Music

Dan Auerbach, the singer-guitarist for the Akron, Ohio-based rootsy blues-rock duo The Black Keys, broadens his style on his new solo album to include folk, country and even psychedelic elements. Rock critic Ken Tucker has a review.

Two albums featuring the late rock 'n' roll icon have been released — Memorial Collection and Down the Line: Rarities. Rock historian Ed Ward considers Holly's music and tragic death.

The Iraqi heavy-metal band Acrassicauda had problems playing their music under Saddam Hussein, but they didn't get death threats until after the American invasion. Two band members — and the filmmaker who made a documentary about them — talk with Fresh Air's Terry Gross.

Will Oldham's new album Beware, released under his country music name, Bonnie Prince Billy, offers lovely music with a tinge of "lonesome-cowboy pokiness." Ken Tucker has a review.

Rudresh Mahanthappa's Kinsmen blends South Asian music with American jazz. The jazz saxophonist says his inspiration to explore Indian music on the saxophone came from a CD his brother gave him as a joke called Saxophone Indian Style.

Originally released in 1961, electric guitarist Grant Green's first album with Blue Note Records, Grant's First Stand, has been reissued. Green has a solid swinger's knack for skippy, airborne jazz rhythms, but some of his lines wouldn't sound out of place in a Chicago blues bar.

The heart of the blues-rock group Heartless Bastards is Erika Wennerstrom, who wears hers on her sleeve. Her band's new album, The Mountain, features a bold, hard-hitting sound.

Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews the second album from the indie-pop duo The Bird And The Bee.

Jeff "Tain" Watts, an original member of the Wynton Marsalis quintet, has released an album titled Watts. But it's no ego trip; the disc is inspired, at least in part, by L.A.'s Watts neighborhood.

M. Ward's seventh album Hold Time was released Feb. 17. The singer-songwriter is known for his largely acoustic and usually spare arrangements. Ken Tucker has a review.