The World Cafe

By now, Daniel Rossen's name is synonymous with the kind of raggedy, whimsical, airy music he writes. A contributing songwriter and musician in Grizzly Bear, Rossen often saved his most personal compositions for his other band, Department of Eagles, which shares Grizzly Bear's roots in Rossen's undergraduate years at NYU. Both bands saw success, and Rossen continued to work in both projects.

A surfer and songwriter, Ben Howard's two loves intertwined when the English surfing world became the first audience for his quiet, meditative music. At the encouragement of friends, Howard released two EPs and was soon invited to tour with Xavier Rudd. Howard is a talented artist in the vein of labelmate and influence Nick Drake, with similarly dark and soulful lyrics.

Young Man is Colin Caulfield, a multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter and producer of light yet deft indie-pop. While studying French and English at Loyola, Caulfield began putting cover songs on YouTube, and his lithe, lo-fi music soon drew comparisons to Animal Collective and Grizzly Bear.

Throughout the month of October, we celebrated the 20th anniversary of World Cafe and revisited some of the best and most memorable interviews of the past 20 years.

Of Monsters and Men is an Icelandic sextet specializing in catchy folk-pop. The group came together in 2009 when singer Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir began recruiting backups for her acoustic solo act. In 2010, Of Monsters and Men gained national fame when it won an annual Icelandic battle of the bands; since then, the buzz has only grown.

Today's episode of Latin Roots features Felix Contreras, co-host of Alt.Latino, NPR's online music program about Latin Alternative music. Also a reporter and producer for NPR's Arts Desk, Contreras specializes in jazz, world music and Latino arts and culture. A part-time musician who plays Afro-Cuban percussion in several Latin and jazz bands, Contreras is uniquely qualified to discuss Latin Alternative music. In today's episode, he speaks about boogaloo, how it developed and how it impacts Latin music today.

Grimes is the one-woman project of Claire Boucher, a talented and eclectic Canadian singer. Born and raised in Vancouver, she moved to Montreal for college but left to pursue her craft when her work as Grimes began to take off. Marrying lo-fi punk with dreamy pop, Grimes quickly became a fixture in Montreal's underground music scene. Boucher incorporates elements of dance, video and still images into her live performances, creating otherworldly and entrancing multimedia experiences in the process.

Emeli Sande is young, but she already has an enviable list of accomplishments under her belt. Along with a specialty in neuroscience from the University of Glasgow, she's become a global R&B phenomenon at just 23. The U.K. soul singer wrote her first song at 11 and began participating in music competitions in her teens. Given her powerful vocals and keen understanding of what makes a great song, there was little doubt that her debut would be a doozy — especially once her first single, the soulful "Heaven," became a worldwide hit.

Geographer's glittery, electronic pop-rock sound has been winning over fans on the West Coast for years. The trio formed in 2008 and released its first full-length album, Innocent Ghosts, a few months later. Now, four years after its debut, Geographer has finally returned with a new set of earnest, sonically sugar-coated songs.

After playing shows with their parents as children, the members of Haim now work as a serious stand-alone act. The Haim sisters are Danielle, Este and Alana, and their childhood experience of performing live has shaped them into a musical force as young adults. They first hit the L.A. music scene a few years ago — when each of the sisters was pursuing music, mostly in separate contexts — but their relatively recent decision to work together was inevitable.

Gotye (a.k.a. Wouter "Wally" De Backer) has become an international pop star on the strength of his new album, Making Mirrors. The poppy collection includes "Somebody That I Used To Know," which has topped the charts in six countries and hit the Top 20 in 14 others. There's something hauntingly relatable and undeniably catchy about the insightful, ubiquitous break-up song.

Named after a French novella by poet Charles Baudelaire, Fanfarlo is a pop band from London with a wide range of instrumentation: mandolin, glockenspiel, musical saw, melodica, sax, clarinet and the usual drums, bass and guitar. With its beguiling and uplifting pop-folk, the quintet makes music that's accessible, refreshing and whimsical.

Electric bluesman Joe Louis Walker is a living legend. He was strumming a guitar by age 8, and by 16 was on stage; he's released 23 albums over the course of his career. Given his formidable talent and prodigious supply of soul-stirring vocal inspirations, it's little wonder that Walker has become a blues-rock hero and award-winner. He's still going strong, as evidenced by his fierce new album, aptly named Hellfire.

Born in Nashville and more recently a resident of New York, Justin Townes Earle is no stranger to the road, and his latest album, Nothing's Gonna Change the Way You Feel About Me Now, takes us down I-40 to Memphis, Tenn. On songs like "Memphis in the Rain," "Baby's Got A Bad Idea" and "Maria," Earle's past becomes an open book and makes for arguably his strongest album yet.

Emily Wells began honing her violin skills at age 4, released her first album at 13, and hasn't slowed down since. Blending her classical training, hip-hop loops and folk influences, Wells has developed a unique sound while touring and releasing albums independently.

Today's episode of World Cafe revisits the singer-songwriter movement of the 1970s, chronicling some of the decade's most masterful and indelible artists.

In a 2008 interview, the contemplative and politically minded Jackson Browne discusses his love songs, his reaction to the use of "Running on Empty" in a John McCain campaign ad and his beliefs surrounding the battle between nuclear and alternative power sources.

Often, an artist can be defined by his or her influences. Woody Guthrie's legacy demands instead that he be remembered for the legendary writers he influenced. Guthrie's music inspired musicians from Bob Dylan to Bruce Springsteen, and his career as a Dust Bowl troubadour became representative of more than just American folk music.

On this seventh segment of the Latin Roots series, Josh Norek joins World Cafe to explore the cultural roots of Latin funk — a mix of Latin grooves and Afro-American funk. Norek is the co-host and executive producer of The Latin Alternative, as well as a musician, producer and journalist who currently works for the Latin indie label Nacional Records.

John K. Samson, known for his eloquent lyrics and tenure as the frontman of Canadian indie-rock band The Weakerthans, just released his first solo album. Three years in the making, Provincial arose out of Samson's stated wish to capture the feel — a "musical map" — of three locations in his native Winnipeg.

Though Robert Glasper Experiment is a fairly new entity, Glasper himself has been experimenting in genre mash-ups for his entire musical career. First and foremost a jazz pianist, Glasper grew to love hip-hop and began to incorporate it into his music. He's played in a jazz trio and toured the world playing at jazz festivals, but recently, he's become renowned for his ability to mix unlikely elements into something startlingly original — even if he's covering the work of another artist.