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Centered around the quivering voice and tormented but intelligently poetic songwriting of Conor Oberst, Omaha, Nebraska band Bright Eyes is synonymous with sad indie music. Oberst was just a teenager when he started using the Bright Eyes moniker, and was often backed by a rotating lineup of musicians before the band gelled into an official trio of Oberst and multi-instrumentalists Mike Mogis and Nate Walcott. Bright Eyes' albums throughout the 2000s (all issued on Oberst's indie imprint Saddle Creek) were some of their best-loved and best-performing, with releases like 2005's Digital Ash in a Digital Urn turning the tides of indie culture as well as cracking the Billboard charts. In 2020, after a nine-year hiatus, Bright Eyes signed with Dead Oceans for the release of their ninth studio album, Down in the Weeds, Where the World Once Was, and returned four years later with Five Dice, All Threes.

The roots of Bright Eyes reach back to 1994, when at just 14 years old, Oberst was attracting regional attention as the singer and guitarist for Omaha band Commander Venus. A prolific songwriter, he soon amassed a number of songs that didn't gel with the rest of Commander Venus' catalog, 20 of which were compiled and released in 1998 as A Collection of Songs Written and Recorded 1995-1997, a solo record that doubled as Oberst's first release under the Bright Eyes moniker. Letting Off the Happiness followed several months later, featuring contributions from members of Neutral Milk Hotel, Of Montreal, and Tilly and the Wall. The album also marked the first collaboration between Oberst and producer/instrumentalist Mike Mogis, who would play an integral role in Bright Eyes' success going forward.

As Conor Oberst graduated from teenaged life to adulthood, his productivity increased. Bright Eyes' third release, Every Day and Every Night, appeared in 1999, followed by Fevers and Mirrors in 2000 and Oh Holy Fools in 2001. The Bright Eyes sound had expanded by this point, with Oberst finding room for flute, piano, and accordion in the band's music. The frontman also found room to pursue alternate projects, and he dedicated some time to Desaparecidos before returning to the studio with Mike Mogis in 2002. Lifted or the Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground was released that summer and proved to be Bright Eyes' breakthrough album, with Rolling Stone deeming it one of the year's best.

Bright Eyes released several EPs in 2004 -- including Home, Vol. 4, a collaboration with Spoon's Britt Daniel -- and rang in the following year with a pair of albums released on the same day: I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning (whose accompanying tour produced the Motion Sickness: Live Recordings disc) and the electronic-slanted Digital Ash in a Digital Urn, both of which cracked the Top 20 in America. Hailed by some critics as the next Dylan, Oberst supported the releases with a round of festival appearances and international shows before returning to the studio once more. Recorded in L.A., Chicago, New York, Omaha, and Portland, the follow-up effort Cassadaga was released in April 2007, preceded by the Four Winds EP earlier that spring. Both releases featured full instrumentation -- including pedal steel, Dobro, xylophone, and orchestral swells -- making them some of Bright Eyes' most developed works up to that point.

Cassadaga debuted at number four in America and number 13 in the U.K., marking Bright Eyes' highest peak on either chart. Even so, Oberst followed such success by decamping to rural Mexico to work on his first solo effort in years. Recorded in a makeshift studio with a cast of musicians dubbed the Mystic Valley Band, Conor Oberst arrived in 2008. The project soon evolved from a solo effort into a full-band affair, and the Mystic Valley Band returned in 2009 with Outer South, an album that included songs written and sung by several of Oberst's bandmates. Bright Eyes returned in 2011 with The People's Key, which was recorded in Omaha and produced by Mogis and Andy LeMaster. In 2013, A Christmas Album, which had originally been quietly issued in 2002 as a Saddle Creek online-store exclusive, was finally scheduled for its first full commercial release. This unique holiday album featured a selection of Christmas standards performed in Bright Eyes' trademark bittersweet style, with help from a plethora of other Saddle Creek artists including members of Cursive, Desaparecidos, Neva Dinova, and Azure Ray.

In October 2016, Bright Eyes received the box set treatment with the aptly named Studio Albums 2000-2011, which featured remastered versions of all of the group's LPs up to 2011's The People's Key. This was leading slowly to the band's emergence from their dormant state. In January 2020, Bright Eyes announced they had signed to indie imprint Dead Oceans for the release of their ninth album, Down in the Weeds, Where the World Once Was, and began sharing new songs in advance of the record's release. The album arrived in August of the same year. That October, the band released new song "Miracle of Life" as a benefit for Planned Parenthood. The track was a collaboration with Phoebe Bridgers, with whom Oberst had been working closely both in cameos on her tracks and with their band Better Oblivion Community Center.

In 2021, Bright Eyes released a cover of Vic Chestnutt's "Flirted with You All My Life." The following year, the group announced they would be reissuing their first nine studio albums with new label Dead Oceans. Along with each reissue, the band released an accompanying EP with re-recorded versions of songs from the corresponding album and various unreleased cover songs. The Companion Series began with three EPs released in May 2022, one for each of the first three Bright Eyes albums; A Collection of Songs Written and Recorded 1995-1997, Letting Off the Happiness, and Fevers and Mirrors. Several tracks from these EPs were shared in advance of their release, including new versions of early Bright Eyes tracks "Contrast and Compare" with guest vocals from Waxahatchee's Katie Crutchfield, "Haligh, Haligh, A Lie, Haligh" with Bridgers, and a cover of Elliott Smith's "St. Ides Heaven."

In 2024, Bright Eyes' tenth studio album, Five Dice, All Threes arrived, again on the Dead Oceans label. The record was full of notable collaborators including Cat Power's Chan Marshall and members of the National and the So So Glos. ~ Andrew Leahey

A singer/songwriter of perceptive intelligence who possesses a refined sense of craft, Aimee Mann sustained a long, successful career that ran from the twilight of new wave until the height of adult alternative pop. Mann first came to prominence as the leader of 'Til Tuesday, a stylish pop outfit who had a Top Ten hit with "Voices Carry" in 1985. 'Til Tuesday didn't manage to score a second big hit, but by their last album, Everything's Different Now, in 1988, Mann was collaborating with Jules Shear and Elvis Costello, a sign of how respected she was by her songwriting peers. Mann launched her solo career in 1993 with Whatever, landing an alternative rock hit with "I Should've Known," but it was its 1995 sequel, I'm with Stupid," that was instrumental in building the loyal audience that would stick with her through the decades. Mann consolidated that cult success with her soundtrack to Paul Thomas Anderson's 1999 epic Magnolia, work that led to an Academy Award nomination for Best Song for "Save Me." Bachelor No. 2 or, the Last Remains of the Dodo arrived in its wake, the first of many albums she released on her indie label SuperEgo. Mann's consistency -- every few years, she'd release a new set of originals -- overshadowed her artistic hunger, as she complemented her regular albums by appearing in films, collaborating with Ted Leo in the Both, and working in musical theater, including writing music for a musical adaptation of Girl, Interrupted that turned into her 2021 album, Queen of the Summer Hotel.

Mann led 'Til Tuesday from 1983 through 1990. Her first solo album, Whatever, was a more introspective, folk-tinged effort than 'Til Tuesday's records, and received positive reviews upon its release in the summer of 1993. The album was a modest hit, spending seven weeks on the American charts, where it peaked at 127.

Early in 1995, Mann had a minor hit with "That's Just What You Are," a song included on the soundtrack to the television series Melrose Place. Following the success of the single, Mann was set to release her second solo album in the first half of 1995, but her record label, Imago, filed for bankruptcy before its release. She signed a contract with Reprise Records after Imago went under, but Imago prevented her from releasing any records. For most of 1995, Mann battled Imago in an attempt to free herself from the label, eventually winning her independence at the end of the year. After her dispute with Imago was settled, she signed with DGC Records. Mann's second album, I'm with Stupid, was released in England in late 1995 and in January of 1996 in America. Again, it was greeted with positive reviews yet weak sales.

Mann's career got a kick-start in early 2000, however, when she released her soundtrack for the critically acclaimed film Magnolia; the song "Save Me" was later nominated for an Academy Award. Originally available only at live dates, the solo Bachelor No. 2 received a national release in May. In mid-2002, Mann returned to the forefront with the self-released Lost in Space. Late 2004 saw the release of Live at St. Ann's Warehouse, a CD/DVD package recorded during her summer tour. It was followed in 2006 by the critically acclaimed Forgotten Arm, a concept album built around the return from Vietnam of a drug-addicted boxer. Mann released a collection of Christmas songs called One More Drifter in the Snow in 2006. @#%&! Smilers followed in 2008.

Mann spent the next few years working on adapting The Forgotten Arm into a musical, a project that was ultimately abandoned. She remained in the spotlight through semi-regular concerts and a memorable cameo on the IFC comedy series Portlandia before finally returning in September 2012 with Charmer, her first album in four years. In 2013, Mann started performing with Ted Leo in a project that was eventually named Both; the duo released an album, also called Both, in 2014. Following that, Mann turned her attention to her ninth solo album, recording the deliberately slow and sad Mental Illness with producer Paul Bryan. The record appeared in March 2017.

In 2018, Mann began working on a musical adaptation of Girl, Interrupted, the 1993 memoir from Susanna Kaysen that turned into a 1999 film starring Winona Ryder and Angelina Jolie. By 2021, the musical had yet to appear, but Mann recorded her songs for 2021's Queens of the Summer Hotel, which was produced by Paul Bryan. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Under the banner of Pedro the Lion, Seattle's David Bazan became a fixture of late-'90s indie rock, recording deeply introspective albums like the 1998 standout It's Hard to Find a Friend, on which he played most of the instruments himself. He toured the club circuit incessantly. A rotation of bandmates came and went over the years and, following the band's acclaimed 2004 release, Achilles Heel, Bazan launched a successful solo career with his first EP, Tiny Moving Parts. Touring even harder as a solo act, he spent the next decade alternately playing clubs and house shows while releasing further career highlights like 2009's Curse Your Branches, and undertaking an ambitious subscription series that culminated in a pair of compilations, Bazan Monthly, Vol. 1 (2014) and Vol. 2 (2015). Known for his tireless D.I.Y. work ethic and unflinching self-reflective lyrics, Bazan has earned a reputation as one of indie rock's most revered songwriters.

The son of a pastor, Bazan was introduced to Christian music at an early age, which helps explain the Christian-influenced songwriting of much of Pedro the Lion's early output. Bazan formed the group in 1995, mixing first-person narratives and nuanced indie rock with contributions from a rotating cast of musicians. Based in Seattle, the group released four albums, beginning with 1998's It's Hard to Find a Friend and concluding with 2004's Achilles Heel. Bazan stopped using the name in early 2006, but his musical aspirations continued with several other outfits, as well as a solo career.

Shortly after dropping the Pedro the Lion moniker, Bazan joined Nick Peterson and Starflyer 59's Frank Lenz to form an electronic pop group called Headphones. He also began recording his own solo material, and 2006 saw the release of a solo EP entitled Fewer Moving Parts. The album featured five songs, each one performed twice: first as a fully arranged song, and later in an acoustic rendition. Bazan even altered the songs' names depending on their arrangements. Named one of the Top 100 Living Songwriters by Paste Magazine, he spent the early portion of 2006 on tour in Europe with the Undertow Orchestra, an outfit featuring fellow songwriters Vic Chesnutt, Will Johnson, and Mark Eitzel. He headed to North America later that summer, supporting his EP's release with a tour alongside Micah P. Hinson.

Three years later, Bazan made his full-length solo debut with the release of Curse Your Branches. Issued on the Barsuk label, the album cracked the Billboard 200 and received warm reviews. He hit the road after its release, recording one of his live performances -- an October 2009 set at the Electrical Audio studio in Chicago -- and releasing it in 2010 as Live at Electrical Audio. The same touring band that appeared on the Electrical Audio album also performed on his second solo album, Strange Negotiations, issued during the early summer of 2011. Throughout this era, he continued to tour constantly, supporting his solo record and, in 2012, he re-created Pedro the Lion's acclaimed 2002 album Control on-stage with his solo band in honor of its tenth anniversary. Exhausted from such an extended period on the road, he sought a new project that would keep him at home for a while.

His new venture was a limited-edition 7" single series called Bazan Monthly. Beginning in 2014, he would release two new songs on the first day of the month for five months in a row. These ten new songs were later collected on a compilation called Bazan Monthly, Vol. 1. He repeated the same process the following year, resulting in the release of Vol. 2. The music was more stripped-down and solitary than his previous releases, and the tracks were generally recorded at home. In 2016, Bazan remixed and reworked ten of the Bazan Monthly tracks to create his third proper solo LP, Blanco. It was followed in November of that year by Dark Sacred Night, a Christmas album reflecting the melancholy many feel during the holiday season. Just a few months later, in March 2017, he released the synth-washed, Richard Swift-produced album Care. ~ Jason MacNeil

One of the best bands with the worst luck, New Jersey's the Wrens were establishing themselves as one of the catchiest and most thoughtful indie rock groups of the '90s when label problems prevented them from releasing another album for seven years. The group -- guitarist/vocalist Charles Bissell, guitarist Greg Whelan, bassist/vocalist Kevin Whelan, and drummer Jerry MacDonnell -- formed in the late '80s and went through several names before settling on Low. Unaware of the slowcore band already named Low, in 1993 the group recorded a 7" under this name; when they heard about the other Low, they changed their name to the Wrens. They had sent a copy of the 7" to Grass/Dutch East India, where they were signed to the label almost immediately after the A&R people heard it.

In 1994, the Wrens released their debut album, Silver, which mixed the dream pop of bands like My Bloody Valentine and Chapterhouse with the quirky indie rock for which they would become better known. The album received generally good reviews, and the Wrens got even better ones for their second album, 1996's Secaucus. Meanwhile, Grass/Dutch East India was bought by Alan Melzter, who wanted to take the label in a more hit-oriented direction. Melzter wanted the Wrens to sign a million-dollar contract and tailor their music to make it more radio-friendly. The group balked, and they were dropped from the label. Interestingly, Grass eventually became Wind-Up Records, home to the multi-million-selling Creed.

The band soldiered on, keeping their day jobs and recording and releasing their music when they could; in 1997 they issued the Abbott 1135 EP for Ten 23, the label of the A&R contact that had signed them to Grass in the first place. While several labels courted the Wrens, none of them fit the band. For a moment the Wrens were going to be part of Drive Thru's roster and even appeared on a 1999 sampler for the label, but the plans fell through. As the millennium turned, the group continued to record consistently -- a situation that was facilitated by having all the bandmembers except MacDonnell, who moved out in 1996, live in the same house and use the dining room as their studio. By 2002, the Wrens had readied their third album, Meadowlands, and had found a home for it: Absolutely Kosher, which was run by the band's longtime friend Cory Brown. The album was finally released the next summer to nearly universal critical acclaim. ~ Heather Phares

Indie rock darlings Palomar formed in 1998 with Rachel Warren, Sasha Alcott, and Matt Hauser. They hooked up with Television's Fred Smith to independently issued a self-titled effort in 1999. Christina Prostano, formerly of Warren's old band Trixie Belden, joined the band in time for the CMJ Music Marathon Showcase in fall 2000. Sasha left shortly thereafter, leaving Sarah Brockett of the Philadelphia rock outfit, Overlord, to fill her shoes. Palomar played dates in and around Northeastern America for the next two years, sharing the stage with bands like the Strokes, Clinic, Luna, Burning Airlines, and the Microphones. A second full-length, Palomar II, appeared in summer 2002, after which Matt Hauser left the group. Filling his shoes with Dale W. Miller, they released Palomar III: Revenge of Palomar in the summer of 2004. ~ MacKenzie Wilson

Active since the early '90s, Guster is an American alt-rock band known for their earworm hooks, soaring choruses, deft guitar noodling, and literate songwriting. A versatile East Coast institution, they emerged out of the Boston area with a quirky amalgam of acoustic folk and pop before adopting a more robust sound that blended stadium-ready Brit-pop grandeur with proletariat American trad-rock. They first achieved breakout success in 1999 with their third LP, Lost and Gone Forever, and its breezy hit single "Fa Fa." Subsequent LPs like Ganging Up on the Sun (2006), Easy Wonderful (2010), and Evermotion (2015) found similar success, each one reaching the Top 40 and yielding numerous charting singles that found their way into popular television shows and films. After 2019's Look Alive, Guster released a live album supported by the Omaha Symphony. Released in 2024, Ooh La La marked the band's ninth studio effort.

Guster formed in 1991, when Ryan Miller, Adam Gardner, and Brian Rosenworcel first crossed paths at Tufts University. Originally called Gus, the trio played local shows around the Boston area before releasing an independent album, Parachute, in 1994. With Miller and Gardner sharing lead vocal duties, the band forged a unique folk-pop sound that featured Rosenworcel exclusively on hand percussion. By 1996, they’d elongated their name to Guster and recorded a second album, Goldfly, which, along with years of touring, netted the band a contract with Sire Records. Sire reissued Goldfly in 1998, and the bandmates decamped to a recording studio later that year to work with producer Steve Lillywhite. Released in 1999, Long and Gone Forever became the band’s unofficial breakthrough album, cracking the lower reaches of the Billboard charts and spinning off a hit single, “Fa Fa,” which peaked at number 26 on the Adult Top 40.

Compared to Guster's early albums, Long and Gone Forever was downright lush, with strings and horn sections beefing up the band's standard mix of bongos, vocal harmonies, and acoustic-oriented songwriting. Guster went even further with their follow-up effort, Keep It Together, which featured Rosenworcel on a drum kit and contributions from a talented multi-instrumentalist named Joe Pisapia. The album was released during the summer of 2003, where it cracked the Top 40. Meanwhile, the band also released a “fake” version of the record, The Meowstro Sings: Guster's Keep It Together, in which Guster’s vocal tracks were replaced with simulated cat meows. The so-called “meow mixes” were released online in an attempt to battle illegal file sharing.

Several months after Keep It Together’s release, Pisapia joined the group permanently. He made his official debut on the 2004 concert album Guster on Ice, which found the band playing selections from all of their albums. Now a four-piece outfit, Guster returned in 2006 with their richest-sounding album to date, Ganging Up on the Sun which debuted at number 25 on the Billboard 200 and yielded the catchy hit single "Satellite. The group's sixth studio album, Easy Wonderful, which was partially recorded in Pisapia's Middletree Studios in Nashville, was released in October of 2010. Around that time, Pisapia announced he wouldn't be touring with the band any longer, choosing instead to play with k.d. lang full-time. He was replaced in the touring line-up by guitarist Luke Reynolds, a former member of the band Blue Merle. The Richard Swift-produced Evermotion, the band's seventh studio long-player, arrived in early 2015 via their own Ocho Mule label. January 2019 saw the band issue their electronics-leaning eighth full-length effort, Look Alive, which was produced by Leo Abrahams and recorded in a vintage keyboard museum in Calgary. A year later, Guster issued another live album, OMAGAH! Guster with the Omaha Symphony, as well as the studio EP Zeno Mountain. The group took their time on a studio follow-up, working with producer Josh Kaufman (the National) over the next few years. The resulting album, 2024's Ooh La La, was deeply introspective and inspired by the chaotic global events of the early 2020s.~ Andrew Leahey

During their decades-long career, They Might Be Giants have combined an outsider perspective, catchy melodies, and clever wordplay in endlessly imaginative ways. Musically, John Flansburgh and John Linnell borrow from everywhere, referencing everything from the British Invasion to Tin Pan Alley while alluding to pulp fiction and President Polk. They enhanced this eclecticism with their arcane sensibilities; the vaguely avant-garde aesthetic of their 1986 self-titled debut reflected their time in New York's post-punk underground. With cult favorites like 1988's Lincoln, They Might Be Giants built a huge college following, and successes like 1990's major-label debut Flood (which was eventually certified platinum) made them one of the most popular alternative bands before grunge. Later in the decade, the band embraced a fuller, more rock-oriented sound on albums such as 1994's John Henry, but their creativity extended to their early embrace of the internet as a means of connecting with and distributing music to their fans. The 2000s and 2010s found them thriving, with well-received forays into soundtracks and children's music -- 2008's Here Come the 123's won a Grammy, while 2009's Here Comes Science was nominated for one -- as well as acclaimed albums for their adult fans that included 2011's Join Us, 2015's Glean, and 2021's Book.

Flansburgh and Linnell met when they were children in Lincoln, Massachusetts. During high school, they began writing songs together, but they never officially formed a band. The Johns went to different colleges after high school, with Linnell playing in the Mundanes, a new wave group from Rhode Island. By 1981, the pair had reunited, deciding to move to Brooklyn to pursue a musical career. Performing as El Grupo De Rock, the duo's first show was at a Sandinista rally in Central Park. Soon after Flansburgh and Linnell settled on the moniker They Might Be Giants, taking the name from a George C. Scott film. Performing their original material with Flansburgh on guitar, Linnell on accordion and saxophone and backed by a drum machine, They Might Be Giants soon became fixtures on the Manhattan underground. When Linnell broke his wrist in a biking accident, the resourceful duo founded the Dial-A-Song service by recording their songs on an answering machine and advertised their phone number locally. Over the years, it was a successful venture; at one point, the service was receiving hundreds of calls a day. Starting in 1984, They Might Be Giants had a monthly gig at the Lower East Side club Darinka for three years, by the end of which they were selling out their performances. In March 1985, the duo released a 7" that included demos of several songs.

On the strength of these demos -- which were reviewed in People magazine -- They Might Be Giants scored a deal with Bar/None Records. Recorded at the Public Access Synthesizer Studio and Dubway Studios, 1986's They Might Be Giants mixed synth pop and power pop with elements of folk, country (the song "Boat of Car" features a prominent sample of Johnny Cash's "A Boy Named Sue"), novelty pop, and jazz ("Rhythm Section Want Ad" interpolates Raymond Scott's "Powerhouse"). The album earned critical acclaim and became a college radio hit, selling 10,000 copies in its first year of release and establishing Bar/None as a label in the process. One of the album's singles, "Don't Let's Start," made waves thanks to its inventive video (which featured some of the absurd props the band used in its live show) and helped push They Might Be Giants' eventual sales to over 100,000 copies. Linnell and Flansburgh expanded their following with their next album, September 1988's Lincoln. Like its predecessor, it was recorded on eight-track tape at Dubway Studios, but boasted more wide-ranging sounds and songwriting that touched on heartache and social critique. Named for the duo's hometown, Lincoln doubled the sales of their debut and peaked at number 89 on the Billboard Hot 200 Albums chart, where it stayed for 19 weeks. One of the album's singles, "Ana Ng," hit number 11 on Billboard's Modern Rock chart.

Lincoln's success led They Might Be Giants to sign with Elektra Records in 1989. The band's third album, Flood, appeared in January 1990 and reflected their status as a major label act. Recorded at Skyline Studios and featuring production by Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley on several tracks, the album featured a notably more polished but still eclectic sound that encompassed elements of country as well as unconventional drum sounds sampled from sources like Flansburgh's kitchen sink. Flood reached number 75 on the Billboard 200 Albums chart and was ultimately certified platinum by the RIAA; in the U.K., it was eventually certified gold. The album's singles also fared well: "Birdhouse in Your Soul" peaked at number three on the Billboard Modern Rock chart and also charted in the U.K. and Ireland. "Twisting" reached number 22 on the Modern Rock chart, while the band's cover of the Four Lads' 1953 song "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" -- which They Might Be Giants played in their early days to fill out their setlists -- hit number 61 on the U.K. Singles Chart. In addition, the animated TV show Tiny Toon Adventures aired videos for "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" and "Particle Man," giving the duo a new, younger audience.

After the release of 1991's B-sides and rarities compilation Miscellaneous T in 1991, They Might Be Giants returned with their fourth album Apollo 18 in March 1992. Named for the cancelled space mission that was supposed to follow Apollo 17, the album coincided with the band being named the official musical ambassadors of International Space Year by NASA (the duo came to the agency's attention while searching for imagery for the album's artwork at the NASA Archive Center). As on Flood, They Might Be Giants pushed themselves musically. Recorded at New York's Magic Shop studio, Apollo 18 had fuller instrumentation and a darker tone than their previous albums, and included a suite of very short songs called "Fingertips" that could be sprinkled throughout the album when the CD release was played in shuffle mode. The album peaked at number 99 on the Billboard 200 and reached number 59 on Australia's ARIA albums chart; the single "The Statue Got Me High" made it to 24 on the Billboard Modern Rock chart. For the album's supporting tour, They Might Be Giants performed with a full backing band for the first time, hiring former Pere Ubu bassist Tony Maimone and drummer Jonathan Feinberg. They Might Be Giants' first release with a full band lineup was September 1993's Why Does the Sun Shine? (The Sun Is a Mass of Incandescent Gas) EP, which featured covers of songs by the Allman Brothers, Meat Puppets, and Hy Zaret, whose 1959 song provided the release's title track.

Following August 1994's Back to Skull EP, They Might Be Giants issued their fifth full-length John Henry that September. Balancing a heavier, more guitar-oriented sound with songs alluding to Allen Ginsberg's Howl, expressionist Belgian painter James Ensor, and Alice Cooper, the album featured contributions from Maimone as well as guitarist Robert Quine and reached number 61 on the Billboard 200 Albums chart. For October 1996's Factory Showroom, the band added second guitarist Eric Schermerhorn into the fold, incorporated more of their early electronic pop into its sound, and recorded a song on wax cylinder at the Edison Laboratory. The album failed to chart in the U.S., however, and They Might Be Giants parted ways with Elektra after its release. The band moved to Restless for 1998's Severe Tire Damage, a mostly live album that also included the previously unreleased studio track "Doctor Worm." Bassist Danny Weinkauf and guitarist Dan Miller joined They Might Be Giants around this time, and in 1999, the band became the first established musical act to release an album exclusively online with Long Tall Weekend. That year, they appeared on the soundtrack to Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me with the song "Dr. Evil."

They Might Be Giants began the 2000s with a plethora of projects. May 2000 saw the release of the Working for the Man EP, which featured several songs that appeared on the band's next album. Arriving in September 2001, Mink Car was another quintessentially eclectic release that the band recorded while on tour from 1999 to 2001 and included collaborations with M. Doughty, Adam Schlesinger, and the Elegant Too. The making of Mink Car was captured in Gigantic (A Tale of Two Johns), a documentary by AJ Schnack. Also in 2001, the band wrote songs accompanying an issue of McSweeney's literary journal as well as "Boss of Me," the theme song to the television series Malcolm in the Middle (which also featured the band's other songs in its episodes). The song became They Might Be Giants' second top 40 hit in the U.K., and earned them their first Grammy for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media. They rounded out the year with that November's They Might Be Giants In … Holidayland, an EP of festive songs collected from prior releases.

They Might Be Giants celebrated their 20th anniversary with June 2002's No! Co-released by Rounder Records and the band's own Idlewild imprint, their first album for the whole family won acclaim for its lighthearted songs. That year also saw the release of two compilations: The rarities collection They Got Lost appeared that July, while the retrospective Dial-A-Song: 20 Years of They Might Be Giants followed in September. The following year, Flansburgh and Linnell joined Canadian artist Marcel Dzama for the children's book and CD set Bed, Bed, Bed. In 2004, The Indestructible Object EP arrived a few months before that July's full-length album, The Spine. The album was accompanied by an EP, The Spine Surfs Alone. That year, drummer Marty Beller joined the band. Also in 2004, They Might Be Giants appeared on the animated TV show Home Movies and the final episode of Blue's Clues. In addition, they contributed their version of the 1840 presidential campaign song "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too" to Future Soundtrack for America, a politically minded compilation benefiting organizations including MoveOn.org.

In 2005, They Might Be Giants returned to their music for the whole family with February's Here Come the ABCs, an alphabetically inspired set of songs and an accompanying DVD that marked the band's first release for Disney Sound. Like No!, Here Come the ABCs was well-received, topping the Billboard Children's Music chart, earning two National Parenting Awards, and earning gold certification. In May, Rhino issued A User's Guide to They Might Be Giants, an edited version of Dial-A-Song: 20 Years of They Might Be Giants. That November, Venue Songs, a CD/DVD set of songs inspired by places where they performed, arrived. That year, the band also contributed a cover of Devo's "Through Being Cool" to the Sky High soundtrack and embarked on a podcast series that would continue for nearly a decade. Over the next couple of years, They Might Be Giants created songs for a Dunkin' Donuts ad campaign and contributed to various film and television soundtracks, including Disney's Meet the Robinsons, the film adaptation of Neil Gaiman's Coraline, and The Drinky Crow Show.

They Might Be Giants issued their next album, The Else, in May 2007. Produced with the Dust Brothers as well as longtime collaborator Pat Dillett, the album peaked at number nine on Billboard's Top Digital Albums chart. The first run of The Else's physical release came with Cast Your Pod to the Wind, a collection of the best songs and moments from the band's podcast. They Might Be Giants' other projects that year included a commissioned piece for the robotic ensemble League of Electronic Musical Urban Robots and a cover of "Havalina" for the Pixies tribute compilation Dig for Fire. In February 2008, the group's third children's album, Here Come the 123's, appeared and won a Grammy award for Best Musical Album for Children the following year. They Might Be Giants' third album for Disney Sound, Here Comes Science, arrived in September 2009. Featuring songs about paleontology, astronomy, and chemistry, and a DVD with videos by Divya Srinivasan, Tiny Inventions, Hine Mizushima, and Feel Good Anyway, the album was nominated for the Best Musical Album for Children Grammy Award.

They Might Be Giants put their children's music on hold for July 2011's Join Us, the band's first "adult" album in four years. A typically wide-ranging set of songs, the album reached number 32 on the Billboard 200 Albums chart (marking their first appearance on that chart since 1994's John Henry) and number eight on the Rock Albums and Alternative Albums charts. That November, they released the rarities collection Album Raises New and Troubling Questions, which featured several songs initially intended for inclusion on Join Us. Soon after finishing the Join Us tour, they began work on their next album. Preceded by a January 2013 EP of the same name, March's Nanobots was a song cycle that featured several small songs akin to Apollo 18's "Fingertips" tracks. It peaked at number 57 on the Billboard 200 Albums chart. In 2014, they released Idlewild, a compilation of some of their favorite songs released by their own label between 1999 and 2013.

They Might Be Giants also took a break from their formidable touring schedule to work on three new albums. In December 2014, the band relaunched Dial-A-Song -- which had ceased its original run in 2006 due to ongoing technical difficulties

-- with the goal of releasing one new song a week through the end of 2015. Several of these songs appeared on Glean, which arrived in April 2015 and hit number 67 on the Billboard 200 chart. It was followed by the children's album Why? that November. In March 2016, the band issued Phone Power. The third album compiled from the Dial-A-Song project, it peaked at 122 on the Billboard 200 chart. That year, the band also wrote the song "I'm Not a Loser" for SpongeBob SquarePants: The Broadway Musical.

For their 20th album, I Like Fun, They Might Be Giants worked with co-producer and mixer Dillett at New York City's Reservoir Studios, a space that used to be the studio where they recorded Flood. I Like Fun appeared in January 2018, and reached number 108 on the Billboard 200. The band also released tracks via Dial-A-Song throughout the year. That December, the band issued My Murdered Remains, which featured tracks compiled from both the 2015 and 2018 iterations of Dial-A-Song, and The Escape Team, a concept album based on the comic of the same name by frequent TMBG video artist David Cowles. The following year, They Might Be Giants contributed a reworked version of the song "Hot Dog" to the Disney Channel series Mickey and the Roadster Racers. In April 2020, they released Modern, a download-only compilation benefiting their band members and crew when the COVID-19 global pandemic put a stop to their otherwise busy tour schedule. That August, the band returned with a song about the electoral college for a CNN documentary. November 2021 saw the release of Book, an album that focused on They Might Be Giants' classic sound and tightly written songs. Reaching number 88 on the Billboard 200, the album was accompanied by an art book of photography by Brian Karlsson and typography of lyrics from Book, My Murdered Remains, and I Like Fun. The book also featured lyrics from the Pamphlet EP, which was made available at the time of Book's release and marked the band's first short-form work in eight years.

When the COVID-19 global pandemic subsided enough to make touring safe again, They Might Be Giants spent most of 2022 and 2023 on the road, including a tour that celebrated the 30th anniversary of Flood's release. However, 2024's live album Beast of Horns eschewed material from that album, focusing instead on the contributions of the group's touring horn section, the Tricerachops Horns (Stan Harrison, Mark Pender, and Dan Levine). ~ Heather Phares & Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Evolving from a rough-and-tumble alt-country act into a mature and eclectic indie rock ensemble, Wilco have become critical favorites and cult heroes on the back of a stylistically diverse body of songs from founder Jeff Tweedy. Rising from the ashes of the seminal alt-country band Uncle Tupelo, Tweedy assembled Wilco's first lineup from the membership of UT's final edition. Wilco's 1995 debut album, A.M., picked up where Tweedy's work with Uncle Tupelo left off, but their second album, 1996's Being There, marked a dramatic stylistic shift where country and roots rock existed as only small parts of their creative formula, along with expressive pop and freewheeling sonic experimentation. Being There was Wilco's first album with guitar and keyboard player Jay Bennett, who would become Tweedy's closest collaborator on 1999's bent pop compendium Summerteeth and their breakthrough effort, 2001's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Bennett departed Wilco before that album was released, and the group's next few years found Tweedy struggling to redefine their approach. 2007's Sky Blue Sky and 2011's The Whole Love saw a new version of the band performing with renewed confidence as they explored indie and art rock constructs. After indulging the more exploratory side of their personality on 2015's Star Wars and 2019's Ode to Joy, Wilco looked back to their early folk and country influences through fresh eyes on 2022's Cruel Country. Idiosyncratic Welsh artist Cate Le Bon helped the group plug into their experimental pop influences on 2023's Cousin, their first album with an outside producer in 16 years; an EP of outtakes, Hot Sun Cool Shroud, appeared in June 2024.

Uncle Tupelo played their final show on May 1, 1994, and a few weeks later, Tweedy and three of his former UT bandmates -- bassist John Stirratt, drummer Ken Coomer, and multi-instrumentalist Max Johnston -- began work on their first album under their new name, Wilco. The group's birth happened so quickly that they didn't have a lead guitarist when they started recording, and Brian Henneman, a longtime friend and founder of the Bottle Rockets, sat in for the sessions. The first Wilco album, A.M., a collection of spry country-rock tunes that followed the course established in Tweedy's earlier work, was issued in March 1995. By that time, Jay Bennett became Wilco's official fifth member on guitar, and in the tour that followed, Bennett began branching out on keyboards as their raucous live shows saw them breaking free of the legacy of Uncle Tupelo.

Wilco's sophomore effort, 1996's two-disc set Being There, marked a radical transformation in the group's sound; while remaining steeped in the style that earned Tweedy his reputation, the songs took unexpected detours into psychedelia, power pop, and soul, complete with orchestral touches and R&B horn flourishes. Shortly after the release of Being There, which most critics judged to be among the year's best releases, Johnston left the group to play with his sister, singer Michelle Shocked, and was replaced by guitarist Bob Egan of the band Freakwater. Still full-time members of Wilco, Stirratt, Bennett, and Coomer also began performing together in the pop side project Courtesy Move. In 1998, Wilco collaborated with singer/songwriter Billy Bragg on Mermaid Avenue, a collection of performances based on unreleased material originally written by Woody Guthrie.

The band's stunningly lush third album, Summerteeth, followed in 1999 and met with critical acclaim but only average sales, initiating tensions with their label, Warner Bros. Mermaid Avenue, Vol. 2, which featured more selections from Wilco's collaborations with Bragg on Woody Guthrie's unfinished songs, was issued in 2000. Following this release, longtime drummer Ken Coomer left the group and was replaced by the Chicago-based Glenn Kotche. The group then focused on recording their fourth album, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, which ultimately led to the departure of guitarist Jay Bennett and further tensions with their label. Wilco were unwilling to change the album to make it more "commercially viable," so Warner/Reprise agreed to sell them the masters for a reported $50,000. In a last-minute decision, the label opted to simply give the band the album at no cost, and Wilco were freed from their contract.

Leaked tracks from the album surfaced on the Internet in late 2001, and the stripped-down lineup of Tweedy, Kotche, Stirratt, and multi-instrumentalist Leroy Bach embarked on a small tour to support -- or drum up support for -- the unreleased record. Nonesuch picked up the album and officially released it in early 2002 to widespread critical acclaim. Meanwhile, an independent film documenting the drama surrounding the album (I Am Trying to Break Your Heart) followed in the fall of 2002. During the downtime after the album was recorded, Tweedy composed and recorded the film score to the Ethan Hawke film Chelsea Walls, which ended up being released around the same time as Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.

Wilco toured extensively following the release of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, and in 2003 began work on their next album, A Ghost Is Born. While sessions went smoothly compared to Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Leroy Bach left the band after the album was finished in a split that was described as mutual and amicable; guitarist Nels Cline, keyboardist Mike Jorgensen, and multi-instrumentalist Pat Sansone joined Wilco for their subsequent tour. Shortly before the album's release, Tweedy surprised many fans by announcing he had entered a drug rehabilitation facility to treat a dependency on painkillers, prescribed to treat a long history of migraine headaches aggravated by panic disorder. Tweedy discussed his health problems in depth, along with the often-tangled history of Wilco and Uncle Tupelo, in Wilco: Learning How to Die, a biography of the group written by rock journalist Greg Kot, published to coincide with A Ghost Is Born's release in the spring of 2004.

The following year, the group released Kicking Television: Live in Chicago, a 23-track collection recorded in the Windy City's Vic Theater, an album that was later deemed one of the Top 20 best live albums by Q Magazine. In 2007 Wilco's sixth studio album, Sky Blue Sky, hit shelves. Less experimental than its predecessors, Sky Blue Sky peaked at number five on the U.S. album charts and made a strong showing internationally. Wilco's seventh album, the breezy and laid-back Wilco (The Album), was released on June 30, 2009, one month after the death of former bandmember Jay Bennett, who passed away in his home in Urbana, Illinois, after accidentally overdosing on the prescription painkiller fentanyl.

At the end of touring that album, Wilco took a break for much of 2010 (their longest break since formation) and resurfaced in 2011 with their own label, dBpm Records, and the release of The Whole Love. Wilco toured extensively in support of the album, including a string of dates with Nick Lowe, and stayed busy on the road in 2013, taking part in the Americanarama Festival of Music, a package tour that found Wilco sharing the bill with Bob Dylan, Richard Thompson, and My Morning Jacket. (After meeting on tour, Thompson would recruit Tweedy to produce his 2015 album Still.)

In 2014, John Stirratt's side project the Autumn Defense released a new album, Fifth, and Jeff Tweedy inaugurated a new project, Tweedy, that found him collaborating with his teenage son Spencer, who played drums and percussion. The family band released their first album, Sukierae, in September 2014, with the combo touring in support. The year 2014 also marked Wilco's 20th anniversary, and the group celebrated the event with a pair of archival releases: What's Your Twenty? Essential Tracks 1994-2014, a two-disc set that collected the band's best and most popular tunes, and Alpha Mike Foxtrot: Rare Tracks 1994-2014, a four-disc set of obscure and unreleased material. Wilco also celebrated their first two decades with a series of multi-night stands in several cities, including a six-night residency at the Riviera Theater in Chicago.

On July 16, 2015, Wilco gave their fans a pleasant surprise -- they released a previously unannounced new studio album, Star Wars, as a free download from the group's website. Star Wars was available gratis online for four weeks, with a CD edition released by dBpm on August 21 and a vinyl LP following on November 27. On July 14, 2016, just two days before Star Wars would celebrate its first birthday, Wilco debuted a new song online, "Locator." A few days later, the band shared another song, "If I Ever Was a Child," and revealed that both were tracks from their next album, Schmilco, which was released on September 9, 2016. The group toured extensively through 2016 and 2017, and in August 2017 they released a digital single, "All Lives, You Say?" Proceeds from sales of the track were donated to the Southern Poverty Law Center and Life After Hate.

In late 2017, Wilco announced they would be taking a hiatus from touring in 2018 so individual members could focus on other projects. However, it was also revealed that Wilco planned to record a new album during the layoff, and that they would stage their biannual Solid Sound Music Festival in 2019. To help tide fans over during the break, remastered and expanded editions of A.M. and Being There were issued in November 2017. Tweedy also used his downtime to complete his first book, a memoir titled Let's Go (So We Can Get Back): A Memoir of Recording and Discording with Wilco, Etc., published in November 2018. In June 2019, Wilco returned to duty with a pair of shows in Knoxville, Tennessee, followed by touring in Europe, the U.K., and North America. The band were still in the midst of a run of dates in the United States when they released their 13th studio album, Ode to Joy, in October 2019.

The group's long-term touring plans fell by the wayside when the COVID-19 pandemic shut down touring in March 2020, and while in lockdown, Jeff Tweedy hosted a webcast series with his wife and sons, The Tweedy Show. He also recorded and issued solo material, including 2020's Love is the King and its companion volume, Live Is the King, and contributed songwriting and production to projects from Norah Jones and Daughter of Swords. 2020 also saw the publication of Tweedy's second book, a meditation on the creative process titled How to Write One Song: Loving the Things We Create and How They Love Us Back. Nels Cline was also productive while the band was on hiatus, recording and releasing an album with his group the Nels Cline Singers, 2020's Share the Wealth, while sitting in on sessions with Elvis Costello, Joan Osborne, the Dark Bob, and Julius Hemphill, among others.

By the end of 2020, Wilco had cautiously begun playing shows again, including a tour co-billed with Sleater-Kinney, and in 2021 they returned to the recording studio, cutting sessions at their home base the Loft with all members playing live on a set of low-key country- and folk-influenced material. The band completed 21 new songs, and the double album Cruel Country was issued by dBpm in May 2022, with the release date coinciding with Wilco's Solid Sound Festival, held in North Adams, Massachusetts. Prior to the release of the album, Wilco also played a series of shows in New York and Chicago to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the release of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, performing the album in full each night.

After Cruel Country was released, Wilco set out on an extensive North American tour, selling out most of their shows, and in September, they once again recognized the anniversary of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot with a massively expanded Super Deluxe Edition of the album. In addition to the original album in remastered form, the set -- comprising 11 LPs or eight CDs -- featured an abundance of outtakes, demos, alternate mixes, and instrumental tracks, as well as a complete concert from July 2002 and Tweedy's September 2001 appearance on the radio show Sound Options, where he discussed the album and played some of the songs live. Variant seven-LP and two-LP editions were also available, as well as a two-CD version. The release was rewarded with a 2023 Grammy Award for Best Historical Album.

Welsh singer and songwriter Cate Le Bon met the members of Wilco when she played at their Solid Sound festival in 2019, and they quickly formed a mutual admiration society, with Le Bon jamming and improvising with her new friends. The group invited her to work with them in the studio, and she produced sessions with Wilco at the Loft in 2022 and 2023. The result was Cousin, an album that recalled the experimentalism of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot while incorporating a more introspective lyrical outlook. It was released in September 2023, just weeks before the publication of Tweedy's third book, World Within a Song: Music That Changed My Life and Life That Changed My Music.

On June 28, 2024, Wilco issued a six-song EP, Hot Sun Cool Shroud, most of which consisted of outtakes from the sessions for Cousin. The EP's release was timed to coincide with the first day of the 2024 Solid Sound Festival, where fans could buy a special vinyl edition featuring a cover they could customize with provided stickers and rubber stamps, creating a sleeve unique to each owner of the Solid Sound version. Solid Sound 2024 also included a special concert of Wilco rarities, and a performance of A Ghost Is Born in full. ~ Jason Ankeny & Zac Johnson

With a unique, instantly recognizable style, pianist Matthew Shipp has been active on the international jazz scene since late 1980s. His boundary-less musical approach crisscrosses free jazz, elliptical post-bop, and modern classical music. He served as pianist in the David S. Ware Quartet during the early '90s before leading his own dates and recording duos with a variety of musicians. He released his solo debut, Symbol Systems, in 1995 as well as the quartet offering Critical Mass. He issued many recordings for Hat -- including 2001's Expansion, Power, Release -- and Thirsty Ear, including 2007's Piano Vortex and 2013's Piano Sutras. Shipp also records for France's Rogue Art label, which issued 2013's Rex, Wrecks & XXX with Evan Parker, and 2015's Our Lady of the Flowers. In 2016 Shipp began playing and recording in several bands for ESP-Disk with reedist Mat Walerian under the names Uppercut and Jungle; each released a Live at Okuden volume that year. In 2018, Shipp released the solo Zero. 2020 saw the release of Welcome Adventure, Vol. 1, by a collective that included saxophonist Daniel Carter. In 2021, he issued the trio offering Village Mothership and the solo Codebreaker for Tao Forms. 2022 saw the release of Old Stories, a double-length duo set with saxophonist Chad Fowler, Welcome Adventure, Vol. 2, and the trio date World Construct for ESP-Disk. Shipp reunited his trio once more for 2024 set New Concepts in Piano Trio Jazz, again released with ESP-Disk.

Born in 1960 and raised in Wilmington, Delaware, Shipp grew up around '50s jazz recordings. He began playing piano at the young age of five and decided to focus on jazz by the time he was 12. He played a Fender Rhodes in rock bands while privately devouring recordings by a variety of jazz players. His first mentor was a man in his hometown named Sunyata, who was enthusiastic about a variety of subjects in addition to music. Shipp later studied music theory and improvisation under Clifford Brown's teacher Robert "Boisey" Lawrey, as well as classical piano and bass clarinet for the school band. After one year at the University of Delaware, Shipp left and took lessons with Dennis Sandole for a short time, after which he attended the New England Conservatory of Music for two years.

Shipp moved to N.Y.C. in 1984 and soon met bassist William Parker, among others. Both were playing with tenor saxophonist Ware by 1989. Meanwhile, Shipp had debuted as a recording artist in a duo with alto player Rob Brown on Sonic Explorations, recorded in November 1987 and February 1988. Shipp married singer Delia Scaife around 1990. He went on to lead his own trio with Parker and drummers Whit Dickey and Susie Ibarra. Shipp has led dates for a number of labels, including FMP, No More, Eremite, Thirsty Ear, and Silkheart. In 2000, he began acting as curator for Thirsty Ear's Blue Series, which hosted a number of Shipp's own recordings, as well as the recordings of William Parker, Tim Berne, Roy Campbell, Craig Taborn, Spring Heel Jack, and Mat Maneri. The following year saw the release of Nu Bop, an exploration into traditional jazz, followed closely by its 2003 counterpart, Equilibrium. In 2004, Shipp released Harmony and Abyss, a meditation on repetitive melodic and harmonic structures. One arrived in January 2006 and Piano Vortex followed a year later.

4D, featuring Shipp on solo piano, was released by Thirsty Ear early in 2010. It was one of several recordings from the pianist in the initial years of the 21st century, which included a two-disc solo piano recital entitled Creation Out of Nothing: Live in Moscow on the SoLyd Records imprint and the stellar trio set Night Logic, with Joe Morris and former Sun Ra saxophonist Marshall Allen, on the Rogue Art label. Shipp kept up the pace in 2011, kicking off the year with the double-CD offering Art of the Improviser, which showcased him in two different live settings: one solo and one in a trio with bassist Michael Bisio and drummer Whit Dickey. In the spring he released a duet recording with alto saxophonist Darius Jones titled Cosmic Lieder on the AUM Fidelity label. In 2012, he re-formed the trio with Bisio and Dickey for Elastic Aspects. Shipp entered into a prolific collaboration with saxophonist Ivo Perelman for a slew of projects that year, and 2013 included a duet, trios, and quartets with various personnel, all issued by Leo Records. Titles included The Gift, The Clairvoyant, The Foreign Legion, A Violent Dose of Anything, Enigma, The Art of the Duet, Vol. 1, The Edge, and Serendipity. In the fall of 2013, Shipp released the solo piano offering Piano Sutras for Thirsty Ear, as well as a retrospective for the label entitled Greatest Hits and a duet offering with saxophonist John Butcher, Fataka 2.

Shipp maintained a prolific release and touring pace in 2014. First to appear was the trio date The Roots of Things in February with Dickey and Bisio, followed by two more sets in various ensembles with Perelman. The first, titled The Other Edge, was issued in March and featured the pianist's quartet backing the saxophonist, while the second, released the same month, was Book of Sound, a collaborative recording between Perelman, Shipp, and Parker. Symbol Systems, a solo piano outing, appeared in May from Lithuania's No Business label, while The Darkseid Recital, a second chapter in Jones' and Shipp's "Cosmic Lieder," was released in August by AUM Fidelity, followed by the solo piano offering I've Been to Many Places on Thirsty Ear in September. That year, the French Rogue Art label issued no less than four Shipp-led dates compiled from several years of performances. They included the solo Piano (2008); a duet album with Evan Parker titled Rex, Wrecks & XXX (2013); Right Hemisphere with Brown, Dickey and Morris (2008); and Declared Enemy: Salute to the 100001 Stars: A Tribute to Jean Genet with Parker, Gerald Cleaver, Sabir Mateen, and Denis Lavant (2006).

The following year saw two more releases from the label. Our Lady of the Flowers was a Genet tribute follow-up a decade on (sans Lavant), and the controversial but still widely celebrated trio recording To Duke. Shipp also issued a pair of duet recordings: Live at Okuden: The Uppercut with Polish reed and woodwind master Mat Walerian on ESP-Disk, and Callas with Perelman for Leo.

Associations with both men produced more 13 more recordings in 2016 and 2017. Complementary Colors and Corpo were duo dates with Perelman (the pair released 13 albums together before 2017 was out), while Butterfly Whispers added Dickey to make it a trio. Live at Okuden: Jungle with Walerian and Hamid Drake, capturing a performance from 2012, was released by ESP-Disk. The pianist issued a trio date titled Piano Song in early 2017, with Michael Bisio on bass and drummer Newman Taylor Baker. Produced by Peter Gordon, it marked Shipp's swan song as a recording artist for Thirsty Ear, though he remained curator of its Blue Series imprint. An ESP-Disk trio date with Walerian and Parker was issued as Toxic: This Is Beautiful Because We Are Beautiful People during the late spring.

In early 2018, Shipp released three albums. In January, Accelerated Projection, a duo date with Roscoe Mitchell was issued by France's Rogue Art label. A month later, Shipp released two dates through ESP-Disk simultaneously: Sonic Fiction, a quartet date with Walerian, Bisio, and Dickey, and the solo piano offering Zero in February. In late 2018, Rogue Art issued a duo reunion by Shipp and Maneri titled Conference of the Mat/ts. In 2019, the label released three more Shipp titles: All Things Are, with Bisio and Newman Taylor Baker, Symbolic Reality, with Maneri and William Parker, and What If?, a duo offering with trumpeter Nate Wooley.

Though Shipp was unable to tour during the COVID-19 pandemic, he saw the release of eight recent archival projects. These included the duo outing Amalgam with Perelman; Welcome Adventure, Vol. 1 with Daniel Carter, Cleaver, and Parker, and two solo piano outings, The Piano Equation, and the epic The Reward (Solo Piano Suite in Four Movements). Okuden Quartet (Walerian, Hamid Drake, Parker and Shipp) released Every Dog Has Its Day But It Doesn't Matter Because Fat Cat Is Getting Fatter.

2021 was just as busy. He returned to touring, and he and Parker played on Francisco Mela's Music Frees Our Souls, Vol. 1. He issued two duo outings for Rogue Art -- Leonine Aspects with Evan Parker and Re-Union with William Parker. For the same label, he, Gerald Cleaver, and Joe Morris appeared in Paul Dunmall's quartet for The Bright Awakening. That July, he and Dickey issued the duos project Reels. In October, the Aum Fidelity-affiliated Tao Forms issued Village Mothership, a trio including Dickey, Shipp, and Parker, and in November, a solo Shipp put out Codebreaker. The following year, he collaborated with saxophonist Chad Fowler on the double-length, improvised duos set Old Stories for Mahakala Music. He also reprised his 577 Records collaboration with Carter, Parker, and Cleaver on Welcome Adventure, Vol. 2. In June he released the double-length set World Construct, his fifth set for ESP-Disk, accompanied by bassist Michael Bisio and drummer/percussionist Newman Taylor Baker. This trio reconvened the next year for the recording of New Concepts in Piano Trio Jazz, a set that found the trio's chemistry and interplay at new levels of group cohesion. The album was released in April of 2024 on ESP-Disk.~ Thom Jurek & Joslyn Lane

"He brings good cheer to the mountain folk" was how the Gennett label advertised the recordings of the blind troubadour David Miller, who basically claimed the rolling hills of West Virginina as home, although he happened to have been born ten miles over the state line in Ohio. Miller was one of the earliest artists to record old-time music, cutting sides for the Starr Piano Company label beginning in late 1924. He continued recording for this outfit in 1927 and 1930 and also made several records for Paramount, another label that pioneered in recording Appalachian artists in the '20s and '30s. His recordings tended toward sentimental ballads such as "Since Mother's Gone" or harsh accounts of bad times such as "It's Hard to Be Shut Up in Prison." He knew about roughing it first hand. Miller grew up toiling at a fruit farm, entering the army in 1917. This is where he contracted a condition known as granulated eyelids. Army doctors announced that Miller would go blind; surprisingly, the same doctors had noticed nothing wrong with the young man's eyes at his induction examinations. Nonetheless or perhaps typically, army brass refused to take responsibility for the condition and Miller was turned loose with no form of compensating pension. He took up the guitar after total blindness had set in. In the early '20s he moved with his new wife to Huntington, WV, where he joined up with banjoist Cecil "Cob" Adkins to become the first performers on station WSAZ, picking through two-hour slots twice daily from 1927 through 1933. Thus, the performances of Miller and his partners became widely heard in the Appalachian regions and the blind artist built up quite a following.

Also beginning in the Huntington period and lasting through the early '40s was his relationship with a band called the West Virginia Mockingbirds. An expanded string band, the group included Miller plus four brothers who all played fiddle: Ed, George, Albert, and Frank Baumgardner. Another member of the latter family, Jim Baumgardner, played banjo, and the stage was further crowded out by Belford Harvey, doubling on banjo and guitar, and old sidekick Adkins on "third chair" banjo. This group was popular on radio as well as in live shows at churches and local dances. Eventually Miller's son, Davy Miller Jr., joined the band's ranks on guitar, making the assembled lineup sometimes seem like a delivery of instruments to a music store.

In the '40s and '50s, Miller played at country & western bills at the main theater in Guyandotte, WV, sharing the program with classic country performers such as T. Texas Tyler and Patsy Cline. ~ Eugene Chadbourne