Canadian twins Tegan and Sara combine crafty song writing with pop sensibilities on their new CD "The Con," which was produced by Chris Walla of Death Cab For Cutie.

Local guitarist, producer, radio host, and musical historian Dakota Dave Hull has a new album he's releasing in the fall of 2008. It's more of what Dave does best, and that is write and interpret original and traditional American music on any number of guitars from his wide collection.

Johnny and June did it, so Karin Bergquist and Linford Detweiler are hoping they can be among those married couples who successfully write and produce music together. So far, it's working very well.

Leo Kottke will be one of the first to say perfection is imperfect. Or that imperfection is, well...artistic. He is a legend among guitarists. He burst on to the scene in 1969 with an album recorded live at the Scholar Coffee House in the Twin Cities and has amazed listeners ever since.

On the tail end of their tour supporting their sophomore release "Mood Swings," the Toronto-based indie-rock quintet Small Sins used an eclectic mix of a chain, bells, a drum machine and an omnichord during their in studio performance at The Current.

Local legend and Polara frontman Ed Ackerson has crossed several things off of life's to do list: make a band, write songs, produce records, start a record label, and engineer records. However, he's never recorded a solo album until now. Ackerson recorded and played all of the instruments on the acoustic meets electric indie-pop self-titled release.

Minneapolis-based singer-songwriter John Wills says his music is influenced by delta bluesmen, Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, and others; however, he started out his career in a punk band.

One thing we learned about Me'Shell Ndegeocello today is that she doesn't like to be boxed in nor does she care to be placed in a specific genre of music. Me'Shell Ndegeocello scored a few early hits in her career but decided to concentrate on more challenging material by exploring the politics of race and sex, among other topics.

There's an art to writing a funny song. Do you load it up with silliness, or do you try to sneak in something serious from time to time? Lou and Peter Berryman are masters of the silly song. and they do - occasionally - work in deeper and thought-provoking issues.

What do you do after 20 years as a singer-songwriter when you've recorded an armload of successful CDs, toured the country filling concert halls and coffee houses, and written hundreds of songs? You release a two-disc, high-quailty DVD set of some of your best songs, recorded in a theater in Los Angeles without an audience.