Rock & Roots

My musical world does not exist without David Bowie's influence.

No two words have ever summed up the music of Radiohead's Thom Yorke quite like his band's own song title, "Paranoid Android." It's all there: the unease and suspicion, the weight of worry, the otherworldly quality, the blend of man and machine, the sense that we're all headed toward imminent collapse.

When he's leading his band My Morning Jacket, Jim James often comes across as a seeker — someone with at least passing curiosity about the metaphysical, if not the unknowable. On his first solo album, Regions of Light and Sound of God, his questioning goes a bit deeper.

WUKY's Rock & Roots continues to support local musicians... LINK to Shaker Steps... "First and foremost, our goal is to document, present, and share the work of artists we respect performing their music in unique and often unexpected places. We live, work, and play in and around the Lexington, Kentucky area and our hope is to show how this environmental context shapes the music that is created and performed here." ENJOY!!

Singer/songwriter Carrie Rodriguez and Luke Jacobs performs a live version of "I Cry for Love" from Rodriguez's Give Me All You Got album at WUKY.

Ben Harper grew up roaming the aisles and restoring guitars at his family's music store, the Claremont Folk Music Center. Going on its 60th year of business, the storefront in Southern California is where Harper first discovered the harmonica playing of blues legend Charlie Musselwhite.

"We had Charlie's records stacked high at my family's store and at my house," Harper tells NPR's Steve Inskeep.

The title of Richard Thompson's 21st solo album, Electric, promises a change of pace while doubling as a mission statement. And, sure enough, the record finds the great guitarist, singer and songwriter plugging in and indulging his rock 'n' roll side, complete with occasional solos that qualify as workouts. On an acoustic guitar, Thompson often simulates the sound of several players plucking and strumming at once.