The World Cafe

For our Sense of Place: Nashville week, we just had to showcase Luella and the Sun, which has made major fans out of Grimey's Records' Doyle Davis, other bands like Moon Taxi and NPR Music's Ann Powers.

Today's guest, Leagues, provides a perfect start to World Cafe's week-long visit to Nashville, because it perfectly encapsulates the change going on there. A new rock band, Leagues was formed by an amazing singer, Thad Cockrell, who'd been so disenchanted with his alt-country career that he was ready to leave the music business altogether.

Audio for this feature is no longer available.

Audio for this feature is no longer available.

Audio for this feature is no longer available.

There have been releases under the name Yim Yames and projects with New Multitudes and Monsters of Folk, but Regions of Light and Sound of God is the first album bearing Jim James' own name.

Originally from Wiltshire, UK, Bobby Long now calls NYC his home.

Today's Latin Roots co-host, Josh Norek, was given a hefty task: Define the broad swath of Argentine rock with just a few bands. But Norek, co-host of The Latin Alternative, is up to the occasion precisely because he spent time in Buenos Aires as a student during a vibrant period for music.

Soulful singer-songwriter Jessie Ware is far from the first vocalist to make the transition from backing vocals to center stage; Sheryl Crow once backed Michael Jackson, after all. But the Londoner has made the leap with tremendous success in her own right.

Night Beds is the work of Winston Yellen, who originally started making music in his hometown of Colorado Springs. But he traveled to Nashville to write the songs for Night Beds' debut album, Country Sleep, in a pre-Civil War cabin once owned by Johnny Cash.

When Kail Baxley was a kid growing up in Williston, S.C., James Brown used to challenge him to dance-offs. Baxley didn't win so much. He did better as an amateur boxer — his key to getting out of the small town and traveling to Europe and Africa.

The world is catching up with Katie Crutchfield and Waxahatchee, and with good reason. Her shows at SXSW, including an NPR showcase, were greeted rapturously. Her new album, Cerulean Salt, is a sonic leap forward from her debut, American Weekend, which was recorded in a bedroom in Alabama.

Audio for this feature is no longer available.

Audio for this feature is no longer available.

Carrie Rogriguez will play a few songs live during the Global Village to get you ready for her show that night at Natalie's Coal Fired Pizza.

Martha Wainwright will play a few songs live during the Global Village ahead of her show that night at The Basement!

Ryan Bingham is out on the road in support of his latest release Tomorrowland and he'll be making a stop by WCBE to play live for us!

More than 40 years after Jimi Hendrix's death, the guitarist and singer's legacy continues to grow. His label recently released People, Hell and Angels, an album of 12 previously unreleased recordings that Hendrix was working on for a planned follow-up to 1968's Electric Ladyland.

Tune in for a live session with local musician Matt Monta during the Global Village. He's got his new solo debut CD American Rhymin' and we'll get a little preview of what's to come on Saturday night at The Tree Bar for his CD release show!  Micah Schnabel, Eric Nassau and Joshua P. James & The Paper Planes will also perform on Saturday...good times!  Listen live!

With emerging styles that fuse traditional folk and modern genres, Mexico has become a hub for experimentation in music. In this 30th installment of Latin Roots, World Cafe host David Dye explores the prominence of Mexitrónica with Josh Norek, the co-host and executive producer of the nationally syndicated radio program The Latin Alternative.