David Dye

Roberto Lange's new album includes powerful songs that comment on Latin identity. Watch the electro-pop musician — and his tinsel-clad dancers — perform "It's My Brown Skin."

The blues guitarist and former Back Door Slam frontman is back with a new solo record, Three Miles From Avalon.

We recorded over 200 live sessions this year, but we've narrowed it down to seven of our favorites. Listen back to Darlingside, Ray LaMontagne, Xenia Rubinos and more.

Siblings Tyler and Maggie Heath bring their friends along to perform rousing renditions of some favorite holiday tunes.

"It was always difficult for us to find the time to stop writing new songs and look at old songs," Welch says. The 20th anniversary of her debut gave them that opportunity this year.

These are the albums that the longtime World Cafe host turned to the most this year. Some may surprise you.

The guitarist has played with Charlie Sexton, Roger Waters and Eric Clapton, but his latest music is influenced by trips through North Africa and India.

Hear two scarily contemporary tracks from the extraordinary British spoken-word artist.

"You need new, fresh blood sometimes," Chrissie Hynde says of making the new Pretenders album. "You need to feed off of something that inspires you."

The renowned Texas musician lays down his electric guitar and picks up the acoustic for his new album, EJ. Watch him perform live onstage.

The British duo moves easily between folk and jazz on its latest album, Overnight. Hear two songs.

More than 30 years into their country-rock band's career, songwriters Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor are still going strong.

The North Carolina band has been singing the praises of dirt-track racing, Little Debbie pastries and kudzu for over 30 years.

Watch the 20-year-old guitarist, whose new album was produced by Warren Haynes, play "Virginia" live in Philadelphia.

After trying on other artists' styles, the Canadian songwriter has found his own remarkable voice. Hear two songs.

"I didn't set out to write any of this stuff. It was kind of just what was eating at me," lead singer Patterson Hood says of the politically charged songs on the Truckers' latest album.

Ease into the season of "best-of" lists with a handful of standout tracks from 2016: five retro-sounding, five cutting-edge.

Americana's Emerging Artist of the Year plays live onstage at the Country Music Hall of Fame. Watch the performance and a conversation with NPR Music's Ann Powers.

Bonet's soulful new EP, The Visitor, feels immediately comforting, but still mysterious. Hear two songs.

The singer-songwriter's latest work has an optimistic, outward-facing spirit inspired by her new front porch in Woodstock, N.Y.