Chris Brown Feel Something

This captures folk-blues guitarist-singer-songwriter Smither playing live in the studio for a hand-picked audience over the Christmas holidays in 1989. Smither presents 17 songs of his own derivation and others, blasting it all out in a couple of sharp sets in the time-honored folk music club tradition. His guitar work is clean and well played, and his vocals attain a sense of engagement throughout. While his interpretations of tunes by Chuck Berry, Randy Newman, Elizabeth Cotton, Willie McTell, Jimmy Reed and others are fine, the true highlights come with the originals "Lonely Time," "Don't Drag It On," "A Song for Susan," "Lonesome Georgia Brown," "I Feel the Same" and the title track.

Welcome Home is a telling title for the fifth album by the Zac Brown Band. It's a statement of comfort from the ZBB, letting fans who found the genre-bending experiments of the 2015 set Jekyll + Hyde disquieting know that the group has gotten back to basics. Such reassurances aren't limited to the record's name, either. Welcome Home begins with an ode to the Zac Brown Band's "Roots," before they tell listeners that they're the "Real Thing" in for the "Long Haul" – and that's all within the first three songs! All of these proclamations of authenticity are set to the ZBB's trademark mellow vibe, a signature anchored in the smooth sounds of the '70s. The band whittles away any tendency toward jamming or adventures, so Welcome Home rolls easy, its gait quickening only when he revives the breezy beachside sway of "Toes" on "Start Over" …