Notable CDs

Assuming you don’t own any of this exemplary blue-eyed soul singer’s many compilations, these 15 cuts-plus-endearing-between-song-patter will bring you up to speed. Assuming you don’t own 2013’s Rain or Shine, its six faithfully recreated cuts will make you want to. There’s nothing from Carrack’s tenure with Squeeze, but his greatest Mike + the Mechanics and Ace hits show up. And “The Living Years” is more moving than ever, probably because Carrack, soon to turn 64, identifies with it more all the time.

Recorded Live at the Bitter End, August 1971

Dion DiMucci was all of 32 when he performed this solo-acoustic NYC club date. His newfound sobriety, his budding faith, and his wife’s role in both account for “Your Own Backyard” (straight talk from an ex-addict), “Brand New Morning” (a brief burst of gospel joy), and “Sunshine Lady” (husbandly gratitude). And, of course, he performed “Abraham, Martin and John” and some of his older hits. And covered Bob Dylan (twice), The Beatles, Leonard Cohen, Sonny Boy Williamson, and Chuck Berry—extremely well as it turns out.

Man of Constant Sorrow

The weathered otherworldliness of Ralph Stanley’s octogenarian voice transforms the recited “Hills of Home” from a maudlin fraternal elegy into a foretaste of glory divine and gives new old life to the O Brother, Where Art Thou? theme song that lends this album its title. So it’s something of a shame that Stanley merely harmonizes on most of the 11 songs featuring the lead singing of his famous “friends.” He sure knows how to harmonize though. And on “Two Coats” he shows Robert Plant the stairway to heaven.

Goliath

The guitarist is Jimmy Abegg, the bassist is John Mark Painter, the drummer is the ex-Newsboy Peter Furler. Together they make tough, punky music that inspires Steve Taylor’s snarliest-ever vocals and lyrics that maintain, and maybe even raise, his reputation for clever, hypocrisy-skewering sarcasm. If there’s a theme, it’s that “Man makes plans, God laughs” (a refrain). If there’s a flaw, it’s that the hyper-catchy “Happy Go Lazy” could actually make you sympathize with the sluggard whom the song is meant to skewer.

Spotlight

If Van Morrison had released Duets: Re-Working the Catalogue (RCA) before 1988—the year that his Chieftains collaboration inaugurated a period of gregariousness that would eventually find him teaming with Cliff Richard, Georgie Fame, John Lee Hooker, Mose Allison, Lonnie Donegan, and Linda Gail Lewis to name just six—it might have felt more like an event than it does, especially since the duets-album concept has become a cipher for “quick commercial cash in.”

What makes Morrison’s different is that he’s “re-working” mostly obscure selections from his catalog and sampling an especially broad chunk (13 albums spanning 42 years). Still, his guests don’t add much. Often, as is typical on these projects, they’re just in the way. But Joss Stone and Steve Winwood really do bring something fresh to “Wild Honey” and “Fire in the Belly” respectively. And Chris Farlowe (on “Born to Sing”) hints at what might have been had Ray Charles been available.