The life of Fountains of Wayne’s Adam Schlesinger, who died from COVID at age 52.

A profile of Bill Withers at 76.

An interview with Allee Willis, the late songwriter behind Earth Wind & Fire’s “September” and the Friends theme song, on creating the world you want to live and work in and throwing virtual parties.

How David Bazan’s music inspired a generation of young, questioning Christians.

Twenty-five years after her career-making album, Liz Phair is still writing songs first and foremost for herself.

On Joni Mitchell and canons.

An interview with Dylan, 75, on the power of recording standards.

A day in the life of Mount Eerie’s Phil Elverum, in the wake of the sudden death of his wife when their daughter was four months old.

"The honesty in Perfume Genius’s music has attracted him a devoted audience, and he receives a lot of messages on Twitter from young kids going through the process of coming out, or dealing with their own addictions. “I think people come to my music just to feel less lonely,” he says. “When I write, sometimes I think, What would I have liked to have heard when I was younger?” But on his new record, out this May, he aimed for something a little more developed: essentially, he wanted to make a grown-up album about life after you’ve trudged through the trauma."

Leonard Cohen’s 2 A.M. set at the disastrous Isle of Wight festival, 1970.

While on a string of tour dates opening for Radiohead, interaction between Mark Linkous’ antidepressants and the Rohypnol he took to sleep caused him to pass out. A hotel maid found him the next morning bent into a position where his legs had been cut off from circulation. When they untangled, built-up potassium shot from his lower body upward, triggering a harmful chain reaction that caused a heart attack and kidney failure.

He created the template for contemporary hit-making, made Ace of Base the biggest group in the world, and mentored the most successful songwriter since the Beatles. Why have you never heard of Denniz Pop? Excerpted from The Song Machine: Inside the Hit Factory.

Tom Waits interviewed at 38.

A memory of interviewing the late great songwriter Townes Van Zandt shortly before his death.