Jon Dee Graham and Matthew Ryan

Jon Dee Graham is one of those guys who's treasured by his peers. He's part of the Austin Music Hall of Fame, a veteran roots-rocker who's just as comfortable leading his own band as he is playing guitar in somebody else's. In the new DVD Swept Away, friends and contemporaries — like Alejandro Escovedo and James McMurtry — give Graham props. But the doc especially cooks when Graham is onstage. Tourmate Matthew Ryan comes from Pennsylvania, but takes a similar path to his thoroughly American version of rock and roll. His latest album, Matthew Ryan vs. the Silver State, is an ambitious song cycle that takes stock of the singer-songwriter's life in cuts like "Drunk and Disappointed."