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This year's oldest Grammy nominee is Delta blues pianist Pinetop Perkins. He's played with the likes of Sonny Boy Williamson and Muddy Waters. He says he even performed for a U.S. president at the White House — though at 95, he can't remember which one.

The daughter of a diplomat, Rokia Traore has built her musical career around a stylish, natural assimilation of African and European cultures. Reviewer Banning Eyre says that the opening track from Traore's new album, Tchamantche, tells the whole story.

Lionel Gilles Loueke (GIL), Ferenc Nemeth (FE) and Massimo Biolcati (MA) form the core of Gilfema, a cross-border collaboration with a jazz foundation. In a session from WBGO, the band displays an egalitarian aesthetic rooted in finding common ground as musicians.

A seasoned alt-rocker and coveted producer, Walker has worked with such chart-topping acts as Katy Perry, Tommy Lee and Pink. Last year, he also found time to release an album of his own, Sycamore Meadows. Named for the street where California wildfires claimed his home, the record finds Walker using his pop production experience to brighten his indie-rock sensibilities.

Ever since the dawn of digital delivery, we've been hearing about how the single-song download is killing the album. But at the Grammy Awards, which take place Sunday night in Los Angeles, there's still a category for Album of the Year. Tom Moon profiles the nominees.

Aptly named, Chris Robley's third solo LP, Movie Theatre Haiku, swirls together dark, evocative instrumentation and poetic lyrics. Quirky track names and the album's long subtitle, "a Masque of Backwards Ballads, a Picturesque Burlesque," provide only a hint of the complexities and eccentricities of Movie Theatre Haiku.

Host David Dye welcomes Wreckless Eric and Amy Rigby to the World Cafe. The couple's new self-titled record illustrates the unique teamwork that springs from a husband-and-wife partnership, while showcasing their individually dynamic songwriting skills.

Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz reviews the first full recording of Allegro, the 1947 Rodgers & Hammerstein musical.

Though Montreal singer-songwriter Jesse B. Marchant reports that he spent little time in church growing up, he both lived and recorded his debut album, Not Even In July in Henry Hirsch's church studio in Hudson, NY, often stepping outside only in the mornings to get breakfast. After living in Los Angeles for much of the song-writing process, taking up residency in a church built in the late 19th century was a nice change of scenery for Marchant, who came to find the social climate in L.A. not to his liking.

The prolific singer-songwriter showcases some of his new songs — and many others from his long and frequently glorious catalog — during a live concert from Newport, R.I.