Mandolin god Chris Thile - former and current leader of Nickel Creek and the Punch Brothers, respectively - is generally known for kicking bluegrass forward: Check out his down-home covers of Radiohead’s "Morning Bell" and Pavement's "Spit On A Stranger." This ridiculously blazing set with hot-shit Brooklyn guitarist Michael Daves, recorded at Jack White's Third Man studio in Nashville (where they also cut a 7" single with White, "Man In The Middle/Blue Night"), focuses instead on old timey material by Bill Monroe, Lester Flatt, and others. Dusty museum pieces they’re not: The uptempo jams are wild-picking shred fests, and the ballads cut deep. On a soulful reading of the traditional "Rain and Snow" (a Grateful Dead staple), the pair’s high lonesome harmonies are hollered up like pleas from the depths of a coal mine. That’s a place these city-slickers have probably never been. But no doubt they understand the rock-bottom blues.

Listen to "Rabbit in the Log":

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“Tonight's the Night”

The lead cut and title track from this girl group's debut album, "Tonight's the Night" was written by 19-year-old bandmember Shirley Owens, who sings lead, and producer Luther Dixon. The band from Passaic, New Jersey met in high school, first calling themselves the Pequellos. The song's frank thoughts about sexual and emotional surrender was racy for the time, but that didn't stop the Chiffons from cutting a similar version immediately after the original came out. "We were the first female group to write some of our own material," band member Beverly Lee recalls. "We did have some say-so in our writing."