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Freely blending funk, jazz and boogaloo, San Diego's Greyboy Allstars specialize in danceable, groove-oriented acid jazz. On the group's first album in nearly a decade (and in this interview and in-studio performance), it sounds fresh and energized.

Countless music fans have attempted to craft the perfect mix CD — just the thing to put a soundtrack on special occasions. But an hour of love-themed dinner music for a wedding reception isn't as easy to assemble as it may seem.

British singer-songwriter Bryan Ferry is probably best known as the frontman for Roxy Music, the experimental synth-pop band he founded in 1971. But over the years, in between his Roxy music, he's recorded albums devoted to songwriters he admires. The latest? It's called Dylanesque.

The National make thoughtful, melancholy rock in the spirit of Joy Division or Leonard Cohen, with singer Matt Berninger's warm baritone voice set against deftly orchestrated instrumentation that's as epic as it is intimate. Hear the group recorded live in concert on NPR.org.

Veteran Cuban singer and member of the Buena Vista Social Club, Ibrahim Ferrer, finished recording a solo album just before he died.

Parker Longbough's new album closes with "3 Drunken Days," a tranquil folk-pop song complete with a shuffling rhythm and well-placed harmonica. It traffics in colorful imagery, as singer Matt Witthoeft recounts a three-day bender in the carnival atmosphere of New Orleans.

Southerly's "Cold Caller" opens with a beguiling combination, as piano, bass and guitar merge around bandleader Krist Krueger's assertive vocal. When an organ joins the fray four-fifths of the way through, it's clear that this is one of those songs that require multiple listens.

Nick Drake never bothered with covers on the three albums released in his lifetime. Part of that may have been due to the specific sadness at the core of his music, but the traditional ballad "Winter Is Gone" shows that his melancholy didn't sprout from nowhere.

Like many rough-voiced singer-songwriters, Forbert has done time as a potential "next Bob Dylan," but he's carved out a distinct niche in an uncompromising career that spans nearly 30 years. Hear Forbert perform a concert from WXPN and World Cafe Live in Philadelphia.

The Denver-based band DeVotchKa makes music that's been described as indie-gypsy-rock. Now it's delving into Russian chanson music — songs that originated in pre-revolutionary, anti-establishment Russia.