DiFranco spruces up her sparse folk arrangements with the odd brass band, accordion, and even an electric guitar or two, but the meat of these songs is still her distinctively funky acoustic guitar style (she borrowed her rhythmic plucking technique from R&B, but unplugged, it bears no resemblance to its genre of origin). Meanwhile, DiFranco's spunky activist lyrics are tempered here by a bigger dose of vulnerability than in previous albums, which allows for a unique mix of anger, humor, and poignancy. The best songs this time around are not bitter, but quietly reflective ("You Had Time," "Buildings and Bridges," "If He Tries Anything").

Aaron Cassidy is a composer and conductor with a growing international reputation and his works have been performed by leading contemporary music specialists. He joined the composition faculty of the University of Huddersfield in 2007 and is coordinator of the MA in New Music. This collection also includes Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion and other works.

Hefti has won many prestigious composition competitions and was a pupil of Rihm. These world premiere recordings, conducted by David Zinman and performed by his Tinhalle Orchestra Zurich, are a discovery.

Andreas Grau and Götz Schumacher met in1981 at the ages of 15 and 16 and have worked together ever since. These transcriptions, mostly for two pianos, include Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune, Saint-Saëns Introduction and Rondo capriccioso Op.28 and Rachmaninov’s Vocalise.

This Austrian composer Friedrich Cerha is very significant in the field of contemporary music. In June of this year he is being awarded the Ernst-von-Siemens-Musikpreis (endowed with 200,000 Euro). Here we have the opportunity to hear his clarinet works performed by the virtuoso artist Andreas Schablis.

After leaving Ukiah, CA, and moving south to San Francisco to form the Charles Ford Band (named for their father) in the late '60s with harmonica player Gary Smith, brothers Pat (drums) and Robben (guitar) were enlisted by Charlie Musselwhite and were pivotal members of one of the best aggregations the harpist ever led. Leaving Musselwhite after recording Arhoolie's Takin' My Time, they recruited bassist Stan Poplin and younger brother Mark, then age 17, on harmonica and played under the name the Real Charles Ford Band. Heavily influenced by the original Butterfield Blues Band and the Chess catalog, the quartet was famous for their live jazz explorations – often jamming for 30 minutes or more on a John Coltrane and George Benson tune – and hear-a pin-drop dynamics (with Mark abandoning mike and amp to play acoustically into the room or Robben turning the volume all the way off on his fat-body Gibson L-5).