Any time two greats who admire each other and are musically compatible team together, the results are usually mutually beneficial. That was true for Bill Monroe and Doc Watson, whose spirited union on this 17-song disc is a sampler of American musical styles. They ripped through bluegrass, folk, blues, spirituals, mountain tunes, work songs, reels and breakdowns. Monroe's mandolin and Watson's guitar playing were masterful, wondrous and performed without any trace of self-indulgence. Their vocals were also delivered with ease, fluidity and conviction, the product of two performers completely at ease with themselves and only interested in spotlighting the material.

A killer 2CD set – one that features 4 full albums from the country duo of Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton! First up is We Found It – a gem of a record from the glory days of the Porter Wagoner/Dolly Parton partnership on record – a set that's overflowing with original material penned by each of the singers, which gives the whole thing a way of feeling a lot more personal and pointed than most other country duo albums! Porter and Dolly really share the vocal chores equally – and maybe break off less into the separate modes of some of their earlier records, but in a good way – on titles that include "Love City", "I've Been Married", "Satan's River", "I Am Always Waiting", "That's When Love Will Mean The Most", and "How Close They Must Be".

Produced by Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, Alpenglow is the Minnesota-based sextet’s tenth album. The album, named after the optical phenomenon that takes places when the sun casts a reddish glow across the mountains at dawn and dusk, opens with the wistful beauty of “It’s So Hard To Hold On”. The narrator contemplates the passing of time and how imperative it is to savor it while you have it.

Country Music Hall of Famer, five-time Grammy-winner, and AMA Lifetime Achievement honoree Marty Stuart picks up where he left off on Altitude, his first new album in five years, exploring a cosmic country landscape populated by dreamers and drifters, misfits and angels, honky-tonk heroes and lonesome lovers.

In the press release that accompanies Michael Chapman's 2017 album 50, the iconic British guitarist refers to it as his "American album." While the material does sound less idiosyncratically British than much of Chapman's body of work, 50 could be more accurately described as his indie rock album. He's best known as a master of the acoustic guitar, but on these sessions, the dominant instrument is the electric guitar of Steve Gunn, who also produced the sessions. Gunn assembled a band of like-minded musicians whose passions encompass indie rock, experimental rock, and the more abstract corner of Americana, and while Chapman's impassioned vocals ride over the top and his acoustic guitar is audible in the mix, the band doesn't bow to Chapman so much as encourage him to keep up with them.