World Cafe

The Mountain Goats are John Darnielle, Peter Hughes and Jon Wurster, and the band's been around, in one form or another, since 1991. Darnielle's lo-fi beginnings involved just his poetry, his guitar and a dual-cassette recorder, but resulted in some of the finer albums of the '90s (Zopilote Machine, Nine Black Poppies, Full Force Galesburg).

John Paul White and Joy Williams hail from very different parts of the country (Alabama and California, respectively), and both are free spirits when it comes to their solo music careers. But when the two crossed paths at a songwriting camp in Nashville, the rest, as they say, is history. Both knew that they had some special collaborative magic, and they've managed to mix their songwriting styles into something truly moving.

From his start with the band Bluesology in 1961, multi-award winner Elton John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight) has time and time again proven himself to be one of the most iconic singer-songwriters of our day. Rising to international fame by the 1970's with the hit "Your Song," Elton has since released an overwhelming number of studio albums, many of which have climbed their way to the top of the charts.

Embracing old-school blues and backwoods country rock, Cold War Kids formed in 2004. Nathan Willett (lead vocals, piano, guitar), Matt Maust (bass), Jonnie Russell (guitar, vocals, percussion) and Matt Aveiro (drums) recorded some demos in the Los Angeles area and rode a series of EPs to Internet fame.

This past January, Cold War Kids reclaimed the spotlight with the release of Mine is Yours, an 11-track collection that's poppier than anything in the group's discography.

When indie-rock outfit The Broken West called it quits in 2009, it had two full-length records to its name. Now, two years later, lead singer Ross Flournoy has returned with his new group, Apex Manor, and released what could have been that beloved band's third album, The Year of Magical Drinking.