Seven albums in now, Idaho native Eilen Jewell still maintains the busking tradition that she came up in during her college years. Her latest album, 2015’s Sundown Over Ghost Town, evinces a songwriter touching down on the great shifts in her life recently: the birth of a child, a move back home to Boise. It’s hard not to imagine the Great West -- broad, blue skies over a freeway without end -- while rolling through Jewell’s music. “I’m an old guitar / won’t stay tuned / Worn out, faded not fit for you / But I want to be played the unseen hand…” she croons on “Hallelujah Band,” refracting her lifelong commitment to music and songwriting. (Sandy)
Africa & Byzantium considers the complex artistic relationships between northern and eastern African Christian kingdoms and the Byzantine Empire from the fourth…