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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NPR pop critic Ann Powers highlights new songs from Brit Taylor, Molly Parden, The Brummies and C.A. Jones.
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Country music's breakout star of 2020 performs three songs for her Tiny Desk quarantine concert, including "Black Like Me."
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The Nashville singer-songwriter delivers an empowering performance in this Tiny Desk quarantine concert.
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Returning to a form he fell in love with after first moving to Nashville, the genre-defying singer recorded Cuttin' Grass Vol. 1 in just a few days earlier this year, after recovering from COVID-19.
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Little Big Town, one of the biggest bands in country music, perform a Tiny Desk quarantine show, and they bring the hits.
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World Cafe Nashville correspondent Ann Powers shares three recent releases that she's excited about.
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The Nashville songwriter performs four songs from her picturesque loft apartment, including fan favorite "Hold My Hand."
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The Kentuckian singer-songwriter wanted to be clear on the meaning of a surprise new song and album, explaining to his fans in a video that, among other things, "Black lives matter."
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World Cafe's Nashville correspondent, Ann Powers, talks about the state of Music City and five new releases that she's excited about.
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The Nashville-based rock musician recorded a five-song set for our Tiny Desk quarantine series.