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Known for his waxed mustache and theatrical keyboard work with The Hold Steady, Nicolay has just released a solo album, Major General. Nicolay blends punk, rock and cabaret into a rollicking showcase.

Last November, for the first time in his career, Morrison revisited his second album, Astral Weeks, in concert. The result, Astral Weeks: Live at the Hollywood Bowl, arrives this week, offering a fresh take on one of the key recordings in late '60s rock.

Any list of the all-time best classical recordings would have to include the urgent, sinuous performances of Beethoven's fifth and seventh symphonies with Carlos Kleiber conducting the Vienna Philharmonic.

Copeland knows the blues, but maintains that singing it doesn't have to be sad. Some of the songs on her new album, Never Going Back, touch on hardship and loss. But she focuses on empowerment instead of wallowing in defeat.

Slumdog Millionaire director Danny Boyle says that although filming in India presented a variety of difficulties, working on-location also helped him capture an "incredibly rich and complex society."

Once a backing band for burlesque shows, DeVotchKa is known for its soundtrack to Little Miss Sunshine. With raucous music that combines Slavic, Russian and Gypsy roots with American punk and folk, the group's four members pick up at least a dozen instruments on their new record, A Mad and Faithful Telling.

M. Ward's seventh album Hold Time was released Feb. 17. The singer-songwriter is known for his largely acoustic and usually spare arrangements. Ken Tucker has a review.

When American composer John Adams was getting ready to write his opera Nixon in China, he warmed up his imagination with the image of Chairman Mao dancing a foxtrot. It became a seminal example of American minimalism, called The Chairman Dances.

The Irish rock band Bell X-1 has just returned with a new album of catchy pop and electronica, Blue Lights on the Runway. It's also back on World Cafe for a special session with legendary producer Steve Lillywhite.

Rose Marie McCoy is one of the most prolific songwriters of '50s American pop music, yet her legacy remains relatively unknown. During her career, the artist published more than 800 songs, some of which were recorded by the likes of Elvis Presley, Dizzy Gillespie and James Brown.