WANDA JACKSON The Queen of Rockabilly proves you’re never too old to earn new Stripes When the blues had a baby called rock ’n’ roll, Wanda Jackson was there for the delivery. “Back when I was touring with Elvis in 1957, we didn’t even call it rock ’n’ roll,” she remembers. “It was just ‘the kind of songs the kids liked.’” Jackson credits her then-boyfriend Presley with encouraging her to branch out from her country roots... 

BAND OF HEATHENS The secret to this Austin collective’s success? Don’t plan, just play It’s noon in Austin, but the Band of Heathens’ Gordy Quist sounds like he’s still sleepy. “I’m a bit hazy,” he says by way of apology. “It’s been a long 24 hours.” With upward of 200 gigs a year, the group’s devotion to its packed-out schedule comes naturally by now. In fact, the Band of Heathens was quite literally born on stage—the group... 

PANIC! AT THE DISCO No need for alarm—the synth-popsters have returned to the dance floor When Panic! At the Disco announced in July 2009 that it was reinserting the exclamation point it had dropped from its name the previous year, there were two ways to read the news. One: The Las Vegas band really was panicking. This would have been understandable, given that bassist Jon Walker and guitarist and primary lyricist Ryan Ross had just quit, leaving... 

JOHN OATES Writing a musical autobiography by rediscovering his roots When John Oates first started getting to know Darryl Hall more than four decades ago, the two young Philadelphia natives had a love of R&B in common. But Oates had another passion, one that got obscured during the duo’s subsequent rise to pop stardom: roots music. Although you might not guess it from Hall and Oates’ hits, he cut his teeth on classic folk and blues as a... 

DENGUE FEVER Giving new life to a genre once thought lost to tragedy When the brutal Khmer Rouge regime took control of Cambodia in 1975, it set about destroying all elements of Western culture. American-influenced music was banned, and singers like Sinn Sisamouth, Pan Ron and Ros Sereysothea were put to death along with more than a million of their countrymen. Cambodia’s distinctive brand of garage-style rock practically vanished. “So much of... 

THE DEARS Welcoming new voices and familiar spirits into a house built on constant change Over the last three years, no fewer than 15 people have had the privilege of calling themselves Dears. Of the four musicians who joined founding frontman Murray Lightburn and longtime keyboardist Natalia Yanchak in recording the band’s fifth album, Degeneration Street, three are on their third stints as Dears. For their loyal service, they earned a privilege... 

OVER THE RHINE A veteran duo gets a boost from its fans and a helping hand from a new ally After two decades and more than a dozen albums, Over the Rhine decided to take matters into its own hands with its latest, The Long Surrender—and into the hands of its fans as well. The husband-and-wife duo of Linford Detweiler and Karin Bergquist turned to listeners for financing, a notion sparked by their newfound teaming with veteran producer Joe Henry.... 

CORINNE BAILEY RAE How love songs from the past pointed her to the future You can trace the creative renaissance of Corinne Bailey Rae back to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. The Grammy-nominated English singer and songwriter performed last summer at a White House concert honoring Paul McCartney, recipient of the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize. Her soulful take on McCartney’s “My Love” is now a highlight of her new digital-only release The Love... 

TIMES OF GRACE A nearly broken man repairs himself with the help of an old friend Spending two weeks hospitalized and immobile in 2007 left Killswitch Engage guitarist Adam Dutkiewicz plenty of time to think. Rather than dwell on his current circumstances (surgery for a severe back injury he suffered while on tour in England), Dutkiewicz started composing what became The Hymn of a Broken Man, the debut album by his side project with former Killswitch... 

ADELE For a British singer coming into her voice, a bad habit leads to a great discovery Smoking is bad for your health, but it can be good for your musical education—just ask Adele. During her U.S. tour following her breakthrough 2008 album, 19, the Grammy-winning British singer wound up spending a lot of time with her Nashville-based bus driver. “I used to have to smoke at the front of the bus, and I would stay up there with him for a 10-hour... 

BEN E. KING After 50 years of R&B, a legend takes   on the Great American Songbook Fifty years is a long time for a song to remain popular, but that’s how long it’s been since Ben E. King first sang his standard “Stand by Me.” Today the classic—written by King with the producers of his original recording, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller—is still ranked as the fourth most performed song of all time by the performing rights organization... 

SOCIAL DISTORTION An all-American band explores its rock ’n’ roll roots and its own checkered past If well-inked Social Distortion frontman Mike Ness doesn’t already have a “Lucky Seven” tattoo somewhere on his body, now’s the time to get one. On Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes, the California band’s seventh album, Ness continues his streak of building fresh songs from familiar ingredients. By now, the singer and guitarist should have... 

TED LEO & THE PHARMACISTS How a lack of inspiration helped at least one band avoid disaster If things had gone as planned, Ted Leo & the Pharmacists would have released a new record last year just weeks before their label at the time folded—which would likely have doomed the album to failure. Fortunately, things didn’t go as planned. “We actually started recording and wound up feeling like it just wasn’t coming together,” Leo says.... 

CYPRESS HILL The hip-hop pioneers are back in business and ready to rock Cypress Hill didn’t intend to wait so long between albums, but the pioneering Los Angeles rap group had some business to attend to between 2004’s Till Death Do Us Part and the new Rise Up. Among other things, the foursome toured abroad, worked on solo projects, changed management and switched record labels. “We revamped everything, and it took longer than we thought it... 

THE CHIEFTAINS Finding a vivid common ground between Ireland and Mexico The Irish are deservedly proud of their talent for telling tall tales. But even Chieftains founder Paddy Moloney had a hard time believing the story behind his group’s ambitious new album, San Patricio, based on the story of a battalion of Irish expatriates who fought against Americans in the Mexican War. “There’s a Catholic Irishman, John Riley, who came from Galway to... 

JAMIE CULLUM In pursuit of diversity, he finds an explosion of creativity You can’t miss the symbolism in the cover of Jamie Cullum’s new CD, The Pursuit, even if you try. In the foreground stands the artist, nattily attired, his facial expression somewhere between anger and mischief. Behind him, occupying roughly two-thirds of the cover’s real estate, is a grand piano in mid-explosion, wood splinters and ivory keys flying through the air with... 

MOSE ALLISON A jazz and blues veteran changes things up—just a little It makes perfect sense that The Way of the World, Mose Allison’s first new studio album in 12 years, is released on the Anti- label. After all, he has always been an anti- kind of artist: anti-pigeonholing, anti-convention, anti-mainstream. His idiosyncratic songcraft and performance style may have kept Allison from reaching the level of fame enjoyed by many of his peers over... 

ANGELS & AIRWAVES Giving away music for free is only part of the plan While the record industry busied itself suing consumers for illegally downloading music, Angels & Airwaves came up with an alternate idea: Give away the songs for free. No strings attached. That’s exactly what the band did with its third album, Love, which the group first made available for download in February. “We felt in our heart that’s the way music is going,”... 

CAKE Two decades after forming as a “convulsive gesture,” an alt-rock stalwart doesn’t look back Cake frontman John McCrea isn’t given to retrospective analysis of how he, his music or his band has evolved over the past 20 years. “I feel strongly that the song should be its own universe,” he says. McCrea sees no need to find the threads that tie together either the band’s career or its new album, Showroom of Compassion. Fair enough.... 

CASSANDRA WILSON She listens and lets the songs speak to her—then she makes them her own Cassandra Wilson has a sixth sense when it comes to finding songs. “They will tell me if they are for me,” she says. “A song tells me that it belongs to me. It has to resonate and have some connection to who I am, who I’ve grown up to be, who I was and will be and who I want to be.” The veteran singer’s latest album, Silver Pony, includes several... 

INXS Reaching out to singers from around the world to celebrate a durable rock legacy Veteran Australian pop-rock band INXS set about making an instrumental album of new material. But the longer they worked on that project, the more they found themselves tinkering with older INXS tunes, spinning them into some unexpected new directions. “We weren’t really serious at first,” says keyboardist and principal songwriter Andrew Farriss, “and then... 

TAPES ’N TAPES An indie-rock upstart finds space in its songs during a full-circle journey to independence In some ways, the story of Tapes ’n Tapes reads like a case study of how the music business has changed over the last half-decade. The Minneapolis quartet released its debut, The Loon, in 2005, independently (in the U.S., at least) on its own Ibid label. The buzz earned them a spot on the roster of XL Recordings and a bigger budget for... 

THE DAMNED THINGS Fall Out Boy + Anthrax + Every Time I Die = a different kind of rock supergroup The first sound on Ironiclast, the debut album from unlikely hard-rock supergroup the Damned Things, is a monster guitar riff characteristic of six-string slingers Scott Ian and Rob Caggiano from thrash-metal mainstay Anthrax. The songs that follow are fast, tight and laser-precise—kind of like Every Time I Die, singer Keith Buckley and bassist Josh... 

RHONDA VINCENT One of bluegrass’ leading ladies takes care of business Rhonda Vincent grew up in the family business. The Missouri native first began singing at age 5 as a member of her parents’ bluegrass group, the Sally Mountain Show. Three years later she took up the mandolin, and it’s been her instrument of choice ever since. “One of the great things about growing up in a bluegrass family is that it allows you to experience so many different... 

YOKO ONO After a lifetime of artistic adventures, a restless innovator finds a new home on the dance floor “Never!” replies Yoko Ono when asked if she ever imagined she might someday become the toast of the dance floor—but that’s precisely what she has become. To a new generation of club kids who know little of her many decades of creating visual art, poetry, performance art and music—or of her marriage and collaborations with late Beatle... 

AARON NEVILLE Knocked down by tragedy, the sweet-voiced legend bounces back to spread the gospel Five years ago, Hurricane Katrina destroyed Aaron Neville’s New Orleans home. Two years later his wife of almost 48 years, Joel, died after a long bout with lung cancer. A pair of blows like that would’ve tested the faith of many men, but not Neville. “My faith never wavered,” says Neville, who relocated to Nashville after the Katrina disaster.... 

DAR WILLIAMS How a back-to-basics move led to a reevaluation of her rich musical history For years, Dar Williams had been thinking about rerecording some of her older songs in stripped-down arrangements. When she at last undertook the project, she was surprised at how much she had changed since starting her career nearly two decades ago. “Listening to the original recordings, I thought, ‘Wow, I don’t sound like the same person anymore,’”... 

BAD BOOKS Indie rockers Kevin Devine and Andy Hull join forces and get a little freaky Asked to describe Bad Books, the new joint side project between indie troubadour Kevin Devine and Manchester Orchestra frontman Andy Hull, the twosome will point to one song in particular on their self-titled debut. The grungy “Baby Shoes” was inspired by a six-word short story often (and probably wrongly) attributed to Ernest Hemingway: “For sale: baby shoes.... 

SHAWN MULLINS How crossing the divide between Atlanta and Nashville lit up his world A dozen years ago, the Top 10 hit “Lullaby” and platinum album Soul’s Core catapulted Atlanta-born singer and songwriter Shawn Mullins into the limelight. Before long he found himself opening arena shows for the likes of ’N Sync, the Backstreet Boys and Destiny’s Child—and becoming increasingly uncomfortable with his place in that overblown pop world.... 

SUGARLAND The country duo turns over another new leaf with its new album’s arena-rocking sound If Sugarland’s new album, The Incredible Machine, sounds grand and full of ambition, that’s because its inspiration was, too. “We had gotten a call about writing a song for a 2010 Winter Olympics soundtrack,” says guitarist Kristian Bush. “So we started thinking, ‘If I were writing a song for a skier or snowboarder to play on their iPod before... 

TRICKY Mixing things up with a renewed sense of enthusiasm and commitment Fame swept over trip-hop star Tricky so quickly in the mid-1990s that he was barely able to catch his breath. He sat out much of the ’00s to do just that. “It was a way of catching up with myself,” says Tricky of his self-imposed hiatus, during which he became a self-described fitness nut. “I’m more comfortable now. I realized I’ve got a great job. I’m lucky to... 

PHIL COLLINS A rock giant’s R&B labor of love might just be the last album he ever makes Phil Collins has sold more than 250 million albums over four decades as both a solo star and as the singer and drummer for rock supergroup Genesis. He has earned seven Grammy awards, an Oscar, two Golden Globes and membership in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Now Collins claims that he is well and truly finished. He swears that Going Back, a new 18-track... 

JAMEY JOHNSON A next-generation outlaw, shaking up country music with just a guitar Jamey Johnson’s new double album, The Guitar Song, is separated into conceptual halves. The first disc, dubbed “Black,” reverberates with the damage caused by broken relationships and broken promises, then the “White” disc moves past loneliness and loss towards feelings of redemption and forgiveness. But ask the soft-spoken singer and songwriter about the... 

OF MONTREAL Getting away from home for a while, thanks to a serious case of the funk flu Of Montreal mastermind Kevin Barnes recorded the group’s previous albums at his home studio in Georgia. But for the act’s new effort, False Priest, he elected to work with producer Jon Brion (Rufus Wainwright, Aimee Mann, Fiona Apple) in a professional studio. “It was really just a desire to do something different, because I’d been doing it this way... 

NELLIE McKAY Sharing ideas and changing hearts and minds, one vegan restaurant at a time If you ever find yourself in a vegan restaurant and you see a young blond woman at a table that’s groaning from the weight of the food on it, don’t be alarmed—it might just be Nellie McKay writing songs. She describes her ideal creative space thus: “In a vegan restaurant, eating a dairy-free caesar salad, a milkshake that tastes like a Butterfinger bar,... 

MAROON 5 From Switzerland to Nashville, finding the way forward on a make-or-break album On their 2007 album, It Won’t Be Soon Before Long, Maroon 5 enlisted a team of producers to help shape the material. For their latest disc, Hands All Over, the pop rockers turned to one—Robert John “Mutt” Lange, famed for his cinematic productions of AC/DC, Def Leppard and others. “The producers on the last album did a great job, but it was hard to... 

JENNY AND JOHNNY An indie-rock couple’s unplanned burst of inspiration turns into a full-time gig On I’m Having Fun Now, their debut effort as Jenny and Johnny, indie-rock “it” couple Jenny Lewis and Johnathan Rice take on God, economics and Michael Jackson’s chimpanzee, addressing these and other topics with wit and wisdom. The two began writing the album in late 2009—“a bastard of a year,” as Rice sings on the standout “My Pet... 

RAUL MALO Keeping music alive by getting out of his comfort zone For the creation of Raul Malo’s sonically diverse new album, Sinners & Saints, the crooner opted to forgo the assistance of just about everyone who had aided him in assembling his previous releases. Malo recorded much of the album at his home studio in Nashville, producing and playing most of the instruments himself. He then decamped to Bismeaux Studio in Austin, where he added... 

LITTLE BIG TOWN There’s a reason why this tenacious country group refuses to go back to the house When Little Big Town’s self-titled debut was released in 2002, its poppy, overproduced sound was met by critical scorn and commercial indifference. The band has been on a mission ever since. “The first record we made was just crucified, so we had something to prove,” says Kimberly Schlapman, who shares vocal duties equally with bandmates Karen... 

ALEJANDRO ESCOVEDO Finding himself again in songs about the mysteries of love After releasing two intensely personal concept albums—2006’s The Boxing Mirror, about a near-fatal bout with hepatitis C, and 2008’s Real Animal, a detail-rich rock ’n’ roll memoir—Alejandro Escovedo needed a change. He and collaborator Chuck Prophet began writing what would become Street Songs of Love, Escovedo’s 10th solo album. What emerged was a record... 

TIM O’BRIEN A bluegrass master in competition only with himself When selecting a title for his new album, bluegrass icon Tim O’Brien found inspiration when his neighbor’s chickens wandered into his photo shoot. He had a moment of realization later during a lunch of hardboiled eggs: “You don’t know what came first,” he says, “and it doesn’t matter.” Such is O’Brien’s approach to folk and bluegrass music on Chicken & Egg.... 

TEGAN AND SARA Ready to mix things up, in the studio and on stage After more than a dozen years of recording and performing, Canadian indie-pop duo Tegan and Sara know their fan base. Now they’re finding creative ways to expand it. That was the idea behind Alligator, a 17-track iTunes exclusive of remixes (and one demo) of the title song, a bouncy piano-based pop number that appeared on Tegan and Sara’s 2009 album Sainthood. For the remixes,... 

GOO GOO DOLLS Seeking inspiration from without as well as within Past Goo Goo Dolls hits—“Name,” “Slide” and “Let Love In,” to name a few—have been deeply introspective. For the band’s latest album, Something for the Rest of Us, frontman and principal songwriter Johnny Rzeznik wanted to look outside himself. A beautiful ballad, “Notbroken,” paved the way. “That song was based on conversations I had with a woman whose husband... 

FEFE DOBSON Making the most of an unexpected second chance at stardom Toronto native Fefe Dobson appeared poised for a major breakthrough in 2003—her song “Take Me Away” was climbing the charts, she scored endorsement deals with Tommy Hilfiger and the Got Milk? ad campaign and was picked as the opening act for Justin Timberlake’s world tour. Nonetheless, Dobson was dumped from her major label right before the release of her second album,... 

SQUEEZE Painstakingly recreating the past while looking to the future Squeeze’s Glenn Tilbrook knows a thing or two about the pressure of expectations. In the late ’70s, when the London-based band first came onto the scene, he and songwriting partner Chris Difford were lauded as “the new Lennon and McCartney.” “That was a tremendous compliment,” Tilbrook says. “But as a result, our writing got more mannered, more stylized and more... 

NIKKI & RICH A California girl and New York guy make beautiful music together As far as mea culpas go, “Next Best Thing,” the debut single by pop duo Nikki & Rich, isn’t particularly remorseful. Over malt-shop piano and doo-wop backing vocals, singer Nikki Leonti tells a heartbroken ex it was boredom that led her to stray. “It’s my fault, I’m the one to blame,” she coos, callous and cavalier. “Shame on me and my man-eating... 

MICHAEL FRANTI A sonic innovator with a sunny disposition—even in the hospital Michael Franti has long been acclaimed by critics and a devoted cult of fans for his fusion of hip-hop with blues, reggae and soul. But last year Franti and his backing group, Spearhead, were surprised to find a mass audience with the breakout hit “Say Hey (I Love You),” a charming nugget of reggae-pop. “We’ve gone from traveling in vans and playing in the street... 

TONIC An extended break quickly gives way to a long-awaited renewal Alt-rock band Tonic didn’t intend to wait eight years between albums, but side projects and growing families helped put some distance between the Los Angeles band’s 2002 album Head on Straight and its new self-titled effort. “There was no definitive moment when someone said, ‘Hey, let’s take a break,’ at least not on purpose,” says guitarist Jeff Russo. “It was more... 

PUNCH BROTHERS Chris Thile’s boundary-breaking crew shakes itself to see what’s inside If bands were in the habit of adopting stretches of highway, Punch Brothers would probably choose one that was all left turns. The hot-picking bluegrass-classical-jazz ensemble’s sophomore album, Antifogmatic, is full of melodic and rhythmic twists that defy convention at every chance. “Musical expression is by nature abstract,” explains mandolin player... 

HANSON Shouting out loud their love of classic R&B and rock ’n’ roll Hanson’s last album, 2007’s The Walk, was comprised of weighty songs about facing conflicts and overcoming obstacles. For the new Shout It Out, the Tulsa, Okla.-based band was determined to rediscover its sense of joy. “We wanted to make a summer record,” says drummer Zac Hanson, who co-founded the trio 18 years ago with brothers Taylor and Isaac. “Hopefully,...