ASHLEY MONROE HOMETOWN: Knoxville, Tenn. INFLUENCES: Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris,Patsy Cline ALBUM: Like a Rose, out now WEBSITE: ashleymonroe.com A publishing deal as a Nashville songwriter helped Ashley Monroe land a major record deal in 2006. Although the deal fell through, she remained undaunted, scoring cuts with Jason Aldean and Carrie Underwood, collaborating with the Raconteurs, Ricky Skaggs and Trent Dabbs, and lending her voice to projects... 

LYDIA SALNIKOVA The former Bering Strait vocalist does it all to keep the music playing   Born and raised in Obninsk, Russia, Lydia Salnikova grew up idolizing American music. The classically trained pianist wasn’t alone, and joined five other like-minded local musicians to form Bering Strait. It was an unusual grouping—a band of Russian teens obsessed with American bluegrass and country, in a city 60 miles outside Moscow. But over the next...