Way back in the Winter of 2002, XPN mid-day host Helen Leicht began playing an independent release from a Philly based singer-songwriter named Amos Lee. Soulful and organic, Lee was making ends meet working at the Tin Angel in Philadelphia and honing his craft by playing open-mic nights and writing songs. After recording an EP, his music reached Helen - who directs XPN’s Philly Local program – and she began playing songs like “Colors” and “Arms Of A Woman.”

Just 13 years old in 1992 when he recorded music in his bedroom in Bondi Beach, Australia as the band Noise Addict, much has been made about Ben Lee’s youthfulness. Noise Addict were a full-on Aussie teen sensation, adapted here in the States by hipsters like Sonic Youth and the Beastie Boys. But now as a 26 year-old, Lee’s youthfulness has been informed by young adulthood and with it a more mature perspective as a singer-songwriter with something to say. Lee’s twenty-something experiences warmly inform these songs with stories and lyrics that transcend age appeal.

Between the scruffy sweetness of Luke Reynolds’ rough, expressive tenor and the orchestral richness of the band’s intricate arrangements, Burning in the Sun is an album that is easy to get lost in.

Live at the World Cafe Volume 19: New Beginning contains sixteen exclusive tracks recorded live at WXPN's World Cafe Performance Studio in Philadelphia. Tracks include Citizen Cope, Van Hunt, Adrienne Young, and an awesome rendition of Come To Jesus' by Mindy Smith.

Bright Eyes is the primary project of 24 year-old Connor Oberst, a singer-songwriter wunderkind from Omaha, Nebraska. Precocious beyond his youthfulness, Oberst’s two new releases follow 2002’s Lifted Or The Story Is In The Soil, Keep Your Ear To The Ground. A truly brilliant, ambitious release that music critics tripped all over each other to use as the opportunity to pronounce Oberst as “Next Big Thing,” the release was marred only by its self-indulgence.

With 16 studio records to her credit since her debut in 1989, singer-songwriter Ani Difranco has come to define the essence of musical independence. With her prolific outpouring of self-produced albums, she has inspired countless of musicians and fans with her unique guitar playing, lyrical content and cottage-industry business model that many musicians have aspired to.

Elliott Smith’s posthumous album, From A Basement On The Hill, was close to completion when Smith met his untimely, sad death. A truly talented songwriter, Smith rose from obscurity to mainstream awareness in 1997 on the strength of the song “Miss Misery” from the Academy Award nominated soundtrack to Good Will Hunting. But even with that stellar surreal performance – Smith in a white suit singing to millions of television viewers alongside Celine Dion and Trisha Yearwood – he remained one of pop music’s more engaging, much loved and revered, yet little known singers and songwriters. Who can also forget his breathtaking cover of the Beatles’ “Because” at the end of the film American Beauty? It is a great moment in movie music history.

Hailing from Montreal, Win Butler, Regine Chassagne, Richard Perry, Tim Kingsbury and Win’s brother Will make up The Arcade Fire. With a strong underground indie-rock following, Funeral is possibly the most critically acclaimed album of 2004 that fell under the radar. It’s a debut record too good and original to be ignored.

With Careless Love, Peyroux is once again proving herself to be an original interpreter and an open receptor to songs from earlier eras—an artist who channels vintage jazz and blues with chilling accuracy. “I feel very lucky to be part of a tradition of songwriting that stands the test of time,” says Peyroux. “I also feel lucky to be able to go back and perform as much as I did before—I can’t wait.” Adds Peyroux, with characteristic modesty:

If you thought Southern rock faded away when Lynyrd Skynyrd and Charlie Daniels’ radio popularity waned, then the Truckers embody the spirit of hard, road-driven rock and roll. With four of the Truckers hailing from North Alabama and with musical roots tied to the classic Muscle Shoals recording studio, it was the Truckers’ now classic 2001 Southern Rock Opera about Lynyrd Skynyrd that brought them critical acclaim and a record contract.