Singer-songwriter Thom Chacon has elevated his poignant Americana sound alongside that of John Prine, Willie Nelson and Guy Clark, to name but three. Like Woody Guthrie's Dust Bowl ballads, Chacon's characters face hard times and desperation.

John Pizzarelli: Favorite album of all time? ... Abbey Road is pretty close to the top of the list. It's funny. You could say Abbey Road or you could say In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning, because they're the types of records you put on and say, 'Oh, I'll just listen to one or two tracks.'

When Joe Jackson set out to pay tribute to legendary big band musician Duke Ellington with his latest album, The Duke, he knew that he didn't want it ...

This week our playlist includes music by Charles Mingus, Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell, Artur Schnabel, Bessie Smith and more.

This week we review albums by Doris Day, The Talking Heads, Bob Marley and the Wailers, The Caretaker, and other artists.

Paul Kelly is a well known and highly respected songwriter all over the world, but not necessarily in the United States. Here he shares his thoughts about his music having been somewhat elusive to American audiences.

According to Joe Jackson, performing is the best part of the "madness" that he's involved in. It's better than being in the studio or anything else.

Pat Metheny's new album is titled What's It All About, which is based off a line from the song "Alfie." Since this is an unusual approach for Pat Metheny, he tracked him down to talk about it.

One of my favorite tracks on k.d. lang's new album is the opener, "I Confess," which sounds like Brill Building meets country, meets...okay, I'll shut up now, k.d. lang has the rest.

As a cranky, sleep-deprived new parent in the throes of box sets by hipsters, I declared (on Twitter, no less) that there was absolutely no need for me to hear Kanye's latest magnum opus. Until I heard a track on YouTube.