Composer Mark Adamo has made his mark turning classic books, including Little Women and the Greek drama Lysistrata, into operas. His latest, The Gospel of Mary Magdalene, covers more sensitive territory, examining the titular figure's relationship to Jesus — outside the canonical Bible.
A new documentary directed by Morgan Neville profiles backup singers whose voices you know but whose names you probably don't: Lisa Fischer, Darlene Love, Judith Hill and Merry Clayton.
No, it's not the setup to a joke. John Mellencamp, Stephen King and T-Bone Burnett are the creative team behind Ghosts of Darkland County, a stage show based on a true story of small-town tragedy.
The singer, best known as the voice of the alt-bluegrass band Crooked Still, is releasing her solo debut. It's full of songs from and inspired by the Irish folk tradition she grew up with.
Alex Zhang Hungtai is a musician who has spent his life drifting from home to home. His parents were children of communist China, and since setting out, he's lived in places as far-flung as Honolulu, Montreal and most recently, Berlin.
Sherman worked a tight niche: classic songs rewritten to tickle a Jewish audience's funny bone. A new biography, Overweight Sensation: The Life and Comedy of AllanSherman, explains how the performer's 1960s crossover fell in line with a collective awakening to ethnic identity in America.
Vocalist Cecile McLorin Salvant and pianist Aaron Diehl, both in their 20s, have already racked up major industry prizes. They took radically different paths to get there, but on Salvant's new album, they find ways to honor old traditions as young people.
On her second solo release, the Fiery Furnaces singer mines the music of her birth decade. "I'm not embarrassed to say I love the sound of an Elton John record or I love the sound of a Carole King record," she says. "That's my taste."
Dallas Green, once a member of the post-hardcore group Alexisonfire, now makes much quieter music on his own. His fourth solo album, recorded under the name City and Colour, is The Hurry and the Harm.