Music

Music & Culture

Jeff Tweedy On Performing From His Couch: 'It Felt So Intimate To Us Right Away'

1:21pm December 23, 2020

by Ann Marie Baldonado

At the onset of the pandemic, the Wilco frontman began filming The Tweedy Show, an at-home Instagram series with his wife and sons. His also has a new memoir, How to Write One Song, and a new album.

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Kathleen Edwards (by Remi Theriault), Jason Isbell (by Alysse Gafjen), Bonny Light Horseman (by Annie Beedy)

Music & Culture

World Cafe Picks The Best Songs Of 2020

11:05am December 23, 2020

by Raina Douris

Explore a playlist full of 2020 highlights, including songs by big stars (Jason Isbell, Bruce Springsteen, Taylor Swift) and up-and-comers (Bonny Light Horseman, Arlo Parks, Devon Gilfillian).

Adam Weiner's new track for Morning Edition's Song Project is for people who feel isolated around the holidays, especially this year.

Music & Culture

Adam Weiner's New Song, 'Christmas Makes Me Cry,' Channels Holiday Loneliness

5:54am December 23, 2020

The leader of Low Cut Connie, tasked with writing a pandemic-era holiday song, thought back to a journal entry he wrote nearly 20 years ago, while working as a perfume spritzer at a local mall.

Little Richard in the studio, circa 1959.

Music & Culture

He Was An Architect

9:18pm December 22, 2020

by Ashon Crawley

Little Richard saw a depth and possibility for American culture, for black genius, that he could not fully see for himself. It's up to us to continue the work.

Music & Culture

3 New Holiday Songs Tap Into The Cheer — And Despair — Of The Season

1:30pm December 22, 2020

by Ken Tucker

The holidays have never felt more ambivalent — a feeling captured by Phoebe Bridgers' "Christmas Song"; The Bird and the Bee's "You and I at Christmas Time"; and Nick Lowe's "Winter Wonderland."

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Music & Culture

Tenor Sax George Coleman Shines On Newly Released Live Record, 'In Baltimore'

1:52pm December 21, 2020

by Kevin Whitehead

The album showcases 45 minutes from Coleman's '71 sets at Baltimore's Famous Ballroom, where the atmosphere was typically lively and the jazz legend was elegant and full of fire.

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The dance of death, an ancient image that inspired Thomas Adès to compose his Totentanz.

Music & Culture

Music And Mayhem: A Diary Of Classical Albums For A Troubled 2020

5:00am December 21, 2020

by Tom Huizenga

NPR Music's classical editor traces the high points of a year spent listening to new albums that offered comfort and confrontation in counterpoint with the relentless world outside the headphones.