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In the 1990s, Bobby Valentino was part of the teen vocal group Mista. Now he's gone solo, with a self-titled CD and a single, "Slow Down," that's already topped the R&B charts. Ed Gordon talks with Valentino about his burgeoning career and his soulful influences.

Day to Day producer Christopher Johnson reports on top French pop-rock band Phoenix, who are hoping to make inroads in the U.S. with their latest CD Alphabetical.

In his new film, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, Reilly plays Dewey Cox, an over-the-top fictitious rock legend. It's a fake biopic that parodies Johnny Cash, Ray Charles, and others. Hear an interview and songs from the movie, performed on WXPN.

London-based singer-songwriter Chris Letcher weaves together beautiful compositions with seamless and soothing melodies. His album has been receiving positive reviews in the U.K., South Africa, and the U.S., where the song 'Deep Frieze' stayed in the college radio top 30 for three weeks.

Cohn's 1991 single "Walking in Memphis" made him an instant star: A sentimental Top 40 favorite and an enduring radio staple, the song was his ticket to Grammy-winning fame. Hear Cohn in an interview and in-studio performance from WXPN.

Though still only 20, English singer-songwriter Kate Nash has already topped numerous European pop charts and attracted massive buzz in the U.S. Her debut album, Made of Bricks, is full of sweetly infectious pop music, propelled by Nash's thick accent and effervescent personality. Hear Nash in concert from WXPN and World Cafe Live in Philadelphia.

The editors of Paste magazine wondered: who are the best living songwriters around. They gathered a team of 50 musicians and writers and put together a list of the top 100.

"Candy Girl" sounds like a shoegazer's modern take on Berlin's "Take My Breath Away" — the song that soundtracked the makeout scene in Top Gun. Cool but still beautiful, it's touching, revealing and almost painfully intimate.

Make a list of the great crooners who sing love songs and Tom Jones is likely to be near the top. He was for us when we sought

Conor J. O'Brien is the driving force behind the acoustic folk outfit Villagers, and his intensity pushed the band to the top of the charts in Ireland even before its debut had been released. In just a couple of years, Villagers has become one of the biggest musical names on the Emerald Isle and an internationally known folk group.