Music & Culture

Strand of Oaks performs at WXPN's 2021 XPoNential Music Festival

Music & Culture

Feel the music: A live festival performance from Strand of Oaks

5:35pm October 29, 2021

Timothy Showalter is one of those people who feels... and makes you feel, too, both in conversation, where he's earnest and generous and empathetic, and with his music.

Music & Culture

Lute, 'Be Okay'

1:50pm October 29, 2021

by Joni Deutsch

The Charlotte rapper's emotionally-charged single "Be Okay" acts as a diary for the past two-and-a-half years.

Ani DiFranco performs on Mountain Stage.

Music & Culture

Ani DiFranco on Mountain Stage

1:05pm October 29, 2021

by Dave Lavender

Ani DiFranco makes her seventh appearance on Mountain Stage on the heels of her 22nd album, Revolutionary Love.

"Some of the work is deliberately remaining outside of the structure," says musician and advocate Lilli Lewis of the efforts of Black musicians to make it in country and roots music industries. "We want to center different values and it's really difficult

Music & Culture

New roots: Black musicians and advocates are forging coalitions outside the system

6:55am October 29, 2021

by Jewly Hight

The mostly white country and folk music industries remain frustratingly difficult for Black musicians to enter. During one of Nashville's biggest events, one group envisioned a new pathway in.

World Cafe celebrates 30 years with a 1993 playlist.

Music & Culture

World Cafe 30th Anniversary Playlist: 1993

4:43pm October 28, 2021

by Bruce Warren

Listen to a playlist of the best songs of 1993.

Music & Culture

Melaner, 'Banana Split'

12:19pm October 28, 2021

by Fi O'Reilly

Melaner turns up the heat with self-assured lyrics over a delicious discotheque-ready beat.

Music & Culture

Yaeji & OHHYUK, '29'

11:41am October 28, 2021

by Hazel Cills

A song born from sessions intended to break through writer's block, '29' is a perfect blend of the two artists' distinct styles.

Music & Culture

Hurray For the Riff Raff, 'Rhododendron'

10:00am October 28, 2021

by Ann Powers

Alynda Segarra invokes old spirits to carry us beyond our current crises and into a cosmic place of healing.

"I'm always trying to talk to myself in all these songs," Starflyer 59's Jason Martin says. "I get a tad of the blues sometimes."

Music & Culture

Starflyer 59's plainspoken words are the window into Jason Martin's old soul

10:00am October 28, 2021

by Lars Gotrich

The artist revisits five songs across his extensive discography of heavy shoegaze and dreamy rock and roll, processing life, faith and purpose.

OK, so you're a 'Sellout.' Now what?

5:04pm October 27, 2021

by Andrew Limbong

In his new book Sellout, writer Dan Ozzi traces a music industry in flux starting in the mid-90s, as punk bands cash in on their cred in exchange for rock stardom and asks, was it all worth it?