Fresh Air

Oregon saxophonist Rich Halley takes inspiration from the Wallowa mountain range on his new album Crossing the Passes. On Boss of the Plains, Chicago-based trio Wheelhouse makes music that evokes the Great Plains and wind chimes on a porch when the weather changes.

Journalist Alfredo Corchado covers Mexico for the Dallas Morning News. His new book, Midnight In Mexico, is part memoir and part recent history of the upheaval in the country. He talks to Fresh Air about the power of the cartels, the rampant corruption and the hopes for the future of Mexico.

In the Showtime series, Schreiber plays a Hollywood fixer with some personal problems of his own. While TV is newish territory for Schreiber, playing a man plagued by inner demons is not. He talks with Dave Davies about acting the heavy — and how his face has shaped his career.

On July 10, FX adds another dark serialized drama to an already rich cable crop: The Bridge, starring Diane Kruger. Like The Killing, it's based on a Scandinavian television series.

The bulk of Friedberger's work thus far has been recorded with her brother, Matthew, under the name The Fiery Furnaces. For this new solo album, her second, she's written with a new collaborator in singer-songwriter John Wesley Harding.

Ahmir Thompson, the co-founder and drummer for The Roots explains how his musician father groomed him for show business. As Peggy Olson on Mad Men, Moss has learned about her character's growth episode by episode. The second mystery in Sara Gran's series features bad-girl detective Claire DeWitt.

Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell have been friends and collaborators since they first met in 1974. While they always wanted to make an album together, they never did until recently. Old Yellow Moon includes songs by Crowell, Patti Scialfa, Johnny Cash and Kris Kristofferson among others.

The veteran actor recently made his directorial debut with a film about four aging opera singers who stage a concert at their retirement home. Starring Maggie Smith and Tom Courtenay, the film explores friendship, memory and the time that remains.

As Peggy Olson on AMC's drama series, the actress has learned about her character's personality and development episode by episode, script by script, just like those of us who watch the show on TV. And she tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross that she prefers it that way.

Director Gore Verbinski and star Johnny Depp have turned in a busy, expensive take on the masked lawman of the Wild West. It's long, tone-deaf, and ultimately crushingly bad.

Adam Liptak, who covers the Supreme Court for The New York Times, says that in the years Chief Justice John Roberts has led the court, his patient and methodical approach has allowed him to establish a robustly conservative record.

This is the second mystery in Sara Gran's series featuring 40-ish bad-girl detective Claire DeWitt. Critic Maureen Corrigan says that reading a noir novel written by a Brooklyn-born author gave her a rush of private-eye, patriotic pride.