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On New Year's Eve in New Orleans, the Evan Christopher/Tom McDermott Danza Quartet held sway with a set of music that was anything but picayune. With a sousaphone-toting bassist and a tambourine-banging drummer, the quartet made the show an affair to remember.

For WNYC's Soundcheck host John Schaefer, the best classical music of the year came not from new releases, but from the news in the classical music world. The biggest story was the New York Philharmonic's performance in Pyongyang, North Korea.

She's best known for her electronica-tinged approach to Middle Eastern music. But for her latest release, Atlas takes an all-acoustic approach to folk songs from around the globe, from the Arab world to Appalachia.

A genre-bending indie-rock band with a bluesy twang and country-fried riffs, Blitzen Trapper wears its influences proudly. The group's latest album, Furr, has been a favorite of critics, who've placed it on many "Best of 2008" lists.

Her father was Louis Armstrong's musical director in the 1930s. Her mother still plays the bass. So it's no surprise that Russell has chops. She sings a set of bluesy numbers and standards for Mountain Stage.

For a musician, essential tremor disorder can be devastating. The disease affects fine motor coordination, causing hands to shake. But guitarist Richard Crandell has found a new way to continue composing and performing.

Justin Townes Earle went into the same business as his father, country-rock singer-songwriter Steve Earle, who taught his son a lot about rebellion and making music. Together, they talk about the parallels between their lives growing up.

Folksinger "Sixto" Diaz Rodriguez became a success in the '70s after releasing the hit Cold Fact, which was hailed a psychedelic folk masterpiece. Hear two songs from the newly reissued Cold Fact on WXPN's World Cafe, with host David Dye.

Fresh Air's jazz critic takes a fresh look at the reissue of the album Head On (Blue Note/EMI), a 1971 session led and recorded by Bobby Hutcherson.

Shanti and Buck Curran, who write and record under the name Arborea, are pitched as a husband-and-wife folk duo from Maine, but there's very little in their songs that resembles traditional roots music. Arborea is mostly an experimental album, with the Currans bowing and plucking their stringed instruments to create spacey, ambient drones.