Music

Guitarist Link Wray died on November 5 at the age of 76. He's credited with inventing the power chord in the 1950s. His first big recording hit was the 1958 instrumental Rumble. When he went to record the song, he wasn't happy with the sound on the amp, so he pierced holes in the speaker cone to create additional distortion. Guitarists including Pete Townshend and John Lennon were influenced by his work. Wray's other hits include Rawhide and the Batman theme.

Jimmie Dale Gilmore's new album — his seventh — is called Come on Back and it's a memorial to his late father. He died of ALS in 2000. The album includes version of his dad's favorite songs like Pick Me Up on Your Way Down and Walkin' The Floor Over You. Gilmore was born, raised and lives in Texas. He has been recording solo albums since 1988, when he released Fair and Square.

Walk the Line is the new biopic about music icon Johnny Cash, starring Joaquin Phoenix as the "Man in Black" and Reese Witherspoon as his wife, June Carter.

Actor Neil Patrick Harris is starring in the new CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother -- but most people know him as a teenage doctor in the early 1990s TV series Doogie Howser, MD, which is now available on DVD. Harris also played a parody of himself in the film Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle.

In November, Columbia Records released the Born to Run 30th Anniversary Edition boxed set. The three-CD set includes a remastering of Springsteen's Born to Run album, released in 1975. The box set also includes a concert DVD of a never-before seen 1975 concert from London and a documentary about the making of Born to Run. This interview originally aired on Nov. 15, 2005.

British singer and songwriter Sandy Denny played a seminal role of the folk-revolution in the 1960s. From her solo work to songs like "Who Knows Where the Time Goes," recorded with Fairport Convention, Denny was loved for her wistful, honest singing style.

Z is the new album from the band My Morning Jacket. The record from the Louisville, Ky., band led by Jim James is its follow-up to 2003's popular It Still Moves.

Biographer Peter Guralnick's new book is Dream Boogie: The Triumph of Sam Cooke. Guralnick follows the life of rhythm and blues legend Sam Cooke from his roots in gospel music through his legendary career as a singer and songwriter whose hits include "You Send Me," "Only Sixteen" and many others.

Singer and pianist Shirley Horn died last week on October 21st at the age of 71. In 1992, Horn took part in a concert and interview with Fresh Air. Playing with her was her long time drummer Steve Williams and bassist Charles Ables (who died in 2002).

Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews Fiona Apple's third album, Extraordinary Machine.

Musicians Harry Connick Jr. and Branford Marsalis, two New Orleans natives, have been friends for years — back to the days when Connick took piano lessons from Marsalis' father, Ellis

One Kiss Can Lead to Another: Girl Group Sounds, Lost and Found, is a new Rhino four-disc compilation of women making music.

Rapper Emmanuel Jal was one of the "Lost Boys" — youths caught up in violence in Sudan. He later escaped to Kenya. Now he's making music about peace. His new CD is Ceasefire.

Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz reviews recordings from the Pablo Casals Festival at Prades (on the Pearl and Music & Arts labels).

Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead reviews Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall. It's a long-forgotten recording of a 1957 benefit concert, which has never been released until now.

Ken Tucker reviews new albums from Paul McCartney and The Rolling Stones.

In 1966, Neil Young joined L.A. rock band Buffalo Springfield; they split up three albums later due to inter-band fighting and their lack of commercial success. Young's new album is Praire Wind, considered a follow-up to his Harvest records.

Late Registration is the new album by hip-hop artist Kanye West. West recently drew a flurry of attention after telling an audience tuned in to a benefit concert for Hurricane Katrina victims that "George Bush doesn't care about black people."

Critic Ken Tucker reviews Little Fugitive, the new CD from Amy Rigby.