At age 7, she was introduced to the mandolin by her dad, but the fiddle was "what I thought I wanted to play," she said. That changed in 1999 when the Christmas gift from Hull's grandmother, great aunt and great uncle was too big for her tiny hands to hold.

If you choose to go out, you'll welcome the new year by listening to one of your favorite bands with like-minded fans -- instead of attending some overpriced and ultimately disappointing party.

Mr. Fleck's banjo with its bluegrass inflections, and Mr. Corea's piano with his classical flourishes and Latin-inspired rhythmic approach, come from two vastly different musical worlds, but these two wizards made these variants work for the most part, to a surprising degree.

Perfect viewing for any old Tuesday night. The Broken Circle Breakdown is a transcendent meditation on what it means to be alive and where we go when we die. It speaks to the cancer experience without being a cancer movie. I'm not interested in any other kind.

Infusing southern rock with bluegrass and a hybrid of genres and gadgets (he uses chiptune -- producing music via old-school video consoles), firekid recorded his debut album with producer and songwriter Sam Hollander (The Fray, Train).

The massive undertaking of re-creating Tommy included mapping out a strategy at Meyers' Kansas City, Mo., offices in August 2014, then learning the material by listening to the Who's album and watching the wonderfully wacky 1975 film and arranging the music (which longtime Who fanatic Jim Rea lovingly took on).