Bob Boilen

There's a climactic passage, near the end of Gregory Alan Isakov's "Amsterdam," that's punctuated by a moment in a glorious piece of stop-motion animation by Laura Goldhamer. I won't spoil it with description, but I understand how it took her a month and a half to create it. Here are ...

Robert Plant was just brilliant in Brooklyn on Sept. 28. Plant and his Sensational Space Shifters played a stunning set of music that did what Robert Plant does best: mixing up American blues, British rock, North African rhythms and even some electronica with that voice, still filled with ...

My admiration for Jackson Browne began with his first album in 1971. I was wowed by the fact that the singer-songwriter had worked with Nico of Velvet Underground fame — his girlfriend at the time — on her first album, Chelsea Girl. He wrote one of my favorite songs ...

My favorite song from tUnE-yArDs 2014 release Nikki Nack has gotten a wacky, cartoony visual treatment.

Merrill Garbus, the uke-looping, drum-beating, vibrant singer behind tUnE-yArDs, says that "Real Thing" was the one song on the album that she didn't actually want to make into a video. "It has too many ...

Earlier this year I heard a voice like no other. In fact, when I heard the song "Different Pulses," I was sure it was a woman. I imagined someone like Janis Joplin. But the singer, the young Israeli Asaf Avidan, is the man in the photo above. He's ...

Caroline Rose was my favorite discovery at last week's Americana Music Festival in Nashville. She's punky and witty, with a style teetering on rockabilly in its stripped-down, bluesy way. Caroline Rose's saddle shoes scream fun, but her lyrics tell some serious stories.

"Blood On Your Bootheels" is a ...

There's something heartwarming about a family making music together. I'm especially sentimental when I see a father with a son, because my son and I made music in contra dance bands and Irish sessions as he grew up.

Years ago, while interviewing Jeff Tweedy before a Wilco concert, I ...

My history with Half Japanese goes back a long way. My band Tiny Desk Unit played to many of the same people at many of the same venues in Washington, D.C. back in the late '70s and early '80s. I saw them often at a loft space called D.C. Space, ...

I've spent more time listening to Luluc's second album, Passerby, than any other album this year. It's a calming, seemingly effortless affair: a marriage of graceful singing and storytelling, with guitars and textures that help create an unforgettable aura.

The voice and acoustic guitar belong to Zoë Randell, while bandmate ...

Here's a sweet song filmed on a faux '60s TV show set. Kevin Morby, who recently moved from New York to Los Angeles, played in Woods as a bassist and The Babies (now on hiatus) as a guitarist and singer. I saw Morby on a recent solo tour for his ...

If someone said that the band GOAT took its name from the initials for "Get Out A Tambourine," it'd be easy to believe. The Swedish collective makes irresistible trance/dance music that doubles as hypnotic hippie hoodoo. GOAT captures the spirit of the '60s in its guitar meanderings and acid tones; ...

Holly Williams is a powerful singer and a songwriter. She writes songs from the heart and I've witnessed this song bring more than a few people to tears (I'm included). You may know Holly Williams as the daughter of Hank Williams Jr., and the granddaughter of Hank Williams, though the ...

President Obama presented his plan to “degrade and ultimately destroy” the militant group calling itself the Islamic State — and which the president calls ISIL — to the American people last night.

The president’s plan involves arming moderate Syrian opposition forces, extending U.S. airstrikes against the Islamic State into Syria ...

Like a fog horn over dark waters, the opening brass sets the tone for this alluring song from Mirah. "No Direction Home" is probably the darkest song on her 2014 album Changing Light and this video plays with that darkness, using a lighthouse as its centerpiece. ...

Last week in New York City, on the fringe of Times Square, a band of busy artists gathered in a building brimming with songwriting history. The Brill Building's golden age, when songs like "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" and "Be My Baby" were written in its offices, are in the ...

George Harrison's first six solo albums are being reissued as a box set called George Harrison: The Apple Years 1968-75. Those albums, from his days on The Beatles' label Apple Records, were I think his strongest, most interesting records: Wonderwall Music, Electronic Sound, All Things Must Pass, Living In The ...

We threw a curve ball at Justin Townes Earle. Despite his five albums full of well-loved songs, we asked him to play new material for this Tiny Desk Concert; songs we hadn't yet heard. Earle's new album Single Mothers comes out this week, and here he performs two tracks ...

Barbra Streisand, one of the most loved singers of all time and the best-selling female recording artist ever (according to RIAA statistics) has teamed up with the ever soulful, gospel-inspired singer John Legend on a song she originally recorded with Bee Gees singer and songwriter Barry Gibb in ...

These days, Jessica Lea Mayfield is all contrasts, starting with the way she sets her wistful voice against her shimmering guitar. It's got a harder edge to it than the rootsier music of her past. Then there's that cotton-candy hair and all the glitter; her guitar glitters, her eyes ...

Geneviève Bellemare is a new voice collaborating with experienced producers, including Mitchell Froom (Paul McCartney, Randy Newman, Pearl Jam), Paul O'Duffy (Amy Winehouse and James Bond soundtracks), busbee (Katy Perry, Pink) and Tony Berg (Lucius, Edie Brickell). The music found on her new EP, Live and Die, out ...