Music & Culture

'(Be)longing' Explores Gun Violence, 10 Years After Virginia Tech Shooting

8:12am April 16, 2017

by Robbie Harris

(Be)longing is the name of a new oratorio commissioned to mark the 10th anniversary of the Virginia Tech shootings. The creators wanted to create a piece about gun violence and how to prevent it.

Hilltop waitress Kayla Young serves up one of the Zagat-rated restaurant's dishes, chicken-fried steak.

Music & Culture

Both The Food And The Music Are Made From Scratch At This Texas Joint

1:45pm April 15, 2017

by John Burnett

For more than 35 years, the Hilltop Cafe has been serving up both seafood and the blues on a lonesome highway in Texas Hill Country. Patrons flock to hear owner Johnny Nicholas perform his tunes.

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Workers prepare for the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest at the International Exhibition Center in Kiev on April 11, 2017.

Music & Culture

Eurovision Again Struck By Controversy As Russia Says It Won't Broadcast

10:26am April 15, 2017

by Andrew Flanagan

After a year of tumult, Russia has doubled down, saying it won't broadcast this year's contest after its competitor, Yuliya Samoylova, was denied entry into Ukraine.

Lizzie No's debut album is called Hard Won.

Music & Culture

Folk Musician Lizzie No On Anger That Heals

8:04am April 15, 2017

by Lucy Perkins

The harpist, guitarist and singer says the title track of her debut album, Hard Won, represents her realization that anger and conflict can coexist with triumphant healing.

Jimi Hendrix's "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" is on World Cafe's playlist for International Guitar Month.

Music & Culture

Celebrate International Guitar Month With These Guitar Greats

8:00am April 15, 2017

by Bruce Warren

From "Johnny B. Goode" to "Voodoo Child" to "Stairway To Heaven," hear a playlist of some of World Cafe's favorite guitar solos and sounds.

Kendrick Lamar at Music Hall of Williamsburg on December 16, 2016, in Brooklyn, New York.

Music & Culture

Basking In Sin: Some Initial Thoughts On Kendrick Lamar's 'DAMN.'

5:29pm April 14, 2017

The NPR Music staff spent Friday morning listening to the rapper's new album. Here are eight reactions to what will likely go down as one of the best albums of 2017.

Even if you're not at Coachella this weekend, you can still break out the balloons.

Music & Culture

Watch The Coachella 2017 Live Webcast All Weekend Long

5:17pm April 14, 2017

by Lars Gotrich

The music festival will be live-streamed across three channels, with sets from Kendrick Lamar, Radiohead, Lady Gaga, Banks, Lorde, The xx, D.R.A.M., Future, Bon Iver and more.

"I was just happy to be alive growing up," GoldLink says. "I just didn't even know if I could make it, 'cause a lot of kids that I knew did not make it."

Music & Culture

GoldLink On Go-Go And Making The Best Of A Bittersweet History

4:57pm April 14, 2017

The D.C. rapper survived a rough upbringing and made it as a member of a hip-hop renaissance in and around the nation's capital. That, he says, is cause for both celebration and soul-searching.

Music & Culture

Mac Benford and the old-time music boom

2:00pm April 14, 2017

by Paul Brown

One outcome of the folk music boom of the 1950s and ‘60s was an increased interest in the music from which much pop and folk had sprung: old-time and bluegrass. While The Weavers, The Kingsto

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The J Geils Band celebrates the release of its single 'Centerfold' at the Uptown Theater in Chicago, Ill. on November 19, 1981.

Music & Culture

The J. Geils Band's Greatest Hit Illustrates A Strange, Transitional Moment In Pop

1:38pm April 14, 2017

by Jason Roth

The death this week of J. Geils Band co-founder and guitarist Jay Geils prompts a look back at the strange, between-worlds year of music in which the group cemented its legacy.