Maura Rogers & The Bellows/Three Legged Chair/Tanya Kos

Singer-guitarist Maura Rogers has spent the last couple of years coping with serious health issues (she had to undergo a kidney transplant), and addressed those hardships in the songs on 2012's A Good Heart Will Break. Earlier this year, the band returned with In Light, its fan-funded second album that again shows off the band's alt-country sound. The album commences with the triumphant dirge "Battle Cry" that finds Rogers singing "I was left here to die" in a hushed voice that sounds a bit like a more restrained PJ Harvey. (Niesel)