Cardboard Box

Style: Blues/soul/Americana; compare to Gil Correia, B.B. King, Tom Waits, Muddy Waters

Top Tracks: "Cardboard Box," "Hold Me," "Live Your Life for a Change"

After decades of playing first rock and more recently the blues, Glenn Kaiser releases arguably one of the most important works of his career, Cardboard Box, dedicated to Chicago's homeless. Surpassing politics surrounding the issue of homelessness, Kaiser looks directly at its people. And what better sound than that of his improvisational, soulful guitar licks to voice the cries of a hurting community? His storytelling brims with both hope ("Opportunity Dance") and despair ("The Protest"), acting as a mouthpiece for the suffering while issuing a charge to God's children, lest we forget, "one day we will answer for the love we did not send." (Proceeds from the album benefit Cornerstone Community Outreach.)