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A pioneering musician, and the mother of jazz singer Catherine Russell, Carline Ray died July 18. In the 1940s, Ray found a home in the all-female band The International Sweethearts of Rhythm as a guitarist and vocalist. In 2012, Fresh Air spoke with Russell about her mother.

Singer, songwriter and driving creative force James Mercer discusses changing lineups and embracing vintage sounds on a long-awaited new album.

Frontman Jason Pierce has been through a lot in the past decade: a bout of pneumonia, ongoing liver disease and a history of drug use. But in writing the band's latest album, he plays things safer.

The band takes its quirks of production, rhythm and rhyme and brilliantly arranges them to work behind the Tiny Desk.

Each year we get thousands of submissions for our annual Tiny Desk contest. Seattle's Kuinka was one of last year's entrants. While they didn't win, we loved them so much we invited them to come play.

The Street Performer Protocol is the name of a system posted by two computer security consultants a couple of years ago that offered musicians a way to make money selling records in the rapidly-changing digital world. Their proposal amounts to setting a virtual hat on the virtual sidewalk to collect money from fans. That's literally what Stephen King has done with his online book, "The Plant." King just posted the second chapter after more than 3/4 of the 150,000 fans who downloaded the first chapter last month sent him a dollar each. Now the British progressive rock band, Marillion, is offering a similar proposal to its fans: "send us money to record our new album and we'll send you a copy - plus a bonus disc - BEFORE it hits the stores." So far, the band has raised more than 100,000 pounds. NPR News' Rick Karr reports.

Cabaret singer Maude Maggart has a show biz pedigree — her grandparents performed together in a swing band in the 1930s and '40s, her parents met in the original cast of the Broadway musical Applause and her little sister is pop star Fiona Apple. Her shows and albums have been earning rave reviews.

For the Cherryholmes family, bluegrass is more than just a pastime that morphed into a career. It was cathartic for dealing with the death of their oldest child, Shelley. On the band's third CD, Don't Believe, the Cherryholmes still deal with the profound emotions triggered by that loss.

Tia Fuller composes for both saxophone and flute. She says her latest album, Healing Space, is a manifestation of her spirituality. It's also a testament to the bonds of a musical family.

The making of Guns N' Roses' Chinese Democracy took more than a decade, during which time the hard-rock band spent many millions of dollars and experienced the departure of every prominent band member except reclusive singer Axl Rose. Now that the album is finally in stores, does it live up to expectations?