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Recent developments in understanding the interaction between music and the brain might help us avoid the stress inherent in sending one's hard-earned tax dollars to Manhattan and Detroit and Baghdad. With the right music in the background, preparing taxes might feel about the same as drinking cucumber water in a swank spa, or doing tai chi as the sun rises over the seashore.

Electro-acoustic wizard Dan Deacon made his name as a frenetic one-man band who embedded his act on the dance floor. But on his new album, Bromst, he's aiming for a meaningful sort of pop — and employing a 15-person touring ensemble.

A few years ago, the banjo master Fleck set out to explore the birthplace of his instrument: West Africa. The results of his cross-cultural explorations are collected on a new album. He describes and performs some of his findings, with Malian kora virtuoso Diabate.

Blind Pilot conducted its first tour on a pair of bicycles, riding from Vancouver to San Francisco. Though the group now tours in a van, its members look back fondly on their early days, which included campfires and unexpected attention from truckers.

NPR's Tom Huizenga takes Scott Simon on a guided tour of a fascinating new set of opera CDs, documenting singers and their recordings from 1898 to 2007. Along the way, hear opera great Enrico Caruso in his first recording session and the penatrating sound of dramatic soprano Eva Turner.

Roberts' sturdy indie-rock sound can feel comfortable, familiar and satisfying. Though his songs often portray dark themes, his sunny sense of humor often reveals their messages as tongue-in-cheek. Here, Roberts tells some of the heartfelt and twisted stories behind his new songs.

When singer-songwriter Jill Sobule found herself without the financial support of a record label, she found a way to circumvent the business — by getting her fans to donate enough money to fund the recording of her new CD. Here, Sobule talks about the creation of California Years.

The small, family-run record label from the south of France has thwarted the downward slide in classical music sales by choosing unorthodox recording projects and trusting its musicians. While other labels' sales have collapsed, Harmonia Mundi is thriving.

At 70, Hugh Masekela says he has personally healed. But the trumpeter and vocalist, long known as both a celebrated artist and an anti-apartheid activist, has recorded "songs of concern" on his new album, Phola.

Two decades after the release of their Grammy-winning debut album, the Indigo Girls' compressed and solid harmonies are still recognizable. Emily Saliers and Amy Ray join Linda Wertheimer at WHYY in Philadelphia to play some old favorites, along with new songs from Poseidon and the Bitter Bug.