Pop

Singer-songwriter Sheryl Crow performs three songs from her new album, Detours, plus a portion of a song from an early album that she persuaded the record company not to release.

Gnarls Barkley is best known for its massive summer hit "Crazy," from 2006's St. Elsewhere. The duo's follow-up, The Odd Couple, meshes classic R&B with infectious hip-hop grooves and cinematic production. Cee-Lo and Danger Mouse speak with Fresh Air's Terry Gross about crafting their new album.

Rock historian Ed Ward looks at Rock and Roll Hall-of-Famer Chuck Berry and the career that made him a star. Berry's entire record output from the 1950s was recently released on a four-disc set from Hip-O-Select titled, Johnny B. Goode: His Complete '50s Chess Recordings.

Fresh Air music critic Milo Miles reviews music from Russian rock group Auktyon. The band is currently on tour in the U.S. Auktyon, like some other Russian rock groups, found their footing during the censorship-free period of glasnost in the former Soviet Union under Mikhail Gorbachev.

In the past 20 years, Great Britain has produced a huge quantity of popular music that's gotten very little attention in the U.S. The Brit Box is a four-CD collection of British rock and pop, including songs by The Smiths, Supergrass, and The Boo Radleys.

Fresh Air rock critic Ken Tucker reviews Sixes & Sevens, the new album from singer-songwriter Adam Green. He co-wrote the song "Anyone Else But You" for the film Juno and co-founded the New York folk group The Moldy Peaches. Sixes & Sevens is his fifth solo album.

Fresh Air's world-music critic reviews The Mande Variations, the new CD from Malian kora player Toumani Diabate. Diabate says he descends from 71 generations of griots, or traditional song-storytellers.

Pop-rock singer-songwriter Sheryl Crow joins Terry Gross in the Fresh Air studios for an interview and live performance. Detours, her new album, is the most politically and personally outspoken record of her career.

Old friends Mick Jones, former lead guitarist of The Clash, and Tony James, once of the Billy Idol-fronted Generation X, have teamed up in a band called Carbon/Silicon. They've been giving away songs for free on their Web site, but their new album, The Last Post, is an official hard-copy CD.

When British musician and record producer Martin Atkins visited Beijing in 2006, he wasn't sure what kind of music scene he'd find. As it turned out, the sounds emerging from the Chinese underground were surprisingly familiar. Milo Miles reports.

Los Zafiros, or The Sapphires, was bigger than The Beatles — in Cuba, anyway. Fresh Air's rock historian reviews a new DVD about the band: Los Zafiros: Music from the Edge of Time.

Fresh Air's rock critic runs down the best pop music of 2007, which he likes to call The Year in Rehabilitation. His picks are:

"Rehab" by Amy Winehouse

"Piece of Me" by Britney Spears

"Closure" by Aly & AJ

"Navy Nurse" by The Fiery Furnaces

"Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" by Miranda Lambert

"Change of Heart" by Teddy Thompson

Britney Spears has had what you might call a busy year: A child-custody fight, a much-derided MTV Video Music Awards performance, a public meltdown involving an unexpected hairstyling choice.

But she's recently put out a new album — Blackout, her first studio disc since 2003 — and though there's been much comment about how much she's revealing in the seemingly personal songs, the music is what matters, right? Rock critic Ken Tucker has a review.

Sharon Jones, head of the old-school funk and soul band Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, is working it. She and her band have a new album, their third, called 100 Days, 100 Nights. They've been touring to support the album, and Jones was recently part of the cast of Berlin, along with Lou Reed. She also shot a part for the upcoming Denzel Washington film The Great Debaters.

Obligatory Villagers, the new jazz- and cabaret-inflected album from singer-songwriter Nellie McKay, features sassy tracks that touch on topics as diverse as feminism and zombies.

McKay, a sometime actress and stand-up comedian, made a splash in 2004 with a debut CD called Get Away From Me — a play on the title of Norah Jones' album Come Away With Me.

Last year, she co-starred in a revival of Kurt Weill's The Threepenny Opera alongside Alan Cumming and Cyndi Lauper.

McKay joins Terry Gross for a Fresh Air concert and conversation.

In 1964, Motown, a black-owned record company in Detroit achieved the nearly impossible goal of dominating the American pop and soul charts. Ed Ward looks back on 1965 and Hip-O Select's "Complete Motown Singles" series.

Fresh Air's rock critic reviews The Con, the fifth album from Canadian duo Tegan and Sara.

The Calgary natives — they're twins, named Tegan and Sara Quin — have seen their music used to score a number of American TV shows, including Grey's Anatomy, The L Word and Medium.

Following up on their platinum debut album, Into the Rush, the sister act Aly & AJ serves up an album heavy on the teen-relationship tunes.

Insomniatic is just the latest in a multimedia onslaught from the sisters Michalka that includes TV roles, Aly & AJ books, a clothing line, an Xbox game, dolls and the inevitable calendar.

Fresh Air's rock critic has a review of the album.

Sinatra, Streisand, Rosemary Clooney and Tony Bennett — even Fred Astaire — have all recorded their songs: The husband-and-wife team of Marilyn and Alan Bergman has been writing irresistible tunes together for 50 years.