Music

Music & Culture

60 Years Later, A Wild, Baffling Recording Finds A Modern Spark

1:14pm January 09, 2016

by Jon Kalish

In 1954, Folkways Records released an album that sold so poorly, the royalties to date total less than a thousand dollars. Today, five of the top names in klezmer have gathered to recreate it.

Queue Listen Now

Jamie Masefield made a name for himself leading the Jazz Mandolin Project. When the life of a working musician started to wear on him, the Vermont native became a certified dry stone mason.

Music & Culture

A Jazzman Turned Builder Says That In Both Fields, The Good Stuff's Made To Last

12:03pm January 09, 2016

by Angela Evancie

James Masefield has been improvising on the jazz mandolin for decades, including a release on Blue Note Records. Some years back, his eclectic creativity brought him to an unexpected second career.

Queue Listen Now

The new album of British singer David Bowie, entitled Blackstar (stylised as *), is displayed during the exhibition "David Bowie is", at the museum shop of the Groninger Museum in The Netherlands.

Music & Culture

Music Review: 'Blackstar,' David Bowie

8:04am January 09, 2016

by Will Hermes

Music critic Will Hermes reviews the new album from David Bowie which is being called Blackstar.

Queue Listen Now

Music & Culture

Jeff Lynne's ELO On World Cafe

3:34pm January 08, 2016

A benefit concert inspired Alone In The Universe, ELO's first new album in 14 years.

Armand Van Helden and Disclosure's Guy Lawrence at Holy Ship!, January 2015.

Music & Culture

The Year in B2B DJ Sets

3:26pm January 08, 2016

by Michaelangelo Matos

Listen to the year's best dance-music tag-teams featuring Disclosure, Seth Troxler, Four Tet, Floating Points, Eric Prydz, Maya Jane Coles, Michael Mayer and others.

Music & Culture

Aretha Franklin: The 'Fresh Air' Interview

1:46pm January 08, 2016

The Queen of Soul, who recently brought down the house at the Kennedy Center with the hit "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman," spoke to Fresh Air's Terry Gross about her life and music in 1999.

Queue Listen Now

Music & Culture

Carole King: The 'Fresh Air' Interview

1:46pm January 08, 2016

King, who recently received a Kennedy Center Lifetime Artistic Achievement Award, says the thrill of hearing one of her songs on the radio "doesn't go away." Originally broadcast April 11, 2012.

Queue Listen Now

Daniel Wohl's new album, Holographic, is released Jan. 29.

Music & Culture

Songs We Love: Daniel Wohl, 'Source'

1:34pm January 08, 2016

by Tom Huizenga

Hear the Paris native merge the oldest instrument, the human voice, with a palette of colorful electronic sounds, applied with a painter's touch.

In Bob Boilen's favorite concert of 2015, Sufjan Stevens turned Washington, D.C.'s Constitution Hall into a place of self-discovery and magic.

Music & Culture

506 Shows In 365 Days: Bob Boilen's 2015 In Concerts

11:57am January 08, 2016

by Bob Boilen

In 2015, Bob Boilen actually stayed home a few times, but he still had more than 500 shows from which to pick his top 10 concerts of the year.

Fans of late Motörhead frontman Lemmy Kilmister are calling for a new heavy element to be named after him.

Music & Culture

Put Lemmy On The Periodic Table: More Than 100,000 Sign Petition

11:50am January 08, 2016

by Bill Chappell

To many, the life and career of Motörhead frontman Lemmy Kilmister personified heavy metal. Now his fans want his name on one of four new elements on the periodic table.