While the members of Sonos, a California sextet, have their background in university a cappella choirs, they've expanded their repertoire far beyond Top 40 pop songs and into the far more juicy world of indie rock.

Not being from Canada, I'm not exactly clued in to the musical going-ons of our gigantic neighbor to the north. But the Winnipeg Folk Festival, scheduled for July 7 through 11, is definitely something I should know about, despite the fact that it's far away... oh, wait, Winnipeg is only a two-hour flight away. Never mind, it isn't that far. Huh.

Like a louder, less eerie-sounding, less heavily-bearded Fleet Foxes.

Casey Dienel is the woman behind White Hinterland, having previously performed under her own name until 2008. While her recordings under her own name didn't rise much above your typical lo-fi singer-songwriter sound, she's found her niche in style with White Hinteland.

The entire world is gearing up for SXSW. I'm gearing up for reading tons of great blog posts about SXSW.

A beautiful video for a devastating song. Ok, I could have done without the giant CGI bee flying across the screen. But otherwise, the video is very serene, just Brandi and a guitar and nature blooming around her.

March is getting off to a bit of a slow start. I think the month of March knows that I will be spending most of April skulking about in various venues for an absurd number of shows. March is telling me that I need to get my sleep, I think.

With just a guitar and his raw voice, Rocky Votolato puts forth a show that runs the gamut of emotion. His songs don't beat around the bush in any way; it's not so much that the songs are strictly literal, it's more the fact that they're honest.

While I fuss about, trying to upload photos and write reviews of the past two nights' worth of concerts, have a little mixtape of some of my favorite songs/artists from this past month.

Vocalist Jonathan Chandler reminds me at times of Greg Laswell. This is a good thing. I also enjoy their track "After all that, it's come to this", which features Amy Millan, but I couldn't find it on Youtube. Go look for it, you'll like it.