Amy Ray's best known as half of the Indigo Girls. Typically she's the rocking half, and that doesn't change on her latest album, Lung of Love. She claims a little Joe Strummer in her DNA, offers a report "From Haiti" and argues that "The Rock Is My Foundation" on that gospel-bluegrass tune. It's a rootsy, defiantly rocking effort that honors folky undercurrents but pushes beyond. Though the lyrics are positive and hopeful, Ray's never cloying, which is a remarkable quality given her activist/ make-a-better-world outlook. The album features plenty of Carolina talent, including members of the Butchies (like Kaia Wilson, who opens), Mount Moriah, Blues World Order and producer/multi-instrumentalist Greg Griffith. —Chris Parker