LATE-BLOOMING BLUES

"If you're a harmonica player in Mississippi, you're gonna end up playing some blues," says Scott Albert Johnson, whose debut mixes blues, rock, folk and jazz, unified by first-rate harmonica playing. As a child, Johnson sang and played several instruments, but set aside music while studying political science and playing football at Harvard University. He received a masters degree from Columbia University and worked for a think tank and as a journalist while living all over the United States. Three years ago, Johnson realized his calling and returned to Mississippi, where he's performed with Marty Stuart, James Burton, Mike Mills, Jerry Joseph and others. "I just find music more fulfilling than anything else," says the singer/songwriter, who drew on his work and life experiences and wove them into harmonic reflections for Umbrella Man. The album artwork brilliantly depicts the "umbrella man" image while playing on the work of surrealist painter René Magritte. Johnson's musical debut leaves no stone unturned." www.myspace.com/scottalbertjohnson

LETTING IT ALL HANG OUT

"Just wait till I start crying, you're going to feel really awkward," Thao Nguyen relays with a laugh. Via phone from her mother's home in Virginia, she's recounting the inspiration of her new, second album, We Brave Bee Strings and All, another autobiographical affair. "A lot of the songs are about taking responsibility for the ways that I might have mistreated or treated people. I wouldn't say any of the songs are incredibly happy, but there's not defeat in it." And that's dead on: Despite the lyrical inspiration, Nguyen's acoustic-guitar-based songs sort of swing. There's a looseness to them, and the way in which the 24-year-old Nguyen (who now lives in San Francisco) sings, which fills her recorded and live performances with a feeling of joyful release. And all the above is pretty easy to love from the first note. "I didn't have that many friends growing up, so I had a lot of time to hang out and learn the guitar," she laughs. Lucky us. www.thaomusic.com

CRACK + SOBRIETY = SONG FODDER

Year Long Disaster guitarist Daniel Davies and bassist Rich Mullins met while buying a bottle of vodka at a Los Angeles grocery store and, for a while, their relationship went south from there. The new friends began drinking and smoking crack together, moved into a one-room apartment in Laurel Canyon and entered rehab, before finding themselves writing in a MusiCares Foundation halfway house. "You have to relearn everything when you get clean," Mullins says. "The reality is that by getting clean you are changing your whole personality." Eventually, Mullins and Davis figured out how to channel their troubled past into a series of blues-based compositions and formed the hard-rock outfit Year Long Disaster with Third Eye Blind drummer Brad Hargreaves. The trio quickly hit the road, entered the studio and released its self-titled debut this past fall. "There is this romantic notation that artists have to be messed up to write their best stuff," Mullins continues. "So now we are trying to tell these little stories from the perspectives we've seen over the years." www.yearlongdisaster.com

WORDLESS CHORUSES

Yeasayer frontman Chris Keating got his start in the entertainment industry after scoring a truck-driving gig on the set of Saturday Night Live. Along with his old friend Anand Wilder, he began writing songs at home and quickly settled on a sound that falls somewhere between Talking Heads' quick, nervous rock energy and Animal Collective's bohemian experimentation. "We like to mash these different genres together," says Keating, who still does freelance production work while not on the road. "We listen to a lot of West African and Bollywood film music, as well as hip-hop from the 1990s. Lyrics come second to the way someone conveys a message." After solidifying a lineup that also includes bassist Ira Wolf Tuton and drummer Luke Fasano, the group entered the studio to create the infectious All Hour Cymbals and quickly won over fans through invigorating performances at SXSW and CMJ. "We're not into the whole shoegazing thing or people who reproduce their record onstage. It's about entertainment." www.yeasayer.net

FAMILY MADE MUSIC

As part of MTA’s Music Under New York program, the Weinstein brothers, Heth (guitar)and Jed (bass), are continually bringing live, innovative performances to various public spaces. Whether it’s performing at an intimate venue, braving cold street corners or filling subway halls with their uniquely layered tunes, the California and New Jersey raised siblings have proven to be in this for the love of the music since bailing on full-band efforts in 2003. “We had some guitarist issues in other bands so we decided to just do it ourselves,” says Heth, a former drummer, with a smile. The duo’s live performance is an ongoing experiment of live looping, layering and singing that delivers a sound somewhere between Keller Williams, Jack Johnson and Pink Floyd (while some songs border on pop-rock, others are much less structured, offering more of a trance-like canvas of sound). Check out Between the In and the Out, produced by Jamie Candiloro (Ryan Adams, R.E.M.), for a one-stop introduction to the group’s self-described “jambient rock.” www.hethandjed.com