ALICIA KEYS Girl on Fire [RCA] Some combination of talent and luck—the former outweighing the latter—gave Alicia Keys one of the biggest debuts of the ’00s. Songs in A Minor (2001) was a hit with hip-hop fans, housewives and just about everyone in between, and in the decade since, the R&B songstress has continually shown her savvy and taste. She’s built a career that lets her cruise the middle of the road without becoming middle of the... 

BOB DYLAN Tempest [Columbia] Bob Dylan’s 35th studio effort isn’t his “death album.” He’s been singing about kicking the bucket since his 1962 debut, and fans looking for evidence of Dylan facing mortality will find more clues on 1997’s Time Out of Mind—though there’s plenty of life on that one, too. What’s funny about Tempest is how comfortable Bob sounds staring into the abyss. Whether detailing a deadly love triangle (“Tin... 

Bob Crawford, Scott Avett, Seth Avett THE AVETT BROTHERS Creative challenges keep these Americana darlings moving forward   One would think a band with as many influences as the Avett Brothers would have an extensive list of dream collaborations or future goals. But the North Carolina-based trio prefers to live in the moment, an attitude that’s helped them deal with the fame that comes after scoring multiple Americana Music Awards and performing... 

DEFINING MOMENTS Photographer Danny Clinch captures the essence of music’s finest Danny Clinch’s unforgettable images have graced countless publications and album covers from Johnny Cash and Gregg Allman to Willie Nelson, the Fray and Bruce Springsteen (above, on a New Jersey back road in 2007). Before establishing himself as a premier lensmen, Clinch studied under the legendary Annie Leibovitz and Mary Ellen Mark. “These photographs are... 

WOOD WORKS What to look for in an acoustic guitar—from strings to wood, body and beyond Even though someone had the earth-shaking notion to run electricity into a guitar a few decades ago, the acoustic guitar remains just as potent as it ever was. The instrument spans genre and culture, from the Gipsy Kings’ flamenco grace to Bob Dylan’s folk strumming and Jimmy Page’s driving leads. In the right hands, the simple combination of wood and... 

SHANNON LABRIE HOMETOWN: Lincoln, Neb. INFLUENCES: Bob Dylan, Lauryn Hill, James Taylor ALBUM: Shannon Labrie EP, out now WEBSITE: shannonlabrie.com The daughter of an opera-singing mother and guitar-playing father, Shannon Labrie took to music early—she astounded her first vocal coach with her four-octave range, and began writing classical piano pieces as a child. She got her first guitar at around 10 and began learning chords from her dad, who... 

FOLK FORWARD – ESSENTIAL FOLK DUST BOWL BALLADS (1940)  WOODY GUTHRIE  In a whirl of autobiography and activism, Guthrie reinvents American song. The Oklahoma native recorded this 1940 gem in two days, laying the groundwork for thousands of guitar-strumming followers. These are dusty, hard-bitten ballads that somehow gleam and soar more than 70 years after their creation. THE FREEWHEELIN’ BOB DYLAN (1963)  BOB DYLAN The folk bard’s... 

  FOLK FORWARD How a sound born of tradition is thriving in the modern day   By Peter Cooper It’s the other “F” word. And like its more obscene counterpart, it means different things to different people in different contexts. In the 1950s, it was sweater-vested political subversives. Later, it was shape-shifting musical revolutionaries and introspective singer-songwriters. It has been used to describe troubadours who specialize in journalistic...