Country

Fresh Air rock critic Ken Tucker offers his picks for the best music of the year, including Fiona Apple's latest album and a Bob Dylan DVD. He also addresses the topic of women in music, and he talks about the year in hip-hop. Tucker is the film critic for New York magazine.

Singer June Carter Cash was a Grammy-winning singer, a songwriter, musician, actress and author. She was married to Johnny Cash, and she came from the Carter Family, the country music pioneers. She died of complications from heart surgery at age 73, just four months before Johnny Cash died. This interview originally aired on June 19, 1987.

Jimmie Dale Gilmore's new album — his seventh — is called Come on Back and it's a memorial to his late father. He died of ALS in 2000. The album includes version of his dad's favorite songs like Pick Me Up on Your Way Down and Walkin' The Floor Over You. Gilmore was born, raised and lives in Texas. He has been recording solo albums since 1988, when he released Fair and Square.

Walk the Line is the new biopic about music icon Johnny Cash, starring Joaquin Phoenix as the "Man in Black" and Reese Witherspoon as his wife, June Carter.

Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews two new country CDs: Time Well Wasted by Brad Paisley and Hillbilly Deluxe by Brooks and Dunn.

Billy Joe Shaver discusses his career and personal life

Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews country musician Dwight Yoakam's new release, Blame the Vain. It's his 18th album.

Rock historian Ed Ward reviews a three-disc release of a Charlie Poole recording from the 1930s. The record, You Ain't Talkin' To Me, is from the Columbia Legacy label. Poole was a banjo-playing pioneer of country music.

Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews Forever Hasn't Happened Yet the new CD by John Doe, formerly of the punk-rock band X.

Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews Mercy Now, the new album from singer-songwriter Mary Gauthier.

Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews the new CD Universal United House of Prayer by Buddy Miller.

Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews Snakebite: Blacktop Ballads and Fugitive Songs the new CD by Stan Ridgway.

Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews the debut CD from country music singer Gretchen Wilson, Here for the Party.

Rock Critic Ken Tucker reviews the new Loretta Lynn CD Van Lear Rose. The CD features Jack White, lead singer and guitarist for the rock band The White Stripes.

Rubin worked with Johnny Cash for the last 10 years of Cash's life, collaborating on four critically acclaimed and Grammy award-winning albums (American Recordings, Unchained, American III: Solitary Man and American IV: The Man Comes Around.) At the time of Cash's death, they were collaborating on a box set that collects many unreleased tracks from those previous sessions, as well as a best-of CD. The five-CD collection is called Unearthed.

Rock Historian Ed Ward listens to some Uncle Tupelo reissues. The group split up in 1994; its members formed Wilco and Son Volt.

She had several hits in the late '50s and early '60s, including "Mean Mean Man," "Let's Have a Party" and "Fujiyama Mama." In the '70s she kept recording music, mostly gospel. She's 65 now and still touring. She's just released her first studio recording in 15 years, Heart Trouble. Guest musicians, including Elvis Costello and The Cramps, join her for several tracks.

In the 1950s, he and his brother Ira Louvin were regulars at the Grand Ole Opry. Their hits included, Cash On the Barrelhead, If I Could Only Win Your Love, I Love the Christian Life and When I Stop Dreaming. The duo split up in the early 1960s, and Charlie continued performing by himself. Ira was later killed in a car accident. There's a new tribute CD: Livin', Lovin', Losin': Songs of the Louvin Brothers. It features Emmylou Harris, James Taylor, Vince Gill, Glen Campbell and Dolly Parton.

He originated the staccato, three-finger banjo technique that became known as the "Scruggs style." He got his start playing with Bill Monroe's band in the 1940s, and then teamed up with guitarist Lester Flatt (fronting The Foggy Mountain Boys). The two penned and recorded the tune "Foggy Mountain Breakdown," which was used on the Bonnie and Clyde film soundtrack and was one of the first crossover hits of the genre. They also recorded "The Ballad of Jed Clampett," the theme song for the sitcom The Beverly Hillbillies. It topped the charts in 1962.

Musical legend Johnny Cash died today at the age of 71. We remember him with a rebroadcast of a 1997 interview with the singer and musician. Cash began recording albums and performing in the 1950s. Representing Cash's varied musical styles, he was inducted into the Songwriters, Country Music, and Rock and Roll halls of fame. Cash recorded over 1,500 songs in his career. Some of the most famous were "I Walk the Line," "Ring of Fire" and "A Boy Named Sue." Cash died of complications from diabetes.