Music & Culture

Joan Shelley performing at the 2016 Newport Folk Festival.

Music & Culture

Joan Shelley, Live In Concert: Newport Folk 2016

2:29pm July 27, 2016

by Rachel Horn

"These are the smallest songs you'll hear at this folk festival this year, I think," Shelley said of her set with guitarist Nathan Salsburg. Small songs, perhaps, but each one contained a world.

Bonnie Raitt performs live at WXPN's Non-COMMvention at World Cafe Live in Philadelphia.

Music & Culture

Bonnie Raitt On World Cafe

1:16pm July 27, 2016

Watch the blues singer and guitarist play "Angel From Montgomery" live in Philadelphia with Amos Lee, and hear an intimate conversation.

Music & Culture

Songs We Love: Yohuna, 'The Moon Hangs In The Sky Like Nothing Hangs In The Sky'

1:00pm July 27, 2016

by Marissa Lorusso

Songwriter Johanne Swanson splits the difference between dreamy and dirge in a track rich with moments of intimacy.

A still from Ryley Walker's video for "The Roundabout."

Music & Culture

Songs We Love: Ryley Walker, 'The Roundabout'

10:00am July 27, 2016

by Jerad Walker

The characters in Walker's song revolve like celestial bodies around a neighborhood dive bar. A "blitzkrieg celebration" in a Chicago neighborhood on the Fourth of July serves as the video's locale.

River Whyless performs at the 2016 Newport Folk Festival.

Music & Culture

River Whyless, Live In Concert: Newport Folk 2016

9:16am July 27, 2016

by Rachel Horn

The folk-pop band builds mountains out of sensitive harmony lines at the Newport Folk Festival. Kam Franklin of Houston soul band The Suffers joined them on a Woody Guthrie-Wilco cover.

Queue Listen Now

Flock Of Dimes' Jenn Wasner in a scene from her new video for "Semaphore."

Music & Culture

First Watch: Flock Of Dimes, 'Semaphore'

8:28am July 27, 2016

by Sophie Kemp

In a beautifully animated new video, Wye Oak's Jenn Wasner shows off the poppy side of her sound.

As The Struts, Luke Spiller (center) and his bandmates play glittery, '70s-style arena rock — and dress for the job.

Music & Culture

Dressed To Dazzle, The Struts Want To Make Rock Fun Again

5:15am July 27, 2016

by Vince Pearson

Frontman Luke Spiller talks about how he draws inspiration from glittery bands of the 1970s, especially Queen.

Elizabeth Cook outside the World Cafe performance studio at WXPN in Philadelphia.

Music & Culture

Elizabeth Cook On World Cafe

4:31pm July 26, 2016

For the East Nashville songwriter, a recent string of family crises inspired some dark new songs.

Remembering Robert Swanson, Advertising's 'King Of Jingles'

4:25pm July 26, 2016

Robert Swanson revolutionized American advertising and wrote some of the most memorable ad jingles of the 1950s and '60s for products ranging from Campbell's Soup to Pall Mall cigarettes. He died at 95 July 17 at his home in Phoenix, Ariz.

Music & Culture

Hayes Carll On Mountain Stage

4:03pm July 26, 2016

The Texas singer-songwriter performs songs from Lovers And Leavers live on stage in West Virginia.