Consumer Guide Album

Margaret Glaspy: The Golden Heart Protector [ATO, 2025]
Maybe if I was a singer-songwriter guy—a folkie, to resurrect the somewhat condescending old term—I'd recognize all her collaborators on these seven cover versions, which include Creedence and Jackson Browne: Madison Cunningham, Julian Lage, Andrew Bird, Alam Khan, and James Bay. But as it stands I'm pretty sure that between Berklee-trained Glaspy's crystalline soprano and her deft guitar and piano, these are almost certainly the renditions I'd rather hear. "Beautiful" is seldom a praiseword I'm comfortable resorting to. But for nearly half an hour it applies. A−