Music & Culture

Wilco's Jeff Tweedy honors the songs that have shaped his life in new memoir

6:29am November 08, 2023

NPR's Rachel Martin speaks with Wilco lead singer Jeff Tweedy about his new memoir World Within A Song and how he has found meaning through his favorite music.

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Samia performs a Tiny Desk concert Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, at NPR headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Music & Culture

Samia: Tiny Desk Concert

5:00am November 08, 2023

by Stephen Thompson

Samia's set provides a stunning showcase for her charisma, vocal talent and deftly detailed lyricism.

Black Thought of The Roots performs during Philly Fights Cancer on May 20, 2023.

'Music was there for me when I needed it,' The Roots co-founder Tariq Trotter says

5:05pm November 07, 2023

by Tonya Mosley

Trotter, aka Black Thought, reflects on his childhood in Philly, his decades-long friendship with Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson and his life as a musician. Trotter's new memoir is The Upcycled Self.

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The Great Stalacpipe Organ spans 3.5 acres of the cave and is considered the world's largest musical instrument. The name is a combination of the words stalactite and pipe organ but in actuality, it is a percussion instrument.

The largest musical instrument in the world is underground in a Virginia cave

2:04pm November 07, 2023

by Alan Goffinski

Luray Caverns in Northern Virginia is celebrating 50 years of being a National Natural Landmark. It's also the place that holds the largest musical instrument in the world.

The Emerson String Quartet gives one of its last live performances at NPR's Tiny Desk

11:22am November 07, 2023

In 1976, some Juilliard students got together and created a string quartet — and the Emerson String Quartet was born. They came to the NPR Tiny Desk to play one of their final live performances.

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Cailee Spaeny and Jacob Elordi are Priscilla and Elvis Presley in Sofia Coppola's new film.

Sofia Coppola imagines Priscilla's teen years, living at Graceland with Elvis

6:32am November 07, 2023

by Tonya Mosley

"I felt like my role was just to explain her experience," Coppola says of her new film, Priscilla. The filmmaker also has a new book, Archive, which collects documents from her eight movies.

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Barbra Streisand's memoir shows she wasn't born a leading lady — she made herself one

5:00am November 07, 2023

by Brittany Luse

At nearly 1,000 pages long, My Name Is Barbra is the ultimate exercise in directorial control, and a celebration of women's authorship.

Music & Culture

Remembering power pop singer/songwriter Dwight Twilley

1:51pm November 06, 2023

by Ken Tucker

Over the course of a career that began in the 1970s, the Oklahoma native, who died Oct. 18, specialized in rock 'n' roll sincerity, and dramatizing the pain of love rejected.

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Emerson String Quartet performs a Tiny Desk concert at NPR Music in Washington, D.C.

Music & Culture

Emerson String Quartet: Tiny Desk Concert

8:57am November 06, 2023

by Tom Huizenga

In one of its very final performances ever, the durable and beloved string quartet says farewell with music by Beethoven, Walker and Ravel.

Music & Culture

Jazz composer Sean Mason on his album 'The Southern Suite'

8:29am November 05, 2023

by Ayesha Rascoe

NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks to jazz composer Sean Mason about his new album, "The Southern Suite."