The BoDeans

Twenty eight years after their T-Bone Burnett produced debut Love & Hope & Sex & Dreams led them to win a Rolling Stone reader's poll as "Best New American Band," The BoDeans are still rocking and harmonizing gracefully, touring the U.S. regularly and exposing the kids of their longtime steadfast fans to real, heartfelt and trend-free music. "I've always thought of the BoDeans as a truly American band," says Kurt Neumann, the founder, primary writer and frontman of the veteran Milwaukee-based group. "We were blue-collar kids straight out of the heartland—how could we be anything else? 'Roots rock' was a label I fought when I was younger, but I came to realize that if by 'roots' you meant blues, rock, country and soul all slammed together into one sound, then I'd say yes—that is the sound of American-made music."