Music & Culture

With Let Me Do One More, Sarah Tudzin issues an invitation into the expressive and ever-widening musical world of Illuminati Hotties.

Music & Culture

Illuminati Hotties Dares You To Laugh

11:00am September 30, 2021

by Lyndsey McKenna

Let Me Do One More, the latest from songwriter, engineer and producer Sarah Tudzin, is proof that ambition doesn't have to be serious and that moments of vulnerability can also make for hooky rippers.

Music & Culture

Judge Suspends Britney Spears' Dad From Her Conservatorship

6:28am September 30, 2021

by Mandalit del Barco

In a Los Angeles courtroom on Wednesday, Britney Spears achieved a goal years in the making: life without her father Jamie Spears as conservator of her estate — controlling her fortune and finances.

#FreeBritney activists protest outside the courthouse in Los Angeles during a conservatorship hearing on April 27.

Britney Spears Has Moved Toward Freedom From Her Father

6:35pm September 29, 2021

by Rachel Treisman

Spears and her father petitioned to end his conservatorship role. A Los Angeles judge has granted that request.

Composer, harpist and singer Corrina Hewat is featured in this week's episode.

Music & Culture

The Thistle & Shamrock: 2000 Shows Later

6:05pm September 29, 2021

This week's episode of The Thistle & Shamrock features Alan Stivell, Battlefield Band, Tony Cuffe, Clannad and Corrina Hewat.

Queue Listen Now

Britney Spears' Fight To End Conservatorship Continues With Hearing

5:55pm September 29, 2021

by Andrew Limbong

Pop star Britney Spears is having a big day in court on Wednesday. Spears is hoping that a judge will remove her father, Jamie Spears, as the conservator of her estate.

Pastor T.L. Barrett rewrote the rules of gospel in the 1970s and '80s.

Music & Culture

Pastor T.L. Barrett's Five Decades Spent As A Current For Our Sails

5:55pm September 29, 2021

NPR's Mary Louise Kelly speaks with gospel artist Pastor T.L. Barrett, Jr., whose collected work was recently reissued in a box set called I Shall Wear a Crown.

Iranian Singer Googoosh Raises Her Voice To Keep Her Nation's Culture Alive

5:55pm September 29, 2021

by Betto Arcos

Known as "The Voice of Iran," Googoosh was silenced by the Islamic Revolution in 1979. Active again since 2000, she uses music to keep Iranians forced to leave the country in touch with their culture.

Influential Organ Player Dr. Lonnie Smith Has Died At Age 79

4:55pm September 29, 2021

Dr. Lonnie Smith, an influential American organ player and member of the George Benson quartet in the 1960s, died this week at the age of 79.

Music & Culture

Maria Elena Silva, 'December'

2:35pm September 29, 2021

by Lars Gotrich

Maria Elena Silva's voice floats like a feather swishing this way and that, painting invisible shapes with the wind. Her music, spacious and exploratory, does the same.

Left to right: Nona Hendryx, Sarah Dash and Patti LaBelle perform as Labelle in Los Angeles, circa 1975.

Music & Culture

In Labelle And Beyond, Sarah Dash Could Never Fade Into The Background

2:31pm September 29, 2021

by Maureen Mahon

Even next to Patti Labelle's charisma and Nona Hendryx's songcraft, there is no Labelle without the range and clarity of Dash's silver throat — and the trio's commitment to singing as equals.