Music

Rock historian Ed Ward offers a retrospective on the Australian group The Go-Betweens. The band has a new album, Oceans Apart, and is currently on tour.

Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews two new releases: Coldplay's X&Y and Dressy Bessy's Electrified.

Judas Priest has a new album out, Angel of Retribution, and is on tour this summer. Originally from Birmingham, England, Judas Priest pioneered the heavy metal sound in the 1970s and '80s. Lead singer Halford left the band in 1991, citing internal tension, and in 1998, he disclosed that he is gay during an interview on MTV. Nicknamed the "Metal God," Halford returned to Judas Priest in 2003.

The legendary jazzman turns 87 on July 31, 2005. He and his trio have just released a new CD, For My Father, and he joins John Patitucci and Jack De Johnette for the Great Jazz Trio's upcoming CD, S'Wonderful.

Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead reviews two CDs: Pork Chop Blue Around the Rind from Fast and Bulbous, and The Hills Have Jazz from Eugene Chadbourne.

Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz reviews a new CD of Stephen Sondheim's private demo recordings. Proceeds from the album go to raise money for a fund to help young playwrights.

Critic-at-large John Powers reflects on the end of the Michael Jackson child molestation trial.

Grammy-winning Delbert McClinton is considered a legend among Texas roots music aficionados. He's been making music since the 1950s in a style that seamlessly blends country, blues, soul, and rock and roll. Before he became known as a singer, he was a harmonica player with the Straightjackets, backing blues legends such as Howlin' Wolf, Jimmy Reed and Sonny Boy Williamson. On tour in England in 1962, McClinton gave harmonica lessons to a young John Lennon.

Jack and Meg White are the singer-drummer duo who make up the White Stripes. Their fifth CD, Get Behind Me Satan, is being hailed as an extension of the raw, energetic sound of their earliest work.

Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews the new documentary Rock School. The film depicts the real-life school of rock in Philadelphia.

Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews the new CD by hip-hop artist Lyrics Born. It's called Same !@#$ Different Day.

Billie Holiday: The Ultimate Collection, is a two CD/one DVD collection of Holiday performances. Included along with many of the singer's classic songs are some rarely seen appearances of Holiday on 1950s television.

Rock historian Ed Ward reviews a three-disc release of a Charlie Poole recording from the 1930s. The record, You Ain't Talkin' To Me, is from the Columbia Legacy label. Poole was a banjo-playing pioneer of country music.

Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews the debut album by British 25-year-old Nic Armstrong and his band, the Thieves. The recording, The Greatest White Liar, has garnered attention with its mix of British rock and American blues.

From the trio Low, drummer Mimi Parker and singer-guitarist Alan Sparhawk. The two are husband and wife. The band made its debut in 1994 with the album I Could Live on Hope. Their most recent album The Great Destroyer (Sub Pop) is their seventh.

Heath died Thursday at the age of 81. He was the bass player for the Modern Jazz Quartet for four decades and played with Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman.

Rock historian Ed Ward tells us about the British band The Pretty Things, a band that was a spin off-of group of the early Rolling Stones. Last year they released the reissue, Come See Me: The Very Best of The Pretty Things.

Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews Devils and Dust, the new album by Bruce Springsteen. The record is mostly a solo recording, without the backing of the E-Street Band.

Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews Forever Hasn't Happened Yet the new CD by John Doe, formerly of the punk-rock band X.

Crawford is co-author of the book, "Border Radio: Quacks, Yodelers, Pitchmen, Psychics, and other Amazing Broadcasters of the American Airwaves." It's about the "border blaster" stations that set up across the Mexican border to evade U.S. regulations, and beamed their broadcasting into the United States.