For a band with one independent recording under its belt, the White Rabbits have a lot going on. They appeared on Letterman in July - "Maybe U2 cancelled," joked bassist Adam Russell - and a feature-film documentary is in production. (See http://www.whiterabbitsdoc.com.)

Russell credits the band's publicist with the Letterman gig, and filmmaker Andrew Droz Palermo is a friend of the band dating back to some members' high-school careers.

But Russell said these early successes are a sign that people believe strongly in the band. "Having close friends that work with you does pay off sometimes," he said.

Blues musician Guy Davis is the son of legendary actors Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee. His 1998 CD You Don't Know My Mind led the San Francisco Chronicle to rave, "Davis' tough, timeless vocals blow through your brain like a Mississippi dust devil." His 2003 release Chocolate to the Bone received a W.C. Handy Award nomination for Best Acoustic Blues Album, one of nine W.C. Handy nominations Davis has received during his career.

So it comes as something of a surprise when Davis, during a recent phone interview, says, "The first time I remember hearing the blues, it was being played by white college boys.

A hard rockin' cabal of guest vocalists have joined Ministry helmsman Al Jourgensen in a debaucherous covers affair, out now on his own 13th Planet Records imprint.

The Cowboy Junkies first made a name for themselves with The Trinity Session, recorded live with a single microphone in a Toronto church in one night for a couple hundred bucks.

To mark its 20th anniversary this year, the Cowboy Junkies did it again.