May 2020

Over the decades, the ever-changing vocabulary of popular song reflects cultural shifts in America Over the decades, the most used words in popular songs have changed as the culture changes. Songwriters of each era often pay…

Lucian Ban, John Surman and Mat Maneri bring a new treatment – ​​and musical chemistry – to the stripped-down folk transcriptions of 20th-century Hungarian composer Béla Bartók. TERRY GROSS, HOST:…

May brings warm weather and blooming flowers here in the northern hemisphere. In folk songs, it also brings courtship. Countless traditional ballads in the English language (and in other languages…