Pretenders, “Relentless.” More than 40 years after an amazing debut album, Chrissie Hynde is still baring her emotions for all to see and hear. After all this time, even if she feels bad, she still feels. Relentless Pretenders Rhino Records, Sept. 1 7/10 Get the album on Amazon Music.…

Yusuf / Cat Stevens, “King of a Land.” Cat Stevens, a significant presence on the ‘70s radio landscape with hits like “Peace Train,” “Moonshadow,” “Wild World” and “The First Cut is the Deepest,” has lived what seem like several lifetimes since the late those days. He converted to Islam,…

John Mellencamp, “Orpheus Descending.” You can’t really call Orpheus Descending, the new album by John Mellencamp, significantly cheerier than his last, Strictly a One-Eyed Jack. But even if most of the 11 new songs here are attacking something or someone, they’re preoccupied with bigger matters. The now 71-year-old Mellencamp…

Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, “Weathervanes.” In its promotional material, Weathervanes – the ninth album by Jason Isbell since departing the Drive-By Truckers in 2007 and sixth co-crediting the 400 Unit – is described as “a collection of grown-up songs … about adult love, about change, about the…

Graham Nash, “Now.” Graham Nash has no problem acknowledging his past, most notably in his revealing, and detailed 2013 memoir, “Wild Tales: A Rock & Roll Life.” And on his eighth solo album, Now, he makes several references to what he’s done, sung and seen. Now Graham Nash BMG,…

Ian Hunter, “Defiance Part 1.” Ian Hunter has been defiant for many years now, steadfastly resisting most trends in modern rock and pop music to make albums that may well have been big sellers in the 1970s and 1980s, and would be now if the world was a fair…

John Oates, courtesy. “It’s been a while since I played there,” John Oates recently said about performing in California, either on his own or as half of Hall & Oates, the mega popular rock-soul-R&B duo with Darryl Hall. That will soon change, as he and percussionist John Michel are…

The Rolling Stones, “Grrr Live!” When it comes to the Rolling Stones, there’s not much new under the sun to say about them, absent discovery of a heretofore unknown chord or when one of the longtime mainstays dies. The latter indeed happened about 18 months ago, and it was…

Lisa Marie Presley performs at the Avalon in Los Angeles on Oct. 11, 2003. Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images. Lisa Marie Presley, the only child of Elvis Presley and a musician and songwriter in her own right, died Thursday in a hospital near her Calabasas, Calif. home, west of…

Justin Hayward of the Moody Blues, courtesy. “Living for Love,” the latest single by Justin Hayward, came about in a familiar way as many of the songs he’s written for the Moody Blues and subsequent solo projects. “I always think things jump out of my guitars, and then I…