UNCUT

8 min read

WRITTEN in a cellar, recorded in a bedsit and released by a start-up independent label run from a record shop in Dudley, the debut single by Brummie reggae quartet UB40 was an instant success story that surprised everyone except the band. “We were co

Cowboys & Indians

1 min read

I t’s not easy to find classic country music, but through his top-rated television show and highly successful radio show, Perley Curtis is making it his mission to keep the traditional genre alive. Fans tune in to Perley’s Place weekly on RFD-TV to s

Reader's Digest UK

6 min read

MY EARLIEST MEMORY WAS THE SONG “NOW IS THE HOUR”, which was a big hit for Vera Lynn shortly after the war. Bing Crosby recorded that in the Fifties, and that might have been the version that I heard, because a lot of big singers at the time recorded

NPR

1 min read

Justin Vernon of Bon Iver performed an intimate set featuring "Heavenly Father" and a cover of Leon Russell's "A Song For You."

NPR

5 min read

The best Live Sessions of 2021 feature performances from Japanese Breakfast, Samm Henshaw, Yola and many more.

MAXIM New Zealand

3 min read

This was the final piece of the puzzle which we made to set the tone for everything to come and draw the listener in for “Club Called Heaven”. In 2018 we had the privilege to play the notorious Heaven nightclub in Charing Cross London. The crowd took

BBC Music Magazine

3 min read

The Carpenters – Richard and his younger sister Karen – were the biggestselling group of the 1970s, with hits like ‘We’ve Only Just Begun’ and ‘Top of the World’ charting worldwide. After Karen’s death in 1983, Richard released a handful of solo albu

MAXIM Australia

3 min read

This was the final piece of the puzzle which we made to set the tone for everything to come and draw the listener in for “Club Called Heaven”. In 2018 we had the privilege to play the notorious Heaven nightclub in Charing Cross London. The crowd took

NPR

1 min read

Penguin Cafe folds in sounds from around the world and throughout music history — Africa, Kraftwerk, Brazil and Franz Schubert.

Classic Rock

2 min read

IT WAS 2002’S sizzling Live At The Wetlands album that introduced a young Robert Randolph And The Family Band to the world. Since then the pedal-steel guitarist and singer has spent most of his adult life on the road. Earning his spurs through gospel

New Zealand Listener

5 min read

Tim Finn and Eddie Rayner first encountered each other at high school. The then-Brian Finn, a boarder from Te Awamutu, was halfback in the Sacred Heart 1st XV with a lovely singing voice. The then-Tony Rayner was a day boy from Howick, who in his sin

Goldmine

11 min read

Tower of Power boasts one of America’s greatest all-time horn sections. From their humble beginnings in the Bay Area of California way, way back in the 1960s, to their new and totally invigorating Step Up (Concord Records), the band put together by E

NPR

1 min read

Irish singer/songwriter Hozier sits down with NPR Music's Bob Boilen to discuss the lifetime of listening that led to his new EP, Nina Cried Power, and what American blues means to him.

Prog

11 min read

“I tend to plough my own furrow. I’m focused on what I’m doing and not comparing it with what other people are doing,” says Maddy Prior as Prog rounds up an afternoon’s talk about her early life and Steeleye Span reaching 50-plus years. And maybe bec

Audio Technology

10 min read

Justin Vernon, leader of the alt-folk band Bon Iver, called their 2016 album 22, A Million, “a new way of telling a story.” It was an understatement. 22, A Million was as experimental as it’s possible to get (short of going atonal), with tons of dist

Goldmine

6 min read

In 1967, The Fifth Estate stormed the Top 40 with “Ding, Dong! The Witch Is Dead,” which peaked at No.11. Obscured by the fun, novelty-tinged cover of The Wizard of Oz classic was that the band were a versatile and powerful live act. Hailing from the

NPR

1 min read

Sheryl Crow's Tiny Desk Fest concert included a handful of early hits that have become pop standards.

Australian Guitar

5 min read

The Mark Of Cain emerged from a relatively isolated city whose music scene, in the mid ‘80s, had already birthed punk acts like The Exploding White Mice and Perdition. A decade prior Adelaide had experienced the glory days of their most popular music

BBC Music Magazine

1 min read

Until recently, the name of Florence Price was alien to most concert goers. If we wanted to hear the musical voice of 20th-century America, we’d turn to Copland, Gershwin, Barber, Ives and handful of other men. But happily the world has changed, and

BBC Music Magazine

5 min read

June-December, 1927: 316,997. The initial sales figures were staggering. HMV’s innocent-seeming recording of Mendelssohn’s motet Hear My Prayer featuring the treble Ernest Lough and the choir of London’s Temple Church ‘took off like a rocket’ recalle

Total Guitar

4 min read

The images emblazoned in pop-culture’s memory of Jimmy Page in his pomp are electric. The dragon-embroidered bell-bottoms and 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard. The double-necked EDS-1275. The Telecaster and the violin bow. But just as Page changed elect

NPR

2 min read

For the second consecutive year, NPR teams up with globalFEST for a thrilling online music festival we call Tiny Desk Meets globalFEST.

NPR

1 min read

The quartet, known colloquially as Goat Rodeo, jammed out from four different homes in this Tiny Desk quarantine performance.

Goldmine

3 min read

THE SONG “Spirit in the Sky” celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, Norman Greenbaum’s sole Top 40 hit and gold single, which reached No. 3 nationally in 1970. Norman was first heard on the radio in the prior decade as a singer, guitarist and son

UNCUT

3 min read

HOW did a nice boy from Canada end up in the Pink Fairies? I was playing part-time in a strip club in Vancouver. A friend from high school wrote to me from England telling me to come over to London. He was living with a band called the Deviants abov

UNCUT

1 min read

Can you explain how Feorm Falorx evolved from intergalactic music festival to earthbound album? Andy Turner: We played this festival on a planet called Feorm just towards the end of lockdown, and when we got back we thought we would give it to Warp f

NPR

4 min read

Across the country, public radio stations (thankfully) opened their doors again in 2022 and had a busy year producing some great live music sessions. Here are the best of the bunch, featuring studio performances, home recordings and socially-distance

Classic Rock

5 min read

In August 2015, Rush played the last show of their R40 Live Tour (which turned out to be their final tour) at The Forum in LA. After the dust had settled, back home in Toronto Alex Lifeson played some golf, but soon found himself kicking his heels an

Goldmine

3 min read

THE CANADIAN QUARTET The Kings celebrate the 40th anniversary of their hit “Switchin’ to Glide,” which reached No. 43 in the U.S. in 1980, a lively song beginning with the line, “Nothing matters but the weekend, from a Tuesday point of view.” Their D

North & South

5 min read

AT A TIME when re-releases by major artists have become so grandiose the Bob Dylan Rolling Thunder tour of 1975 has spawned a 14-CD boxed set that runs for more than 10 hours, it’s a slight shock to realise one of New Zealand’s most iconic bands, Her