Music Interviews

Music & Culture

Daisha McBride, The Rap Girl, Can Do Anything

12:19pm November 05, 2020

by Jewly Hight

McBride has channeled her performing abilities, affably clever personality and college-level industry studies into her own version of artistic and professional equilibrium in Music City.

The BlackSon, center, photographed with several members of the BlackCity, Funky Tenn collective.

The BlackSon And BlackCity Are Generating 'Free Power'

12:19pm November 05, 2020

by Jewly Hight

After his older brother helped The BlackSon get his artistic career underway, the pair now find themselves living in a new "city."

The Songwriting Success Of Singing Rapper Tim Gent And Rapping Singer Bryant Taylorr

12:18pm November 05, 2020

by Jewly Hight

The pair have found and are maintaining a place for themselves in the professional songwriting world of Nashville.

Stevie Nicks' new 24 Karat Gold concert film foregrounds songs the artist says never got their due.

Music & Culture

Stevie Nicks On TikTok, Tom Petty And Claiming What's Yours

9:38pm November 04, 2020

An audacious concert film, an unwitting viral hit and a second Rock Hall induction: That's just the past two years for Nicks, who says that at 72 she's finally comfortable doing everything she wants.

Queue Listen Now

Swirling is the first album in over 20 years from the Sun Ra Arkestra, now led by 96-year-old saxophonist Marshall Allen.

Music & Culture

On 'Swirling,' Marshall Allen Keeps The The Sun Ra Arkestra Soaring Through Space

12:43pm November 02, 2020

The 96-year-old saxophonist, who began playing with Sun Ra in the late '50s and continued to lead the Arkestra after its namesake's death, discusses the band's first album in more than 20 years.

Queue Listen Now

Grateful Dead's American Beauty (seen here in a 50th anniversary edition from Rhino Entertainment) is the shared obsession of two NPR staffers born decades apart.

Music & Culture

Two Deadheads, From Two Generations, On 'American Beauty' At 50

9:35am November 01, 2020

by Isabella Gomez Sarmiento

One lived through the Grateful Dead's heyday; the other was born after Jerry Garcia died. Alt.Latino host Felix Contreras and NPR producer Isabella Gomez Sarmiento trade notes on a shared obsession.

Music & Culture

Elvis Costello's 'Hey Clockface' Strikes The Perfect Balance

9:34am October 31, 2020

NPR's Scott Simon talks with Elvis Costello about his new album, Hey Clockface.

Blues singer Shemekia Copeland uses her new album, Uncivil War, to tell the story of the Clotilda — what's thought to be the last slave ship to smuggle African captives to American shores.

Music & Culture

On 'Uncivil War,' Shemekia Copeland Sets Fire To A Relic Of American Slavery

7:47am October 31, 2020

by Debbie Elliott

The centerpiece of Copeland's latest album is a song born from the wreckage of the Clotilda — the last known slave ship to smuggle African captives to the United States.

Lara Downes interviews Anthony McGill, principal clarinetist of the New York Philharmonic.

Music & Culture

'In The Act Of Living, You're A Revolutionary': Anthony McGill Talks With Lara Downes

5:01am October 31, 2020

by Lara Downes

The New York Philharmonic principal clarinetist blows apart the labels he once applied to himself to discover a stream of activism.

Music & Culture

Remembering Billy Joe Shaver, Songwriter Of Country's Outlaw Movement

2:12pm October 30, 2020

by Terry Gross

Shaver, who died Oct. 28, wrote songs for Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan and Elvis Presley, among others. Originally broadcast in 1994 and 2005.

Queue Listen Now