everything was a gem in one way or another. Whether this collection is the greatest hits or not will depend on the listener, but for anyone with even the slightest curiosity about country music, it's essential listening. Hank was a landmark of the genre, and to hear him is to understand how country could change from rural to urban. Essential listening for everyone. -Chris Nickson.

In the late 1970s the Cheap Suit Serenaders-fronted by comics legend Robert C Crumb but also featuring fellow old-time music artistes Robert Armstrong, B Bob Brozman, Al Dodge, Tom Marion and Terry Zwigoff (who would later produce a whole film on Crumb)-were the only group around who would even think about still producing 78s. After all, that's where all their favourite music came from. Those platters are now highly collectible, but their albums live on, reissued on CD. Singing in the Bathtub collects some of their best work-humorous originals such as "Suits Crybaby Blues" and plenty of covers of tunes from obscure 78s. Their playing is flawless (you probably haven't heard the steel guitar, banjo mandolin, or musical saw played with such virtuosity as here), the tunes are mostly fun and spirited, and the music styles are varied. In the hands of the Cheap Suits, old-time music is alive and well. -Jason Verlinde.