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Jimmy Sturr and His Orchestra

"Let the Whole World Sing!"

Rounder

Jimmy Sturr has won 17 of the 22 Grammys ever awarded for best polka album. So try to restrain your shock when "Let the Whole World Sing!" grabs number 18. Sturr’s latest is an eclectic mix of country polkas (Raul Malo sings "Heartaches By the Number" and Ray Price "I Love You Because"), snappy instrumentals, a terrific Polish-language polka (Johnny Karas’s "Wojenko"), a comedy polka (Charlie Prose’s ode to obesity, "Suck It In"), and polkas about the simple joy of polkas. This blue-chip outfit is nothing if not consistent, and "Let the Whole World Sing!" easily demonstrates why polka fans, not to mention Grammy voters, prefer their polkas Sturred rather than shaken.

Loudon Wainwright III

"Recovery"

Yep Roc

Singer-songwriter Loudon Wainwright reemerged with a bang in 2006 thanks to "Strange Weirdos: Music From and Inspired By the Film ’Knocked Up’" (whose finest moment was Wainwright’s version of songwriter Peter Blegvad’s magnificent "Daughter"). Not that Wainwright had ever disappeared. Over the course of some 20 albums, the 61-year-old occasional actor has remained one of the smartest, wittiest, and more personally revealing musicians around. On "Recovery," Wainwright revisits songs he recorded more than 30 years ago, recasting ruminations on teenage lust ("School Days"), one-night stands ("Motel Blues"), and alcoholism ("The Drinking Song") in sophisticated new arrangements.