WARD ON TERROR

It's not so bad being a musician's musician. You get to do cool stuff like sing on Norah Jones's next album and co-produce Rilo Kiley frontwoman Jenny Lewis's solo debut. And if you ever feel the need to reach out to all those people who think a power chord is something you plug in, you can always make a momentdefining record like Post-War, M. Ward's fifth solo release and first with a full band (not to mention guest vocals by Neko Case and My Morning Jacket's James). The new record still finds the 32-yearold singer-guitarist-songwriter murmuring Dylanesque oneliners ("If life is really as short as they say, then why is the night so long?") over his signature acoustic thrum. But the arrangements are grabbier, and the theme is more urgent: how will America heal once this craziness in Iraq is over? For answers, Ward (whose given name is Matt) looked to the postwar music of the late 1940s and 50s: "I had the naive, simplistic idea that producers and writers and artists of the time helped in a miniscule way to change the mind-set of America." No wonder this musician's musician is taking his message to the people.

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MICHAEL HOGAN