Music Interviews

The sheet music for Beck's "Do We? We Do." as it appears in the Song Reader package.

Music & Culture

Beck Explains 'Song Reader,' An Album Fans Perform Themselves

2:57pm January 02, 2013

by NPR Staff

The shape-shifting musician often sounds like a completely different artist from one song to the next. On his new Song Reader, he leaves the sound in the listeners' hands.

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Music & Culture

Ed Sheeran: All Pluses, No Minuses

11:16am January 02, 2013

by NPR Staff

After several years spent releasing his own music and booking his own tours, the British singer-songwriter now has a Grammy nomination and an opening spot on Taylor Swift's U.S. tour.

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Miguel, whose album Kaleidoscope Dream was released in 2012, is nominated for five Grammy Awards.

Music & Culture

Miguel: An 'Honest Introduction' To An R&B Star

7:55pm December 31, 2012

by NPR Staff

Miguel has been kicking around the music industry for a decade. He says the success of his 2012 album, Kaleidoscope Dream, feels like the introduction he's been waiting for.

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Fresh Air's staff, surrounded by employees of WHYY at their 25th-anniversary party.

Music & Culture

'Fresh Air' At 25: A Live Musical Tribute

10:44am December 31, 2012

This year marked the 25th anniversary of Fresh Air as a daily national NPR program. This episode looks back at some of the great live musical performances from the show's archive, including songs from Shirley Horn, Loudon Wainwright III, Susannah McCorkle, Nick Lowe and Richard Thompson.

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Music & Culture

Johnny Cash's Boyhood Home Tells The Story Of A Town

5:38pm December 29, 2012

by Michael Hibblen

It's been almost 10 years since Cash died, but fans still travel from around the world to see the tiny, dilapidated house where he grew up. Now, it's undergoing a painstaking restoration, with plans to open it as a museum in 2013.

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Seeing Purple Rain as kids instilled a lifelong love for Prince in friends Maya Rudolph and Gretchen Liberum, who co-lead the cover band Princess.

Music & Culture

This Is What It Sounds Like When Two Women Cover Prince

4:51pm December 28, 2012

by NPR Staff

SNL alumna Maya Rudolph and musician Gretchen Liberum co-lead the cover band Princess. The duo had its television debut, with some help from The Roots, on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon this fall.

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Music & Culture

Rye Rye Just Wants To Be 'Young And Playful'

8:58am December 27, 2012

by Selena Simmons-Duffin

Go! Pop! Bang! is grounded in the Baltimore club sound — super-danceable, lots of bass and crazily fast rapping. Rye Rye's debut album was all set to be released in 2009, but then sweeping changes in her life got in the way.

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Marin Alsop conducted the Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra in a beachfront concert Sunday for 20,000 people in Santos, Brazil.

Music & Culture

Marin Alsop: A Utopian Musical Dream From South America

11:40am December 26, 2012

by Marin Alsop

The inspirational El Sistema music education program, developed in Venezuela, has Sao Paulo Symphony conductor Marin Alsop fantasizing about a better musical world. Her other orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony, is bringing similar opportunities to Charm City children.

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Music & Culture

Catherine Russell: The Fresh Air In-Studio Concert

9:55am December 26, 2012

The standards singer's solo album, Strictly Romancin', explores the ups and downs of love. Russell sings several tracks from the record during this interview and performance.

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Music & Culture

Perfume Genius: A 'Creepy, Beautiful Mix'

6:07am December 26, 2012

by NPR Staff

The Seattle songwriter covers unsettling topics, including teen suicide and his own mother's experience with sexual abuse.

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