Music & Culture

After decades as a sometimes outrageous outsider soul singer, Swamp Dogg leaned into more heartfelt country-inspired music on his latest album Sorry You Couldn't Make It.

Music & Culture

Swamp Dogg On Reinvention, Country Music And Getting Another Rolls-Royce

4:58pm March 09, 2020

NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks to the longtime outsider soul artist about his new country-influenced album Sorry You Couldn't Make It, which features contributions from Bon Iver and Jenny Lewis.

Music & Culture

Best Coast Achieves A New, More Poignant Power On 'Almost Tomorrow'

2:08pm March 09, 2020

by Ken Tucker

Singer-songwriter-guitarist Bethany Cosentino opens up about sobriety on a propulsive new album with musical partner Bobb Bruno. Almost Tomorrow is Best Coast's first record in five years.

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The laboriously-delayed Eternal Atake finally delivered big time for Lil Uzi Vert fans.

Music & Culture

Heat Check: Homecoming

9:59am March 09, 2020

Lil Uzi Vert's audible adrenaline, Stove God Cooks' anamorphic flow, Emma-Jean Thackray's jazz shade and Megan Thee Stallion's savage sass. Heat Check doesn't let up.

Coldplay performs a Tiny Desk Concert at NPR Music on Jan. 23, 2019 (Emily Bogle/NPR)

Music & Culture

Coldplay: Tiny Desk Concert

5:01am March 09, 2020

by Robin Hilton

A nine-piece choir joins the band for an inspired reworking of four Coldplay songs — and a surprise cover of Prince's "1999."

Working on Coal Country helped Steve Earle write his upcoming album, Ghosts of West Virginia. Seven songs from that record are featured in the play.

Featuring Music From Steve Earle, 'Coal Country' Recounts Deadly Mine Explosion

11:04am March 07, 2020

by Rick Karr

A new play tells the story of the 2010 Upper Big Branch Mine disaster in West Virginia. Songwriter Steve Earle used it as a creative challenge to write his forthcoming album, Ghosts of West Virginia.

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SXSW Events Canceled Over Coronavirus Concerns

10:22am March 07, 2020

South by Southwest — a massive art, music and technology festival — has been canceled over fears that visitors might help spread the coronavirus in Austin, Texas.

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Nadia Reid's Latest Release Is A Traveling Album Full Of Road Songs

10:22am March 07, 2020

by Scott Simon

New Zealand musician Nadia Reid talks about how homesickness fueled the songs on her latest album, Out of My Province.

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Jazz great McCoy Tyner, seen here in a 1970 photo, died Friday at the age of 81.

Music & Culture

McCoy Tyner, Groundbreaking Pianist Of 20th Century Jazz, Dies At 81

7:06pm March 06, 2020

by Nate Chinen

An innovative member of the classic John Coltrane Quartet, few musicians have ever exerted as much influence as a sideman, but Tyner also had a long and consequential career leading bands of his own.

A 2019 marquee in Austin advertises the 2020 edition of SXSW, which was canceled Friday by the city of Austin.

The Show Will Not Go On: Austin Cancels SXSW Because Of Coronavirus

6:41pm March 06, 2020

by Vanessa Romo

"We are devastated to share this news with you," organizers said. " 'The show must go on' is in our DNA, and this is the first time in 34 years that the March event will not take place."

Silver Landings is Mandy Moore's first new album in over a decade. "I feel like this fully realized version of myself making music again" she tells NPR's Ari Shapiro.

Music & Culture

Mandy Moore On Self-Forgiveness And Her Musical Reawakening On 'Silver Landings'

4:45pm March 06, 2020

After a decade-long gap between albums, the singer and This Is Us star talks to NPR's Ari Shapiro about returning to music, conquering self doubt and revisiting old songs.

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