Notable CDs

That Kaukonen’s embrace of Judaism has coincided with his strongest solo albums needn’t imply cause and effect. The traditional folk-blues of which he’s enamored include gospel songs, and this time he has even come up with music for Woody Guthrie lyrics based on the words of a man who had “nails in his feet and nails in his hands.” But there’s definitely an increasingly winsome spiritual reflectiveness to Kaukonen’s own compositions. Both “The Other Side of the Mountain” and “In My Dreams” mention grace—and are amazing.

Angels Watching Over Me

Not since Gordon Gano’s Mercy Seat throttled the genre to within an inch of its life has traditional gospel felt more primitive than it does on this impassioned, dimly recorded throwback to acoustic, Mississippi-blues piety. That Kroha is white, from Detroit, and not (at least publicly) a confessed believer in the sentiments to which he gives voice in “Holy Ghost Don’t Leave Me,” “Gloryland,” and the title cut makes him sound more chosen than called, his performances more compelled than offered. Interesting to say the least.

Uptown Special

Remember Purple Rain, the pop-rock-funk apotheosis by Prince that even children could’ve listened innocently to had it not contained the NC-17 “Darling Nikki”? Mark Ronson’s latest isn’t quite Purple Rain’s 21st-century equivalent, but it’s close, and its “Darling Nikki” is “Feeling Right” featuring the foul-mouthed, multiply incarcerated rapper Mystikal. Seriously, why must musical visionaries besmirch otherwise masterpieces? Maybe it’s a blessing that the album is dead and that the age of track-by-track downloading has arrived.

Trusting In The Rising Light

Before you dismiss this Incredible String Band founder’s latest lyrics as so much hippie claptrap, ask yourself how different they are from what his erstwhile fellow Scientologist Van Morrison has long been committing to music. (Answer: not very.) Then admit that, whether singing or reciting, Williamson still sounds further out than Morrison ever has. The world is too much with both of them. But whereas Morrison often sounds intent on keeping the world at bay, Williamson just pretends that the industrial revolution never happened and meanders merrily along.

Spotlight

If you’re thinking of investing in the new Kansas DVD documentary Miracles Out of Nowhere (Legacy) for its accompanying CD soundtrack, you’ll be better off with 2002’s The Ultimate Kansas (a.k.a. Essential Kansas 3.0). If, however, you mainly want to know how “six guys from Topeka [ended] up becoming one of the most successful rock bands in the world,” the DVD will answer that question and more.

It will also raise a few, as it ends before Kerry Livgren’s conversion to Christianity and Kansas’ subsequent fragmentation. But, as you might expect from a chronicle starring naïve Midwesterners who come into contact with big-city ways, humorous anecdotes abound and balance the serious image conveyed by the group’s introspective and philosophical prog-rocking songs. And although the original sextet hasn’t played, recorded, or toured together for years, it’s nice to see that they still get along well enough to reminisce happily about the days during which they did.