Bruce Warren

Let's face it, even Halloween can be stressful. You don't have enough candy. The costume you've chosen for the party you've been invited to isn't weird or creative enough. You're running late leaving work and won't be home in time to give out all that candy you bought. You're starting to get really sick of how everyone on Twitter has changed their name to some variation of a Halloween-inspired word – like "@Jack" becomes "@Drac." Kids show up in paper bag masks, grab handfuls of candy and no one says "Thank you!" anymore.

Jonatha Brooke has released a number of albums over the three decades that she has been making music, but when it came to her latest batch of songs she decided to keep it short and sweet.

In the lyrics to one of 1999's most popular songs, Santana's "Smooth," Rob Thomas repeats the words "Let's don't forget about it." Twenty years on, I'm betting that your memory hasn't faded, no matter how hard you might have tried.

Happy July Fourth from all of us here at World Cafe! In honor of the holiday, we pulled together an all American-made Independence Day playlist. It includes a handful of literal July Fourth classics by Bruce Springsteen, Aimee Mann, X, James Taylor, and Galaxie 500.

Looking in the rear view mirror to 40 years ago, we couldn't help but notice the overabundance of musical riches from the year 1979. Classic releases from multiple genres like rock, rap, R&B, disco, and new wave were crashing up against our ears on our radios, our boomboxes, and — in the Summer of '79 — on a new device called the Sony Walkman.

Like any creative community, the Philadelphia music scene is best viewed as a constant state of collaboration.

The artists might take center stage, but they wouldn't be able to do what they do without an equally robust community of directors and videographers to imaginatively translate their work into narrative visuals, or without studios and curators eager to document their process and performances with breathtaking clarity.

After a year in New York, the 61st Annual Grammy Awards return to Los Angeles, taking place at the Staples Center this weekend on Sunday, Feb. 10. Over the years, World Cafe has had numerous visits from those nominated and those who've won, and last year we were fortunate to have some extraordinary musicians on the show.

Without gospel music there never would have been an Aretha Franklin, an Elvis Presley, a Ray Charles, a James Brown, or an Al Green.