Fast-rising hip-hop artist Brother Ali's fifth album, "Us," was released Sept. 22 and has garnered the best response of his career, but he's not letting the praise go to his head.

Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s “highly anticipated” album, “Night Castle,” hit stores Oct. 27. And when an album is “highly anticipated,” that usually means that fans, reporters and the executives of your record company have been asking about it for a very long time. Trans-Siberian Orchestra performs in Peoria on Nov. 7. While a full-scale production of “Night Castle” is not yet being performed, the Peoria show will include songs from the new album.

Tech-savvy whiz kids seem to get their hands on a band’s music just days after an album goes through its final mixing stages. But somehow, Nirvana’s epic headlining performance at the 1992 Reading Festival remained virtually untouchable ... until now.

Costumed zombies, super heroes, Mad Hatters and Alices, at least one Jesus, bunnies, and fans dressed as the “Whip It” band Devo, all fought the mud on this Halloween Night.

Tara May played the part of a Voodoo Festival zombie on Halloween to the hilt. While modeling her white dress, black and white leggings and zombie face paint, the 10-year-old from Metairie explained why she likes the festival.

Puerto Rican reggae band Gomba Jahbari brings their excellent live show to a full-length album that runs through some of their most recent studio records as well as some of the best songs from their 2003 debut.

U.K. soul songstress Joss Stone gives her considerable pipes a good workout over the dozen tracks that make up "Colour Me Free!" And combined with a flawless Motown-style backing band, she puts together the best retro-soul record since Raphael Saadiq channeled the ghost of Marvin Gaye with 2009's "The Way I See It."

When Nirvana came onto the music scene in the 1989, it introduced a sound that shook the music world. Arena rock and heavy metal didn’t realize at the time that they were about to be replaced.

Check out these entertaining events happening this week.

George Donaldson is standing in the rain in Philadelphia talking on his cell phone in a thick Scottish burr about Celtic Thunder. He's one of five male vocalists from Ireland and Scotland in the group whose first CD shot up to No. 1 on the Billboard World Music Chart in March 2008 after making a popular debut on U.S. public television. The band's tour comes to the Peoria Civic Center Theater at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday.