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NPR's Puzzlemaster Will Shortz quizzes one of our listeners, and has a challenge for everyone at home. This week's winner is Marge Civil from Colorado Springs, Colo. She listens to Weekend Edition on member station KRCC in Colorado Springs.

The official explanation of Harriet Miers' withdrawal is the irreconcilable conflict between the Senate's demand for documents covering her service as White House counsel, and the president's right to consult his lawyer in confidence. Few will believe it. Harriet Miers' nomination to the Supreme Court faltered at the start, and never gained momentum.

Ed Gordon talks with singer, songwriter and pastor Donnie McClurkin about fame, his troubled past, his bright future and reaching out to an international audience through gospel music.

The onetime professional boxer turned singer-songwriter has an innate gift for storytelling, and on his fifth album, the tales range from drugs, to murder, to lust. It's an Americana delight, mixing blues, rock, and soul with Thorn's characteristic deadpan humor.

It's been a good couple of years for producers like Mark Ronson and Timbaland to step out from the boards and record their own music. Raphael Saadiq has helmed recordings for John Legend and Joss Stone, but just made a standout solo soul album. Hear a session from WXPN.

We listen back to excerpts of interviews with and concerts by singer and guitarist Richard Thompson. A new box set collects more than 40 years of his work.

The xx, featuring four 20-year-olds from South London, has stormed the indie-pop scene with its dark, '80s-style new-wave sound. After meeting in London's Elliot School, which claims alumni such as Four Tet, Burial and Hot Chip, the band began toying around with what would become its critically acclaimed debut album.

On the group's third album, Made in the Dark, Hot Chip adds distortion to the mix. Exploding with background synths, soul influences, and Alexis Taylor's airy vocals, the band moves into ballad territory more than before. Hear an interview and performance from WXPN.

If you've never heard of Bettye LaVette, the soul singer who belted out "A Change Is Gonna Come" with Jon Bon Jovi at the Inauguration Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial on Jan 18., you may be wondering why.

At 69, gospel singer Mavis Staples continues to spread a positive message through her music. Her latest album, Live: Hope at the Hideout, is as musically and politically charged as her past works. She gives a stripped-down and powerful performance from WXPN.

The multi-platinum South Carolina native recently became the youngest member of the Grand Ole Opry. On his way from Nashville to New York, he made a special appearance on Mountain Stage to perform hits from his newest record.

Still in his 20s, the Nashville pop singer performs songs from his new album, accompanies himself on piano, showcases his iPhone on drum programming and converts the Mountain Stage audience into his own backing band.

The work of a six-man collective fusing hip-hop, funk and gritty soul, The Revelations' seven-song Deep Soul EP blends the sounds of the bluesy rural South and gritty urban streets. Led by Tre Williams, the group crafts a sound that's timeless and undeniably energetic. Hear the group perform live in concert from WXPN in Philadelphia.

More than 20 years since they started making music, Indigo Girls' members still exude a passion that never subsides. The folk-pop duo's new release, Poseidon and the Bitter Bug, is the first on their independent label, IG Recordings; it finds the duo exploring new melodic and rhythmic territory.

The California native found his way from West Coast beaches to the swamps of New Orleans to perfect his soulful, '70s-style blues-rock. Lindell draws on his travels around the country to infuse his new album, Gulf Coast Highway, with funky grooves, touches of soul and a bit of honky-tonk.

However it's happened to you, in romantic, platonic or familial love, this artist's therapeutic vocals vividly express the frustration of dealing with someone who only shows up when they need you.

This Tiny Desk Contest entry is a psychedelic invocation of the "sombra en el cielo" ("shadow in the sky") that takes us to the afterlife.

A U.S. delegation returns from North Korea, carrying a message from its leaders. The communist country says it has nuclear weapons and plans to build more. But officials doubt whether North Korea has the technology to back up those claims. One American scientist recounts his rare 1994 visit to the country's nuclear facilities, and the questions he was left with. NPR's David Kestenbaum reports.

With five months to go in the election season, a barrage of presidential campaign ads has begun -- on the World Wide Web. Political ad content isn't restricted by law when it's delivered online, and the assaults are markedly vicious.

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