Popular music

The Blanco Sessions, by Janis Martin. In 1956, RCA signed “the female Elvis,” 15-year-old rockabilly pioneer Janis Martin. But a secret marriage and a pregnancy soon led the label to drop her. In 2007, neo-rockabilly powerhouse Rosie Flores coaxed Martin out of retired obscurity and produced a comeback album for her. Martin died later that year, and Flores has finally raised the funds to release the project. Martin sounds fantastic on this set of mostly classic material. Her range dropped a bit over 50 years, but her rhythm and phrasing are as punchy as ever. The sound is entirely retro: loud vocals, loose arrangements, loads of reverb. And the hotshot band and modern recording technology make the whole thing sound like the ’50s at their best and better.

Lots, by JG Hymns. On his fourth hymns album, Jon Green uses existing texts alongside original lyrics and instrumental interludes; the music is all original. One point of comparison is the retuned hymns movement, but Green’s intricate compositions are not geared for corporate singing. These are hymns as source material for ambitious art music; their spiritual utility is in contemplative listening, not congregational use. The multi-instrumentalist’s sound palette is sparse but varied: intricate acoustic guitar, layered horns, warm electronics, a little noise. Songs develop slowly, which is trancelike at times if a tad indulgent at others. As for Green’s lyrics, they’re biblical, personal and playfully dramatic. “It is good for the boy to work hard,” he concludes in “The Pause,” a meditation on the Gospels’ ask/search/knock passage. “And it is good that the Lord is our Lord.”

Let It Burn, by Ruthie Foster. Ruthie Foster has a powerhouse of a blues/gospel voice, but she never overpowers a song. She made her newest album in New Orleans with the Blind Boys of Alabama and a cast of top players. It wouldn’t have killed them to restrain the Hammond organ player once in a while, but that’s being picky: the project brings a truckload of soul and grit. Foster contributes two solid songs, but the main event is covers, sometimes dramatically reimagined. “Ring of Fire” fails as a ballad, its lyrics stripped of all danger, and it’s an odd choice to ax the word-painting backbeat on “If I Had a Hammer.” But the swing-blues groove on “You Don’t Miss Your Water” delightfully ups the soul ballad’s energy. In general, Foster offers great and infectious stuff.