Before Liza Minnelli found international stardom in the film Cabaret, she’d already attracted favorable notices for her theatre and film work.

Long before Daryl Hall, John Oates and Todd Rundgren were met with major success, songwriting legends, hit producers and label founders of Philly International-Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff-put the “City of Brotherly Love” on the musical map.

HALL AND OATES: Soul Survivors

HANK COCHRAN: Humble Captain

LOU REED: Transformed (The Interview)

Once the king of the glitterbillies-the term he coined for the style of music known for a rhinestone suits and rockabilly backbeats-Marty Stuart seems comfortable with more modest apparel, both in terms of music and clothing.

Guitar legend Les Paul is onstage at Manhattan’s Iridium Club, where he has been its star attraction every Monday evening for the past 13 years.

In August of 2008, Don Helms died. As one of country music’s greatest pre-pedal steel guitar players, Helms is essential to ten of Hank Williams’ 11 No. 1 hits, as well as major hits by Lefty Frizzell, Patsy Cline, Stonewall Jackson and many more.

RICKY SKAGGS: Making Old Traditions New

Anya Marina’s Slow & Steady Seduction, Phase II has Billboard Heatseaker stamped all over it.

On the heels of Strawberry Jam last year, Animal Collective underwent a change from overlooked techno-rati darlings of the critical elite to a name practically synonymous with fringe experimentalism.

Depending on your perspective, Andrew Bird is either inching closer toward the mainstream or is still about a thousand miles away from it.