John Cohen, a photographer who took a series of pre-fame pictures of Bob Dylan, says he knew from the first that there would be more to Bob Dylan than the legacy sounds of folk and old blues.

Vimeo Matthew Heller’s music has the balls-out attitude of rock, and the confrontational intelligence of folk. The atom-smashing combination of both on his new album Invitation creates a dangerous fission

Steve Earle, as is his way, gets beneath the bromides and the easy assumptions about the homeless, in a harrowing new song that digs out the hard-won scraps of remaining pride.

BeauSoleil’s first studio recording since 2009′s Alligator Purse finds Michael Doucet’s frisky amalgam retracing Louisiana music’s journey from West Africa to the swamps of south Louisiana

This isn’t a jazz album, anymore than Joan Armatrading’s 2007 UK charttopper Into The Blues was about something so simple as the blues. She’s always had a roving eye, a restless muse. So Starlight is, but it also isn’t, jazz.

The contemporary folk group Erwilian uses this project to transform traditional spirituals and praise music into something more universal, taking away the specifics that comes with attaching lyrics. The results are stunning, as refined as they are inspirational

Although the mystical name suggests a psychedelic consciousness, this Southern California act actually specialized in jugband-styled folk rock.

A song about hard-won acceptance, Stone Blind Valentine’s “Think What You Will” begins with a raw acoustic riff from Colby Maddox before Emily Hurd enters — all steely resolve, but barely obscuring a sweeping moment of heartbreak.

Judy Dyble, a member of Fairport Convention for its first album, collaborates with King Crimson’s Robert Fripp, Ian McDonald and Pat Mastelotto on this exclusive stream, courtesy of Gonzo Multimedia.

Back when I compiled my “Best” Guitarists list, my hope was to reframe the discussion, making people see that there are different ways of evaluating talent. The good news is that most folks seemed to get the idea.