Nov 26th, 2008 · Making his third appearance on Mountain Stage, Billy Bragg is best known in America for teaming up with Wilco to set some newly unearthed Woody Guthrie lyrics to music on 2000's Mermaid Avenue. But in his native England, Billy Bragg is highly regarded as an egalitarian songsmith who sings for the working class.
Nov 5th, 2008 · New England's last Republican Congressman Christopher Shays of Connecticut has lost his seat. He was ousted by Democrat and former Goldman Sachs executive Jim Himes. Himes talks about the upset and his plans for Connecticut's Fourth District.
Oct 22nd, 2008 · Just in time for Halloween: A wax head of singer Paul McCartney is on the loose. The mop-topped likeness came from a wax museum at a seaside resort in England. A London auctioneer had taken it — in a cardboard box — to be appraised. And then left the box under a train seat somewhere between London and Reading. There's a reward for the head of Sir Paul, whose whereabouts remained something of a magical mystery.
Oct 3rd, 2008 · A sonically adventurous rock band from Manchester, England, Elbow has gone through its share of record labels on its way to cult stardom. Nominated for the Mercury Prize in 2001, the group has since settled into a run of highly regarded albums, though it continues to hopscotch from label to label.
Sep 26th, 2008 · Musician and composer Ant Neely is an advocate of literally spreading his music around the world. A member of the electronic band Subthunk, Neely has turned the release of his first solo album, Not Fit For Human Consumption, into a global experiment by leaving copies of the CD in public locations for people to find, copy, and then leave someplace else. With the help of those who find the CDs, Neely is tracking the movement of his album on his Web site. One disc made its way from England to Brazil while another hopped around the U.K. before landing in Africa.
Sep 23rd, 2008 · Have a listen to The Invasion's debut album, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Madness, and you might be inclined to wonder which part of England the rock quartet is from. Yet despite similarities to Radiohead and Muse, the band actually hails from Naples, Idaho.
Sep 14th, 2008 · Hanif Kureishi is one of England's best-known novelists and screenwriters. Race and sex and cultural divides in London have always been Kureishi's territory, and they still are. In his latest novel, Something To Tell You, the characters are older, their sexual foibles darker — and the narrator is a psychologist named Jamal Khan — a man who has a lot of guilt.
Aug 15th, 2008 · Sheffield is home to Arctic Monkeys and, as such, any other band that emerges from the city in central England is likely to draw comparisons. That's certainly true for the pop group Harrisons. The Sheffield quartet formed four years ago and hasn't been able to shake the Arctic Monkeys connection since. But to be fair, Harrisons have a sound that unquestionably channels some of the most popular Brit-pop and punk bands that came before them.