Music

Paul Cauthen sits in the album's namesake room of the Belmont Hotel.

Music & Culture

Texas Country Rocker Paul Cauthen Preaches The Good, The Bad And The Prickly

12:18pm September 23, 2019

Faith may be a constant in the country music artist's new album, Room 41, but he's not hiding his demons. "I just try to write some lyrics that can maybe prick somebody's heart," Cauthen says.

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Rosanne Cash plays a Tiny Desk Concert (Amr Alfiky/NPR).

Music & Culture

Rosanne Cash: Tiny Desk Concert

11:57am September 23, 2019

by Lauren Onkey

Rosanne Cash has been making great records for forty years, but she's never played or written better music than she's doing right now.

Music & Culture

The World Of Rosetta Tharpe: A Turning The Tables Playlist

9:59am September 23, 2019

by Cheryl Pawelski

Without Sister Rosetta Tharpe, we wouldn't have rock and roll as we know it now. Our playlist features some of Tharpe's best songs, as well as music from her influences and inheritors.

The Ties That Bind: Bruce Springsteen And The Wide Divide

6:00am September 23, 2019

by A.O. Scott

A Springsteen concert "created a civic space in which two antithetical sentiments could coexist and communicate with each other," writes A.O. Scott. The Boss turns 70 years old today.

Holy Trinity Music School's youth choir and chamber orchestra perform in the Smithsonian's Enid A. Haupt garden in Washington, D.C.

Music & Culture

10 Years After Haiti's Earthquake, 'This Music School Will Never Stop'

8:31am September 22, 2019

by Melissa Block

Nearly 10 years ago, an earthquake devasted Haiti, destroying a legendary music school. A youth choir and orchestra have been touring the US and hope to rebuild their school in Port-au-Prince.

Aymée Nuviola portrayed Celia Cruz in the Cuban telenovela Celia.

Music & Culture

Portraying Celia: The Role Of A Lifetime (Or Two)

10:41am September 21, 2019

by Marisa Arbona-Ruiz

How do you inhabit the world's most well-known Latin singer? For singers and actresses Aymée Nuviola and Jeimy Osorio, playing Celia Cruz meant staying in touch with pain, joy and destiny.

Kemba's latest album, Gilda, is out now.

Music & Culture

Through Grief and Growing Pains, Kemba Creates 'Gilda'

7:10pm September 20, 2019

New York rapper Kemba speaks with NPR's Audie Cornish about the themes of his debut album, Gilda, and the emotional labor that went into making it.

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The Archies is not only the first fictitious band to reach No. 1 on the Billboard charts in the U.S., but is also the only group to reach such heights without ever performing the song live onstage.

Music & Culture

50 Years Later, The Archies' 'Sugar, Sugar' Is Still 'Really Sweet'

6:25pm September 20, 2019

by Ashley Westerman

Fifty years ago, the song "Sugar, Sugar" by The Archies reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The single by the cartoon band would go on to be named 1969's song of the year.

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Leonard Cohen's posthumous new album, Thanks for the Dance, comes out Nov. 22.

Music & Culture

Leonard Cohen Gives 'Thanks For The Dance' From Beyond The Grave

2:07pm September 20, 2019

by Stephen Thompson

With an assist from past collaborators, including his singer-songwriter son Adam, Cohen's new posthumous album will drop Nov. 22. Hear "The Goal" now.

Antonin Dvorak predicted that American classical music would draw from African American traditions. A new article wonders why American classical music has remained so white.

Music & Culture

Why Is American Classical Music So White?

2:01pm September 20, 2019

by Tom Huizenga

Early American composers could have shaken off their European sound and mined the rich trove of African American music. They didn't. And one historian believes we're worse off because of it.