Ann Powers
Ann Powers is NPR Music's critic and correspondent. She writes for NPR's music news blog, The Record, and she can be heard on NPR's newsmagazines and music programs.
One of the nation's most notable music critics, Powers has been writing for The Record, NPR's blog about finding, making, buying, sharing and talking about music, since April 2011.
Powers served as chief pop music critic at the Los Angeles Times from 2006 until she joined NPR. Prior to the Los Angeles Times, she was senior critic at Blender and senior curator at Experience Music Project. From 1997 to 2001 Powers was a pop critic at The New York Times and before that worked as a senior editor at the Village Voice. Powers began her career working as an editor and columnist at San Francisco Weekly.
Her writing extends beyond blogs, magazines and newspapers. Powers co-wrote Tori Amos: Piece By Piece, with Amos, which was published in 2005. In 1999, Power's book Weird Like Us: My Bohemian America was published. She was the editor, with Evelyn McDonnell, of the 1995 book Rock She Wrote: Women Write About Rock, Rap, and Pop and the editor of Best Music Writing 2010.
After earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in creative writing from San Francisco State University, Powers went on to receive a Master of Arts degree in English from the University of California.
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On the singer's new album, a departure from the rootsy sounds of her albums with the Nocturnals, pop-rock music gets a real kick in its cherry-red pants.
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Though it's sure to attract accolades like "pure" and "classic," the country star's 15th album never seems mired in the past. -
The Athens, Ala., native's pie-sweet drawl and fondness for Wilson Pickett-style shouts are a perfect fit within the classic soul settings he creates with producer Dave Cobb. -
A young singer who works in the mode of classic soul, Leon Bridges' songs are made with deep respect and bottomless affection, and his studied appropriations are so detailed that they come alive. -
More than three decades after Pancho & Lefty, the country titans pair up again, this time for an album that puts eclecticism front and center. -
On her first studio album since 2008, the 74-year-old firebrand's voice remains relevant, full of spit and vinegar and fun. -
On her second album, Sprinter, Torres confronts the problem of confession head-on and proceeds to annihilate its boundaries. -
Stapleton presents himself as a true Southern character, a family man who clings to his vices and a searcher whose dreams of home don't prevent him from wanting to roam. -
The country singer-songwriter's 15th studio album feels as fresh as anything he's ever done. Better yet, these songs were built to be played live. -
On the dizzying title track from her career-making new album, Torres sings of flailing against confinement like a talented but rebellious teen while the track rises and falls like a pubescent mood.
