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Marc Broussard is a self-proclaimed "white boy singing soul music," but that playfully dismissive tag doesn't do him justice. His music radiates soulful Louisiana blues, but his songs blend those influences with raucous rock 'n' roll to create unique and infectious music.

Green Gartside is the driving force behind the various incarnations of Scritti Politti, which has been making music on and off for 35 years. Driven by Gartside's childlike voice and uplifting melodies, Scritti Politti's smooth pop sound surfaced on the Top 40 in 1985, but has mostly been heard on pop culture's margins.

Damien Jurado has experimented with everything from rollicking rock to electronic beats to found sound, but his stock in trade remains painfully intimate folk music. Traversing barren and dusty acoustic hellscapes, Jurado makes music that seems painstakingly constructed for consumption at 4 a.m.

Most famously known as Cat Stevens, the folk songwriter returns under the name Yusuf Islam. On An Other Cup, his first album of pop songs since 1978, it's as if the man who wrote "Morning Has Broken" never missed a step.

The music of The Guggenheim Grotto blends classical instruments such as the viola, the glockenspiel, the Wurlitzer and the Hammond organ with the more conventional guitar, bass and piano for a haunting and melodic sound that often evokes tragic love stories.

John Richards, morning DJ for NPR station KEXP in Seattle, shares his picks for the year's best albums. Richards recently appeared as a guest on NPR's live online, call-in edition of All Songs Considered to help count down listener picks for the top ten CDs of 2006.

The band's music is generally classified as indie-rock, but its songs incorporate old and new elements of punk, hip-hop, techno and pop. The recent The Return to Cookie Mountain stands as one of 2006's most enthusiastically reviewed albums.

Ashby swings, plain and simple. When she plays some mid-tempo scooting-along tune, all the stock riffage and jazz bravado common on so many '50s records disappears. Leading her chamber group, she operates in an unassuming way, leaping through intricate arpeggios that no other jazz instrumentalist could attempt.

Musician, composer and bandleader Don Byron has a new album out, Do the Boomerang. It's a collection of songs associated with the great Motown saxophonist and singer Autry "Junior Walker" DeWalt. Tracks include Shotgun and Roadrunner. While Byron is usually associated with the clarinet, he plays tenor sax on this new CD.

Robert Christgau reviews the latest CD from vocalist Maria Muldaur, best known for her quirky 1970s pop tune "Midnight at the Oasis." Her new CD is Heart of Mine: Maria Muldaur Sings Love Songs of Bob Dylan. Reviewer Robert Christgau says Muldaur put the passion in these tunes in a way most singers don't match because they probably didn't know Dylan put all that passion there in the first place.