Music & Culture

In her new album as Fiver, Simone Schmidt imagines the songs that might have been sung by women incarcerated at Ontario's Rockwood Asylum in the 19th century.

Music & Culture

A Songwriter Gives Voice To The Silenced Women Of Rockwood Asylum

8:07am May 14, 2017

For her new album, Simone Schmidt, who performs under the name Fiver, researched the stories of women committed to the 19th-century Ontario institution for the criminally insane.

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Music & Culture

Alt.Latino Switches Up And Does A Blind Musical Taste Test

7:57am May 14, 2017

Alt.Latino's Felix Contreras challenges NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro to curate this week's music discovery segment. He put together the six tracks and asked Lulu to pick out her favorites.

Salvador Sobral of Portugal smiles as he speaks at a news conference on Saturday after winning the Eurovision Song Contest with his song "Amar Pelos Dois" in Kiev, Ukraine.

Salvador Sobral Of Portugal Wins Eurovision Song Contest

4:36am May 14, 2017

by Doreen McCallister

Sobral won with a romantic ballad. He sang on a small elevated circle in the middle of the crowd. The other 25 competitors performed on a wide stage backed by flashing lights and other effects.

Composer Lou Harrison was open to the vividness of other cultures throughout his life. He helped introduce Indonesian gamelan music to the West.

Music & Culture

Lou Harrison, The 'Maverick' Composer With Asia In His Ears

8:04am May 13, 2017

by Tom Huizenga

Routinely labeled an "American maverick," Harrison lovingly brought Eastern traditions and the rugged American West together in his music, blazing new paths and constructing his own instruments.

Otis Redding performs on the TV show Ready Steady Go in 1966.

Otis Redding's 'Unfinished Life' Still Resonates

8:04am May 13, 2017

Nearly 50 years after his untimely death, Redding's influence as a spirit of soul music remains. Jonathan Gould, author of a new biography of the singer, explains why.

Nathaniel Cross on trombone, Binker Golding on tenor saxophone, Moses Boyd on drums and Theon Cross on tuba perform at SXSW in March 2017.

Music & Culture

Get To Know London's Thriving Jazz Scene (By Way Of Austin, Texas)

6:26pm May 12, 2017

by Nate Chinen

Players like Moses Boyd, Shabaka Hutchings and Sarathy Korwar drive London's jazz scene forward with sounds from around the world. In March, SXSW hosted all three for an up-to-the minute dispatch.

Music & Culture

Across the Blue Ridge #72- Lightnin’ Wells, one-man band

4:00pm May 12, 2017

by Paul Brown

Mike “Lightnin'” Wells brings traditions together in his entertaining, informative and down-home one-man shows. His latest album, titled “O Lightnin' Where Art Thou?”, displays his range as n

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