Live In Concert from NPR's All Songs Considered Folgen

Portland, Ore., has bred or attracted so many tremendous indie-folk musicians that they're getting stuffed into bigger and bigger bands to make room for everyone. A collective that swells from seven to as many as 17 members, Typhoon is built for soul-stirring beauty on a grand scale. Conceived by singer Kyle Morton as a vehicle for grandiose uplift, Typhoon hammers his points home with ambitious swells of brass and strings. At the 2011 Newport Folk Festival in Newport, R.I., the group finally commanded a stage big enough for what it throws down on its marvelous new EP, A New Kind of House.

In the span of just a few years, The Decemberists' Colin Meloy has taken an unlikely path from brainy folk-pop obscurity to commanding frontman — the sort of confident singer who can fill open-air venues with his lone voice when he's not crafting ludicrously ambitious "folk operas" like 2009's The Hazards of Love. The Decemberists scaled back those ambitions on this year's lustrous-but-straightforward The King Is Dead. But make no mistake: Songs this infectious aren't crafted without a healthy dollop of ambition — and an even greater application of craft and skill. Hear The Decemberists' members reach back into their rich catalog live at the 2011 Newport Folk Festival in Newport, R.I.

Emmylou Harris' Grammy-festooned career stretches back more than 40 years, to her legendary early collaborations with the late country-folk legend Gram Parsons. Hard Bargain, her new album, is suffused with mourning, both for Parsons (in "The Road") and for her late friend Kate McGarrigle, whom she memorably memorializes in "Darlin' Kate." But the Country Music Hall of Famer still knows where and how to locate sweetness and joy in her music, and she remains vital and contemporary. Here, Harris closes out the 2011 Newport Folk Festival in Newport, R.I. joined on stage by many special guests: Pete Seeger, The Civil Wars, David Wax Museum and more.