BARRY MANILOW The dangers of pop stardom inspire his first new songs in a decade Maybe Barry Manilow’s latest should include a thank-you to Britney Spears. “I was watching her being chased by the paparazzi,” Manilow says. “This young, talented singer just trying to live her life, but being followed everywhere. I thought, ‘Is this the price of fame now?’” The question inspired his first album of all-new material in a decade, penned with... 

DOLLY PARTON After four decades of hits, the queen of country still sparkles “Grindstones and rhinestones, that made up my life/But I’ve shined like a diamond through sacrifice,” sings Dolly Parton on “The Sacrifice,” one of several autobiographical songs on her new album, Better Day. The line neatly sums up an astonishing career. Over the years, Parton’s ambitions have taken her into acting, film production, philanthropy and countless... 

CHICK COREA After five decades, this jazz pioneer forever returns with something new By Jeff Tamarkin A half-century into one of the most storied careers in jazz history, Chick Corea finds himself drawn to the allure of live performance now more than ever. “Rather than pull back and say, ‘Well, I’m getting a little older, I’ll tour less,’ I decided to do the opposite and tour more,” says the keyboard giant, who recently turned 70. The... 

JAY JOYCE Whether it’s country, indie rock or something in between, the vibe is king By Michael Gallant For Jay Joyce, producing isn’t a matter of hitting every right note, tracking with the finest mics or working with the hippest software plug-ins. Nope, it’s all about the vibe. “My job is knowing when and where a beautiful moment is happening, and capturing it,” he says. “Making records is a totally spiritual thing.” Joyce’s approach... 

TOM MORELLO A fearless guitarist channels his righteous rage By Russell Hall “I’ve tried to take off the blinders in regard to what could be done with a guitar,” says Tom Morello. “I’m like the Old McDonald of the instrument, going through a barnyard of sounds. I might not be able to make the guitar ‘moo’ or sound like a hay thrasher, but if you’re aiming for that instead of Chuck Berry riffs you wind up at a place that’s different.” Morello... 

YES For Chris Squire, life in a progressive-rock giant means perpetual change A total of 16 musicians have counted themselves members of the rock powerhouse Yes since the group’s formation in England more than 40 years ago. At the center of this whirlwind of constant inconstancy has been bass player Chris Squire, who has carried the group’s flame through changes in lineup and style, as well as periods of dormancy and uncertainty. “It’s a... 

AMERICA A classic pop group’s 40th anniversary is marked by triumph and tragedy Gerry Beckley and Dewey Bunnell of America are celebrating their fourth decade together with an album of cover versions, Back Pages, which harks back to the group’s formation as high school friends living abroad in England. America immediately scored with megahits like “A Horse With No Name,” “Ventura Highway” and “Sister Golden Hair” before fellow founding... 

MARIANNE FAITHFULL A legendary rock chanteuse talks sad songs and horror stories Yes, singer, songwriter and actress Marianne Faithfull’s 1964 breakthrough hit “As Tears Go By” was written by the Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Yes, she and Jagger dated throughout the late ’60s. No, she doesn’t want to talk about it. “I don’t even mention their names,” she says. “Those people are written out of my picture.”... 

“WEIRD AL” YANKOVIC Rock’s favorite “pop-culture Cuisinart” is still mixing things up “Weird Al” Yankovic is in St. Charles, Mo.—at least, he thinks so. “I’m pretty sure I am,” he reports by phone. “They took the bag off my head and here I was.” He may prefer to open with a joke, but the man born Alfred Matthew Yankovic takes the craft of skewering the music world just as seriously today as he did when he first burst onto... 

DEF LEPPARD Phil Collen and Vivian Campbell are hard rock’s double-barrel dream team By Russell Hall Chemistry is a delicate thing among the members of any band—but in a hard-rock outfit with a trademark two-guitar attack like Def Leppard, there is another, secondary chemistry that must also be just right. Guitarists Phil Collen and Vivian Campbell have for nearly two decades forged a perfect balance between the former’s more technically minded,... 

ADAM ANDERS Glee’s music man runs one of the world’s biggest hit-making machines By Michael Gallant Adam Anders remembers his first season as executive music producer for the hit TV show Glee with a mix of pride and horror. “It was brutal,” he says. He and production partner Peer Åström worked six days a week, often running on a few hours sleep per night. “It was horrendous, but I love doing it,” he says. “And we have a much better... 

BÉLA FLECK The banjo virtuoso breaks boundaries again with his original Flecktones By Steven Rosen Béla Fleck made the banjo dangerous. Before he picked it up, the instrument was mostly consigned to the province of old-fashioned country and bluegrass tunes. But all that changed in 1979 when the native New Yorker recorded his first solo album, Crossing the Tracks. “I was really intent on being good on the banjo,” Fleck says. “So I learned... 

COLBIE CAILLAT Falling in love, making new friends and sharing more of herself than ever Colbie Caillat believes in fate. In fact, it plays a major role in the songs on her third album, All of You. The 26-year-old California singer wrote most of the tunes about her relationship with guitarist Justin Young. Caillat wasn’t looking for a boyfriend, but she had just released an album and hired a band that happened to include Young. A connection was... 

MARC BROUSSARD This son of Louisiana’s Cajun country prefers humanity to perfection A signed picture of local native Marc Broussard hangs on the wall at Don’s Country Mart grocery store in Carencro, La., but the acclaimed singer and guitarist doesn’t get treated like a celebrity around here. “They don’t really know what I do,” he says with a laugh. “And that’s fine with me. Here in Cajun country, that’s just how you supplement your... 

MY MORNING JACKET One of rock’s leading bands hits the gym to reset its circuits My Morning Jacket bassist Tom “Two-Tone Tommy” Blankenship is out of breath, and there are a few possible reasons. Most likely that he just completed a morning workout at his Louisville, Ky., home. But it’s also possible he’s still collecting himself after his band’s electrifying set from days earlier at this year’s Bonnaroo Music Festival. Or he may just... 

JOSS STONE How one whirlwind week in Nashville offered her a fresh start Joss Stone was in Spain last year, helping a friend repair his boat, when producer and Eurythmics co-founder Dave Stewart rang with an intriguing proposal: Fly to Nashville and make an album in just a few days. “I thought, ‘Wow, that sounds like a good idea,’ so I did,” the 24-year-old British soul singer remembers. She told her friend, filmmaker and photographer Paul... 

ROBBIE ROBERTSON Finding good medicine by fearlessly facing his past Robbie Robertson always avoided addressing touchy subjects like his early days with the Band, his decision to leave the group in 1977, and his wild times during those days with his longtime collaborator, movie director Martin Scorsese. But on How to Become Clairvoyant, his first new album in 13 years, the Toronto-born singer, songwriter, guitarist and film-music composer tackles... 

HERB ALPERT A master of the trumpet and music business alike reflects and looks ahead By Bill DeMain With a career of nearly five decades behind him, legendary trumpeter Herb Alpert still takes the same approach to reinterpretation that he always has. “I like to do songs that are familiar, then put my own little twist on them,” he says. “There’s no fun in doing them the way they’ve been done before.” He takes just that approach on his... 

MARCELLA ARAICA “Painting the sound of the song” for some of pop’s biggest hitmakers By Michael Gallant When engineer and mixer Marcella Araica steps into the recording studio tonight to mix Beyoncé’s latest track, chances are she won’t be thinking about producers, record labels or the millions who will soon hear her sonic craft. More likely, she’ll be too busy channeling Pablo Picasso. “I always compare mixing to painting,” she... 

BRUCE HORNSBY For this restless keyboard innovator, the only constant is change By Russell Hall “It’s been 25 years since my first album,” observes Bruce Hornsby. “Most fans who got on this train early on aren’t there anymore. And that’s fine. Those who wanted me to stay the same or keep making the same album were probably disappointed a long time ago.” While many of Hornsby’s peers have become nostalgia acts, his own career has indeed... 

RAY DAVIES Reinventing the Kinks catalogue with a roster of all-star friends For almost a half-century Ray Davies has been rock’s own artful dodger. Slipping through pigeonholes and ducking stylistic dead ends, the native Londoner has always confounded easy labeling. With the Kinks he played the parts of white bluesman, vaudeville dandy, folk revivalist and heavy-metal screamer, penning wildly diverse classics like “You Really Got Me,” “Tired... 

ARCTIC MONKEYS After a frenzied five years, it’s time to take a look back—briefly The Arctic Monkeys instantly became a sensation in their native England upon the release of their punchy, hard-charging debut, Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not. “It’s only been five years, but it seems like a long time ago,” observes frontman Alex Turner. Before heading into the studio to make the new Suck It and See, Turner and his bandmates... 

DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE Making beautiful music from “electronic junk,” one note at a time Death Cab for Cutie guitarist and producer Chris Walla didn’t want his bandmates getting too comfortable during the making of their seventh and latest album, Codes and Keys. To keep them on their toes, he crafted a recording itinerary that took the group to more than half a dozen studios over 10 months. “Environment is everything with records,” says Walla.... 

KIMBERLY CALDWELL After moonlighting in reality TV, a lifelong performer rediscovers her voice After a successful run on the 2003 season of TV’s American Idol, Texas native Kimberly Caldwell detoured into work as a TV personality with gigs on outlets like Fox Sports and MTV. Now she returns to center stage with her long-awaited debut album, Without Regret, a set of party-starting anthems and pensive, stirring ballads that reintroduces the lifelong... 

STEVE EARLE How a singer-songwriter, actor and activist learned to be a novelist Singer and songwriter Steve Earle will soon release both a new T Bone Burnett–produced album and his first novel—both named for the Hank Williams classic “I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive.” Earle struggled with drug addiction in the late 1980s and early 1990s, but his high these days is productivity: He’s also writing a play, acting on HBO’s Treme... 

BOOTSY COLLINS The funkiest bass player in the universe throws an all-star party “I am the funk, I’m with the funk, the funk is within me,” declares legendary bass player Bootsy Collins—and you’d better believe it. Whether holding down the mighty grooves of James Brown’s early-1970s band the J.B.’s, slapping his way through extraterrestrial funk workouts with George Clinton’s Parliament-Funkadelic, charting solo hits such as “Bootzilla,”... 

JOE BONAMASSA Goodbye to the rib joints, hello to blues-rock guitar hero status By Russell Hall “People told me I was destined to play rib joints and biker rallies all my life,” says Joe Bonamassa, reflecting on his early years as a struggling blues-rock guitarist. “But I knew there had to be a better way.” But more than a decade and a half into his career, today Bonamassa has arrived at the pinnacle of the blues-rock world—and he’s... 

JAMES STROUD Bringing a session player’s perspective to Nashville hitmaking By Michael Gallant If you’ve listened to a country radio station anytime in the last 20 years, chances are you’ve experienced the craftsmanship of studio drummer-turned-producer James Stroud. One of Nashville’s most prolific and successful hitmakers, Stroud has produced multiplatinum albums for country giants like Tim McGraw, Toby Keith and Clint Black, and over... 

ALISON KRAUSS Two decades along, bluegrass’ conquering angel is still on the move By Russell Hall If there’s one lesson Alison Krauss learned from working with producer T Bone Burnett on Raising Sand, the album she and Robert Plant made together in 2007, it’s the importance of being in the moment. “I’ve always believed I could get a better vocal by re-singing it, or manufacturing a vocal by putting together multiple takes,” she says.... 

LUCINDA WILLIAMS A songwriter known for melancholy looks on the bright side Lucinda Williams has earned a reputation over the last three decades for writing songs that were as melancholy as they were dazzling. So, many fans were surprised when her most recent album, 2008’s Little Honey, found her sounding happy and optimistic. Her latest, the aptly titled Blessed, further proves that emotional turmoil isn’t the only fuel for her art. “Now I’m... 

NIKKI SIXX The Mötley Crüe and Sixx:A.M. rocker prefers clicks to cliques When bass player and songwriter Nikki Sixx isn’t busy shouting at the devil with Mötley Crüe or Sixx:A.M., you’ll find him taking photos or writing books. His latest project, This Is Gonna Hurt, combines all three: It’s a book of photography and prose accompanied by an album of the same name. This Is Gonna Hurt showcases Sixx’s gritty photos, serves as his literary... 

R.E.M. After three decades, still showing the kids how it’s done “Let’s sing and rhyme, let’s give it one more time,” sings R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe in “All the Best,” a song from the group’s 15th and newest album, Collapse Into Now. “Let’s show the kids how to do it.” Especially coming from a lyricist known for his obtuse wordplay, it’s a loud-and-clear statement for a band in the midst of an artistic renaissance. Following... 

AVRIL LAVIGNE A pop princess strips down her sound—and fights for her vision Goodbye Lullaby is Avril Lavigne’s first new album in four years—and her most emotional effort yet. “It’s not like I haven’t gone there before,” says Lavigne, who has sold more than 10 million albums since releasing her debut, 2002’s Let Go, at age 17. “I’ve done that on some of my albums, but I was really in that place and wanted to go more in that direction.”... 

JAMES BLUNT Pop troubadour goes looking for trouble—and discovers electricity James Blunt’s first two albums, Back to Bedlam and All the Lost Souls, catapulted him to stardom with hits like “You’re Beautiful” and “1973.” Those discs also cast him in the guise of sensitive pop crooner. With his new album, Some Kind of Trouble, the former British Army officer shakes free of his balladeer reputation and unleashes an upbeat collection of... 

ERIC JOHNSON To shred or not to shred? For this guitar hero, that is the question By Russell Hall Eric Johnson might be the world’s most reluctant guitar hero. In the 1980s, as his star was first rising, the Austin native earned a reputation as a white-hot shredder. But from the start, Johnson has emphasized that technique is just part of a larger musical landscape. “If you play a show where you shred for two hours, you’ll see a lot of the... 

PETER ASHER Coaxing the best work from pop’s most amazing voices By Jeff Tamarkin When he and singing partner Gordon Waller began enjoying hits in the 1960s as Peter and Gordon, London-born Peter Asher made the most of his opportunity. In the recording studio, Asher kept a close eye on the steps that producers Norman Newell and John Burgess took to make now-classics like “A World Without Love” and “Nobody I Know” sound the way they did.... 

GREGG ALLMAN After a brush with mortality, a rock legend gets back to the blues By Chris Neal It’s been a few months since doctors used a device to spread Gregg Allman’s rib cage as part of his treatment for cancer, but he still winces at the thought. “That hurt so damn bad,” he says. “Unh! All the rib bones that go back and connect to your spine, they disrupt all that. Boy, that hurts. They can cut and sew muscles and skin, and that’s... 

THE DECEMBERISTS Whether in the studio or a barn, getting back to basics isn’t always easy Following 2009’s The Hazards of Love—the Decemberists’ second straight high-concept fairy-tale song cycle in a row—frontman and principal songwriter Colin Meloy decided to ditch the theatrics and record a batch of no-frills Americana tunes. Taking cues from the Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main St. and the Band’s self-titled sophomore effort—barebones... 

IRON & WINE Making a clean break with some help from a little kiss of R&B From the spare solo acoustic songs of Iron & Wine’s early-2000s work to the expansive arrangements of the new Kiss Each Other Clean, Sam Beam has consistently steered his songs in ever more complex directions. For his latest, Beam drew from the sounds he heard on the radio as a kid, expanding his rustic folk sensibility with R&B horns, Afro-pop polyrhythms... 

BRIGHT EYES Conor Oberst and company reinvent themselves once again Could Bright Eyes be doomed? Rumors of the indie-rock powerhouse’s demise spread like wildfire when frontman Conor Oberst said in an interview that he had been thinking about bringing the band to an end. But fans can relax—for now, at least. “I was probably feeling that way that day,” he says. “But we’re just focused on getting the new record out and doing the tour. That’s... 

DURAN DURAN Mining fresh sounds from the musical territory they first pioneered Duran Duran emerged from England 30 years ago with a sound that uniquely melded dance, rock and New Wave. In the time since, the group has sought to continually reinvent itself—but when producer Mark Ronson suggested to the members that they return to some of the sonic trademarks that defined classic albums like 1982’s Rio, they were willing to try. The result is... 

GEORGE THOROGOOD Still rocking, still laughing and still b-b-b-b-bad to the bone Guitarist, singer and songwriter George Thorogood’s raucous brand of bluesy rock ’n’ roll has been steadily satisfying fans for more than three decades through hits like “Bad to the Bone,” “You Talk Too Much” and “Get a Haircut.” Thorogood and his band, the Destroyers, have just returned to the road in support of last year’s The Dirty Dozen, a mix... 

MESHELL NDEGEOCELLO A notorious perfectionist tries her hand at keeping it simple She’s sung with MadonnA and John Mellencamp, played bass with the Rolling Stones and Alanis Morissette, but Meshell Ndegeocello’s primary focus has always been her own solo work. Since getting her start playing in go-go bands in Washington, D.C., in the late ’80s, the singer, bassist and bandleader has rolled through pop, soul, funk, jazz and R&B. She made... 

WARREN HAYNES Gov’t Mule’s fearless leader adapts and survives By Chris Neal If playing in a rock ’n’ roll band is a full-time job, Warren Haynes is successfully holding down three full-time jobs at once. He has fronted his own band, Gov’t Mule, for the last 16 years; he continues to bring his virtuoso lead guitar work to the Allman Brothers Band; and since 2004 he has performed alongside several former members of the Grateful Dead in... 

DON WAS For one of rock’s best-known producers, it all comes down to the song By Howard Massey Don Was insists that the magic touch he brings to his production projects—albums by some of rock’s biggest names, many of which have sold in the multimillions—comes through him, not from him. “It requires lightning to strike in order for something amazing to happen,” he says. “Hopefully, it eventually dawns on you that you’re not the source.” Wherever... 

SLASH He’s back with a few new friends—and one very special old one By Chris Neal As recording progressed on Guns N’ Roses’ first album in 1986, the up-and-coming hard-rock band’s lead guitarist was getting anxious. He was OK recording basic tracks with the three guitars he had on hand—a BC Rich and two Jacksons, for the record—but he didn’t feel confident using any of them to lay down his leads. He couldn’t afford to buy a new... 

PETER FRAMPTON A charismatic guitar superstar comes alive once again for an unforgettable moment in the mid- to late-1970s, no artist was more ubiquitous than singer and guitar virtuoso Peter Frampton. His 1976 breakthrough solo album, Frampton Comes Alive!, sold six million copies and elevated him to rock superstardom. It also raised expectations that no one could have met. “It was a blessing and a curse,” he acknowledges. Beginning with an... 

SHARON JONES & THE DAP-KINGS One of soul’s leading ladies brings the boys back home The master funkateers in the Dap-Kings have earned mainstream attention over the last several years for their work with big-name artists like Amy Winehouse and Jay-Z, but their one true leader is soul singer extraordinaire Sharon Jones. Their new album together as Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, I Learned the Hard Way, is the fourth of their almost decade-long... 

KAKI KING This “musician’s musician” intends to go where the music takes her Kaki King may be the world’s most reluctant guitar hero. While she has been compared in the press to such fingerstyle giants as Michael Hedges, Alex De Grassi and Leo Kottke, King modestly brushes aside her reputation as a six-string virtuoso. “Critics have been more interested in how I play,” she says, “whereas my fans are more interested in the music I make... 

JAKOB DYLAN Chasing new sounds with an old friend Women and Country, the second solo album from Wallflowers frontman Jakob Dylan, came together in the studio within days. But that doesn’t worry him. “I’ve done records that have taken eight months, and I don’t know what happened in all that time,” he says with a laugh. Perhaps credit for that efficiency should go to the crack team of professionals he assembled for the record, including...