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Each song on singer-songwriter Kris Delmhorst's new CD, Strange Conversation, has its genesis in a poem, by writers ranging from Lord Byron and George Eliot to Edna St. Vincent Millay and E.E. Cummings.

Ashby swings, plain and simple. When she plays some mid-tempo scooting-along tune, all the stock riffage and jazz bravado common on so many '50s records disappears. Leading her chamber group, she operates in an unassuming way, leaping through intricate arpeggios that no other jazz instrumentalist could attempt.

World/Inferno Friendship Society's countless members convene around Jack Terricloth, whose grinning, genial stage persona only amplifies what appears to be a sinister intent. It should be a mess, but it coalesces instead into a combination of Bruce Springsteen, The Pogues and the noise the devil makes as cities burn.

Musician, composer and bandleader Don Byron has a new album out, Do the Boomerang. It's a collection of songs associated with the great Motown saxophonist and singer Autry "Junior Walker" DeWalt. Tracks include Shotgun and Roadrunner. While Byron is usually associated with the clarinet, he plays tenor sax on this new CD.

Robert Christgau reviews the latest CD from vocalist Maria Muldaur, best known for her quirky 1970s pop tune "Midnight at the Oasis." Her new CD is Heart of Mine: Maria Muldaur Sings Love Songs of Bob Dylan. Reviewer Robert Christgau says Muldaur put the passion in these tunes in a way most singers don't match because they probably didn't know Dylan put all that passion there in the first place.

Lupe Fiasco is a Chicago-based rapper who made his mainstream debut on the most recent CD by Kanye West, who is also from Chicago. Now Fiasco is further cementing the Windy City's reputation as a breeding ground for innovative hip-hop, with a new CD, Food and Liquor.

In the 1950s, Mike Seeger sought out and recorded the traditional Southern music of the autoharp, a 36-string instrument small enough to hold in your lap. An expanded version of that collection is now out on CD.

NPR station KEXP is an influential and innovative cultural force in Seattle and beyond. Kevin Cole — host of Afternoon Show, which highlights new releases, previews, vintage tracks, rarities, B-sides and in-studio performances — compiled this list of notable debuts.

Another favorite story from 2006 was our visit with New Orleans' Dirty Dozen Brass Band after Hurricane Katrina.

On New Year's Eve, singer Audra McDonald will ask and answer a question at the same time, by singing "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?" with the New York Philharmonic. In this video segment, Performance Today host Fred Child talks with McDonald about her last concert of 2006.