Wake, Nora Jane & The Party Line Struthers, LP

Vinyl LP pressing. 2015 release from the Americana singer/songwriter. Wake is a powerful statement of her own rock 'n' roll awakening. Backed by her band the Party Line, the "beguiling... guided by fire" (NPR's Ann Powers) Struthers mixes pedal steel with robust guitar riffs and her own fearless voice. The 11 original songs on 'Wake,' which Struthers self-produced, evoke the realization that she can, as she says, "reconcile my love of both bluegrass and Pearl Jam," and make sonic magic. Wake follows 2013's Carnival, which cracked the Top 10 on the Americana radio charts. The Washington Post likened Struthers to kindred spirits Emmylou Harris and Gillian Welch and Vintage Guitar said she "sing[s] as polished as an Opry pro," but she nevertheless maintains a genre-defying inimitability on Wake.