New music from Joan Armatrading, Son Volt, Gorstey Lea Street Choir, Rooks, Joywave

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Joan Armatrading: Already There

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It's great news that a new LP is on its way from this U.K. artist whose 1976 self-titled debut remains one of the great albums of all time. The first track to spin out from Consequences is a celebration of the moment of realization that a love is requited. "You just told me you loved me / For the very first time / And it feels like I'm flying ... While you were falling in love / I was already there."

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Son Volt: Reverie

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Call them alt-country or roots-rock, Son Volt has been going strong for more than a quarter-century and is preparing to release its 10th album, Electro Melodier. This first single is "an uptempo, hopeful reflection on persistence and hard-won perspective," writes Rolling Stone. The album is named after two amplifier brands from the late '40s and early '50s, and frontman Jay Farrar says, "I wanted to concentrate on the melodies which got me into music in the first place." The band's current lineup also includes Mark Spencer, Chris Fame, Mark Patterson and Andrew DuPlantis.

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The Gorstey Lea Street Choir: Bluebird, Hollywood ... Domino

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This group from Staffordshire, U.K., follows up its 2020 debut EP with a single described as "a psychedelic upbeat 6/8 stomp." Big Takeover Magazine calls it "a rich melting pot of prominent drum strikes, limber bass line, reverberating percussion, and bright psych-tinged guitar lines." Michael Clapham, co-leader with Russ Phillips, says “This song is a cautionary tale of days gone by, what may have been and where we are now."

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Rooks: Battlefield

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Guitarist/vocalist Jay Bowcott, drummer Darryl Swart and bassist Brent Rossall make up this trio from Calgary. As a relatively new band (they released their debut LP last year) that draws on classic-rock influences, they fit perfectly into the Birch Street Radio lineup. On this new single, the Rooks are flying in similar skies as the Byrds, Eagles and Jayhawks.

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Joywave: Every Window Is a Mirror

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This is the title track from the Rochester, N.Y., band's latest album, due next month. Like so much recent music, it was recorded under quarantine conditions in a home studio, in this case belonging to frontman Daniel Armbruster. “The imagery in the song," he says, "is thinking you’re looking through a clear pane of glass, only to discover upon further inspection that you can see yourself in it, some of the room you’re in reflected in it — and it might be a little dirtier than you thought when you’re up close.”