“I’ve always loved Christmas music, especially popular Christmas music from the 1940s and ‘50s,” says JD McPherson. “There’s something classic about that sound. Something that keeps you coming back, year after year.”    SOCKS, McPherson’s fourth album, dives headfirst into the world of original holiday music. Written, produced, and arranged by the frontman and his longtime bandmates, it’s a record rooted in the same timeless influences—from 1950s rock & roll to oldschool rhythm & blues—that inspired his breakthrough release, Signs and Signifiers, back in 2010. The result is a return to McPherson’s musical wheelhouse, mixing new songs and classic tones with his band’s sharpest performances to date.

With a dusty timbre, hypnotic voice, and confessional lyrics, Arizona-born singer and songwriter Dylan Pratt resembles a traditional troubadour in the purest sense of the word, bouncing from place to place and collating his travels and experiences in song. That winding road carried him right to his full-length debut album, Limbo. So much of his life had been in motion over the past few years, and the record, due out via Washington Square in 2017, reflects that journey in song. Inspired by his musician father and a “cool friend who loved Led Zeppelin,” Dylan quit baseball and picked up an acoustic guitar at age 13. His band In Symmetry became a Phoenix favorite, garnering a foothold in the city’s art scene. After high school, Dylan moved to Seattle with friends to start the band Moya, who saw local radio and gigging success. Despite this, Dylan eventually headed back to Arizona in 2011 and released his independent album Beg For Fire, leading to playing live alongside the likes of Neko Case, JF McPherson, Rhett Miller and many more. During a 2015 show in New York with McPherson, he caught the attention of Washington Square who quickly signed him.