Stephen Kallao

Looking back on the past year of sessions this week, World Cafe is digging into the archives for some performances and interviews since last January. You'll hear sessions with artists including young producer, singer, multi-instrumentalist King Princess, the young rockers of Cage The Elephant, folk musician Rhiannon Giddens and more.

Listen to all the sessions below.

A chance accident performing a simple skateboard trick changed the shape of the latest Beirut record, Gallipoli. What was supposed to be a recording session in New York City ended up happening in Berlin and the result is a different set of songs that retain that signature Beirut sound.

My guests for this session are sweethearts. Like, the nicest guys you could hope to speak to. Calexico's Joey Burns and Iron & Wine's Sam Beam are here to talk about the record they made, and it's worth mentioning that Years to Burn is one of my favorites of the year.

Lollapalooza is happening this weekend in Chicago and when you think of the giant festival, I hope you think of the man who started it all, Perry Farrell.

I don't know how to describe what the word smoky means in singing, but I think you know it when you hear it. My guest, Molly Burch, has it in spades. It's no surprise she's a classically-trained jazz vocalist, going to school for it at the University of North Carolina in Asheville, N.C.

Since Lukas Nelson's last World Cafe visit with his group, Promise of the Real, he's been busy, to say the least. First, he's been continuing his work as Neil Young's band.

Summer's here and the time is right for looking back on some of our favorite World Cafe sessions of the year! Let's just say, it's been an inspiring one so far.

Johnathan Rice rolled in the door and right away I knew I was going to enjoy chatting with him. He arrived as a party of one, with merch in a carry-on bag in one hand, and a guitar case in the other. Normally there's a manager, a sound person, or label folk shepherding. But this time, it was just Rice and a rental car touring the Northeast.

Boston-based singer-songwriter Marissa Nadler has been making old school country with a twist since 2004, but that twist has turned in many directions since then. It's led to her lending those trademark "haunting vocals" to metal bands, recording several albums of covers and opening up for Swedish hard rock band Ghost.

Carlos Santana is arguably one of the most influential guitarists of the last 50 years — from his groundbreaking performance at Woodstock to his millions of albums sold in the '70s to his revival in the late '90s thanks to the album Supernatural and its lead single "Smooth." Santana's latest album is called Africa Speaks, which just came out on

We welcome back an influential and iconic musician to the punk and hardcore scene, Bob Mould. After blazing trails in the '80s with Hüsker Dü, and in the '90s with Sugar, Mould has had a successful solo career for the last 25 years. His latest album, Sunshine Rock, is an intentional look away from the politics of now and instead a look back to the albums he loved as a youth.