Album: Bill Frisell, Disfarmer, (Nonesuch)

"Inspired by the life and works of the Arkansas photographer Michael Disfarmer."

In other words, images of poor, rural, mid-20th-century Southerners rendered in the tropes of American folk music, tinkered with by the great genre-free guitarist in the company of violin, steel/ mandolin and bass (no drums), and given an artful twist. The 26 tracks vary in length between one minute and five, but all are meticulously exposed, like monochrome images on silver paper. Exquisite, when it isn't occasionally being faintly dull. Only occasionally, mind.