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Leave it to Americana's favorite fiftysomething enfant terrible to set her greatest work against her worst. Producer Hal Willner weaves organ and violins through stunning vignettes like "Rescue" and anatomy-of-a-teardrop "Mama You Sweet," each nudged forward by Bill Frisell's jazzy hypno-wheels of guitar.

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Now a New York resident, Steve Earle announces, "Good-bye, Guitar Town," on "Tennessee Blues," the first track of his 12th studio album. But even with added hip-hop textures (courtesy of Dust Brother John King), Serenade hardly signals a break from the singer/songwriter's folk-country roots -- he's reworking his own territory here.

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The indie Tina Turner follows up her tightly wound 2005 comeback, I've Got My Own Hell to Raise, in the company of Drive-By Truckers and Muscle Shoals vets, whose mannered blues shuffles unfortunately sound like they're backing a beer commercial.

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"Give me a sad song / I'm in a class of my own," sings the former Mrs. Richard Thompson on her first solo record since 2002's moving rebirth, Fashionably Late (her first recording in 17 years). And indeed she is.

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This Staten Island crew specializes in a very specifically '70s sound -- the Latin-and Afro-based groove that lurked on records by groups like Cymande, African Music Machine, and Mulatu Astatke, but later found its biggest mainstream exposure (in highly watered-down form) via TV cop shows.

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"Those were happy times," Jesse Sykes exhales frostily over tremulous spy-movie guitar, but her lyrical interest in clouds, ghosts, and broken branches raises some doubts. Regardless, the riveting porch noir of the Sweet Hereafter is her ticket to heaven.