What makes Mason Jennings one of the best acoustic-based singer-songwriters you've never heard of is his ragged, intimate voice and simple ruminations on God, war, hope and gratitude. On his best album yet, Jennings goes much darker, with chilling tales of addiction, madness and loss, all wrapped up in fuzzy electric guitars, feedback and raw, distorted vocals. "Pittsburgh" is a straightforwa...

After opening for Guster last year and signing to Jack Johnson's Brushfire Records label in February, Mason Jennings was poised to become the next singer-songwriter to break big in the jam-band scene. But instead of aiming for the mainstream, his seventh album finds him returning to his coffeehouse roots. Typically executed with little more than an acoustic guitar, drums and piano, Jennings' songs...