Water Liars create songs of novelesque visions. Straightforward, bucolic and romantic imagery of a breakfast-catering kitchen and a clean bed serve as the setting for "Linens."

There's a bird inside of my chest
He's fighting for breath
He's dying to leave...

As I am driving across the river into Illinois, on my way to this filming of Water Liars for Show Me Shows, and my head is full with memories of all the other hundreds of times I've made the same crossing.

Any new contribution to the endless grind of "Hallelujah" covers has more than enough work cut out for it. By virtue of intelligence of phrasing and Yuri Hart's brilliantly arranged cello, Doe Paoro rises to the musical occasion, and then takes flight.

A haze descended over the audience as the lights rose over Yonder Mountain String Band on Friday evening at the Pageant. The night was filled with a groove that could be placed somewhere between the Grateful Dead and the classic bluegrass of Flatt and Scruggs, with country melodies and a musical muscle evident in jam-band circles. Dancers, drinks and bona-fide hippies took delight in all the sights and sounds.

Parlour music for a bungalow at the end of the dark side of the street, "Chinatown," a rarity from an EP called "Story of My Life," finds Alejandro Skylar Rose-Garcia, aka Shakey Graves, opening up the windows and letting the warm night air in. It's hard not to whistle, hum or tap along with him.

"St. Louis isn't gone, no it's hidden, and waiting in my voice." How can anyone, no matter where you may live, not love a line like that? And though the lines penned by Jeremy Quentin of Small Houses are surely fine, it's the way they're sung and set to grainy, spare acoustic music that makes them worth hearing.

The music of Calexico is too cinematic and moving to be reduced to any silly "mariachi rock" label. Even when pared down to an acoustic essence, the band contains elusive and evocative multitudes.

Frontier Ruckus calls its new album "Eternity of Dimming" a closing chapter; in some ways, however, it feels more like a beginning.

Lots of people might look at this list and say, “Who are all these people?” In roots and Americana music, and at my house, they're stars. And these albums explain why.

Oh ye merry music fans, do we have a compilation for you. The second volume of KDHXmas features 17 artists from St. Louis and beyond, all playing brand new and/or familiar songs to make the season bright.