Music

The Vintage Cadillac With The Memphis Soundtrack

9:16am August 14, 2013

by Debbie Elliott

Tad Pierson has made a career out of his love for cars and American music. He says there are "fewer and fewer real-deal places to go and hear the real stuff," but it's his job to find and share it — one carload of listeners at a time.

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Sister Joseph Andrew Bogdanowicz (right), vicaress general and music director for Dominican Sisters of Mary. On the group's new album, she plays organ and composed three selections.

Music & Culture

Life As Prayer: The Singing Nuns Of Ann Arbor

6:31pm August 13, 2013

by John Burnett

In the cloistered world of classical music recordings, there is great interest in choral music by Catholic nuns these days. On Mater Eucharistiae, the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, are "able to bring other people into that space of prayer when we're singing."

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Music & Culture

Valerie June Wants To Be On Your Mind

1:32pm August 13, 2013

by Ken Tucker

June can sing a duel with the Devil, even as her voice tells you she knows she's already triumphed.

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Apple's Garage Band for the iPad and iPhone includes virtual instruments, such as piano and drums, you can play like the real thing.

Music & Culture

Question Of The Week: What Are The Best Apps For Making Music?

10:57am August 13, 2013

by Robin Hilton

Of course you can make music using a smartphone or tablet. But which apps give you the best results? Which ones are easiest to learn? Bob Boilen and Robin Hilton offer a few suggestions.

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Shawana Kemp, lead singer for Shine and the Moonbeams.

Music & Culture

Shine And The Moonbeams: R&B For The Kids

8:03pm August 12, 2013

by Stefan Shepherd

Family music comes in a broad range of styles — folk, rock, punk and even polka. But, compared with its popularity among adults, there have been very few R&B and soul music albums for kids. Enter Shine and the Moonbeams.

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Record producer Huey Meaux wound up in jail twice, but he sure had a knack for finding talent in unlikely places. Some of those songs are included on South Texas Rhythm 'n' Soul Revue.

Music & Culture

'South Texas' Collects Producer's Checkered Career

12:42pm August 12, 2013

Huey Meaux wound up in jail twice, but he sure had a knack for finding talent in unlikely places.

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The band Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino is leading the revival of an old Italian folk style called taranta, which has hypnotic rhythms meant to have restorative powers.

Music & Culture

Trumpeters And Troubadours: New And Old Music From Italy

5:53pm August 11, 2013

by NPR Staff

World music DJ Betto Arcos just got back from an Italian vacation. He joins NPR's Jacki Lyden with some of his favorite musical finds.

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Kongar-Ol Ondar at the 72nd Annual Academy Awards in Los Angeles. Genghis Blues was nominated for an Oscar for Best Documentary Short.

Music & Culture

Remembering The People's Throat Singer Of Tuva

11:57am August 09, 2013

by NPR Staff

In a 1999 interview, Kongar-Ol Ondar demonstrates his ancient style of singing for Terry Gross.

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Thai Elephant Orchestra co-founder David Sulzer (bottom center, in red) poses with the animals and their mahouts, or keepers.

The Biggest Thing Out Of Thailand: An Elephant Orchestra

3:01pm August 08, 2013

by NPR Staff

Based out of a conservation center for former work animals, the Thai Elephant Orchestra is just what it sounds like: a group of elephants trained to play enormous percussion instruments, holding mallets in their trunks and sometimes trumpeting along.

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Jayda Neor and Kephra Shaw Meredith, seventh-graders from KIPP Bridge middle school in Oakland, Calif., perform a rap song about the discovery of DNA's structure in front of a green screen.

Science Rap B.A.T.T.L.E.S. Bring Hip-Hop Into The Classroom

12:48pm August 08, 2013

by Adam Cole

The program is part of a national push for science education among minorities. A U.S. Department of Commerce study found that blacks and Latinos are half as likely as whites to have a job in science or engineering.

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