Jorge Drexler

Widely traveled Uruguayan singer-songwriter Jorge Drexler is best known to American listeners for "Al Otro Lado del Río," the Academy Award–winning song he penned for The Motorcycle Diaries. A late bloomer, he quickly built a reputation with his catchy tunes, intelligent lyrics and sensitive, electronically enhanced arrangements. But for his most recent album, 2010's Amar la Trama—roughly translated, "Loving the Plot"—Drexler recorded live with a small band before an invited studio audience, conjuring a loose-limbed spontaneity perfectly suited to a record less concerned with resolutions than with the journeys involved in reaching them. Check out the sessions on YouTube, then catch him in person here.