David Dye

Ray LaMontagne says the shape of his sixth album, Ouroboros, revealed itself to him as a whole in a dream. An easy-to-interpret dream, at that: A colorful puzzle representing the songs assembled itself as a whole picture as he slept.

LaMontagne worked with My Morning Jacket's ...

There was a time when the world of World Cafe and the world of the Grammys only intersected with a few Contemporary Folk nominees. These days, that category doesn't even exist — hello, Americana! — and World Cafe guests like Melbourne's Courtney Barnett are cropping up ...

The imminent release of The Lumineers' second album, Cleopatra, warrants the cliche "long-awaited." It isn't simply the fact that the self-titled debut by the unassuming Denver trio came out almost four years ago (April 2012), but because it was the rare case of a new folk-rock artist making a ...

David Dye has been hosting NPR's World Cafe for almost 25 years. Needless to say, he's heard his fair share of music in that time, but each year offers something new and different to love.

This year, Dye fell for a mix of albums spanning many forms of ...

The highlight of World Cafe's recent Sense Of Place visit to Stockholm, Sweden, was a session recorded at X-Level Studios. Guests included The Amazing and Jose Gonzalez — and Peter Bjorn And John, who treated the show to some brand-new, unreleased songs from an album currently ...

Saun & Starr — that's Saundra Williams and Starr Duncan Lowe — have spent many years singing soul and R&B in and around New York City. After meeting at an open-mic night in 1986, Lowe and Williams became fast friends and musical partners; the two eventually began singing ...

Hop Along has more friends in the Philadelphia music scene than just about anybody; Waxahatchee's Katie Crutchfield even has a tattoo of the band's first album cover. Singer Frances Quinlan is an exciting, unorthodox performer whose phrasing in "Waitress," from Painted Shut, isn't intuitive. But that makes it all the ...

Aly Spaltro's work has always had a whimsical side. She started her career in Maine as Lady Lamb The Beekeeper and has toured a lot since releasing her national debut, Ripely Pine, in 2013. Spaltro and her band, now known as Lady Lamb, have since developed more of ...

In 2012, the musicians who formed The Suffers started jamming on ska tunes — the name comes from the 1978 reggae film Rockers/ital — and evolved into the tight, inventive "Gulf Coast soul" band it is today. Kam Franklin is a ball of energy out front, but she's only part ...

The Philadelphia-based band Hop Along is getting its national breakout moment with Painted Shut (out May 4), its second full-length and first for Saddle Creek Records.

Hop Along's power rests squarely on the talents of lead singer and writer Frances Quinlan. Her voice is huge: urgent, dynamic, sometimes harsh but ...

Brandi Carlile has a deserved reputation for a dynamic voice that she has really learned to work over the years. But it's always in service to the song. Case in point: this version of the new song "The Eye." It's a beautiful, subdued World Cafe performance with The ...

Kishi Bashi's compositions seem free and effortless, yet they require elaborate attention to detail for the magic to work. Whether he's crafting multilayered, loop-intensive solo arrangements or working with a string quartet (as he does here), it takes chops to make "Philosophize In It! Chemicalize With It!" soar. It works ...

Rhiannon Giddens' ascent began with her beat-box-infused version of Blu Cantrell's "Hit 'Em Up Style" — from Carolina Chocolate Drops' album Genuine Negro Jig — and continued with her show-stealing Gaelic song performance in the concert film Another Day, Another Time. Her take on Bob Dylan lyrics as a member ...

The World Cafe host's favorite albums from this year abide by his mantra: They put good songs first, and present them simply and authentically.

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The Cure was one of the first alternative bands to have huge commercial success in the 1980s, both in the U.K. and here in the states. Starting in 1979, the band released a trilogy of albums that established its popularity with those, who like lead singer Robert Smith, donned black ...

I love mixtapes. Don't we all? If I'm having a party or even a dinner, I meticulously program the music — even though, if it's a good party, no one will hear it because they're all talking!

Here's my Fourth of July mixtape for you. No in-studio guest today, just ...

Today's Vintage Cafe comes from 2007, when the Swedish band Peter Bjorn and John released its hit album Writer's Block. That record contained "Young Folks," a song that became the whistle-along smash of the year. Here, we'll hear performances of several songs from Writer's Block — including "Young Folks," of ...

We made 20 stellar World Cafe in-studio performances available for download during February, but they're all coming down Feb. 28 at midnight. Grab music from Neko Case, Parquet Courts, Jason Isbell and more today, before they're gone tomorrow.

To download each song, click the title in the SoundCloud playlist (the ...

This segment, from June 27, is part of our Best Of 2013 series, in which we revisit some of our most memorable interviews and performances of the year.

On his new album, Spirit in the Room, singer Tom Jones turns his formidable voice toward blues and gospel, including ...

Singer-songwriter Frank Turner has a fanatically large following in the U.K. Though he might not be filling large halls in the States quite yet, his American fans are just as dedicated and engaged.

Originally a member of the punk band Million Dead, Turner moved on to a solo ...