Dave Matthews is understandably fond of Soldiers of Jah Army, or SOJA as they’ve been acronymed. The Arlington, Va., quintet has a similar grass roots success story, after all. SOJA has opened for M  

The O’s have been described as stripped down Country Rock, banjo Pop, Americana-tinged slacker Rock and an out-of-control party. Sounds about right to us.   

Javier Mendoza has become a pretty big deal at home in St. Louis. He's built a loyal fan base that packs his club appearances to capacity, and local media have taken notice, showering him with deserved acclaim and appropriate accolades. Well, almost appropriate. "I've had this stereotype because of my name, so I've gotten 'Latin' a lot," the pop singer/songwriter/guitarist says.  

The murder of young SCPA student and aspiring artist/musician Esme Kenney touched our city deeply, and Cincinnati's arts community took it especially hard, responding with benefit concerts and memorials. The latest concert takes place Sunday, with money raised going to the Esme Kenney SCPA Memorial Fund to assist with the an art installation tribute at the new K-12 arts school in Over-the-Rhine.  

Portugal. The Man started in Wasilla, Alaska, and their fourth album was titled 'The Satanic Satanist.' Let the Sarah Palin jokes commence. But Alternative Press declared their 'Censored Colors' one of 2008's 10 most essential albums and dubbed John Baldwin Gourley the year's best vocalist.   

Two of Cincinnati's most likely next-big-thing contenders, All the Day Holiday and Pomegranates spent 2009 working superb new records. ATDH's lush Dream Pop was introduced to the world via 'All the Things We've Grown to Love,' their stunning debut for Linc Star/Warner Brothers, while the Poms continued their underground surge with the magical 'Everybody, Come Outside!' (which also saw release in the U.K.) on Lujo Records.   

The New York singer/songwriter saw her profile rise pretty dramatically in 2007 when Old Navy built their fall sweater campaign around her quietly infectious song "The Way I Am." But by that time she'd already become a MySpace phenom, amassing a sizable fanbase and considerable sales for her self-released 'Girls and Boys' album.  

For more than a decade, Mason Jennings has built a rabid fanbase as an acoustic troubadour, starting with the sparse sound and emotional depth of his 1998 self-titled debut album was far from his start. He'd been writing songs and playing guitar since age 13 and was so taken with the craft that he dropped out of his Pittsburgh high school at 16 and moved to Minneapolis to further his musical education.  

"I've never had a reason not to be humble," says Dallas Taylor, lead singer of Maylene and the Sons of Disaster, shortly after pulling the band's tour van into a motel parking lot somewhere in Illinois. He, along with the other five members of the Birmingham-based Metalcore outfit, is still in the first half of a nationwide tour to promote the latest Maylene album, 'III,' which was released June 23 and has since placed 70th on Billboard's Top 100.   

They grow up so fast these days. It seems like it was just four years ago that vocalist Alex DeLeon and bassist Cash Colligan were Las Vegas high school students recording home demos, posting them on their MySpace page and assembling the first version of The Cab.