It’s not hard to believe that Hayes Carll is from Houston; it seems he embodies so many great things about the music of Texas. A country drawl mixed with Rock & Roll, Carll’s most recent album, KMAG YOYO, was the Americana Music Association’s No. 1 album in 2011. His strength really lies within his songwriting; his song “Another Like You” won the American Songwriter’s No. 1 last year.   

If you’re looking to dust off your dancing Keds or run a diagnostic test on your pacemaker or combine your aerobic activities with your club regimen, Izzy and the Catastrophics, the pride of Brooklyn, N.Y., should be your soundtrack of choice.   

In the swelling tide of Dance producers with great ears, a metric ton of talent and the laser-focused potential to take Electronic Dance music to an exponentially higher level, few stars shine as bright as Pierce Fulton. Recently spotlighted by genre bible Mixmag in their “Keep An Eye On” column, Fulton is one of the most gifted boardsmen among the Dance scene’s Nu Skool producers, an amazing accomplishment for the 19-year-old Vermont native.   

There isn’t much about Cleveland that Cincinnatians will admit to liking — it’s a bitter rivalry we just can’t move past. Cleveland did, however, offer us one very good reason to love them.Raised in Cleveland, singer-songwriter Joshua Radin quickly rose to success with his soft-spoken lyrics and acoustic guitar.
  

In 1997, members from two popular Notre Dame University bands explored their inner Jam children, concocting a new entity dubbed Umphrey’s McGee. Although UM quacked like a Jam duck, they incorporated more Prog, Metal and Hard Rock influences than their gentler brethren, expanding the Jam palette considerably. In recent years, UM’s Prog leanings have expanded in the studio and he band also showed it could dial things back for the acoustic quietude of 2006’s Safety in Numbers.


  

 South Carolina’s Trevor Hall doesn’t make the kind of music you might expect to come from a native of the American South. Instead, Hall’s music has a Reggae streak, the kind of tunes he may have heard growing up in the beach community of Hilton Head or later at the arts school he attended in California. If you like Jack Johnson and Colbie Caillat and enjoy grooving to Bob Marley on occasion, Hall’s releases would fit nicely in your collection.
  

 Even when spoken slurred and quickly, “Fuck Knights” and “Dark Knight” sound only vaguely alike. But do you think we'd let a thing like that derail us from comparing this gang of Garage Punk hellraisers to Batman? Hell no! Let's begin by assessing drinking habits. When ol' Bruce Wayne does alcohol, he likely sips the finest bourbon in Gotham. The Knights seem more likely to be all about dive bars (the ideal venues for their sound) and finding the cheapest well hooch available.  

At 22, Lydia Loveless is a melodic songstress with the nuance to coax the sweet out of a sugar bowl and the power to start a fistfight between thunder and lightning. Since her 2011 MidPoint Music Festival appearance in Cincy, Loveless has been working up brand new songs and forging them in the fires of her relentless tours. Her Friday gig should be even more incendiary.  

Spirit Song Festival is once again taking over Kings Island. The three-day features two dozen of Christian music’s most famous artists. The lineup includes the likes of Switchfoot, TobyMac, Owl City, Third Day and NEEDTOBREATHE, as well as Cincinnati’s very own Mosteller. With such a mixed and well-known lineup, Spirit Song is might well draw its largest audience yet.  

Any band with decent musical aptitude and a passion for the days of sheet music stores, phosphates and the Charleston can churn out covers of songs gleaned from thrift shop 78s and attract a sizable, loyal audience. The real gift is taking that Hot Jazz/Country Blues/Ragtime/Western Swing inspiration and translating it into original and completely contemporary songs; Pokey LaFarge and the South City Three possess that gift.
  

The city’s embracing of the Pride parade and festival is reflective of the general public’s growing tolerance, something evident in the eclecticism of the musical lineup. One genre still evolving in its tolerance of homosexuality is Hip Hop; there’s yet to be an “out” Hip Hop star in the mainstream. On the CityBeat stage at 2 p.m. you can catch a local duo that is hoping to be one of the first, Swaggz & Hollywood.
  

On their first three albums together, Grace Potter & the Nocturnals impressively balanced influences from four decades ago with a bluesy Rock ethic as fresh as an indie blog posting. On The Lion The Beast The Beat, the quintet amazingly expand their genre parameters without losing the blistering essence of its Blues/Soul/Rock core.

  

Jesse Elliott pursued a variety of ventures — international human rights law, economics writing, community non-profits, deli service — before returning to songwriting, his first and best love. Elliott formed These United States and embarked on a sonic mission to craft complex and engaging story-songs set to a soundtrack that somehow touches on a dozen different contemporary musical styles.
  

A recent study revealed that Brooklyn-based band Yeasayer was the most blogged-about artist of 2010. Now comes Yeasayer's Fragrant World, which Secretly Canadian will release Aug. 21. The first single, “Henrietta,” finds the band tweaking its approach yet again — the song opens as a frothy, tightly constructed dance track before, halfway through, morphing into a dreamily atmospheric mood piece that lifts the listener into the clouds.   

Remember Gummo Marx? The stage-shy businessman was rarely recognized as a sibling of the anarchic Marx Brothers, and in some ways, that paradigm holds equally true for Delfeayo Marsalis. Eclipsed by his more famous brothers — staunchly traditional trumpeter Wynton and garrulous saxophonist Branford — the gifted trombonist has released only a quartet of albums under his own name during the past 20 years.