Folk-rock music

He was the principal songwriter for the pop group that had a string of hits from 1966 to 1968 when the group broke up. Their hits included "Monday, Monday," "California Dreamin*," "I Saw Her Again Last Night" and others. He died of heart failure in March of 2001. He was 65.

Fresh Air rock critic Ken Tucker says Dylan both infuses the songs with his personality, while also allowing them to be heard anew.

Blake Mills has done a lot in his 28 years. As a guitarist, he has accompanied singers including Lucinda Williams, Neil Diamond, Kid Rock, and Lana Del Ray. He's produced songs for acts such as Fiona Apple and Alabama Shakes. His new album, his second, is called Heigh Ho, and Fresh Air critic Ken Tucker says it's notable for the diversity of its sound.

Todd Snider, Widespread Panic's Dave Schools and Duane Trucks perform in a new band that specializes in covering working-class songs.

The singer-songwriter's new album sounds like a collection of songs that could have been sung a hundred years ago, or written and recorded just a few weeks ago. She's joined on the album by her ex-husband, Richard Thompson, and their three children.

Can the highly publicized band turn its hype into hits? Ken Tucker wants to join the fan club.

June can sing a duel with the Devil, even as her voice tells you she knows she's already triumphed.

The singer-songwriter has said, as he was writing his new album Still Fighting the War, that "a theme of perseverance through hard times revealed itself." Rock critic Ken Tucker says the record is no downer and that Cleaves finds complex sentiments and wittily phrased ideas in many of his new songs.

Critic Ken Tucker says that some songs on Tempest should less like concentrated efforts than outpourings of rambling thoughts; others are as precisely crafted as any Bob Dylan has written.

Snider is a singer-songwriter with a sharp sense of humor, as evidenced by the title of his new album, Agnostic Hymns and Stoner Fables. Rock critic Ken Tucker says that even Snider's most pessimistic songs have a sense of humor and energy that gives them an exhilarating spin.