Bob Boilen

When The Oh Hellos piled out of a van at NPR, someone remarked that it was like a clown car: Band members just kept coming, including brother and sister Tyler and Maggie Heath and their mom. They were all road-weary, trading sniffles, coughs and more. But the nine-piece group brought ...

This essay first appeared in the 2010 book This Is NPR: The First Forty Years, a collection of writing by NPR staff and contributors.

I should have cared more, but I didn't. I should have cried, but I didn't.

He meant so much to me.

But the ...

In this installment of The Martin Atkins Minute, the professor, producer and former Public Image Ltd. drummer wonders what it means to be a rock star in a world flipped on its head. It's a world where Dunkin' Donuts is selling chicken sandwiches, Burger King is peddling glazed donuts, ...

Bob loves it. He hates it. He's on the fence about it. Lyrics from Courtney Barnett's "Pedestrian At Best," from Bob Boilen's favorite album of 2015, could also stand in for his feelings about the music he listened to all year. But today we're here to celebrate the ...

The music of 27-year-old rapper Melissa Jefferson, who goes by the name Lizzo on stage, is full of soul. Though she spent much of her life in Houston, she's become a favorite in her adopted hometown of Minneapolis, working with members of the Doomtree collective and showing up on Prince's ...

In 2009, The Dry Spells released Too Soon For Flowers, a folky rock album that became an instant best friend. Then, as far as I could tell, they vanished. But now there's new music from this Bay Area ensemble, a song called "Heliotrope," and I feel like an ...

On this week's All Songs Considered we share a track from Macklemore and Ryan Lewis featuring Leon Bridges premiered on the All Songs blog. And after a 10-year hiatus from releasing new music, Missy Elliott is back in action with a song that ...

Great singers aren't easy to come by, so finding three in one band is something special. The Wild Reeds' music shines when Sharon Silva, Kinsey Lee and Mackenzie Howe harmonize, but each also takes a leading role — and that's the power of the L.A. band, whose songs are clear ...

Adele's 25 is finally here. The singer's long-awaited third album arrived today, but all week, anticipation has surged. We learned that 25 won't be available to stream on services like Spotify. It's projected (this is probably not a coincidence) to sell somewhere around 2.5 ...

There's new music from David Bowie, a song called "Blackstar" but represented by the image of a large black star. It's accompanied by an odd and ritualistic film by the director Johan Renck. He's known for his work on Breaking Bad and has made music videos with Beach House.

Bowie ...

I've spent the past few years talking with musicians about a song that altered the course of their life. Now those conversations are making up my first book, called Your Song Changed My Life: From Jimmy Page to St. Vincent, Smokey Robinson to Hozier, Thirty-Five Beloved Artists on Their Journey ...

Music can provide a space for healing, feeling and thought. Following the terrorist attacks in Paris, including at a show in that city's Bataclan concert hall, we were compelled to play music with a meditative tone, songs that allow space and time for reflection. A tune Bob Boilen found himself ...

Nathaniel Rateliff and his band The Night Sweats are on fire, with concerts that get feet moving and bodies swaying, fueled by rhythm and booze.

It wasn't always this way: In the past, Rateliff would be more easily described as a folk artist. When I saw him recently at ...

Ask a Bruce Springsteen fan about the holy grails of his concerts and you're likely to hear about a 1980 Tempe, Ariz. show. Today NPR Music has video of Springsteen performing "The River" from that very concert. The brilliant performance — or at least much of it — ...

One of my favorite discoveries at this year's CMJ Music Marathon in New York City was Stolen Jars. The band is the project of Cody Fitzgerald, Molly Grund and friends. They make music that at times has the stuttered feel of progressive rock, but with a gentler, lilting ...

Brian Burton has good taste. As Danger Mouse, he's won five Grammy Awards and worked with everyone from the Black Keys to Gorillaz to Adele. Now the musician, songwriter and producer is adding another impressive project to his resume: his own record label.

Burton's new label, 30th Century Records, is ...

This week's All Songs Considered is an emotional roller coaster. Hosts Bob Boilen and Robin Hilton start off mellow with the sweet, acoustic Many Rooms, only to pull the rug out from under it with a monstrously good tune from Grimes. Then we've got intricate Ethiopian accordion rhythms from Hailu ...

The first time I saw Aurora sing, it appeared so new to her that each note, and each hand gesture accompanying each note, seemed like a discovery and an adventure for the singer. She was 18 when I first saw her in New York City, and now the Norwegian singer ...

My Bubba is the duo of Sweden's My and Iceland's Bubba, women whose quirky, delicate, sweetly sung folk songs are a delight. The centerpiece of their tunes are the harmonies, but the backing instrumentation is equally intimate, from handclaps to an old table harp and acoustic guitar.

The pair's current ...

We've known and loved Carrie Brownstein for years now, not only for her guitar shredding in the band Sleater-Kinney — or her work with Fred Armisen on the IFC comedy Portlandia — but for her longtime contributions to NPR Music. For several years after Sleater-Kinney broke up in 2006, ...