The Del McCoury Band

When Del McCoury was growing up in York County, Pennsylvania, he learned music from his mother, Hazel, a church organist who also played guitar, piano and harmonica. And he never missed a chance to tune in to the Grand Ole Opry. But when his older brother bought a 78-rpm record of Flatt and Scruggs, that sealed the deal. Del started playing bluegrass and, a half-century later, he has never looked back. The Del McCoury Band has won nearly every award Bluegrass has to offer, including a Grammy for their 2005 CD, The Company We Keep. Their latest release is an all-gospel album titled The Promised Land (McCoury Music). The band: Del McCoury, guitar; Ronnie McCoury, mandolin; Rob McCoury, banjo; Jason Carter, fiddle; Alan Bartram, bass.

Madeleine Peyroux

Brooklyn-based singer and songwriter Madeleine Peyroux was born in Athens, Georgia, and raised in Southern California, New York City and Paris - where she spent her teen years. As a child she heard the music of Johnny Cash, Robert Johnson and Louis Armstrong in her father's record collection; as a teenager, she was drawn to the music of buskers she heard on the streets of Paris. She wound up joining a group called the Lost Wandering Blues & Jazz Band, which toured Europe for several years. She was 22 when she released her first album, Dreamland, which Time magazine called "the most exciting release by a new singer this year (1996)." Her latest CD is Half the Perfect World (Rounder). Joining Peyroux for tonight's show are Sam Yahel, keyboards; Darren Beckett, drums; Jon Herrington, guitar; Johannes Weidenmueller, bass.

Billy Collins

"Billy Collins writes lovely poems," John Updike has said. He does indeed. His works have appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Poetry, American Poetry Review, The American Scholar, Harper's and many other magazines and in his books of poetry, including Questions About Angels; The Art of Drowning; Picnic, Lightning; Sailing Alone Around the Room; Nine Horses and The Trouble with Poetry and Other Poems (Random House). He was twice appointed United States Poet Laureate and served as New York State Poet Laureate 2004-06. In 2004, he was selected as the inaugural recipient of the Poetry Foundation's Mark Twain Award for humor in poetry.