Metropolis

Garou
French pop singer Garou vaulted to fame as Quasimodo in the 1998 stage musical Notre-Dame de Paris. Born Pierre Garand in Sherbrooke, Quebec, on June 26, 1972, he was a child prodigy who mastered piano and guitar while still in primary school....

Sharon Jones
By the sound of them, you would think Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings started making funk-threaded soul music together in the 1960s. Few devotedly retro acts are as convincing. Few singers as skilled as Sharon Jones at stuffing notes with ache and meaning might be willing to invest in a sound so fully occupied by the likes of Bettye LaVette and Tina Turner in the Ike years, too....

Wanda Jackson
Wanda Jackson was only halfway through high school when, in 1954, country singer Hank Thompson heard her on an Oklahoma City radio show and asked her to record with his band, the Brazos Valley Boys. By the end of the decade, Jackson had become one of America's first major female country and rockabilly singers....

The Cat Empire
Combining a number of styles -- from funk to jazz to ska -- Melbourne, Australia's Cat Empire formed in 1999 as a trio. Keyboardist Oliver McGill, double bassist Ryan Monro, and percussionist Felix Riebl were eventually joined by trumpet player Harry James Angus, drummer Will Hull-Brown, and DJ Jamshid Khadiwala....

Xavier Rudd
Like Jack Johnson, independent Australian musician Xavier Rudd combines a love of surfing with a love of roots music. Like Ben Harper, he plays Weissenborn lap steel guitars. Utterly unlike both of those musicians, however, he has a unique setup....