Natalie Hemby and Amanda Shires talk about the formation of their new all-female supergroup, a gutsy move within a male-dominated genre. Continue Reading Country’s New Supergroup ‘The Highwomen’ Unite To Make Read More
In his latest compendium of American culture, filmmaker Ken Burns, along with writer Dayton Duncan, explores the history of “Country Music” in a new 16-hour documentary. Burns said that story-songs are a phenomenon that can be traced back centuries, to long, multi-verse ballads that were handed down from generation to generation. Read More
In 1954, after several draining decades as a jazz composer, performer and mentor, Mary Lou Williams quit. When she returned, she claimed her true power as one of jazz's fiercest advocates. Continue Reading Turning The Tables With Mary Lou Williams, Read More
Ella Fitzgerald's musical genius and influence is still being felt today. Latinx musicians Mabiland and Daymé Arocena explain how Fitzgerald inspires their music. Continue Reading How Ella Fitzgerald Is Influencing A New Generation Of Read More
Watch a young cellist on the rise, offering music of virtuosity, sweet lyricism and a little fire from his Persian roots. Continue Reading Cellist Kian Soltani Plays With Authority And Poetry For NPR’s Tiny Desk Read More
The early recording – and a remixed version of the song – are being shared ahead of a 50th anniversary edition of the band's penultimate studio album, Abbey Road. Continue Reading Hear An Early Outtake Of The Beatles’ ‘Oh! Read More
The reasons for the sudden end of Dan Maher's "Inland Folk" are murky, and have led to speculation and questions among fans and associates. Continue Reading ‘Inland Folk With Dan Maher’ Came To An Abrupt End. Why?Read More
Hold music is camouflaged sound — it needs to obviously exist, while also barely doing so. Small wonder, then, that its biggest "hit" does none of that. Continue Reading The Many Requirements Of Hold Music, A Genre For No OneRead More
In the 1970s, Fitzgerald became the face (and glass-shattering voice) of Memorex tapes. It fueled a career revival that extended her relevance and positioned her to pass the torch to a new generation. Continue Reading Ella Fitzgerald: The Voice That Shattered Read More
On her new album, Fire in My Mouth, the Pulitzer-winning composer documents the tragedy behind New York City's 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. Continue Reading Tragic Fire Sparks Julia Wolfe’s Latest Look At American Read More
The Black contralto put European art music and African-American spirituals in parity — and in her art, paved the way for generations of singers after her, both inside and outside classical music. Continue Reading Marian Anderson: A Classical Read More
After first shooting to fame in the 1970s, Tucker is back with her first full-length studio album in more than a decade called While I'm Livin'. Continue Reading With A New Album, Tanya Tucker Is Back And Taking No PrisonersRead More
A trio of critics discuss the mercurial pianist's personal take on Beethoven and Rachmaninoff and what it means to color outside the lines in classical music. Continue Reading A Confrontation With Music: Classical Pianist Read More
Coltrane recorded the album in New Jersey, at the admiring behest of a Québécois filmmaker named Gilles Groulx, who used it to score his docufictional film Le chat dans le sac. Continue Reading A Lost Album From John Coltrane, Read More
Augustin Hadelich dazzles in an album of odd bedfellows, which pairs Johannes Brahms' romantic war horse with György Ligeti's modernist stunner. Continue Reading MUSIC REVIEW: Opposites Attract With Augustin Hadelich’s Read More
Isata Kanneh-Mason, one of seven siblings in a British family bursting with promising music careers, showcases the long-overlooked music of Clara Schumann on her debut. Continue Reading In a Family Filled With Musicians, Read More
Bessie Smith's songs are tales of liberated women who are not afraid to speak openly about what they want, what they need and what they are tired of. Continue Reading How Bessie Smith Influenced A Century Of Popular MusicRead More
On the 50th anniversary of the band's landmark album Green River, we dig into how the band formulated its singular sound, its legacy and how Creedence's music still resonates today. Continue Reading Creedence Clearwater Read More
These women made some of the most significant music of the past century. They originated genres, broke political boundaries, nurtured generations of followers and in most cases, became icons. Continue Reading Turning The Tables: 8 Women Who Read More
American Anthem: In U2’s ‘I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,’ A Restless Search For Meaning
Inspired by gospel, the standout from U2's American experiment, The Joshua Tree, has become a rock 'n' roll hymn, even finding its way into real-life church services. Continue Reading American Anthem: In Read More
In December of 1968, some of the biggest names in rock and roll came together to film The Rolling Stones' Rock and Roll Circus. The film was recently given a 4K restoration. Continue Reading Resurrected Rolling Stones Film Finds Pivot Read More
In the wake of Napster's downfall, but before the iTunes Store began to legitimize digital music, Audiogalaxy emerged from the darkness to (illegally) fill the void. Continue Reading A Requiem For Audiogalaxy, The Digital Wild Read More
Twenty five years after he scored the original The Lion King, which won an Oscar, Hans Zimmer returns to Pride Rock to revisit the classic musical themes for a re-imagined tale. Continue Reading 25 Years After Scoring Read More
A recent Pop Culture Happy Hour trip to New York took the team to see Rigoletto at the Metropolitan Opera. A jester in a rat pack? We saw it. Continue Reading ‘Rigoletto’ In Vegas And The Pleasures Of The Metropolitan Read More
The pioneering South African singer, songwriter and activist died Tuesday after a battle with pancreatic cancer. Continue Reading Johnny Clegg, A Uniting Voice Against Apartheid, Dies At 66Read More
Dolly Parton's classic singalong aims a catchy beat at a serious point, listing the ways the daily grind exploits and exhausts people — some more than others. Continue Reading American Anthem: A Cup Of Ambition And Read More
Don and Marianna Matteson visited the NWPB studios to dedicate the Don and Marianna Matteson Digital Music Library on July 2. You may have heard it announced on air, or perhaps you caught the Mattesons themselves being interviewed by Anjuli Dodhia that day. It was a momentous occasion for NWPB. The library naming honors and… Read More
The Brazilian singer and guitarist, who won wide acclaim for his abundant technical skill and minimalist style, was behind one of the best-selling jazz albums of all time, 1964's Getz/Gilberto. Continue Reading João Gilberto, Master Of Bossa Nova, Dies Read More
The official anthem of the capital city, "En Mi Viejo San Juan" also serves as a nostalgic lament, evoking memories of the island for the many forced to leave it behind. Continue Reading American Anthem: For Those Missing Puerto Read More
A prolific force in Americana, beloved and emulated by Nashville royalty, the couple is back with its first album together in a decade — guided, as always, by a powerful but adaptable partnership. Continue Reading Missed For Read More
The PBS NewsHour recently spoke to Erika Ryann, who is based in Larskpur, Colorado, while on a solo tour. She has been performing and writing for the last 15 years, currently plays both solo and in five other bands, and is releasing her first solo album this coming winter. Read More
NPR's Sarah McCammon speaks with Adrian Enscoe, Sydney Shepherd and Regina Strayhorn, members of the band Bandits on the Run and stand-out entrants in this year's Tiny Desk Contest. Continue Reading Bandits On The Run Band Brings Read More
Rider University had planned to sell Westminster Choir College to the China-based Kaiwen Education, but now says it will only move Westminster out of its valuable property in Princeton, N.J. Continue Reading Chinese Company Backs Out Of Read More
NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro speaks with legendary South African pianist Abdullah Ibrahim about his latest album, The Balance. Continue Reading Finding ‘The Balance’: Jazz Legend Abdullah Ibrahim Looks To Read More
Ever since a 17-year-old Lesley Gore sang it in 1963, the coolly mutinous song has moved women to reject passive femininity. Its writers, though, say there are layers of resistance in its words. Continue Reading American Anthem: Read More
Music historian James Karst explains his recent research into the early life of the legendary Louis Armstrong. Continue Reading Satchmo In His Adolescence: 1915 Film Clip May Show Young Louis ArmstrongRead More
The bestselling 1970s book The Secret Life of Plants has been effectively debunked — but that hasn't stopped Stevie Wonder, Solange and scores of ambient musicians from chasing its leafy muse. Continue Reading Music For Plants Is Real (Even If The Read More
Springsteen's new album connects to a stream of pop balladry that emerged in tandem with Hollywood's turn in the late 1960s toward hippie antiheroes and modern masculinity's fatalistic drift. Continue Reading All He Wanted Was To Read More
Seattle's music scene has produced a diverse and talented crop of up-and-coming musicians, each of whom makes bold contributions to this vibrant city. Continue Reading Beyond Grunge: 15 Artists Redefining Seattle MusicRead More
Los Angeles-based jazz vocalist Judy Wexler recently released her fifth album, Crowded Heart. Why, in the age of streaming, did she choose to release it solely as a CD? Continue Reading ‘Something To Hold’: Read More
Relying on a wealth of research and documents, Casey Rae deftly maps out how one of America's most controversial literary figures transformed the lives of many notable rock musicians. Continue Reading New William S. Burroughs Read More
Compared with monkeys, humans have a brain that is extremely sensitive to a sound's pitch. And that may reflect our exposure to speech and music. Continue Reading A Musical Brain May Help Us Understand Language And Appreciate Read More
Musicals get Tony Awards. Scores get Tony Awards. Orchestrators get Tony Awards. But this year, a number of Broadway musicians are stepping out of the pit and onto the stage. Continue Reading From The Pit To The Spotlight: Read More
Over a career stretching back to the 1950s, Malcom John Rebennack came to be a living symbol of the city of New Orleans and its bottomless musical character. Continue Reading Dr. John, Legend of New Orleans Jazz And Jive, Dead At 77Read More
The higher the Dominican singer-songwriter's star rises, the tighter he grips his artistic freedom. The new Candela caps a trio of albums connecting dots between bachata, merengue, trap, pop and more. Continue Reading Vicente García: A Read More
After 18 years, Apple is killing iTunes — sort of. The software is being broken into separate pieces for separate uses on Mac computers: Music, podcasts and TV will soon have their own apps. Continue Reading iTunes’ Death Is All About How We Listen Read More
The financially embattled organization surprised its musicians, and its audience, by shortening its season and cutting the players pay and vacation, it announced Thursday. Continue Reading Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Suddenly Cancels Summer Read More
Gangsta rap had been known as aggressive, rebellious and political, but the Geto Boys' 1991 hit made it something new: vulnerable. Hip-hop's relationship with mental health has never been the same. Continue Reading American Anthem: Read More
To make his latest album, Omoiyari, the Japanese-American artist decided to turn to the past. He visited Japanese internment camps and made music inspired by the stories he found there. Continue Reading Musician Read More
A solo piano version of "It's Too Late" and a full-band take on "You've Been Around Too Long" were just two of the songs she performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival more than 40 years ago. Continue Reading See Carole King Perform In Newly Read More
