…The Captive Road remains an extremely personal and intimate album. Finseth delivers the tales up front in a fragile voice teetering on collapse, held in play by his piano-based accompaniment. The ladies complement these tender moments with delicate, ethereal harmonies of their own. The Captive Road is an incomparable offering which, for someone who has made a career out of filing new sounds in old bins, must have been extremely challenging even for Kevin to describe. The moniker that seems to have stuck is “Ambient folk hymns … opium noir” which, I guess, is as good a place as any to start your journey down The Captive Road. Standout tracks include the opening air, Fall Away, The Reader, the exotic grooviness of Cairo April 1983 and some tasty guitar dueling on The Passenger…

Read the full review here (with a live music video).

From  World Music Network:

Colombia is fast becoming a musical powerhouse of South America, bubbling under with new talent. One group to watch out for among this creative frenzy is Systema Solar from the Caribbean coast who played WOMEX. A cooperative of musicians equally at home in traditional forms such as cumbia, porro and champeta as they are in techno, house and break beat, Systema Solar are a force of nature. Look out for them at the summer festivals in 2012.

From the Guardian:

Malian singer-songwriter Fatoumata Diawara visits the Guardian studio to enchant us with an exclusive live version of the song Clandestin from her album Fatou on World Circuit records. Her music blends the Wassalou tradition of southern Mali with external influences to create a warm, friendly and sensual sound whether performing solo or in a group.

Here are some more interesting appetizers. An interview in Pitchfork and a preview of one of the new songs:

“It’s weird talking about really funky old neighborhoods that you haven’t been to in a while. There’s this corner of 9th and Hennepin in Minneapolis.
It used to spell trouble; now it spells sandals and yogurt.”

Read the full interview on Pitchfork here.

Tom Waits – Back In The Crowd by antirecords

Whet your appetite with this “Making Of ” audio documentary and then come in for your Deluxe Edition CD!

Listen to an exclusive Making Of documentary – Hear the stars of the film, including George Clooney and producer T-Bone Burnett talk about the making of the legendary film soundtrack.

Hear previously un-released tracks – In The Jailhouse Now, Keep on the Sunny Side and The Lord Will Make a Way – recorded during the original recording sessions but not used in the film:

O Brother Where Art Thou?
10th Anniversary Deluxe Edition sampler:

Parts 2 & 3 in the full post…

UPDATE:
Yup, this is how a record launch should be done: