As the singer for Pearl Jam, Eddie Vedder cemented his place as one of modern rock's best-known frontmen, riding the band's early success as Seattle grunge icons into a remarkably consistent and varied career. His low, rugged vocals, introspective lyrics, and dynamic presence made him one of the 1990s' most influential frontmen and he used his celebrity to promote issues like environmental activism and women's rights. As Pearl Jam's success continued into the 21st century, Vedder also branched out into occasional solo work, contributing to a number of films including his acclaimed soundtrack to 2007's Into the Wild. After his 2011 solo acoustic release, Ukulele Songs, he spent much of the following decade devoted to Pearl Jam, becoming a Rock & Roll Hall of Famer in the process. In 2022, Vedder released Earthling, his first solo album devoted to rock & roll.

Born Edward Louis Severson III in Evanston, Illinois Vedder was raised by his mother Karen Vedder and stepfather Peter Mueller. Unaware of his biological father's existence, he used Mueller as his surname until his late teens; he later found out his real father had died and eventually took his mother's maiden name as his own. The family's relocation to San Diego in the mid-'70s ushered in Vedder's two primary passions: music and surfing. He learned to play the guitar which, along with his surfboard, helped sustain him through a difficult period that ultimately saw him drop out of high school. After earning his GED back in Chicago, Vedder returned to San Diego in the mid-'80s, where he worked odd jobs, recorded songs, and played in bands like Indian Style and Bad Radio.

In 1990, friend and former Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Jack Irons gave Vedder a demo tape from some Seattle friends seeking a new lead singer. Vedder's powerful voice and thoughtful lyrics earned him an invitation to Seattle to meet Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament, whose most recent band, Mother Love Bone, had just folded following the death of its lead singer, Andrew Wood. In fact, they were recording a tribute album to Wood called Temple of the Dog and invited Vedder to contribute vocals on several songs alongside Soundgarden's Chris Cornell. Upon its April 1991 release, "Hunger Strike," a duet with Cornell, marked Vedder's first featured vocal appearance on record and became Temple of the Dog's breakout single, introducing the newcomer to fans ahead of Pearl Jam's own debut later that August.

Anchored by Vedder's distinctive baritone growl and the band's battery of dark, chugging riffs, Ten catapulted Pearl Jam into the mainstream and became one of the best-selling albums of the decade. It preceded the release of Nirvana's watershed album Nevermind by one month, and the massive success of both bands assured that Vedder and Kurt Cobain would become the public faces of the early-'90s grunge movement. While both singers struggled under the weight of this role, Vedder managed to parlay the group's early success into a long and lasting career, while Cobain sadly succumbed to his demons in 1994. Pearl Jam spent the middle part of the decade at the top of their game, notching three consecutive number one albums, building a devoted fan base, and earning a reputation for doing things their own way; their legendary David and Goliath-like battle with Ticketmaster over inflated concert prices earned them plenty of goodwill from frustrated concertgoers. For his part, Vedder used his elevated platform to support a number of causes from abortion rights and gun control to environmentalism and liberal politics. He also dabbled in extracurricular collaborations, singing with a range of artists from famed qawwali singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan to the Ramones.

At the dawn of the new millennium, Pearl Jam were fast becoming a rock institution, touring relentlessly and satiating fans with scads of official bootleg releases of their live shows. Parallel to artistically satisfying releases like 2002's Riot Act and 2006's Pearl Jam, Vedder made occasional forays into solo work, contributing songs to films like Sean Penn's I Am Sam (2001), the documentary Body of War (2007), and the Bob Dylan biopic I'm Not There. An ongoing friendship with Sean Penn led Vedder to compose music for Penn's 2007 film Into the Wild, the soundtrack of which became Vedder's first official solo release. In 2011, he offered up a second solo outing in the acoustic Ukulele Songs, which he supported with a tour of smaller, more intimate venues. He also continued to guest on songs by other artists including R.E.M., Neil Finn, and Glen Hansard. Meanwhile, Pearl Jam aged gracefully into middle age, releasing 2013's low-key Lightning Bolt and a 2017 live double-LP recorded at historic Wrigley Field, home of Vedder's beloved Chicago Cubs. They were also inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. That same year he appeared performing under his birth name, Edward Louis Severson, during an episode of Twin Peaks' long-awaited third season. Along with Pearl Jam's 11th studio album, Gigaton, 2020 brought the Vedder solo EP, Matter of Time. The following year, he resumed his ongoing collaboration with Sean Penn, contributing heavily to the soundtrack of his film Flag Day. He also teamed up with Bruce Springsteen and Tom Morello for a cover of AC/DC's classic "Highway to Hell."

During May of 2021, Vedder visited the Beverly Hills studio of producer Andrew Watt in order to rehearse for a benefit concert. The singer and producer unexpectedly started collaborating on new material, songs that became the seeds of Earthling, the 2022 solo album from Vedder. Earthling found Vedder working in collaboration not only with Watt and Red Hot Chili Pepper drummer Chad Smith, but with Elton John, Ringo Starr, Benmont Tench and Stevie Wonder on a diverse, colorful album. ~ Timothy Monger

Not many heroes of indie folk have won an Oscar or created the basis of a successful stage musical, but Glen Hansard is an artist who can wear both of those feathers in his cap. As a member of the Frames and the Swell Season, Hansard won acclaim for his literate, intelligent, and passionate songwriting and his nuanced vocals, and he went on to win similar accolades as a solo artist. Hansard first gained an audience for the limber but emphatic indie rock he created as a member of the Frames, then gained international fame with fellow singer and songwriter Markéta Irglová in the duo the Swell Season, whose emotionally open, primarily acoustic indie folk became the centerpiece of the award-winning independent romantic drama Once. After going out on his own with his 2012 solo debut, Rhythm and Repose, Hansard has shown a stylistic diversity as he embraced the sound of '70s singer/songwriters on 2015's Didn't He Ramble, vintage soul on 2018's Between Two Shores, and an eclectic swing between subtle folk and noisy indie rock on 2019's This Wild Willing and 2023's All That Was East Is West of Me Now.

Glen Hansard was born in the Ballymun section of Dublin on April 21, 1970. Early on, he was far more passionate about music than he was about schoolwork, and when he was 13, on the advice of a teacher who felt he had a future as a musician, he dropped out and started making a living busking on the streets of Dublin. Hansard spent five years playing on the streets and working on his songwriting, and in his late teens, his parents helped him bankroll the recording of a demo of his original material. He made 50 copies of the demo, and one of them was heard by noted producer and A&R man Denny Cordell. Cordell was impressed with Hansard's recordings, and on his recommendation Hansard was signed to Island Records. With a record deal in place, Hansard needed to form a backing band, so in 1990 he rounded up a handful of local buskers and scuffling rock musicians and assembled the first edition of the Frames, the name coming from the large collection of bicycle frames Hansard kept in his backyard (he fixed bikes in his spare time).

While the Frames began playing out in 1990, various matters prevented their first album, Another Love Song, from arriving in shops until September 1992. In the interim, Hansard played the role of Outspan Foster in the hit movie The Commitments. While the film's success made Hansard a celebrity, he opted to focus on his music rather than acting. When Another Love Song didn't live up to Island's sales expectations, however, the Frames had to focus on live work until they landed another deal, this time with ZTT Records, who released the group's second album, Fitzcarraldo, in 1995. Dance the Devil followed in 1999, as the Frames developed a large and loyal audience in their native Ireland, as well as a passionate cult following in the United States. In 2001, they released their fourth album, For the Birds, through the independent Overcoat Recordings imprint, and Breadcrumb Trail came out the following year. Hansard also found himself in front of cameras again when he signed on as the host of Other Voices: Songs from a Room, a show for Irish television that showcased local talent.

In 2006, after the release of the album The Cost, Hansard took some time off from the Frames to work on a side project, the Swell Season, in which he collaborated with Czech singer and songwriter Markéta Irglová. Through Hansard was 18 years Irglová's senior, the two connected as partners as well as artists, and they pursued a romantic relationship after completing their self-titled debut album. Around the same time, writer and director John Carney, a former member of the Frames, persuaded Hansard to play the male lead in an independent feature film about an Irish busker who falls in love with an Eastern European immigrant and fellow musician; with Irglová in the female lead, the project was an example of art imitating life. When Once was released in 2007, it became an international success, and one of the songs Hansard and Irglová wrote and performed in the movie, "Falling Slowly," earned them an Academy Award for Best Original Song. In 2009, the Swell Season released a second LP, Strict Joy, but by the time the album dropped, Hansard and Irglová had amicably ended their romantic relationship. While they occasionally collaborated on songs, they stopped working under the banner the Swell Season. The Swell Season's music took on a second life in 2011 when an off-Broadway musical adapted from Carney's film, also called Once, made its debut. The show moved to Broadway in 2012, and was later staged in the U.K., Canada, Australia, and South Korea.

While the Frames occasionally regrouped for touring, particularly in Ireland, they had fallen out of making records, and in 2012 Hansard released his first proper solo album, Rhythm and Repose, which was informed by the end of his relationship with Irglová and his relocation to New York City. Later in 2012, Hansard's track "Take the Heartland" appeared on the soundtrack to the hit movie The Hunger Games, and the following year he joined up with Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder to record a cover of Bruce Springsteen's "Drive All Night," which was included on a fundraising EP of the same name issued by Anti- in support of music education charity Little Kids Rock. In 2015, Hansard released It Was Triumph We Once Proposed: Songs of Jason Molina, an EP in which Hansard presented reworked interpretations of five songs by his late friend Molina, best known for his work with Songs: Ohia and Magnolia Electric Co.

In September 2015, Hansard returned with a new album of original material, Didn't He Ramble, followed by an American concert tour. In January 2018, Anti- brought out Hansard's fourth full-length album, Between Two Shores; in support, he staged an international concert tour, including a special show with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. 2019's This Wild Willing was written during a four-week working vacation in Paris and recorded with a diverse range of collaborators, including noted electronic artists Dunk Murphy and Deasy, and Middle Eastern musicians the Khoshravesh brothers. In 2021 Hansard teamed up with Eddie Vedder, Olivia Vedder, and Cat Power for the soundtrack to the Sean Penn-directed drama Flag Day. (Vedder later recruited Hansard to join his ad-hoc band the Earthlings for a solo tour.) Hansard also helped with the recording of songs for Joe Wright's 2021 film Cyrano, singing two numbers written by Aaron Dessner and Bryce Dessner of the National.

As Hansard worked on material for his next album, he needed to see how they would work in front of an audience, so he played a series of unannounced shows at a small pub in Dublin, as he and his accompanists let the songs take shape in front of whoever was on hand that evening. After fine-tuning the music, he and several members of the Frames convened with producer and engineer David Odlum at his home studio, where they recorded 2023's All That Was East Is West of Me Now. An affecting blend of folkie contemplation and rock & roll force, the album included a guest appearance by Warren Ellis of the Dirty Three and Nick Cave's Bad Seeds on violin. ~ Mark Deming

An artist unafraid to bare her soul and follow her muse anywhere, Cat Power's Chan Marshall pens emotionally unflinching songs and performs them with strength and vulnerability. Her earliest albums, such as 1996's What Would the Community Think, reflected the influence of New York's experimental rock scene. As time went on, the folk, blues, and soul music she was raised on made themselves known on 1998's Moon Pix and 2006's The Greatest, which featured performances by Memphis soul legends. Though Marshall's respect for her roots made her a gifted interpreter on albums like 2008's Jukebox and 2023's Cat Power Sings Dylan: The 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert, her music never felt stuck in the past. As she added electronics on 2012's Sun and released one of her starkest albums yet with 2018's Wanderer, she established herself as one of the 21st century's most acclaimed singer/songwriters and paved the way for like-minded artists such as Mitski, Snail Mail, and Angel Olsen.

Chan (pronounced "Shawn") Marshall was born Charlyn Marie Marshall in Atlanta, Georgia on January 21, 1972. Marshall's father was a blues musician, but her parents divorced when she was young, and she spent much of her nomadic childhood moving back and forth between her father, her mother, and her grandfather. She grew up singing hymns while attending church with her grandmother, and wrote her first song when she was in fourth grade. Meanwhile, she immersed herself in the Otis Redding, Rolling Stones, and Credence Clearwater Revival albums in her stepfather's collection; in her teens, she listened to Siouxsie and the Banshees and the Cure.

When Marshall was 16, she moved in with her father in Atlanta, and by 18 she had dropped out of high school and settled on her own. She became a part of the city's indie rock scene and played with several bands before forming a group called Cat Power. The name came from a trucker's cap emblazoned with "Cat Diesel Power" that Marshall spotted while working at a pizza joint. She later took Cat Power as her solo performing moniker. In 1992, Marshall moved to New York City with a former member of her band, who also introduced her to the city's experimental music community. She began playing semi-improvised shows, and in 1993 befriended the band God Is My Co-Pilot, who released Cat Power's debut single "Headlights" b/w "Darling Said Sir" that year on their Making of Americans label. A gig opening for Liz Phair made fans out of Two Dollar Guitar's Tim Foljahn and Sonic Youth's Steve Shelley, both of whom volunteered to help her make an album. In December 1994, they recorded 20 songs in a single day at a New York basement studio. The recordings were split into two releases: October 1995's mini-album Dear Sir, a raw outing that balanced cathartic original songs with covers of songs by Tom Waits and This Kind of Punishment, and March 1996's Myra Lee, which appeared on Shelley's Smells Like Records label and featured some gentler songs alongside Marshall's outbursts.

Strong reviews led to Marshall signing with Matador Records, and her third album, What Would the Community Think, appeared in September 1996. Recorded at Memphis, Tennessee's Easley Studios and produced by Shelley, the album boasted more polished and wide-ranging performances and more focused songwriting, all of which were on display on the single "Nude as the News." Following the album's release, Marshall took a break from music and left New York City, relocating to Portland, Oregon and eventually a farmhouse in South Carolina. It was there that she experienced an intense nightmare that led her to write the songs that became the heart of her next album. Working with the Dirty Three's Mick Turner and Jim White at Sing Sing Studios in Melbourne, Australia, September 1998's Moon Pix featured a warmer, more full-bodied sound than Cat Power's early work. The following year, Marshall embarked on a tour where she provided live accompaniment to the 1929 silent film The Passion of Joan of Arc, and her setlist of original songs and covers inspired her to record some of these renditions. Appearing in March 2000, The Covers Record included a new recording of "In This Hole" from What Would the Community Think, along with interpretations of classic songs by Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, the Velvet Underground, Moby Grape, and others. The album's simple, intimate approach struck a chord with enough listeners that it reached number 44 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart in the U.S.

In February 2003, Marshall returned with You Are Free. Offering a more poised and cohesive sound than her previous albums, it featured guest appearances from fans Eddie Vedder and Dave Grohl as well as Ellis. The album marked Cat Power's debut on the Billboard 200 Albums chart, peaking at number 105. The following October saw the release of Speaking for Trees, a DVD/CD set capturing a two-hour Cat Power performance of original and cover songs set in a woodland. During 2005, Marshall recorded The Greatest, a soul-influenced album featuring Memphis R&B legends Mabon "Teenie" Hodges and Leroy "Flick" Hodges from the Hi Records Rhythm Section. Marshall's first album without cover songs, The Greatest came out in February 2006 to widespread acclaim: it debuted at number 34 on the Billboard 200 and won that year's Shortlist Music Prize. She toured later that year with a group she called the Dirty Delta Blues Band, featuring White, Judah Bauer of the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, and Gregg Foreman of the Delta 72. Marshall worked on several other projects around this time, ranging from a duet with Karen Elson on the Serge Gainsbourg tribute album Monsieur Gainsbourg: Revisited and an appearance on Yoko Ono's album Yes, I'm a Witch to a role in the film My Blueberry Nights. The Dirty Delta Blues Band formed the core of Marshall's studio band for her next album, January 2008's Jukebox. Another set of interpretations of songs originally by the likes of Billie Holiday, James Brown, and Joni Mitchell, the album built on The Greatest's success, reaching number 12 on the Billboard 200 Albums chart in the U.S. and selling over 100,000 copies in Europe. Marshall expanded on the album with that December's Dark End of the Street EP, which collected more songs recorded while making Jukebox. Also in 2008, she appeared on Beck's album Modern Guilt. The following year, Marshall contributed to the charity album Dark Was the Night and to Neko Case's album Easy Come Easy Go.

After collaborating with Eddie Vedder on his album Ukulele Songs and releasing a version of her song "King Rides By" that benefitted The Festival of Children Foundation and The Ali Forney Center in 2011, Marshall released Sun in September 2012. Five years in the making, the album incorporated electronics into her signature style and was recorded in several locations, including her home studio in Malibu and in Paris with Cassius' Philippe Zdar. Upon its release, it debuted at number ten on the Billboard 200 album chart. Shortly after its arrival, Marshall was diagnosed with hereditary angioedema, an immune disorder that causes swelling in the body. Due to ongoing problems with the disorder, Marshall delayed her European tour until 2013. In 2015, she narrated the Janis Joplin documentary Janis: Little Girl Blue.

While continuing to tour, Marshall began work on her next album, recording in Miami and Los Angeles with engineer Jeff Dominguez and mixer Rob Schnapf. Marshall made her Domino Records debut with 2018's Wanderer, a set of stripped-down, folk and blues-inspired songs that included "Woman," a collaboration with former tourmate Lana Del Rey, and a cover of Rihanna's "Stay." Wanderer peaked at number 96 on the Billboard 200 Albums chart and reached number four on the Independent Albums chart. Several new songs from Marshall appeared on the soundtrack to the 2021 film Flag Day, and that year she toured with Alanis Morissette and Garbage. In January 2022, Marshall released Covers, her third collection of interpretations of some of her favorite songs; these included works originally performed by artists such as Del Rey, Frank Ocean, the Pogues, and Kitty Wells. That November, Cat Power ventured to London's Royal Albert Hall to perform a song-for-song re-creation of Bob Dylan's famed May 1966 concert, where he switched from acoustic to electric mid-show (though the show was actually held the Manchester Free Trade Hall, a mislabeled bootleg made it forever known as the "Royal Albert Hall Concert"). A year later, the reverential set was released as Cat Power Sings Dylan: The 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert. ~ Heather Phares & Mark Deming