For a time in the late '80s, Steve Earle was the brightest hope to merge the best aspects of hard country and rock & roll. That bright hope burned out in a big way, as Earle self-destructed and dropped out musically. The good news is that he's back, and on the intimate but potent "Train A Comin" he remains a force with which to be reckoned. Working with a small, expert band that includes Peter Rowan, Norman Blake and Roy Huskey and the great Emmylou Harris chiming in, Earle works through a set of mostly older compositions and covers including the reggae standard "The Rivers of Babylon" and the Beatles' "I'm Looking Through You."

“I'm Yours”

Jason Mraz re-emerged after his disappointing second album with this lead single, a Jack Johnson-esque ditty about giving yourself fully to someone else. The success of the reggae-tinged song (it earned two Grammy nods and a spot on the Billboard singles chart for well over a year) was something the folk-pop singer never predicted when he wrote it in 15 minutes at home. "I played a happy-hippie chord progression that would probably work without 50 different Bob Marley songs," he told Rolling Stone. "I thought, 'It's too novelty. This is a nursery rhyme,'" concluding that "you can never guess what's gonna be a hit."