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Known for experimentation, The Bad Plus' drummer performs conventional modern jazz on the side. With two underground rhythm-section guys, he travels to one of New York City's most prestigious clubs.

Byron has a way of homing in on an artist's legacy and transforming it with intelligence and adventure. In this case, he takes on the music of Thomas Dorsey and of Sister Rosetta Tharpe in concert.

In concert, the soulful blues-rock band's music reached ecstatic, rafter-shaking heights. Singer Brittany Howard has the bearing, power and charisma of a star twice her age.

Since expanding from a duo into a sextet, Blind Pilot has given its warmly catchy, charming folk-pop a bit of a kick. The band's albums are stuffed with ringers: It's never released a bad song.

It's nice to know all of these cute boys will have jobs if the whole music thing doesn't work out.

The hook-up anthem gets a video full of femme empowerment and late-night hype.

These Brooklyn-based childhood friends from Berkeley, Calif. create what they call orchestral pop.

The Brooklyn band Spirit Family Reunion calls its sound "open-door gospel." It's another way of saying that the group plays wide-open songs of celebration. Hear their Newport Folk performance.

The Deer Tick founder has helped form popular side projects. Hear the Deer Tick cover everything from Hank Williams to Jimmy Buffet in a solo set from the 2013 Newport Folk Festival.

tUnE-yArDs' Leader Merrill Garbus forms a cut-up collage of coos, howls and bold statements of purpose, but her live shows fan out into epic rave-ups, complete with a pair of saxophonists.

The Swedish sister act broke through with a lovely album, which mixes wearily winsome mountain music with a welcome sunny side — an ode to musical couples seemingly made for the Newport crowd.

Host Larry Groce says that of the nearly 2,000 guests who have appeared on the show, O'Brien is "perhaps the best singer we've ever had." This marks her 13th appearance on Mountain Stage.

It's not a stretch to call U.K. singer-songwriter Frank Turner a folksinger, especially when he performs solo with an acoustic guitar. But he's also a rocker, a punk and a storyteller.

Animated eyes peer out of nipples in the playfully weird new video by a band that knows its way around playful weirdness.

The Bright Eyes singer has learned to channel his youthful intensity into real showmanship. Conor Oberst performed at the 2014 Newport Folk Festival on Sunday, July 27.

Set in a newly independent — and bitterly divided — India, Manil Suri's The Age of Shiva is a story of a woman's journey in love, motherhood and family. Suri makes an imaginative leap into the intense voice of a female narrator caught between identities, faiths and ideologies.

For a secretive industry, the business of espionage is one many readers feel they understand — especially if they happen to be fans of spy thrillers. Nancy Pearl, a Seattle librarian and author, offers a list of her favorites.

Pairing the classical cellist with the Michigan iconoclast makes a fair bit of sense: Neither cares much for genre boundaries.

Listener Nancy Newfeld plays the puzzle with puzzlemaster Will Shortz and NPR's Kelsey Snell.

British soul singer Omar isn't well known in the United States. But with the support of influential fans such as Stevie Wonder, he now is trying to break into the U.S. market with a new release, Sing (If You Want It).