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Kanaka’ole

"Kaumakaiwa"

Mountain Apple Company

Kaumakaiwa Kanaka’ole, 26, is a fifth-generation practitioner of the ancient Hawaiian art of hula. Too seldom heard outside the islands, Hawaiian music has continued to evolve while treading carefully between past and present. "Kaumakaiwa" contains stunning examples of traditional Hawaiian chant, whose epic production on this album resembles IMAX for the ears. Contemporary Hawaiian music, meanwhile, adds country and folk vocal styles. Backed by acoustic guitars and the occasional banjo, Kanak’ole’s vibrant tenor voice sweeps dramatically through his original poetic meditations on Hawaiian nature, culture, and ancestor worship. The most startling track, though, may be "Noho Ana I Hilo," when he is accompanied only by rushing wind and water.

Al Stewart

"Sparks of Ancient Light"

Appleseed

Al "Year of the Cat" Stewart has been the hip history teacher of singer-songwriters ever since his 1974 release, "Past, Present & Future." On his 18th album, Stewart delivers tuneful treatises about 19th-century British Prime Minister Lord Salisbury, the fall of the Shah of Iran, Elvis Presley’s roadside religious revelation, and the fifth-century Carthaginian explorer, Hanno the Navigator. Father knows best in "(A Child’s View of) The Eisenhower Years," but Dad will also find "new things to outrage him." Former Wings guitarist Laurence Juber concocts ingenious jazz, classical, and folk arrangements around Stewart’s genial melodies. The sense of a living past pervades.