Music

Professor of English and Director of African and Afro-American Studies at Washington University, Gerald Early. He reflects on the meaning of Motown music to whites and blacks.

An interview from our archives with singer, songwriter and guitarist Ted Hawkins, who died Sunday in Los Angeles. He was 58. For almost 30 years, Hawkins was a street musician in L.A famous for his trademark milk crate. He became a star in England where he lived for four years, though he was still virtually unknown in the U.S. Last year, Hawkins released a new recording titled "The Next Hundred Years." (Rebroadcast)

Terry shares her favorite New Year's song, called "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?" It was written by Frank Loesser.

Rock critic Ken Tucker picks his favorite pop music of 1994, running the gamut from country to rock to singer-songwriters.

Music critic Milo Miles has a review of "My Soul Looks Back", a new collection of the music of late gospel singer Marion Williams.

Review of the CD box sets "Emperors of Soul" by The Temptations and "Anthology: 1970-1994" by War.

Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews "Definitely Maybe," the debut album by Oasis.

Musicians Ann Rabson, Gaye Adegbalola and Andra Faye McIntosh, who make up the blues group Saffire - The Uppity Blues Women. The "Chicago Tribune" says "these women have [attitude] in abundance," in their songs about "domestic violence, self-respect and being a woman." Their fourth album is "Old, New, Borrowed & Blue."

Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead reviews six new box sets for the holiday season.

Payn's new memoir is about his life with the the legendary theater songwriter. Coward is the author of "Hay Fever," "Private Lives," and "Blithe Spirit." Payn met him as a child, when he acted in Coward's "Words and Music" in 1932. The two were friends for thirty years until Coward's death in 1973.

Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz reviews the release of a recently discovered Cole Porter home recording. It's called "Cole Sings Porter: Rare and Unreleased Songs from 'Can-Can' and 'Jubilee.'"

Walser has been called "the best pure cowboy singer in the state" ("Houston Chronicle"). At age 60, he retired from his job as a Texas state internal auditor to concentrate on his music. He just released an album called "Rolling Stone From Texas." He joins Fresh Air with his guitar to sing a few songs.

Rock critic Ken Tucker has a review of Bob Dylan's "Greatest Hits Volume Three."

Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews Tom Petty's new album, "Wildflowers."

The Grammy Award-winning jazz musician Wynton Marsalis. He's been playing the trumpet since he was six, and won his first Grammy at 20. Marsalis is also the cofounder and artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. He recently announced that he is breaking up the Septet so he can spend more time with the Lincoln Center. "Sweet Swing Blues on the Road" is his new book, written in collaboration with photographer Frank Stewart.

Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz reviews Christopher O'Riley's piano versions of three Stravinsky orchestral scores.

Jeff Moss was one of the original creators and writers of "Sesame Street." He created Cookie Monster and Oscar the Grouch, and wrote such songs as "Rubber Ducky" and "People in Your Neighborhood." He has won 13 Emmy's, four Grammy's, and an Oscar nomination for his work on "Sesame Street" and with the Muppets. Moss is also the author of four books for children, the newest of which is "Hieronymus White: A Bird Who Believed That He Always Was Right."

Panter is well known in the punk-rock scene, and was a founding member and writer of "Pee-Wee's Playhouse." She is a member of the punk band Honk if Yer Horny. In 1992, Panter co-founded The Bohemian Women's Political Alliance, a feminist organization of "the teenagers who dressed in black, the bad girls who climbed out of [their] bedroom windows at dark and caught taxis home at dawn."

Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews Madonna's new release, "Bedtime Stories." He says she's discovered that there's something to be said for unadorned beauty.

Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead reviews "Who's Bridge," by the Misha Mengelberg Trio. He says, amid the strong Thelonious Monk influences, it's got real heart.