Depending on where your head is at, you may find the concept of “ambient country” music either intriguing or repellent. Either way, I’d strongly encourage you to check out the debut album from SUSS, an odd sort of Americana supergroup whose members include Bob Holmes, Pat Irwin, and Gary Leib — guys who have worked with famous artists across the pop music spectrum, but who together create music that has been compared to a collaboration between Brian Eno and Ennio Morricone. Country tropes like whining steel guitars and twanging Telecasters are everywhere, but instead of chugging or honky-tonking they float and echo through enormous sonic spaces, sometimes following a harmonic progression and sometimes just hanging out in one place while tumbleweeds roll slowly by. The music is beautiful and eerie and altogether fascinating.

– Rick Anderson