Elliott Murphy - Rainy Season (2014)

Around the same time this album came out, Murphy released the excellent but not exactly trail-blazing April, a live CD that featured faithful covers of some of his earlier recordings. Think that package indicated a creative dry spell? Think again, because here comes Rainy Season, replete with some of Murphy's strongest new songs ever. As always, love relationships are a primary obsession, but there's also a fine tune about growing older in a changing world ("Thirty Was a Long Time Ago") and a high-spirited cover of Willie Dixon's "Little Red Rooster." "Put It Down," which at more than ten minutes may be the longest song Murphy has recorded, is probably worth the price of admission all by itself. It's just as abstruse at times as Dylan's "Brownsville Girl," and just as irresistible. Note that German and Spanish versions feature slightly different track lineups.