The classicist electric blues of Milwaukee’s Perry Weber and the Devilles rocks the house. And the quartet has enough greasiness about their guitar, organ, harmonica and (occasional) pedal steel interplay that it’s easy to imagine them at the corner stage of a holein-the-wall bar. Weber’s adeptness at his six strings brings the same touch of coolness as his vintage sport coat. And whether plumbing Hank Williams Sr.’s “Your Cheatin’ Heart” or originals hailing women of varying sizes and temperaments, Weber and his Devilles put a fresh sheen on blues catharsis, from emotional devastation to boastful joy.

The Counting Crows sure know how to create a fun and exciting weekend with their latest release, Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings. The six-piece band, which includes frontman and songwriter Adam Duritz, David Bryson, Jim Bogios, Charles Gillingham, Dan Vickery and David Immerglck, delivers nothing less than absolute perfection. Pick this record up on a Friday night and you’ll need to call in sick to work on Monday morning after listening to this immaculately arranged album all weekend long. These men not only play music, they listen carefully to the world around them. Duritz’s gift for writing lyrics shines brighter than ever in the moving, poetic and extremely beautiful “When I Dream of Michelangelo.”

Cuban music is usually considered to be West African and Spanish in origin, but its roots run deeper. In recent years, musicians have explored links between the elegant early- 20th-century music of Cuba and Algeria. Similarly, Canadian trumpeter David Buchbinder crosses Cuba and klezmer with his band Odessa/Havana. The organic historical link between the two apparently distant cultures can be discerned in the moody minor chords that passed from the Near . . .

A Russian rock band that emerged during the glasnost era, Auktyon has reinvented itself. For their first album in 12 years, they called on several well-respected American musicians to fill out their sound. Playing prominent roles on Girls Sing are John Medeski, guitarist Marc Ribot and Klezmatics’ trumpeter Frank London. Perhaps taking an unconscious page from Stravinsky, Auktyon’s music is intelligent yet relentlessly primitive, their rhythms a little sideways and with echoes of Russian folk music

Trapper Schoepp and his band mates look too young to have mid-’90s nostalgia, but the Milwaukee quintet’s A Change in the Weather makes it sound that way. Schoepp and his fellow musicians would have sounded right at home back when the earnest aesthetics of Hootie and the Blowfish, Sister Hazel and Blues Traveler wended their way into the Top 40.

Five years ago, Tony Bennett and k.d. lang had completed A Wonderful World, a tribute to Louis Armstrong, when an interviewer on a radio show asked Bennett about his duet partner. He said, “In my opinion, she’s the best singer since Judy Garland.” After a pause that brought surprise from the interviewer and surprised laughter from lang, he added, “Well, it’s true.” And so it is, but lang has shared with Garland, and with Bennett, an uneven artistic instinct, as though her ability to sing anything has left her helpless to make the smartest song choices. Was it necessary to turn away so completely from Patsy Cline country on 1992’s Ingnue?

Milwaukee quartet Longacre makes adult Americana that is perfect for coffee bars. Acoustic guitar, lap steel and keyboards maintain a balance between roiling and restraint. Singer Claire Chin’s sometimes-enigmatic, philosophical lyrics fit with a meticulous tautness over aural lulls and eruptions, like Sarah McLachlan or Natalie Merchant with a warmly approachable archness. With a dash of reggae here and a pinch of psychedelia there, Longacre has crafted a latte soundtrack that also appeals to those who listen with more focus. Either way, it’s professional and alluring.

This Year’s Model (Deluxe Edition) (Hip-O) Elvis Costello’s already enormous back catalog has just expanded. Although all of the demos and other bonus material on the latest rendition of the snarling songwriter’s second album has been out for years, Deluxe Edition marks the first official release of a 1978 concert in Washington, D.C. It shows some of the twists taken by a strong rock band on a set of great early Costello songs.

Earlier this year, Dave Cousins—lead vocalist for England’s longtime progressiverock/folk outfit The Strawbs— entered the studio with pedalsteel guitarist Melvin Duffy to record a CD that he could support on his current U.S. “Stories and Songs Tour.” The result is Secret Paths, which is only Cousins’ third proper solo album since 1972. Because it lacks a full band, the 11-song disc isn’t nearly as lively as 2007’s The Boy in the Sailor Suit. But Cousins wraps his Mark-Knopfler-meets-Nils-Lofgren

Until Beck Hansen released Odelay in 1996, he was a one-hit wonder: In the period when indie-rock was making its way onto the pop charts, his “Loser” was one of its iconic novelty songs. Odelay informed listeners that Beck was to be taken seriously, although he didn’t actually sound like he intended to be. Twelve years later, the double-disc deluxe version of Odelay has it the same two ways. It bulks up the original release with plenty of bonus material, but spurns reverent, meaningful liner notes in favor of consciously rambling reminiscences—at least that’s what they might be—from Sonic Youth frontman Thurston Moore, and variously irrelevant and intriguing opinions on the album from 15 teenagers interviewed by . . .