Alt.Latino Listeners Pick The Best Of 2016
There was so much great Latin music this year that we had to ask listeners to add their own choices and voices to our list.
Music & Culture
The Thistle & Shamrock: Midwinter Music
Travel into the magical traditions of midwinter through some spellbinding music of the season.
Nashville Sessions: Gillian Welch And David Rawlings
"It was always difficult for us to find the time to stop writing new songs and look at old songs," Welch says. The 20th anniversary of her debut gave them that opportunity this year.
Viking's Choice: So Stressed, 'The King's Wig'
More love songs should sound like a vintage Dodge Charger slamming into a brick wall. In "The King's Wig," the Sacramento noise-punk band channels the chaotic scuzz of Spazz with ramming speed.
Songs We Love: Big Freedia, 'Rudy, The Big Booty Reindeer'
New Orleans' Queen of Bounce teaches us that your oddest qualities might be the things that make you the most fabulous
Why The 2016 Jazz Critics Poll Belongs To The Avant Gentry
Jazz critic Francis Davis says veteran musicians — particularly Wadada Leo Smith and Henry Threadgill — are making some of the most adventurous music of their careers.
Grouper Releases Winter Solstice Single, Hear 'Headache'
Liz Harris' new 7" is a muted meditation that sighs with stark melancholy, "My head hurts."
Hip For The Holidays: A World Cafe Playlist
Feeling a little jingle belled out? Here's your musical stocking stuffer — plus a holiday bedtime story.
David Dye's Top 10 Albums Of 2016
These are the albums that the longtime World Cafe host turned to the most this year. Some may surprise you.
Kadhja Bonet's Quarter-Life Crisis Led Her Home — To Music
Bonet grew up in a house full of musical instruments, but she didn't commit to becoming a songwriter and performer until her mid-20s. She joins NPR to talk about her journey back.