Music Interviews

"The beauty of songs, I think, is if you do it right a lot of people can relate to it in their own way," Amanda Shires says.

Music & Culture

Amanda Shires Won't 'Give Away The Secrets' Of Her Songs

9:03am August 06, 2018

Amanda Shires' new album To the Sunset takes on more pop than her usual folk and Americana style and includes messages about motherhood and moving through life's rough parts.

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Music & Culture

Boz Scaggs On World Cafe

2:28pm August 03, 2018

by Talia Schlanger

Boz Scagg's new music traces back to an early love of the blues that he first fell in love with growing up in Texas and Oklahoma.

Singers and musicians from Fania Records including Celia Cruz (bottom, center), Ruben Blades (directly above Celia Cruz) and label co-originator, Johnny Pacheco (top row, fifth from left).

Music & Culture

Fania Records' Legacy Lives On With New Owners: 'It's The Culture'

12:26pm August 03, 2018

by Felix Contreras

The historic Latin record label has been sold to Concord Music. Sig Sigworth, president of Concord Music's Craft Recordings, talks about preserving Fania's legacy.

Music & Culture

Amanda Shires On World Cafe

3:22pm July 31, 2018

by Talia Schlanger

Mama wants to change that Nashville sound.

Channel Tres, whose self-titled debut EP was released July 27 through Godmode.

Music & Culture

After Narrowly Avoiding A Career In EDM, Channel Tres Is Ready To Work

8:02am July 31, 2018

by Andrew Flanagan

"I'm having a good rookie season," Channel Tres tells NPR after two very promising singles. But the L.A. artist says it's not quite time to celebrate.

Courtney Barnett at The Anthem in Washington, D.C. on July 24, 2018.

Music & Culture

Tell Me How You Really Feel: A Conversation With Courtney Barnett

5:00am July 31, 2018

The singer and guitarist fields comments from listeners about her music and talks about the ways her songs can be interpreted.

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Music & Culture

Stanley Clarke On World Cafe

1:57pm July 30, 2018

by Stephen Kallao

A chat with the legend himself and band member Cameron Graves on the new album The Message.

Beyoncé performs on stage at the 2014 MTV Video Music Awards Inglewood, Calif.

Music & Culture

Turning The Tables 2018 Shows The 'Change Within Tradition'

8:12am July 30, 2018

Ann Powers talks about curating NPR Music's new list of the 200 greatest songs of the 21st century by women and non-binary artists.

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"It was a sobering experience. I knew it was bad, but until you see it — I wasn't prepared for it, to be honest with you," Kenny Chesney says.

Music & Culture

Kenny Chesney's Love Note To Caribbean After Disaster: It's About The Moving Forward

4:43pm July 29, 2018

Country star Kenny Chesney went into the studio as therapy after hurricanes tore through the U.S. Virgin Islands, the place he calls home. Those sessions became his latest album, Songs for the Saints.

"It's really a part of the healing process and the coming-to-terms-with-it-all process," Boz Scaggs says of writing an album after losing his home to wildfires.

Music & Culture

Boz Scaggs Processes The Past And Rebuilds For The Future

8:02am July 29, 2018

Boz Scaggs lost his home and a trove of lyrics scribbled on legal pads and cocktail napkins in wildfires last year. Writing his new album, Out of the Blues, helped him process the loss.