Courtyard Hounds: “Courtyard Hounds” (Columbia)

★★★ 1/2

Almost every song on this self-titled album brings the same two adjectives to mind: pretty and personal. Written mostly by the Dixie Chicks’ Emily Robison with Martin Strayer, and mainly …

Hole: ‘Nobody’s Daughter’ (Mercury)

★★★ 1/2

It may be true that if Hole frontwoman Courtney Love had never married Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain her band, Hole, may have labored on in obscurity — if it ever got off …

Jeff Beck: “Emotion & Commotion” (Atco/Rhino)
★★★
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 …

Willie Nelson: ‘Country Music’ (Rounder)
★★★
For his Rounder Records debut, Willie Nelson didn’t just go country; he came down from the mountain. And settled on the porch. With producer T-Bone Burnett, the man behind “O …