We met St. Louis' Funky Butt Brass Band in the Grandel Theatre and congregated in the upstairs chapel area.

The Gaslight Anthem
"Handwritten"
Mercury

"Handwritten" is the Gaslight Anthem's first release with Mercury Records after leaving SideOneDummy last year.

Miss Jubilee and the Humdingers set up for an uptempo version of Ethel Waters's 1925 original that conjured an eclectic mix of hot jazz and swing.

From dress to affect, Miss Jubilee exudes the good-old-American, bluesy, swing jazz that she and her band the Humdingers work to renew in St. Louis.

Humidity. Beer. Hose water splashing over the edge of a galvanized steel swimming pool. Mosquitos. More beer. Cooler doors slamming shut, the oily odor of burning citronella, and as it gets dark, blocks away, the faint wail of police sirens. Beer.

Past and present American experiences are brought together in Neil Young with Crazy Horse's new release, the simply titled "Americana."

What's in a name? For the Spring Standards, a name means a lot. And though they spent hours and days agonizing over their own, they're still not necessarily happy with it.

The Spring Standards are really nice people; altogether too nice. In a way, they're like '50s television characters, eternally optimistic best friends, eternally high school students.

Horse Feathers set up for a second Show Me Shows video shoot in the City Museum's second-floor ballroom, with its regal windows and gauzy drapes, delicate like the music of Justin Ringle and his band.

Horse Feathers' frontman Justin Ringle pours lilt and swagger into every dark corner of the band's ornate music.