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Cash has a new album on which she sings one of the most famous lines in country music: "The lights in the harbor don't shine for me." That's from the Hal David and Paul Hampton classic, "Sea of Heartbreak." Many artists have recorded this song in the past half-century, and Cash recently sat down with NPR's Steve Inskeep to discuss its history and significance.

Gustavo Dudamel has been called "the Obama of classical music." Hear the charismatic 28-year-old conductor from Venezuela officially take over the Los Angeles Philharmonic with a gala opening concert that includes a new piece by John Adams, as well as Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 1.

With his first bluegrass album, The Crow: New Songs for the Five-String Banjo, comedic genius Steve Martin reveals another side of his talent.

The group One eskimO is an audio-visual endeavor, and its self-titled debut album includes a full animation. But while the band's idiosyncratic, self-produced videos are a notable component of its work, its expressive music is the heart and soul of the enterprise.

Here in this intimate Tiny Desk Concert, Avi sings three hushed lullabies, including what has become one of her signature songs: a cover of Morrissey's "First of the Gang."

Liane Hansen isn't the only one celebrating 20 years at Weekend Edition. Director Ned Wharton has been around since Hansen's first music interview, and has been making music recommendations for a decade. He checks up on three artists previously featured on the program.

Nirvana's Bleach (reissued this month) didn't make much of a splash when it was released in 1989. But with hindsight, the album shows a band clearly hurtling toward greatness. A mere two years later, Nirvana headlined England's Reading Festival; by then, the greatness was obvious.

On his sophomore album, Everything Is New, Penate exudes a refreshing sense of insight and experimentation. While the music has a gloomy undercurrent, each track is still fun and dance-floor-friendly, colorfully blending classic soul and pop with hints of Afrobeat.

The German composer utilizes powerful orchestral sounds, as well as silence, to elicit a psychological and emotional response from the listener. Who better than conductor Daniel Barenboim, a veteran of the opera pit, to pull it all off?

He wrote the words, and sometimes the music, for more than 1,500 songs, among them "Skylark," "Blues in the Night" and "Moon River." He had a few hits himself on Capitol Records — which he started. He was a great American lyricist, and today marks the 100th anniversary of his birth.