San Antonio-based group Hacienda is a family band, comprised of brothers Abraham, Jaime, and Rene Villanueva and their cousin Dante Schwebel. The Tex-Mex rockers had just started the band and recorded their first demo when they had an encounter that would change the course of their musical career.

Australian indie band Husky take their name from their frontman and chief songwriter, Husky Gawenda, whose crooning vocals carry over the band’s artfully crafted instrumentals. The group is the first Aussie band signed to Sub Pop Records,

Following the success of their last record, the 2010 Grammy nominated album, Infinite Arms, alternative country rockers Band of Horses released their fourth studio album, Mirage Rock, on September 18. The record was produced by famed English musician/engineer/producer Glyn Johns,

Cold Specks is the stage name of 23-year-old Canadian singer-songwriter Al Spx. The London-based artist started Cold Specks as a small acoustic solo project for Spx to showcase her soulful voice and thoughtful lyrics, influenced by southern gospel music and soul musicians, such as James Carr.

Sidi Touré is a Songhai blues singer/songwriter who hails from northern Mali. Although Touré had a privileged upbringing growing up in a royal family in Mali, he still knows a thing or two about the blues that has influenced his music.

Yale dropout and prolific indie songwriter Dave Longstreth is back with a new CD, Swing Lo Magellan, released July 10. Dirty Projectors had a breakthrough in 2009 with the album Bitte Orca, and released a much-anticpated new album in July on Domino Records.

We travel to Cuba today with the first of four shows about the music scene in Havana as part of World Cafe's Sense of Place Havana.

Southern-style rhythm was always in Patterson Hood's blood. Born in Alabama to David Hood, a bassist for the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, young Patterson started writing songs at the age of eight. Within two decades, he would be known as a veteran musical talent writing songs and performing them on nationwide tours with country rock phenomenon Drive-By Truckers. Between 1996 and 2011, Hood and the Truckers would release nine albums, four of which peaked in the top fifty in the US. Not content to rest on his laurels, Patterson began simultaneously producing solo work in 2004.

Down to earth and very talented, Kelly Hogan is in demand and on the road most of the time. Opening - and singing backup vocals- for Neko Case - Hogan has not had much time to record solo. Her recent release, I Like to Keep Myself In Pain, was her first in ten years (June, 2012 on ANTI Records).

The members of experimental psychedelic band Animal Collective first met in school in Baltimore County, Maryland. After collaborating on various musical endeavors throughout high school and college, David Porter and Noah Lennox put out their first album under the name “Avey Tare and Panda Bear” in 2000. The two were then joined by Brian Weitz for their second record, which was released in 2001 under the name Avey Tare, Panda Bear and Geologist.