Made popular by the HBO hit series "The Sopranos" and a rock band based on the East Coast, Fountains of Wayne in New Jersey is a store one visits if in the market for a nice fountain or a lawn ornament to place in the backyard. The privately owned store, technically located in Great Falls…Read more Fountains of Disenchantment

Singer/songwriter Ron Sexsmith is back. It's not like he really went anywhere but he's back as far as new albums are concerned and many are dubbing his latest, "Retriever," his best work yet. Sexsmith recorded the album last August in London during Europe's record-setting heat wave and recalls, "…that much of (singer/ songwriter) Ed Harcourt's…Read more The best of Sexsmith returns

The members of The Bad Plus: They are not playing entirely jazz when they're covering Nirvana and Pixies songs, but then again, they are not entirely rock since they are playing music within the context of a piano trio. The Bad Plus is just a band that likes to play good music. Featuring Reid Anderson…Read more Bad is Good

From John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins to Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young, America has seen a number of highly influential tenor saxmen, all of whom have developed and maintained their own distinctive musical personalities and most of whom nurtured their unique voice around the same time period: the 1940s and 1950s. Many jazz enthusiasts would…Read more Smooth Sax

For the three members of the hip-hop group Dilated Peoples, making music and writing rhymes inspired by life in Los Angeles is something that comes all too naturally for them. The trio's members - Babu (DJ), Rakaa and Evidence - come from very different areas of the urban sprawl and released their debut album, "The…Read more L.A. Inspired

Christian McBride: He'll play anything whether it's funk, R&B, rock or jazz. He does it all and his music is a superb manifestation of a fondness for what Duke Ellington once referred to as, "good music," since "there's good music and there's the other kind." Noted among most esteemed jazz critics as one of the…Read more Acoustic maestro

Atlanta-based soul crooner Van Hunt is what one would call a rare breed of musician who loves literally everything about his job. Of course, virtually every musician loves the groupies; the natural high of playing in front of a different crowd every night; and writing songs that have the potential to make an impact in…Read more Soulfully crooning

Jazz musician Josh Redman once talked about his musical influences that range from rock and jazz to hip hop, classic soul and R&B; and how such exposure has expanded his improvisational repertoire, "I think the fact that I listen to so many different kinds of music gives me a wider perspective and more fuel for…Read more Particle performs at the El Rey Theater March 20 for its CD release party

Famed French novelist Albert Camus once posed the rhetorical question "But what is happiness except the simple harmony between a man and the life he leads?" In describing such a harmony between singer/ songwriter Keller Williams and his life is one he would probably sum up with just a few words: simple, genuine and humorous.…Read more Keller Williams performs March 13 at Avalon in Los Angeles

Appropriately named "Use Your Voice," singer/songwriter Mason Jennings' latest work is what one might consider a throwback to a simpler time when musicians used to record albums in a matter of days or weeks without the use of computers or overdubs. Just in the same tone and spirit caught on Van Morrison's stunning and timeless…Read more Jennings Goes Back to Basics

Singer, songwriter and violinist Andrew Bird is a musician that some would say has nearly perfect pitch. Bird, who lives in Chicago, completed his debut record entitled "Weather Systems" that the label Righteous Babe Records, founded by singer Ani DeFranco, released in June. He spent time away from the big city, recording the work in…Read more Trying to Explain the Mysterious