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Though it first specialized in rowdy rock 'n' roll, the brother-band has spent the last few years exploring the more reflective side of its barroom-friendly, accordion-enhanced sound.

With a big, ragged voice and a bigger personality, Slim has little trouble grabbing a crowd's attention with raucous songs from his newest album. Hear his set from the 2013 Newport Folk Festival.

Standing amid hundred-year-old rubble, the Vermont trio fit an awful lot of moony harmonies into this all-too-brief performance of "Sewee Sewee."

The New Orleans band exists as a vehicle for the powerhouse songs of Alynda Lee Segarra, whose gigantic voice conveys the grit of bluesy soul while still fitting within rootsy folk and country.

The Mountain Goats' John Darnielle spent the 1990s recording songs solo on low-fidelity equipment like boom boxes. He now leads a full, versatile band, and his songwriting retains capacity to stun.

Growing up singing alongside 14 siblings in rural Arkansas, the 52-year-old singer-songwriter emerges from another era.

The roots-folk group featuring Decemberists' members covers Led Zeppelin. Hear the band perform as part of the 2013 Newport Folk Festival.

Led by North Carolina brothers Seth and Scott Avett, the band blends showmanship and poignancy. Watch the band encore with "I And Love And You" and hear the full set.

After their Hall & Oates' cover went viral on YouTube, Nicki Bluhm and her band The Gramblers continue plugging away as hard-working rockers. Hear them perform at the 2013 Newport Folk Festival.

On his first solo album, Jim James turns inward and recasts himself as a lost wanderer in search of redemption and comfort. Hear him perform as part of the 2013 Newport Folk Festival.

After releasing his mostly acoustic debut in 2010, Irish singer James Vincent McMorrow was afraid of getting pegged a folk artist. His follow-up album takes an entirely different and unexpected turn.

JD McPherson provides a refreshing reminder that retro roots music isn't timid: His debut album synthesizes blues and rockabilly and old-school rock 'n' roll with an unmistakable punk spirit.

Cary Ann Hearst and Michael Trent have spent the last decade or so singing sweetly, rowdily anthemic folk-country music together, most recently under the name Shovels & Rope.

Bird's records have grown quieter and more intimate in recent years, but he remains a remarkably dynamic live performer. Watch him collaborate with Tift Merritt at the 2013 Newport Folk Festival.

Half Simon & Garfunkel and half Smothers Brothers, Joey Ryan and Kenneth Pattengale's harmonies intertwine beautifully, while their deadpan banter is worth the price of admission on its own.

In a new book, journalist Joshua Kosman predicts a coming credit crisis, and assigns blame to private equity firms. While such firms make a fast profit from buying companies, improving them and reselling them, the companies take on the debt incurred from the purchase, leaving them in danger of financial collapse.

Nelson George, a prolific writer and critic of black America, has made a documentary based on his best-selling book Post-Soul Nation. The new film, Smart Black People, profiles African-American personalities who left their stamp on America in the 1980s.

Officials in Washington, D.C. said that they weren't able to prevent the disappearance of Relisha Rudd. But is that true?

The Pennsylvania native loved the 1905 gospel hymn inspired by the Gospel of Matthew.

NPR's Jim Zarroli reports that the brokerage and credit-card company Dean Witter agreed to a $9.9 billion merger with investment banking giant Morgan Stanley. Their merger would create the world's biggest securities firm. The announcement today brings Wall Street directly into the merger frenzy that has swept corporate America. Once again, the driving force is the strategic advantage of combining with a company that has complementary strengths. Dean Witter, Discover & Co. is strong in the "retail" brokerage business, selling stocks, bonds and such to the public. Morgan Stanley Group Inc. is a powerhouse in mergers and in underwriting securities. The stock-swap merger will create a new company called Morgan Stanley, Dean Witter, Discover & Co. with annual revenue of $12 billion.