Jeff Beck: “Emotion & Commotion” (Atco/Rhino)
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Nearly 50 years into his sporadic career, Jeff Beck still has the capacity to invent new uses for his prodigious guitar talents. Here, he oscillates between jazz-blues fusion and lush arrangements for 64-piece orchestra, and it works. String and synth fills create velvety effects around his playing on the Puccini aria, “Nessun Dorma” and the “Atonement” soundtrack song, “Elegy for Dunkirk” (with an aria by Olivia Safe, who also sings on “Serene”).

On “Over the Rainbow,” he makes his guitar literally sing the notes, achieving the lyricism of an opera star — and his own “Blow By Blow”-era playing. He also employs that cascading, melodic style, which so obviously influenced Eric Johnson, on “Never Alone.” Singer Joss Stone, maturing into the next Etta James, enlivens “There’s No Other Me” and the Screamin’ Jay Hawkins nugget, “I Put A Spell on You.” Beck wisely skips the shredding; it’s good to hear his melodic side again. — Lynne Margolis
Buy if you like: Eric Johnson, the Yardbirds

Mary Chapin Carpenter: “The Age of Miracles” (Zoe)
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After nine albums, one pretty much knows what to expect from a Mary Chapin Carpenter CD. As is the case with her 10th release, “The Age of Miracles,” it will be an album filled predominantly with artfully crafted, smartly worded acoustic ballads about the search for richness and reward in love and life. With some luck, Carpenter will include an uptempo track or two, although the days of truly kicking folk-rock songs like “Down at the Twist and Shout” and “Shut Up and Kiss Me” seem to be in the past. “The Age of Miracles” delivers one fairly frisky pop gem in “I Put My Ring Back On” and a pair of full-bodied ballads, “The Way I Feel” and “What You Look For.” But otherwise, “The Age of Miracles” is a time for gentle, introspective balladry. It’s not that Carpenter’s songs aren’t up to her usual standards here. But as she becomes more entrenched in the world of the contemplative ballad, a feeling of  heard it all before is beginning to set in on Carpenter’s output. — Alan Sculley
Buy if you like: James Taylor, Carrie Newcomer

Earl Greyhound: “Suspicious Package” (Hawk Rage)
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One thing that’s apparent in the liner notes for “Suspicious Package” is the CD was a long time coming. Recording of this follow-up to the trio’s acclaimed 2006 debut, “Soft Target,” was finished in January 2009. It was worth the wait. The band returns sounding more assured and adventurous with another solid set of psychedelic blues-tinged rock, topped off by the intertwined vocals of Kamara Thomas and Matt Whyte, who at times evoke Jefferson Airplane with their vocals. Throughout “Suspicious Package,” the band shows an ability to blend raw power with melodic beauty. On “Oye Vaya,” the sound is particularly hard-hitting, and the song has some particularly tasty guitar riffs. “Ghost and the Witness” brings an appealingly spacious feel to what is otherwise another potent rocker. “Shotgun” takes a more epic turn, with a soaring vocal to match. The group gets a bit of its funk on with “Black Sea Vacation.” There’s even room for a couple of stirring ballads in “Out of Air” and “Bill Evans.” No sophomore slump here, let’s hope Earl Greyhound hasn’t lost its buzz band momentum with the extended wait between CDs. — Alan Sculley
Buy if you like: Ben Harper and Relentless 7, Wolfmother

Sweet Apple: “Love & Depression” (Tee Pee)
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It’s turning into a good year for superstar side bands. Dave Grohl, Josh Homme and John Paul Jones have already made some welcome noise with Them Crooked Vultures. Now comes Sweet Apple. This band can’t match the Vultures for star power, but its members aren’t slouches in the credentials department either. The band features J. Mascis of Dinosaur Jr. (playing drums and guitar) plus guitarist Tim Parnin and singer/guitarist John Petkovic of Cobra Verde, a band that made some impressive garage rock. Given those band members, it’s no surprise that what “Love & Depression” delivers is a solid batch of raucous psychedelic-tinged garage rock. And yes, there is a good bit of the sound of the respective bands on the CD. With its droning guitar chords, “I’ve Got A Feeling (That Won’t Change)” could be a prime Dinosaur Jr.  track, and there’s more than a little Cobra Verde in the songs “Somebody Else’s Problem,” “Flying Up A Mountain” (an especially potent blast of raw rock),  “Hold Me, I’m Dying” (another standout cut). And on songs like “Can’t See You” and “Blindfold,” Sweet Apple conjures a sound that doesn’t so much draw from the musicians’ other bands as it stakes out its own territory. This is one of side band that deserves to be treated like a main attraction. — Alan Sculley
Buy if you like: Queens of the Stone Age, Foo Fighters

Shelby Lynne: “Tears, Lies & Alibis” (Everso)
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Shelby Lynne’s first release on her own label is a wonderful collection of personal confessions, wandering thoughts and worldly observations, all delivered with the understated assurance of a naturally gifted vocalist and confident producer — also Lynne. (Her DIY insistence caused her break with Lost Highway Records.) Again reminding us that Dusty Springfield’s DNA somehow got in her veins (while completely avoiding the sin of imitation), Lynne drops bluesy soul all over songs like “Why Didn’t You Call Me,” “Alibi” and the album’s centerpiece, “Like a Fool.” She skirts the edges of corn in “Something to be Said (About Airstreams),” and deftly steps around it with lines like “I want me a big ol’ Cadillac/to haul all my demons and dreams and/listen to silence.” Dreaming, drinking and depression, that unholy trinity controlling so many lives, are common themes — but hey, they’re also the foundation of most tears, lies and alibis — and Lynne, for better or worse, connects the dots perfectly. — Lynne Margolis
Buy if you like: Dusty Springfield, Lucinda Williams

Carrie Rodriguez: “Love and Circumstance” (Ninth Street Opus)
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It’s one thing to sing someone else’s song. It’s another to make it sound as if you wrote it yourself. On “Love and Circumstance,” Carrie Rodriguez pulls that feat off 12 times over. With unhurried phrasing, accented by hints of a Texas drawl, hushed whispers and resigned, wistful sighs of cynicism or regret, she convinces us every emotion she conveys is truly her own. Of course, she knew just which musical well to draw from: Family favorites, and Americana royalty like Little Village, Buddy and Julie Miller, Townes Van Zandt and Lucinda and Hank Williams. Her delivery of tunes such as Richard Thompson’s “Waltzing’s for Dreamers” and the David Rawlings/Gillian Welch composition, “I Made A Lover’s Prayer” is so intimate, so confessional, it’s almost as if she doesn’t know we’re listening. Finely detailed instrumentation adds nuanced elegance to her lovely alto.
— Lynne Margolis
Buy if you like: Lucinda Williams, Julie Miller