By Jason Diamond, eMusic ContributorI once described Bosco Delrey's to a friend as "Quintron building a time machine so he could start a band with Gene Vincent," and that person just stared at me for a moment, scratched his head and… more »

By eMusic Editorial Staff, eMusic ContributorFrom doting to derelict, supportive to destructive, pop music contains mothers of every stripe. This year for Mother's Day, we decided to showcase 20 of pop music's more prominent moms. Any of them look familiar? more »

You can call me Old

By Jason Diamond, eMusic ContributorIt was great when everybody was jocking Vampire Weekend a few years back and you heard Paul Simon's Graceland at parties without the hint of irony that sometimes accompanies albums from the 80s. But now when I think about… more »

By Mikael Wood, eMusic ContributorAndrew Bird first got notice playing violin with the Squirrel Nut Zippers, but over the last decade he's developed his own following with a series of acclaimed solo albums on which he sings, bows and… more »

By Ashley Melzer, eMusic ContributorIn 2005, Bowerbirds - Phil Moore and Beth Tacular - wrote their first songs while squatting in an abandoned schoolhouse in South Carolina. Two years later, they released Hymns for a Dark Horse, their debut… more »

By Richard Gehr, eMusic ContributorWow. Ladysmith Black Mambazo, the venerable South African male a cappella group who netted international appeal thanks to Paul Simon's Graceland, sure have a lot of friends. Many of them are familiar American names, like… more »

By eMusic Editorial Staff, eMusic ContributorIt was a year full of surprising breakouts and breathtaking discoveries, with reliable favorites from familiar faces and strong entries from new voices. These are our Top 100 Records of 2011. more »

By Arye Dworken, eMusic ContributorOf all the sacrifices a Jew has to make in this very Christian country, one of them is being subjected to the month long immersion in Christmas songs. If osmosis took place through music, I'd… more »

By Andy Beta, eMusic ContributorYou've seen how the Muscle Shoals ghost reacted to the music of School of Seven Bells. Now, take a few minutes to learn about the history of this great studio, and familiarize yourself with a… more »

By eMusic Editorial Staff, eMusic ContributorPhoto Credit: Don Hunstein "There was a period where [Paul Simon] might have been one of the people to rebel against because he was so successful and musically slick," David Byrne told Time Out New York… more »

By Michelangelo Matos, eMusic ContributorHaving written songs and recorded with musicians in styles ranging from reggae to salsa to gospel, it was hardly surprising that Paul Simon would fall under the sway of South African mbaqanga, or township jive.… more »

By Barry Walters, eMusic ContributorSince his 1986 blockbuster Graceland, Paul Simon has been writing songs the same way an MC pens rhymes — to beats or to nearly finished tracks. So Beautiful or So What flips that script. Its… more »

By Michelangelo Matos, eMusic ContributorHaving written songs and recorded with musicians in styles ranging from reggae to salsa to gospel, it was hardly surprising that Paul Simon would fall under the sway of South African mbaqanga, or township jive.… more »

By Michelangelo Matos, eMusic ContributorInitially intended for a Simon & Garfunkel reunion album, it's probably a good thing these songs didn't have Artie on them — tracks like "Cars Are Cars," "Think Too Much (A)" and "When Numbers Get… more »

By Michelangelo Matos, eMusic ContributorThere's more down than up on Paul Simon's 1972 solo bow, but often those moments are droll rather than depressive. The album's sequencing helps pick them back up, as when the muted "Everything Put Together… more »

By Michelangelo Matos, eMusic ContributorFollowing a funny bit part in Woody Allen's Annie Hall, Paul Simon decided to make a movie of his own, writing and starring in 1980's One Trick Pony as a washed-up singer struggling with his… more »

By Michelangelo Matos, eMusic ContributorThe chances that this 1990 album would turn the idea behind Paul Simon's fluke hit of four years prior — write the songs to rhythm tracks cut beforehand by musicians from foreign countries — a… more »

By Michelangelo Matos, eMusic ContributorToo often, Still Crazy After All These Years doesn't take the advice Paul Simon lays out in the atypically upbeat "Have a Good Time": "Paranoia strikes deep in the heartland/But I think it's overdone/Exaggerating this,… more »

By Michelangelo Matos, eMusic ContributorPaul Simon's 1972 debut dropped the nervous-student aspect of his songwriting and eased into a more conversational mode. On the 1973 follow-up, There Goes Rhymin' Simon, he re-embraced the pop savvy that had made his… more »

By Michelangelo Matos, eMusic ContributorGive Simon credit for at least attempting to be funny about his age. Fifty-nine the year of 2000's You're the One was released, its high point is "Old," whose opening line ("The first time I… more »

By James McNair, eMusic ContributorHarper Simon began his musical apprenticeship early, singing with his famous father Paul on Sesame Street at age four, then playing guest guitar on his father's Graceland tour at the ripe old age of 12.… more »

By Michelangelo Matos, eMusic ContributorFor a guy whose image is as set in stone as Paul Simon's - well-off Manhattanite liberal intellectual, on the depressive side, three times married - and considering how infrequently he releases new albums, he's… more »