Search results for

In the 1950s, no bluesman was more popular than Jimmy Reed. He wrote hits like "Bright Lights Big City" and "Big Boss Man" and pioneered the ubiquitous "thump" guitar riff. Two accomplished Texas bluesmen, Omar Kent Dykes and Jimmie Vaughan, pay tribute to Reed on their new CD.

When Bridgewater came up empty after tracing her family tree back more than 100 years, she turned to West African music. After a trip to Mali in 2004, she discovered its complex musical heritage. Hear an interview about the inspiration behind her new album, Red Earth.

In the new movie I'm Not There, director Todd Haynes deploys six actors to portray the many lives of one man: Bob Dylan. Haynes talks about the unorthodox nature of the film and how he hopes it evokes Dylan's universe of the 1960s.

Drummer and singer Levon Helm has survived his membership in The Band, a close brush with bankruptcy and a battle with throat cancer that temporarily took away his voice. Now he's back with Dirt Farmer, his first solo album in 25 years.

Producer T Bone Burnett found a surprisingly good fit when he matched wispy-voiced bluegrass vocalist Alison Krauss with hard-rock belter Robert Plant (of Led Zeppelin fame). Their new CD, Raising Sand, has a relaxed, intimate feel.

Charmaine Clamor grew up listening to Ella Fitzgerald in her native Philippines. So it's no wonder that her brand of jazz (dubbed "jazzipino") combines traditional Filipino instruments, languages and melodies with American grooves.

In the 1960s, the renegade saxophonist took children's songs, march melodies and gospel hymns and made them into powerful free improvisations. Now, he's being embraced by a generation of rock fans — and explored in a recent documentary.

When Panic at the Disco released its debut CD, its members hadn't yet graduated from high school. Three years later, Pretty. Odd marks the band's massive change from heart-on-sleeve emo-punk songs to Sgt. Pepper's-style rock. The group performs stripped-down songs in NPR's Studio 4A.

Chris Gaffney, vocalist and accordion player for the Hacienda Brothers, died last week from liver cancer at the age of 57.

There are many gifted jazz singers, and there's no shortage of accomplished acoustic bass players. But 23-year-old Esperanza Spalding's new album features both her soaring, flexible vocals and the low-end thump of her double bass.