Country

When Cash was 18, her father (you know him as Johnny) presented her with a gift: a list of 100 essential country songs to help the budding singer-songwriter connect with and better understand the music that came before her. After holding on to it for the past few decades, Roseanne Cash decided to turn that gift into The List, her new album.

Country singer George Strait is surpassed only by Elvis Presley and The Beatles in the number of platinum-selling albums he's had. Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews his new album, Twang.

Sarah Borges and the Broken Singles are a Boston-area quartet raised on punk rock and country music. Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews their new album, The Stars Are Out.

Best known as founder and frontman for the Los Angeles punk band X, musician John Doe has always had a weakness for country music — and X's sound, in fact, sometimes had a twang to it. After that band's dissolution, Doe explored his countrified yearnings further, and in recent years he's turned in some eminently satisfying roots rock. With Country Club, Doe dives headlong into the genre, collaborating with the Canadian band the Sadies on a collection of classic covers originally recorded by titans like Merle Haggard, Tammy Wynette and Willie Nelson.

The singer and songwriter's new double album, High Wide and Handsome: The Charlie Poole Project, is a tribute to the old-time country banjo player who died in 1931.

Will Oldham's new album Beware, released under his country music name, Bonnie Prince Billy, offers lovely music with a tinge of "lonesome-cowboy pokiness." Ken Tucker has a review.

Jeb Loy Nichols has recorded a half-dozen albums since the late 1990s and before that, fronted the band The Fellow Travelers. Rock critic Ken Tucker says Nichols' new album, called Parish Bar, coheres as one of his more adventurous musical experiments.

Bassist Charlie Haden is known as a great jazz musician, but his lineage is all country: Growing up, he performed alongside his brothers and sister in the Haden Family Band, a country group led by parents, Carl and Virginia.

He's put out hit records for half a century, toured with the Beach Boys, even hosted his own TV show. So why is the latest album from the indefatigable country-pop singer called Meet Glen Campbell?

Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews the new Silver Jews album, Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea. The band is fronted by singer, songwriter, poet and occasional cartoonist David Berman.

The best little bar-band in Texas is back with more ballads of heartache and anthems for getting over it. The Old 97's have just released Blame It On Gravity. Front-man Rhett Miller joins Fresh Air to talk about the recording and to perform some new songs.

When Hank Williams died on New Year's day in 1953, he left behind a legacy of honky tonk hits as well an extended family who would continue making music for decades to come. Milo Miles reviews "Family Tradition: The Williams Family Legacy," an exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame. "

Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews Sounds So Good, the debut album by 21-year-old country singer Ashton Shepherd.

Chris Gaffney, vocalist and accordion player for the Hacienda Brothers, died last week from liver cancer at the age of 57.

Fresh Air music critic Ken Tucker reviews Trouble in Mind, the new album from country singer Hayes Carll. The 32-year-old Texan says his music is inspired by Beat poetry, Bob Dylan and singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt.

Fresh Air rock critic Ken Tucker reviews the Waco Brothers' album Waco Express: Live and Kickin' at Schubas Tavern. It's the seventh album from the Chicago cowpunk outfit, but only its first live disc.

Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews Big Love in a Small Town, the debut album from country singer Sarah Johns.

Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews the new album by country singer Gene Watson. It's called In A Perfect World.

Led Zeppelin's Robert Plant and bluegrass star Alison Krauss teamed up recently for a joint album, Raising Sand.

Critic Ken Tucker has a review.

On his third album, Up Front & Down Low, singer-songwriter Teddy Thompson covers classic country songs including "She Thinks I Still Care," "(My Friends Are Gonna Be) Strangers," and "I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone." On his earlier discs, including his self-titled 2000 debut and 2006's Separate Ways, Thompson performed more of his own songs. He's also appeared on various recordings with his parents, the British folk-rock legends Richard and Linda Thompson.