(Editor's note: The August 20 show has been cancelled.)

"Little" Annie Raines, 38, is from the Boston area, so she didn't learn how to play harmonica at the knee of anyone in the cotton fields.

"I started playing the harmonica when I was 17 just for something to do," she said in a recent phone interview. "I was looking for a book on juggling - called Juggling for the Complete Klutz - and the bookstore was out of it. But they had Harmonica for the Musically Hopeless, so I got that instead. And that's how I got started playing harmonica."

One of America's greatest minds, Princeton professor Dr. Cornel West, returns next week with a new CD of intellectual hip-hop and R&B. Never Forget: A Journey of Revelations features an array of guests, highlighted by Prince in the scathing "Dear Mr. Man" and talk-show host Tavis Smiley and pundit Michael Eric Dyson in examination of the "N Word." Other front row students in class include Talib Kweli in "Bushanomics," Jill Scott in "What Time It Is," and Gerald Levert in "The Man's Gonna Getcha." Look for the thought-provoking disc on Hidden Beach Records' Hidden Beach Forum imprint.

Tom Wright's life story in the new photography book Roadwork: Rock & Roll Turned Inside Out is one of those magical, right-place-at-the-right-time tales that leaves one grinning from ear to ear in envy. A schoolmate of Pete Townshend in 1962, Wright's gig as tour photographer for The Who in 1967 opened the doors for decades of intimate access and impromptu backstage portraiture with Rod Stewart, The James Gang, and the Rolling Stones. The Hal Leonard Books hardcover edition is a mix of anecdotes and excesses from the Wild West days of rock, printed on tasteful archival cream paper.

The Holmes Brothers have always had an eclectic style. Wendell, the guitar player and raspy-voiced singer, once told me that so many hours touring in the van acquainted them with all kinds of music. I can just hear them, all three singing along to whatever they happen upon on the radio, trying it out later live and then in the studio with their own gospel spin.