Outlaw, "Okie from Muskogee," poet of working-class values and a fixture in country music for 50 years, Merle Haggard died Wednesday, April 6, his 79th birthday.
The raucous singer turns thoughtful on his new album. Critic Ken Tucker calls Upland Stories a "marvelous mongrel mixture" of bluegrass banjo-picking, honky-tonk pedal steel and stark folk phrasings.
If you only had 24 hours left to live, how would you spend it? If you answered "skydiving, shotgunning beers at national landmarks and bathing in milk," then you are the band Tiny Moving Parts.
The title track from the rock band's forthcoming Human Performance is a fragile and verbose tale of a relationship dissolved, featuring a wistful Mellotron solo.
Cory Henry is a Grammy award-winning keyboardist. But on his latest live album, The Revival, he returns to his roots and plays the Hammond B-3 Organ — an instrument he learned to play when he was only 2 years old. Music commentator Michelle Mercer says Henry's personality is a match for the 400 pound instrument.
On this episode of All Songs, we premiere new music from The Jayhawks, Margaret Glaspy and more, plus new Weezer and saxophonist Colin Stetson's reimagining of Górecki's Third Symphony.