Live In Concert from NPR's All Songs Considered Folgen

The NPR Music crew gather on a street corner in Austin Texas for their first SXSW 2011 nightly wrap up. Bob Boilen, Robin Hilton Stephen Thompson and Ann Powers talk about the music they loved on this first day of the festival.

For all its irresistibly soulful energy, what really jumps out about Raphael Saadiq's music is the smooth precision with which it falls into place. A perfectly tailored showman, with perhaps the whitest teeth in show business, the producer and former member of Tony! Toni! Ton?! plays the part of the in-control frontman to perfection. But don't mistake his impeccably presented persona with sterility: This set from Stubb's in Austin, Texas -- recorded live as part of the South by Southwest music festival — is a full-blown soul revue, complete with choreographed backup singers and buckets of sweat. When a guy this cool exerts this much effort, it's a joy to behold. Hear Saadiq perform live at SXSW from Stubb's in Austin, Texas, on March 16, 2011.

Smith Westerns' members are no strangers to NPR Music's coverage of the South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas: Just last year, they were a bunch of skinny, no-name teenagers winning over the crowd at NPR Music's annual daytime party. That enjoyable and ingratiating set — all propulsive rock energy, timeless pop hooks and some of the shiniest hair in music — laid the groundwork nicely for last fall's well-received Dye It Blonde, an engaging blast of candy-coated swagger. Hear the band perform live at SXSW from Stubb's in Austin, Texas, on March 16, 2011.