On the Record: Early Rock Ballads, plus NRBQ, the New York Second, and Eric Brace & Thomm Jutz

What music comes to mind when you think of rock and roll’s earliest years? For many people, the answer is probably the sort of material that signaled a major break from the overly polished, sanitized pop that previously dominated the charts—manic, upbeat rockers like Jerry Lee Lewis’s “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On,” Elvis Presley’s “Hound Dog,” and Little Richard’s “Tutti Frutti.”

As the liner notes for 2025’s Rock-a-Ballads, Vol. 1, observe, however, “The hallowed architects of rockabilly and rock and roll didn’t always stoke their tempos at 100 miles an hour. They knew when to slow it down, to …