The most distinctive voice to enter the blues-rock scene in a long time belongs to - the postwoman? Brittany Howard, the front-woman for the Alabama Shakes, was a mail carrier up until last year, when the release of the band's album Boys & Girls allowed the members to finally quit their day jobs.

Artizan are a band who have released Ancestral Energy. This is very melodic heavy rock which straddles the line between metal and hard rock.

The Last Bison's chamber-folk style is built on homespun, organic elements: The plink of a banjo, the thud of a single drum, soaring harmonies from violin and cello.

Carl Hunt, an original member of the party band Slapwater , was fired from the popular, Peninsula-based group in an acrimonious dispute that surfaced last year.

Country music singer Chely Wright and her music exec wife, Lauren Blitzer Wright, welcomed twin boys Saturday, reports People.com . The babies arrived a little earlier than expected, but George Samuel and Everett Joseph are thriving, the singer's rep says, adding that the boys are named for their great-grandfathers. "We are grateful for all the ... (more)

The Doors' founding keyboardist, Ray Manzarek, died at 74 in Germany on Monday, May 20, after a long fight with cancer, his publicist said.

Manzarek died Monday in Rosenheim, Germany, at the RoMed Clinic after a battle with bile duct cancer.

Seeking a reprieve from the unyielding noon sun at the 2012 Summer Camp Music Festival, I head to the Soulshine Tent for a bit of shade and cold drink.

Our sunburned skin is peeling and we've got a mix of sand, glitter and cake in our ears, but damnit if we don't miss Hangout Music Fest already! Cue Boyz II Men , ya'll, because we're not ready to say goodbye.

It's a commonly held view that covers suck. They can be lame, unimaginative and tantamount to stealing someone else's thoughts.

Over on our sister blog Fork in the Road they've got a pretty thorough recap of Friday's Great GoogaMooga.

"I want you all to scream as loud as the people on that roller coaster," shouted rapper Jake Miller.

Drummer Ronnie Vannucci Jr., backed up by his band The Killers , was on fire last Wednesday night.

"Buenos Aires Report," the opening composition of Argentine pianist/composer Pablo Ziegler's collaboration with the Netherlands' Metropole Orkest, Amsterdam Meets New Tango, is a good indication of the emotional grit that characterizes the album's aesthetic. Ziegler, as Gustavo Conde's liner notes explain, is "a key exponent of contemporary Buenos Aires urban music, centered on pure tango" seasoned with "aspects of jazz improvisation." This is the new tango, a genre pioneered by Astor Piazzolla , and Ziegler had learned from the master.

Quick, name a Billboard Music Award winner. Yeah, we'd be hard-pressed to do it, too.

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