If you equate “roots” music with staid traditionalism, Califone will change your outlook. For the last 22 years, the Chicago collective has been fraying said roots into songs that spring out of folk, blues, and rock, yet they become otherized through guitarist/vocalist Tim Rutili’s skewed sensibility. Not too different from that of his old band, Red Red Meat, Califone’s music is redolent of the urban junkyard, the Alan Lomax archives, the orch-rock ghetto, and morose troubadourism. Rutili’s weathered drawl adds a crucial grit and pathos to these alluringly rickety compositions; low-key, he’s one of rock’s most soulful singers. Califone’s 12th album, Echo Mine, is another subtle tweak of the unconventional methods that brought them to this poignant point. by Dave Segal