Features

Guitar hero Jimmy Hendrix is rock's No1

Video: Top 20 guitar riffs of all time

A new poll has named the top 20 guitar riffs of all time — the timeless classics that rock star wannabes practice in front of the bedroom mirror with a tennis racquet when nobody else is around.

Inside Features

New York Dolls: Anarchy from the USA

Monday, 30 November 2009

The cross-dressing pioneers of punk, the New York Dolls, begin a UK tour. James McNair talks to the band whose excesses have become part of rock'n'roll legend

Joss Stone - 'Well, I’m supposed to be a diva bitch'

Saturday, 28 November 2009

Guy Adams meets the feisty young star who refuses to kowtow to the suits – or to her fellow celebrities.

Ways to say goodbye

Friday, 27 November 2009

Chris Mugan: Corinne Bailey Rae's new album is suffused with sorrow over the death of her husband. Vini Reilly has recorded apaean to Factory Records legend Tony Wilson. The pain of bereavement can be heard in music.

Keith Jarrett - The fine art of extra-sensory improvisation

Friday, 27 November 2009

The jazz giant Keith Jarrett talks to Kevin le Gendre about the challenges of playing what has not been played before, the struggle to avoid self-repetition and the need for a life away from the city

The Barometer: The Phoenix Foundation, Alicia Keys, Rain Machine, Rolling Stones, Animal Collective, and The Muppets

Friday, 27 November 2009

What’s hot on our playlist

Observations: Faryl in a winter wonderland

Friday, 27 November 2009

While most teenagers are squabbling with their parents over pocket money, the teen classical singing sensation Faryl Smith, 14, has been busy signing a £2.3m record deal with Decca.

Observations: Tyondai Braxton: Experiment and expectation

Friday, 27 November 2009

As Tyondai Braxton knows, the process whereby a final master copy of an artist's album is rendered can be stressful. "Frankly, I nearly lost my mind," he says.

Mayer Hawthorne - Haircut's worked it all out

Friday, 27 November 2009

Mayer Hawthorne has fans in Ashton Kutcher and John Mayer. Guy Adams meets a rising soul star with shades of Jarvis Cocker

Caught in the Net: The heart of darkness

Friday, 27 November 2009

There are plenty of people, myself included, who will argue (far too long into the night) that alt-country icon Will Oldham (left) was at his very best on the first album to utilise his Bonnie "Prince" Billy pseudonym; 1999's "I See a Darkness". A standout on the record was the blackly comic and brilliantly brooding "Death to Everyone". Now he has revisited the track in a live recording – reimagined as a rip-roaring bluegrass meets mariachi meets Hasidic jaunty work-out. Once again it is majestic. The track arrives as an exclusive out-take from his new live album, this time released under the name Bonnie Billy, alongside Kentucky bluegrass band the Picket Line. The track is a free download from dragcity.com. It precedes the LP 'Funtown Comedown', which features songs from Oldham's back catalogue (and monikers), as well as a few covers of some country music classics. The record is released on vinyl and digital download only on 15 December. As the final line "Death to Everyone" declares, "It makes living almost seem fun". Indeed.

Cultural Life: Annie Lennox, Singer

Friday, 27 November 2009

MusicA terrible admission I know, but I listen to music very rarely. I love the process of creating music. That's where I come alive. Sometimes, almost randomly, I do stumble upon something that really intrigues me, and I rediscover the power of it all over again.

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