Mighty Clyde (MC) and Vicious Lee (VL) the local hip-hop duo sample such diverse artists as Spoon and Otis Redding to back their old-school beats and fast, hard rhymes.

Country music legend George Jones, who died today at 81, made a career out of turning hard living into heartbreaking songs. He could pull and bend notes until they made listeners hurt. In 2010, Jones told NPR's Melissa Block, "I try to live the song during that three minutes."