Dead, Dead Swans released a new album earlier this month. The ten-song album from the folk-country singer-songwriter was written in various places across the Midwest, giving it a well-traveled aura. There’s a beautiful drear to John Swan’s voice, and when it’s combined with the somber strum of banjo, mournful cry of harmonica and/or lamenting pulse of tambourine, his songs deliver compelling sincerity conveyed with many layers. Dead, Dead Swans brings emphatic tales of alienation, hollowed memories and working-class blues with “Even Still, We Are Together.”