Shooter Jennings “Black Ribbons”
Standouts - “Wake Up!,” “The Breaking Point,” “Black Ribbons”

If you’ve followed Shooter Jennings’ short musical career or listened to his satellite radio show, you’d know that he likes to mix it up a bit from time to time. “Black Ribbons,” the first album to feature Shooter’s new band, Hierophant, is a loose love story set against a futuristic Orwellian government steeped in censorship and truth cover-ups. With narration by Stephen King, it’s all very spooky, heavy, psychedelic, and well, pretty damn good. And while it isn’t breaking any molds, it’s already one of the more exciting albums to debut this year.