Music News

Elsa sings "Into the Unknown" in Frozen II.

Music & Culture

The 2020 Oscars' Best Original Song Nominees, Cruelly Ranked

11:17am February 07, 2020

by Stephen Thompson

Let's pick a winner and some losers from among a crop that includes a Disney showstopper, an Elton John banger, Randy Newman's latest Pixar romp and two songs about standing.

Nina Simone, photographed in July, 1969.

Music & Culture

We'll Soon Be Able To Stream Nina Simone's Late-Career Rarity 'Fodder On My Wings'

9:30am February 07, 2020

by Nate Chinen

The album, recorded in 1982 after Simone had relocated to France, captures the legendary artist reinvigorated and exploratory.

Prominent Malian Musician Alleges That TSA Destroyed His Instrument

5:04pm February 06, 2020

by Anastasia Tsioulcas

One of West Africa's best-known musicians, Ballaké Sissoko, says that his kora was dismantled by TSA agents while he was traveling from New York to Paris. The agency denies it was involved.

Guitarist Andy Gill of Gang Of Four, performing on Oct. 17, 2005 in Los Angeles.

Music & Culture

Andy Gill, Gang of Four Guitarist Who Gave Punk Space And Groove, Dead At 64

10:48am February 04, 2020

by Andrew Flanagan

Gill and his bandmates rewrote the playbook for punk in 1979 with the release of Entertainment! -- incorporating new angles and room to breathe into the frenzied genre.

Music & Culture

Meet The Folk-Pop Music Duo: The Well Pennies

6:43am February 04, 2020

The Well Pennies are based in Des Moines, Iowa. We've been hearing from them live as Morning Edition broadcasts from Smokey Row Coffee Co. during the coverage of the Iowa caucuses.

Queue Listen Now

Pianist Peter Serkin, in concert with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 2012.

Music & Culture

Remembering Peter Serkin, The Searching Pianist

4:18pm February 03, 2020

by Tom Huizenga

A thoughtful musician from a distinguished family, Serkin interpreted the classics and expanded the repertoire by commissioning new works.

The Iowa Caucuses Have Been Turned Into A Musical

10:11am February 03, 2020

A Des Moines theater company has borrowed songs from A Chorus Line for a new production called Adore Us Line. Democrats do their best song and dance as they audition to be president.

Queue Listen Now

From left to right, Mick Jones, Joe Strummer and Paul Simonon of The Clash, circa 1980. The band's classic album London Calling was released in the United States 40 years ago this month.

Music & Culture

'London Calling' At 40: Greil Marcus Revisits His Original Review

6:15pm January 28, 2020

by Art Silverman

"Rough. Funny. Expansive." That's how critic Greil Marcus described The Clash's album on our program in 1980. We brought him back to ask if he stands by his original review.

Queue Listen Now

The Singing Snowplow Driver Of Bozeman, Mont.

4:56pm January 28, 2020

by Rachel Cramer

Snowplow drivers spend long, dangerous hours behind the wheel. A Bozeman, Mont. driver singing about his travails on YouTube has gone Montana-viral — in part because sings choir and opera as a hobby.

Billie Eilish, who swept the four major categories at the 2020 Grammy Awards, accepts her trophy for Song of the Year, for "Bad Guy."

Billie Eilish Sweeps Grammys In Ceremony Clouded By Controversy And Mourning

11:49am January 27, 2020

by Anastasia Tsioulcas

In a night when Eilish, the youngest artist to win Album and Record of the year, might have otherwise been the whole story, the Recording Academy could not quite put its recent scandals behind it.