When a song is inextricably linked to a movie, it can end up with an image that's a long way from what the artist might have had in mind. Stealer's Wheel's unassuming folk-rocker "Stuck In the Middle W …

In the early '70s, the creative freedom that drove rock 'n' roll rode into Nashville. Waylon Jennings fired the first shot, taking control of his music from country music's mafia of producers, writers, …

The creative explosion sparked by the early-'70s outlaws still resonates with artists today. But it also has a backwards effect, shedding light on dudes like Townes Van Zandt, who had been playing by t …

It's the decade that brought us the war in Vietnam and the Summer of Love, the first man on the Moon, the first working laser, and the first Touch-Tone telephone. It's that miraculous era when Dr. S …

One of the '60s' defining excesses - and there were many - comes in the form of the bands' names: Chocolate Watchband. Strawberry Alarm Clock. Ultimate Spinach. But make no mistake: many of thes …

The blues - a shortened version of the phrase "the blue devils," meaning everything from low spirits to the DTs - is what you feel when you're low and, transformed into music, it's what gets you back u …

Great though they were, the American superstars of blues aren't the only ones who contributed monumental recordings to the music's history. Explore further and you'll encounter more mind-blowing tracks …

In a shift that parallels the move from big bands to sparser lineups, country music in the 1950s moved from the predominance of Western swing to a more honky-tonk-friendly concentration on bare-bones c …

Beginning with the legends - Weather Report, Chick Corea, Jaco Pastorius, John McLaughlin - and continuing right up to the present with artists ranging from Diana Krall to Norah Jones, contemporary jaz …