Music

Richard Powers' new novel tells the story of an avant-garde classical composer who finds himself dabbling in DNA. He "gets obsessed with finding music inside of living things," Powers explains, and, as a fugitive, ends up leading officials on a low-speed chase.

There was a time when people in the know in Memphis described James Govan as Otis Redding's natural successor. A new compilation collects some of his unreleased recordings.

His 18th album is a mixed-bag assortment of covers and originals brimming with undimmed eagerness.

The River & the Thread, Cash's first album in eight years, began with a visit to her father's boyhood home, and continued through landmarks great and small. "The things you push away the hardest when you're young, you end up embracing when you get older," she says.

Instead of killing herself, Mukhtar Mai took her rapists to court — and won. Her story has been turned into an opera which receives its world premiere in New York.

The former New Jersey poet laureate, born LeRoi Jones, died Thursday at age 79. Much of his work — including well-regarded poetry and plays — reflected his commitment to Black Nationalist ideals. He co-founded the Black Arts movement, and wrote poems that were as controversial as they were influential.

The drummer known as "Klook" was a founder of bebop — and a man endlessly open to possibilities.

The ever-candid Stooges frontman joins NPR's Renee Montagne to discuss living life over the edge, how everyone comes around to his band late, and ways to "become a part of yesterday."

Singer Matt Berninger and NPR's Audie Cornish discuss the band's new album (Trouble Will Find Me), being in a band of brothers, how his own brother inspired "I Should Live in Salt," and his own sheepish attitude toward the band's recent success.

On the 2010 album Scratch My Back, Gabriel covered songs by the musicians he loves. For the follow-up, he invited those artists — who include Arcade Fire, Randy Newman, David Byrne, Regina Spektor, Lou Reed, Bon Iver and more — to cover his own material.