For today's musicians, touring can be quite a treadmill, but when Alabama Shakes had a rare day off while in Minneapolis, they leaped at the chance to go fishing the way a walleye strikes a spinner. The Current's Jim McGuinn explains how the outing came together, and he shares the story and photos from the day.

To record the Waterboys' latest album, 'Modern Blues', Mike Scott decamped to Nashville. 'I wanted to do it with an American swagger,' Scott explains, 'so I brought in the players from Nashville and from Muscle Shoals, and I think I pulled it off.' Scott stopped at The Current to talk to Jim McGuinn ahead of his show at First Avenue . . . where a 'Purple Rain' cover may just be in the offing.

Dave Wakeling of the English Beat dropped by The Current's studio for a live chat with Bill DeVille. Wakeling described how he first discovered ska in the soccer stadiums of England, and he likens the changes in his band's lineup to putting together a good soccer team as he grows the sound of the English Beat as a global franchise. Wakeling also plays an impromptu acoustic version of 'Save it for Later'.

Following the release of Blur's first album in 12 years, guitarist Graham Coxon joined The Current's Jade via telephone to talk about how 'The Magic Whip' came together and about his vision of the simple life.

As the Minnesota Wild prepare for Game 4 in their playoff series versus the St. Louis Blues, the Wild's official team reporter offers this survey of NHL players and their musical equivalents. Is Prince like Patrick Kane? Taylor Swift like Sidney Crosby? Doyle makes a good case for each.

After Jose Gonzalez played a live set in The Current's studio, he stopped to talk about the Spanish classical guitars he enjoys playing. He also explains why, even though he's right-hand dominant, he prefers to bowl left-handed.

"I like all kinds of music, and nobody ever told me you gotta pick one, so I never did," lead singer and guitarist Brittany Howard says.

"I think I was overwhelmed by the vastness of the world and, more particularly, America," the English singer-songwriter says of Short Movie, an album inspired by her stay in L.A.

For George Ezra, it was love at first sight -- for his guitar, that is. When he walked into a guitar shop in London's fabled Denmark Street, a 1959 Gretsch hollow-body instantly caught his eye, and he was also glad to see it was missing something. George Ezra tells us about his hollow-body guitar in the latest addition to The Current's Guitar Collection.

The National guitarist and composer Bryce Dessner and multi-instrumentalist Richard Reed Parry of Arcade Fire chatted with host Mark Wheat about two unique shows at the Walker Art Center as a part of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra's Liquid Music Series.