The 30 Most Intriguing Musicians of 2025

Here's the second installment of my three-part survey

I hear the old hit songs everywhere, and they’re familiar friends. But there’s so much great new music out there too—if you just know where to look.

That’s why I’m sharing my picks for the 30 most intriguing musicians of 2025. This is the second installment of a three-part survey. For part one, click here.

Happy listening!

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River Eckert

River Eckert is just 15 years old, but he is channeling more than a hundred years of New Orleans piano music through his ten fingers.

So many of the great keyboardists of the Crescent City are now departed—Professor Longhair, James Booker, Dr. John, Jelly Roll Morton, Mamie Desdunes, Allen Toussaint, Fats Domino, and others. So who will bring this endangered tradition to the next generation?

Well, here he is—but he’s still just a youngster. I’m sure River Eckert will continue to develop and evolve, but the maturity he already demonstrates is prepossessing.

And, yes, he can also sing.

They don’t teach any of that at Juilliard, not even after hours. And here is River flowing with a band.

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The Baltic Sisters

These four women from Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania absolutely demand your attention with their forthright vocal polyphony. But this is more than charming folk music. When I hear this music I’m reminded of the ancient myth of the harmony of the spheres—a sound so encompassing that it feels like a force of nature.

The performers here are known as the Baltic Sisters, and they created a buzz with their first performance at the WOMEX music exposition in Lisbon back in 2022. Now they finally have released a debut album, and it lives up to all expectations.

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Justin Johnson

My favorite type of blues is the darkest and deepest kind. I’m talking about the old trance blues—dirty, throbbing, and full of mystery. But where do you find it nowadays? You can search the Hill Country of Mississippi or the fertile lands along the Brazos River or even venture into the prisons and jailhouses nowadays and come up empty-handed.

But even in a digital age, a few haunted souls find their way to this music, somehow or another. Justin Johnson is one of those. You don’t even need to give him a real guitar—just a shovel with a few string will suffice.