It has made his gruff, lived-in voice lower and gruffer, which doesn't hurt his songs.

With her grainy, much lived-in voice, Ms. Wilson, accompanied on piano by Mark Hummel, weaves an incomparably rich mixture of personal and show business history into her performances.

Mr. Kirkland still shouts the blues in a raw, lived-in voice and plays swaggering guitar lines.

Broadway's ageless gypsy queen has a voice so lived-in that its cardboard tatters often seem patched together with chewing gum, scotch tape and paste, but that doesn't mean that she can't sing up a dramatic storm if the song demands it.

"Sanctuary" (Real World) pays equal attention to Mr. Musselwhite's modest, lived-in voice and a selection of songs that probes the blues' existential lessons about loss, wandering and death.

Ms. Rivera has a voice so lived-in that its cardboard tatters often seem patched together with chewing gum, Scotch tape and paste.

With her craggy, lived-in voice, elegant pop-jazz phrasing and cheerfully self-deprecatory wit, Ms. Cary often recalls the much-missed saloon singer Sylvia Syms.

With her craggy, lived-in voice, elegant pop-jazz phrasing and cheerfully self-deprecatory wit, Ms. Cary, whose show plays Fridays through Sundays through the end of this month, often recalls the much-missed saloon singer Sylvia Syms.

Better yet, his lived-in voice and air of casual sophistication are beautifully suited to the mixture of wry wit and aching romanticism of Porter's American songbook classics.

Metkal Kenawi Metkal, the group's leader, sang in a gruffly jovial, lived-in voice, and Moustapha Abdel Aziz on arghul delivered striking solos.