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With a husky whisper of a voice and a well-developed acoustic guitar style, Matt Ward might easily be pegged as a folk singer. But reviewer Meredith Ochs says his new album, Hold Time, points in many musical directions.

Pizzarelli is known as one of jazz's great chord soloists, as well as an extraordinary rhythm player. Now 83, Pizzarelli was recently honored by the New York Public Library as one of its speakers at the "Duke Jazz Talks," an interview series in which he performed with his son, John Pizzarelli.

She's best known for her original songwriting, but her cool, insinuating delivery is perfect for classics, too. She visits NPR's Studio 4A for a performance from her latest album, The Cole Porter Mix — plus a certain Valentine's Day standard.

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.

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.

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.

The itinerant troubadour, composer and performer of "Suzanne," "Sisters of Mercy" and "Bird on a Wire" has a growl of a singing voice that seems to simmer and grumble up through the chords, almost like an earthquake. His new album, I'm Your Man, has already sold a quarter of a million copies in Europe.

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.

The accordion has traveled the world, and its sound has been altered by every culture it touches. Music critic Banning Eyre says Argentinean Chango Spasiuk takes lowbrow music from the countryside and transforms it into sophisticated urbanite fare. He reviews Spasiuk's new album, Pynandi Los Descalzos.

News from Somalia usually involves violent warlords or pirates hijacking ships off the coast. Other than that, average Somalis don't have much of a voice. The rapper K'Naan is trying to change that, and in the world of hip-hop, he's become an artist to watch.