Vic Chesnutt started out small - his sparsely produced debut album for the tiny Texas Hotel label wasn't called Little for nothing. But even back then, the world was already beginning to beat a  …

Even when he opened up to his roots by recording a cover tune, Vic Chesnutt couldn't help but reveal the complexity that lurked deep in his emotional center. He managed to give his home state a shout-o …

It's a testament to Conway Twitty's influential talent and enduring appeal that he stayed in the country music Top 10 steadily throughout his decades-long career - from his 1958 breakthrough, "It's Onl …

Few musicians master a musical style and call it their own - even fewer give birth to that style in the first place. But that's exactly Antonio Carlos Jobim did with the bossa nova. Jobim compos …

The first segment of Randy Travis' rich catalogue is appropriately bookended by his pledge of eternal love, "Forever and Ever, Amen," and his classic marriage-coming-apart song, "Reasons I Cheat." Be s …

The name of this band is Talking Heads, and these innovators set themselves apart from the American punk scene with intellectual wordplay and the spastic antics of frontman David Byrne, all set to a de …

Thanks to his restless nature and refusal to follow trends or anyone's expectations, quite a few RJD2 fans have cried foul with each of his releases. In that way, he really has followed in the r …

RJD2's had guest rappers on his records from the beginning, so it's no surprise to see him linking up with Aceyalone for an entire album - the Motown-channelling Magnificent City, which is sure  …

Barry Manilow started out composing commercial jingles, tiny little songs designed to be unforgettable. When he stopped writing about State Farm Insurance and started writing about love, he applied his …