Search results for

All summer long, we've been hearing personal stories inspired by songs of summertime from musicians, writers and listeners. The series comes to an auspicious end with submissions from two listeners, who offer memories of music overheard: The Four Seasons' "Sherry" and The Four Preps' "Big Man."

Some people get more than their fair share of the action. As the songwriter behind "Wild Thing" and "Angel of the Morning," Chip Taylor has enjoyed a long life of exploits on the road — and at the track as a professional gambler. In this session from WFUV, Taylor offers a personal history tour in song.

Swedish singer Victoria Bergsman, who records as Taken by Trees, went to Pakistan to make her second album, East of Eden. The result does not sound like another ersatz "world-music" collaboration. Instead, she and producer/guitarist/engineer Andreas Soderstrom take melodies and rhythms recorded there and build on them to create their own songs. Hear the album in its entirety, a week before its Sept. 8 release.

On its sophomore album, The Low Anthem offers an inventive and surprising survey of American folk and roots music, featuring everything from Appalachian ballads to full-throated bluesy stomps.

"Afropean" singer Marie Daulne is Zap Mama. She formed the group as an a cappella quintet in the late '80s, influenced by Central Asian pygmy music. But over the years, Daulne took on more members and transformed Zap Mama into a pan-global dance group. In a session from KEXP, the group performs new songs.

A re-mastered, newly released back catalog of six albums by the Brit-punk band The Subhumans will remind you why people were knocked out by punk in the 1980s.

Khaled is Algeria's best-known singer, as well as a pioneer of the music known as rai, which means "opinion." His opinions got him exiled from his native country for the past 20 years, but he recently returned as a hero. Khaled's new CD, Liberte, is a return to his roots.

All summer long, NPR's Melissa Block has been asking musicians, listeners and a novelist about their favorite summer songs and what kind of memories they evoke. During those conversations, Block has been flooded with memories of her own. She and Madeleine Brand pick their own summer songs.

John Sebastian is probably best known for founding The Lovin' Spoonful. And who better to talk about summertime music than the voice behind "Summer In The City"? He dishes on his favorite tune for the season: The Beach Boys' "I Get Around."

The title track of Kim Kashkashian's new CD, Neharot, Neharot, is a dark, impressionistic portrait of war and mourning by Israeli composer Betty Olivero. All Things Considered host Robert Siegel was "blown away."