Music

Music & Culture

Heavy Rotation: 5 Songs Public Radio Can't Stop Playing

5:16pm June 06, 2013

In this installment of Heavy Rotation, we partner with KCRW to bring you an exclusive download from Laura Mvula's Morning Becomes Eclectic session, as well as music from the post-punk band Savages, Portland songwriter Nick Jaina, Baltimore rapper Ellis and funk guitarist Shuggie Otis.

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Jason Isbell's latest album, Southeastern, is personal and intimate.

Jason Isbell: Literary, But Keeping An Edge On 'Southeastern'

3:18pm June 06, 2013

by Ken Tucker

Isbell is a singer-songwriter who came to prominence as a member of the Southern rock group Drive-By Truckers. He left that band in 2007, in part because of the substance-abuse problems he describes on his new solo album, Southeastern.

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Miranda Lambert performing in April at the Academy of Country Music Awards, where she won best song, best record and best female vocalist for the fourth year in a row. The Lambert Effect has opened doors for many of the new hopefuls blending hard country

Music & Culture

Country Music's Year Of The Woman

6:41am June 06, 2013

by Ann Powers

Nashville the city, Nashville the TV show, close-harmony groups and two financially viable, independent-minded singers have shattered country music's glass ceiling — and the year's only half over.

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Dirty Beaches is the performing title of the Taiwanese-Canadian musician Alex Zhang Hungtai. His new double album is called Drifters / Love Is the Devil

Music & Culture

Dirty Beaches: A Nomad Musician Starts Over (And Over, And Over)

3:09pm June 04, 2013

by NPR Staff

Alex Zhang Hungtai is a musician who has spent his life drifting from home to home. His parents were children of communist China, and since setting out, he's lived in places as far-flung as Honolulu, Montreal and most recently, Berlin.

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Allan Sherman released three albums between October 1962 and August 1963.

Hello Muddah, Hello Drama: The Brief Bloom Of Parodist Allan Sherman

6:53pm June 03, 2013

by NPR Staff

Sherman worked a tight niche: classic songs rewritten to tickle a Jewish audience's funny bone. A new biography, Overweight Sensation: The Life and Comedy of Allan Sherman, explains how the performer's 1960s crossover fell in line with a collective awakening to ethnic identity in America.

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Cecile McLorin Salvant's new album is titled WomanChild.

Music & Culture

Authentic Early Jazz, From A 23-Year-Old 'WomanChild'

6:53pm June 03, 2013

by NPR Staff

Vocalist Cecile McLorin Salvant and pianist Aaron Diehl, both in their 20s, have already racked up major industry prizes. They took radically different paths to get there, but on Salvant's new album, they find ways to honor old traditions as young people.

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Eleanor Friedberger's new solo album is Personal Record.

Music & Culture

Eleanor Friedberger Unashamed Of Her Favorite Sounds

8:18pm June 02, 2013

by NPR Staff

On her second solo release, the Fiery Furnaces singer mines the music of her birth decade. "I'm not embarrassed to say I love the sound of an Elton John record or I love the sound of a Carole King record," she says. "That's my taste."

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Dallas Green, once a member of the post-hardcore group Alexisonfire, now makes much quieter music as City and Colour. His fourth solo album is The Hurry and the Harm.

Music & Culture

City And Colour: A Musician Unplugs To Make A Connection

3:21pm June 01, 2013

by NPR Staff

Dallas Green, once a member of the post-hardcore group Alexisonfire, now makes much quieter music on his own. His fourth solo album, recorded under the name City and Colour, is The Hurry and the Harm.

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Tartit performs at the Festival au Desert.

Music & Culture

Festival Au Desert: Music Of Peace Not Silenced By War

9:20am May 31, 2013

by Milo Miles

For a dozen years, a music festival that highlights the music of Africa has been held near Timbuktu, Mali. This year, a nationalist uprising and ongoing battles made the Festival au Desert impossible. A new recording from the most recent event helps fans continue to celebrate the music.

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Vampire Weekend (left to right: Chris Tomson, Chris Baio, Rostam Batmanglij, Ezra Koenig) met while they were all students at Columbia University.

Music & Culture

Vampire Weekend Comes Of Age In 'The City'

11:02pm May 30, 2013

by Ken Tucker

The band just released its third album, Modern Vampires of the City. Chief lyricist and singer Ezra Koenig has described it as the third part of a trilogy about maturing. As part of that process, the album finds sustenance invoking Desmond Dekker and The Rolling Stones.

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