Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews new albums by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and Little Feat. He says the former band's latest effort is dreadful, while Little Feat's Let It Roll stakes out new musical territory while retaining the group's original spirit.
Healey's organization works on behalf of prisoners of conscience around the world. His latest strategy to raise awareness for this issue is to stage rock concerts featuring politically-minded performers like Bruce Springsteen, U2, and Stevie Wonder. Healey was a Catholic priest in the 1960s, but found he had more opportunities to pursue humanitarian work in the secular world.
Critic-at-large Laurie Stone recently saw performance artist Michael Moschen's newest act, Moschen in Motion, which features expert and sometimes improvisatory juggling, as well as homages to abstract expressionist painters. Stone says she was awed by the end.
Lady Borton performed humanitarian work in Vietnam during and after the war. Her experiences in that country with refugees had a profound effect on her. She lives simply and, like many combat veterans, grapples with PTSD and flashbacks. Borton's book about Vietnamese refugees is called Sensing the Enemy.
Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz reviews a new PBS documentary about Maria Callas. He says it's not as well-organized or thoughtful as an earlier film about the opera star; the late singer would be better served by a complete broadcast of one of her performances.
Orbison had a legendary, operatic voice. He was shy by nature; years after weathering the tragic deaths of his wife and children, Orbison had recently started coming out of his shell, and joined the all-star band the Traveling Wilburys. He died of heart failure on December 6th.
Essayist Paul Gruchow has a new collection of essays called The Necessity of Empty Places, which celebrates the American wilderness. Rejecting the macho, survivalist approach to confronting nature, Gruchow sees the wilderness as a place of meditation and discovery.
James Comer has written a new book about his mother, Maggie. She grew up in a poor black family, and later ran away from her abusive father. She led a strict household, and worked hard to ensure that her children received a good education. Comer now runs an educational program which aims to create a collaborative culture among teachers, parents, and mental health workers.
Language commentator Geoff Nunberg considers how electronic communication like telephone conversations and radio broadcasts have changed the ways we introduce ourselves.
Book critic John Leonard reviews Humphrey Carpenter's biography of Ezra Pound, called A Serious Character. Leonard says the book is filled with inessential material, and doesn't do enough to address Pound's literary, political, and personal shortcomings.
Eddie Jones, who later performed as Guitar Slim, was an early pioneer of rock and blues guitar. He died in 1959. Rock historian Ed Ward says that, had Slim lived, he could have outshone Jimi Hendrix.
Organized crime groups in China, called triads, have become some of the biggest forces in the international heroin trade. Writer Gerald Posner links their rise to the power vacuum left by the Sicilian mafia, as well as the policing policies of Chinatowns throughout the U.S. Posner's book about the subject is called Warlords of Crime.
Pinsky says he's suspicious of literary criticism, even though he often writes it himself. His new book, Poetry and the World, looks back on his past, including growing up in New Jersey.
Literature professor and writer Carolyn Heilbrun writes about women's issues under her own name, and detective novels under the pseudonym Amanda Cross. She believes that the path forward for feminism is androgyny and a greater blurring of gender roles and identities.
Journalist Taylor Branch says most histories of the African American civil rights movement written by white people are missing heart and context. He seeks to avoid this pitfall in his new book, Parting the Waters. Branch joins Fresh Air to discuss the work of Martin Luther King, Jr. in black churches, and how John F. Kennedy and J. Edgar Hoover attempted to control him for their own ends.
TV critic David Bianculli reviews the new ABC special, Roots: The Gift, which revisits protagonist Kunta Kinte. He says it's a true successor to the original miniseries, and exceeds it in quality.
Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead says the movie star had a range of about six notes, but he had personality and a swinging house band. Yet Astaire deserves praise for making famous several songs which later became standards.
Walt Frazier was a superstar NBA player for the New York Knicks in the 1960s and '70s. During that time, he was known for his ostentatious fashion and extravagant lifestyle. Now older, he's returned to the world of basketball as a sports commentator. His new memoir is called Walt Frazier.
Critic Ken Tucker revisits the classic Jack Nicholson film, now on home video. He says the movie is idiosyncratic, but fizzles out by the end, after Nicholson's character has killed off so many of his emotions.
Sportswriter John Feinstein says there's nothing more exciting than watching a college basketball game from the stands. His new book, A Season Inside, looks at the failures and success of young athletes, and argues that coaches are the real heroes of the game.
