Our latest picks: Scott Krokoff, Melissa Etheridge, Jenn Grant, Secret Treehouse, The Strumbellas

New York indie singer-songwriter Scott Krokoff has been a fixture in our mix since his second album came out a few years back. Krokoff is a practicing attorney who, as his bio says, "is adamant that one should never put a shelf life on his or her dreams." His new single, "Cubicle," carries a similar message: Don't become so locked-in to your work that you can't break out and follow your passion. We're glad to hear Krokoff is continuing to follow his.

Although her biggest hits came early in her now-three-decades-plus career, Melissa Etheridge keeps on making powerful, guitar-driven rock. She continues to follow her passion on her new release, The Medicine Show. On several tracks, Etheridge confronts current topics including the political climate, the opioid crisis and gun violence. For repeated listening in our New Music bin, however, we're featuring the simpler looking-to-cut-loose rocker, "Wild And Lonely."

Jenn Grant will release Love, Inevitable in about a month, and we're picking right up on the first single, "Raven." The Halifax singer-songwriter has a voice that's gentle on the surface but infused with forceful energy. Grant has said the song "came from a place of trying to find my own power when I was crowded with self-doubt. For me, it’s about taking a step into the unknown and learning to trust yourself."

We're returning to The Big Rewind, the recent debut album by Norway's Secret Treehouse, to add the title track to our New Music bin. The band says this alt-rock-pop anthem is "about looking (rewinding) back, telling a person (and others) that didn't believe in you that they were wrong and that things has been rough but worked out in the end."

And speaking of anthemic alt-rock-pop, we round out this week's New Music picks with "I'll Wait," the lead single from The Strumbella's newly released fourth album, Rattlesnake. For this album, Simon Ward and the crew teamed up with producer Tim Pagnotta, whose credits include Walk the Moon, Neon Trees and Elle King, while staying close to home by recording it in Toronto and Kingston, Ontario.