We’re going to fall out about this, obviously. But here we go. Let’s just start with the idea that a riff is a short, repeated musical figure that can be melodic or rhythmic. We’ve allowed for a bit ...

The reigning Kansas State Flatpicking Champion is discussing his big win last year and reflecting on his musical career. Last ...

These missionaries introduced a European musical landscape characterised by rigid hymn structure, translated liturgy, and ...

The Verve's 1997 album 'Urban Hymns' perfected the art of soulful indie, with songs growing into anthems for fans. But what song defines Richard Ashcroft?

The Prom ended with Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, at least as virtuosic as the Strauss, and like Simpson’s concerto, fortified by an extravagant array of percussionists. Bihlmaier showed herself a ...

Father John Misty, the cerebral crooner of the hipster age, has entered his refined smoking jacket era. At Berkeley’s Greek ...

Attempting to emerge from the shadow of 1989's sprawling eighth album, Disintegration, the band, fronted by Robert Smith, were hoping they could jump back on the more universal rails they’d once ...

The guitar is the epicentre of so much contemporary music, and not just in the West; in classical music, however, if not quite marginal, it’s no rival for the piano and the violin. Still, there ...

When Ashley Monroe needs a reminder of what she’s been through, she reads a letter she wrote as a teenager on the two-year anniversary of her father’s death. It is a manifestation of sorts — a prayer ...

Country singer Ashley Monroe talks about returning with a roots-filled new album, 'Tennessee Lightning,' after a stylistic detour and cancer time-out.

In Kohima, Nagaland’s hilltop capital, music is not an extracurricular pursuit. It is life itself. Every home has a guitar resting in a corner, and melodies are ...

Pushing back at the politics of hate and fear, the New York-based Pakistani American musician offers a radical fusion of ...