Music

The Louvin Brothers, Ira and Charlie, were considered one of the all-time great country-music duos. Fresh Air remembers Charlie, who died Wednesday, with highlights from a 1996 interview.

A recent 13-CD box set called Next Stop Is Vietnam: The War on Record 1961-2008 documents the music that dominated the airwaves during the Vietnam War. Rock historian Ed Ward says the compilation could have used some "conscientious curation."

Goldwax, a label which issued some of the greatest soul records ever made in Memphis, is almost completely unknown. Given the quality of what it released, it had very few hits, but its legend has lived on. Ed Ward reports on the label's impressive run from 1963 to '70.

Tucker, a founding member of the band Sleater-Kinney, is back with a new group, The Corin Tucker Band, and an album called 1,000 Years. Rock critic Ken Tucker says the record has an "air of heavy but often beautiful melancholy."

The Decemberists' albums have been characterized by a wide variety of styles, from indie-rock minimalism to art-rock expansiveness. Rock critic Ken Tucker says the band's new album, The King Is Dead, is its best album so far.

Singer Margaret Whiting, who collaborated with lyricist Johnny Mercer and performed classic standards like "Moonlight in Vermont," died Monday. Fresh Air remembers Whiting with highlights from a 1988 interview, where she explained how Mercer taught her to read a lyric.

Guitarist and composer Marc Ribot's latest album, Silent Movies, pays tribute to film scores. The creation of the album, he says, allowed him to express his more lyrical side.

Air was a flagship of the 1970s avant-garde, but saxophonist Henry Threadgill, bassist Fred Hopkins and drummer Steve McCall first came together to play Scott Joplin's piano music. That and more are documented on a massive eight-CD box set of Threadgill's music.

Fresh Air's pop music critic, Ken Tucker, picks the best music of 2010, including albums by Tracey Thorn, Kanye West and Arcade Fire. He also pays tribute to Kate McGarrigle, the Canadian singer who died of cancer last January.

Hendrix spent years recording with whomever he could before being discovered and whisked off to London. A new Legacy box set, West Coast Seattle Boy, showcases Jimi Hendrix as sideman to a number of musicians. Rock historian Ed Ward takes a look at it today.

Every holiday season brings a new batch of seasonal pop music, some of it from unlikely or obscure sources. Rock critic Ken Tucker has listened to most of the new holiday collections released this year, and has chosen three albums that ought to make your season a bit more festive.

Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz recently attended the 2010 Musikfest Berlin's two-week long tribute to 85-year-old French conductor and composer Pierre Boulez. Schwartz says the musical tribute was "sonically ravishing, with endlessly inventive combinations of sound and texture."

The jazz saxophonist and flutist died Thursday at age 85. Fresh Air remembers the musician, whose 1949 improvisation over "I'm in the Mood for Love" became a jazz staple, with highlights from a 1996 interview.

Hip-hop music grew from the streets of Harlem and the Bronx into a multi-billion-dollar industry. Dan Charnas chronicles how hip-hop producers and entrepreneurs changed the music industry and pop culture in The Big Payback.

Fresh Air jazz critic Kevin Whitehead picks CDs, books and a DVD for the jazz lover on your list this holiday season. His selections include a book of Sonny Rollins photographs and music from the first season of the HBO series Treme.

West's new album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, both chastises and praises the hip-hop singer for being an arrogant perfectionist. Rock critic Ken Tucker says it may be an example of "egregious self-aggrandizement," but it's also "superb music-making."

Jay-Z is one of the most successful hip-hop artists of all time. On Fresh Air, he discusses growing up in Brooklyn surrounded by drugs and violence, and the stories behind many of his famous songs.

Twenty-one songs Springsteen recorded for his 1978 album Darkness on the Edge of Town are now being released for the first time. Springsteen spoke to actor Ed Norton at the Toronto Film Festival about the making of Darkness.

Sloan and Barri were the songwriters behind "Eve of Destruction" and wrote hits for Herman's Hermits, The Mamas and the Papas and The Turtles. Critic Ed Ward examines their career and their many successful songs.

Ferry's new album, Olympia, reunites him with some of the key players behind the band Roxy Music, including Brian Eno. But rock critic Ken Tucker says Olympia remains very much a Bryan Ferry creation: romantic and wry, yet vulnerable to the passage of time.