Skinny

The top-drawing Cleveland crew formerly known as 2 Skinny Dorks is now simply Skinny, for a number of good reasons. For one, the group is a quintet, and plenty more friends stopped by the studio to pitch in for Grass. This jammy alt-rock would have been well received when Dave Matthews was tearing up the charts, and Skinny may make its own run at radio one day.

The Skinny family includes saxophonist Matt Corey and a coven of soulful female backup singers. Weaned on Sly Stone and James Taylor, clean-cut singer-guitarist Jake Blazer is no hippie. He croons respectably, and his white-guy raps translate to disc, as do uplifting, hooky, fat-free songs like "All-Star," the kind of get-your-happy-on tune that rolls over movie montages. See the group at a local club before O.A.R. and Jack Johnson snap it up as an opening act.