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1. Cahalen Morrison: “Wealth of Sorrow”
2. Bella White: “Just Like Leaving”
3. Steve Earle & the Dukes: “Ghosts of West Virginia”

Bandcamp is an online music platform used largely by independent artists and record labels to stream songs and sell merchandise. It’s also a vibrant virtual community teeming with interesting sounds just waiting to be discovered. Each week, I’ll highlight three releases available on the site that are well worth your time and attention. If you find something you dig, please consider supporting the artist with a purchase.

Cahalen Morrison

“Wealth of Sorrow”

Cahalen Morrison should be a familiar name to some Central Oregon music lovers. The Seattle-based singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist has been gigging in the region for many years, first with his bluegrass duo with Eli West, and more recently with his bands Country Hammer and Western Centuries. No matter what he’s doing or who he’s playing with, Morrison has proven himself to be one of the finest purveyors of roots music going these days. The latest evidence is his solo album “Wealth of Sorrow,” a collection of sad, stark folk songs recorded in a day and a half at an old adobe chapel near the border of New Mexico and Colorado. No surprise: These tunes are earnest, beautiful, and equal parts rugged and tender, recorded only with Morrison’s “guitar, banjo, a wood stove and the wind.” (You can actually hear a fire crackling in the background at times.) This guy? So good.

Bella White

“Just Like Leaving”

In the blurb on Cahalen Morrison above, I mentioned his bluegrass duo with Eli West. They only lasted a half-dozen years and made a couple albums, but they remain a favorite of mine precisely because they took a modern approach to a traditional sound (but not, like, in a newgrass way), and their songs were lithe and melodic in a way that made them stand out. I get the same feeling from Bella White, a Canadian singer-songwriter now making her way in Nashville. Her debut album “Just Like Leaving” — released in September — finds White sitting somewhere near the blurry border between bluegrass, folk and country music, which is to say that those of you who dig nifty pickin’ and the high-pitched wail of a stringed instrument will find much to like here. But if you also dig beautiful melodies, a compelling voice and nuanced vocal performances, “Just Like Leaving” has those, too.

Steve Earle & The Dukes

“Ghosts of West Virginia”

After early success in the country music mainstream, Steve Earle has spent the past quarter century cranking out his distinctive brand of adventurous folk-rock, sometimes building albums around a theme (a Townes Van Zandt tribute, a bluegrass album, blues explorations) and sometimes, well, not. After a handful of full-lengths that felt a bit paint-by-numbers, Earle sounds inspired on “Ghosts of West Virginia,” which came out earlier this year and is focused on the Appalachian coal mining industry, and specifically the Upper Big Branch mine explosion of 2010. Earle is best when he’s telling a story with passion, and you can hear exactly that coursing through his raspy snarl in songs like “Union, God and Country,” “Black Lung” and especially “It’s About Blood,” wherein he recites the names of the 29 men killed at Upper Big Branch. If you have any ties to Appalachia at all — or maybe even if you don’t — it’s quite moving.