England sure seems to be producing a lot of young folk singers with very big voices, older than their years. Johnny Flynn is one of them.

The last time I saw Hockey, they were tossing out free beer at Lollapalooza, a consolation prize after their set was cut short due to a significant lack of power to the stage. This time, there were no such energy crises, and also no free beer.

A note to the city of Chicago: I don't care what kind of ridiculous budget cuts you have to make in the future. Please never, ever let go of Michael Orlove. This guy has done a whole lot to energize downtown Chicago with music of all genres. And best of all, it's free.

Matthew Cooper, performing as Eluvium, has been making dense, ambient music for years now, but this time, he's tried something different: he's added his own vocals into the mix.

There are a lot of great shows this week featuring local bands, and lots of them are free or very cheap. You should check some of them out, give some love and support to the local music scene.

While the members of Sonos, a California sextet, have their background in university a cappella choirs, they've expanded their repertoire far beyond Top 40 pop songs and into the far more juicy world of indie rock.

Not being from Canada, I'm not exactly clued in to the musical going-ons of our gigantic neighbor to the north. But the Winnipeg Folk Festival, scheduled for July 7 through 11, is definitely something I should know about, despite the fact that it's far away... oh, wait, Winnipeg is only a two-hour flight away. Never mind, it isn't that far. Huh.

Like a louder, less eerie-sounding, less heavily-bearded Fleet Foxes.

Casey Dienel is the woman behind White Hinterland, having previously performed under her own name until 2008. While her recordings under her own name didn't rise much above your typical lo-fi singer-songwriter sound, she's found her niche in style with White Hinteland.

The entire world is gearing up for SXSW. I'm gearing up for reading tons of great blog posts about SXSW.

A beautiful video for a devastating song. Ok, I could have done without the giant CGI bee flying across the screen. But otherwise, the video is very serene, just Brandi and a guitar and nature blooming around her.