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Carrie Rodriguez, Ben Sollee 

When they play, Carrie Rodriguez and Ben Sollee share the possibility and promise of new roots music. Over the past decade, Rodriguez has grown from an upstart violinist to a proven multi-instrumentalist alongside the likes of Lucinda Williams and Alejandro Escovedo. Her productivity this past year has been at a Ryan Adams level of intensity, with three released albums, including this month's collaboration with Ben Kyle, We Still Love Our Country. Her strong vocals can transform roots into slowly chugging rock, but Rodriguez never abandons an aesthetic that's lugubrious, warm and wistful. Sharing this stripped-down, yearning sound is fellow string player Sollee. More delicate than Rodriguez, Sollee offers meandering pop with heavy jazz influences. On cello, Sollee bends his voice and slides strings to reveal strains as disparate as Jack Johnson and Sam Cooke. Sollee released Dear Companion, a sort of protest album against mountaintop removal coal mining, in February with Daniel Martin Moore and Jim James. —Andrew Ritchey