Norway's many fjords are responsible for the birth of a celebrity. Ella Lockert, with her boundless vitality and undoubted skill, has always been a force to be reckoned with from the day she was born. Imagine a little Ella illuminating the stage as the smallest Santa possible in the song "Putti Plutti Pott." Add to that her singing in the children's chorus at the Norwegian Opera,...

Phoebe Huisman and the release "Inside" arrived in my speakers like the sudden, sharp scent of rain hitting hot asphalt familiar, grounding, and weirdly emotional. There is something unnerving about how accurately this collection of songs maps the topographical mess of being a teenager. Huisman, a singer-songwriter with the technical chops of a Distinction-grade vocalist and the heart of a poet, has essentially constructed...