Speed the Plough, a New Jersey rock group from the Hoboken/Maxwell's scene that produced The Feelies and Yo La Tengo, has a serendipitous encounter with an Italian harpsichord professor. And the result is beautiful music.

Harry Freedman, based in England, has previously explored the Jewish roots of Leonard Cohen, but here he takes on Bob Dylan, who was wont to deny those roots--at least early on in his career.

Tessa Souter is a jazz singer, originally from England but living in New York, who likes ambitious projects. And adapting and writing lyrics for the music of Erik Satie (who died 100 years ago in 2025) is just the latest one.

Astroforge is going after rare metals like platinum on near-Earth asteroids, hitching rides on the Falcon 9 and other rockets.

Richard Cortez, from Florida originally, had a circuitous route to his role as an emerging jazz singer in New York. He was a confessional Americana singer with messages for his community, did sex work, and stripped in some of the same gay bars where he now performs his beautiful jazz music.

Brad Kolodner is an acclaimed clawhammer banjo player who performs with the chart-topping Irish, Old-Time, bluegrass fusion quartet Charm City Junction. He’s recorded four albums of Old-Time and original music with his father Ken under the name Ken & Brad Kolodner including their latest Billboard-charting release Stony Run (2020). His new album of solo gourd banjo music is called Old Growth.

Jim Kweskin founded the legendary 1960s Jim Kweskin Jug Band with Fritz Richmond, Geoff Muldaur, Maria Muldaur, Mel Lyman and Bruno Wolfe. During the five years they were together, they successfully transformed the sounds of pre-World War II rural music into a springboard for their good-humored performances. And Kweskin is still at it, with a new album called Doing Things Right, out from Jalopy Records on April 25, 2025.

Preston Lauterbach is the author of the book Before Elvis: The African-American Musicians Who Made the King, a book that examines the careers of Big Mama Thornton, Little Junior Parker (author of "Mystery Train"), Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup and both Calvin and Phineas Newborn, Jr. He talks to WPKN about how Elvis absorbed their music and stage moves, and sometimes even acknowledged their help.