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President Obama’s nominees to the nation's arts and humanities endowments are either safe and predictable -- or a major shake-up. We hear different reactions from reporter Robin Pogrebin of the New York Times and David A. Smith, a senior lecturer in American history at Baylor University and the author of ...

This week’s picks include the roots of reggae, a concerto fit for Hollywood and a sonic journey around the world. Read staff reviews of these picks on the Soundcheck blog.

Phil Kline, Around The World In A Daze (Starkland)

Various artists, Joe Gibbs: Scorchers From the Early Years, ...

Brazilian guitarist Guilherme Monteiro has worked as a sideman to jazz musicians like bassist Ron Carter and Latin artists like singer Lila Downs and percussionist Duduka da Fonseca. He also reinvents the music of northeastern Brazil as a member of the New York-based Forro in the Dark. All these rhythms ...

President Obama's Arts & Humanities team is now complete, as Iowa Republican Jim Leach joins the previously announced Rocco Landesman; Leach will run the NEH and Landesman the NEA. Of the two, the NEA is the one that's had the bigger bullseye on its back, a lingering aftershock of the culture wars of the early 90s, when the NEA funded a series of controversial art projects (the Robert Mapplethorpe photos, for example) that had conservatives in Congress threatening to kill the agency entirely.

This week’s picks include the roots of reggae, a concerto fit for Hollywood and a sonic journey around the world ...