Music & Culture

Vince Gill and Paul Franklin, two country legends, pay tribute to Merle Haggard and Buck Owens on a new album.

Music & Culture

Vince Gill And Paul Franklin Break Down The Bakersfield Sound

5:23pm August 18, 2013

by NPR Staff

Last year, country superstar Vince Gill left his record label, MCA, after more than 20 years. But he's leaving with one last album — a love letter, really — dedicated to the classic country songs of his youth. Titled Bakersfield, it finds Gill working with pedal-steel master Paul Franklin.

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Music & Culture

A Year After Its Debut, The Song 'Cups' Becomes A Hit

5:23pm August 18, 2013

Anna Kendrick's version of the song "Cups" is the number six song in the country right now, even though the movie the song was originally featured in came out last year. So just how did the song become such a phenomenon? Weekends on All Things Considered guest host Don Gonyea and Vulture's Amanda Dobbins help explain the evolution of the song.

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Music & Culture

William Tyler Speaks 'Truth' Through His Guitar

7:35am August 18, 2013

by Clay Masters

After years spent working as a Nashville sideman, the 33-year-old guitarist is making his name as an instrumental soloist. While his songs lack lyrics, they're not short on backstory.

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Riad Abdel-Gawad creates new Sufi music by translating sacred chants to the violin.

Music & Culture

Sufi Mystics Get A Modern Soundtrack

7:35am August 18, 2013

by John Burnett

The ancient spiritual practice of Sufism incorporates all kinds of activities, including music, to achieve a state in which the practitioner loses the ego. Riad Abdel-Gawad creates new Sufi music by translating sacred chants to the violin.

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Irene Diaz's debut EP is titled I Love You Madly.

Music & Culture

Irene Diaz: Crafting Songs In Dreamy Black And White

9:50pm August 17, 2013

by NPR Staff

A standout performer at this year's Latin Alternative Music Conference, the 26-year-old singer discusses her noirish debut EP, I Love You Madly.

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A new collection of Brahms and Mozart recordings by the Stuyvesant Quartet from 1947 conveys a kind of inward grace.

Music & Culture

A Forgotten Quartet, Reissued And Reevaluated

1:50pm August 15, 2013

by Lloyd Schwartz

Recently reissued Brahms and Mozart recordings by the Stuyvesant Quartet convey natural refinement, balance and a kind of inward grace. Fresh Air critic Lloyd Schwartz says they take their place among the most luminous chamber-music performances on record.

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The White Mandingos are, from left, Sacha Jenkins, Murs and Darryl Jenifer.

Music & Culture

The White Mandingos: Music That Defies Definition

7:59am August 15, 2013

by Frannie Kelley

Three black musicians — a punk bassist, an L.A. rapper and a part-time guitarist — took on a name with ugly associations to make music that can't be categorized.

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Photographs of famous Memphis musicians clutter the dash of the vintage car.

The Vintage Cadillac With The Memphis Soundtrack

9:16am August 14, 2013

by Debbie Elliott

Tad Pierson has made a career out of his love for cars and American music. He says there are "fewer and fewer real-deal places to go and hear the real stuff," but it's his job to find and share it — one carload of listeners at a time.

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Sister Joseph Andrew Bogdanowicz (right), vicaress general and music director for Dominican Sisters of Mary. On the group's new album, she plays organ and composed three selections.

Music & Culture

Life As Prayer: The Singing Nuns Of Ann Arbor

6:31pm August 13, 2013

by John Burnett

In the cloistered world of classical music recordings, there is great interest in choral music by Catholic nuns these days. On Mater Eucharistiae, the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, are "able to bring other people into that space of prayer when we're singing."

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Music & Culture

Valerie June Wants To Be On Your Mind

1:32pm August 13, 2013

by Ken Tucker

June can sing a duel with the Devil, even as her voice tells you she knows she's already triumphed.

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