From her humble beginnings in Tennessee, Dolly Parton has used her creative gifts to chronicle the American experience and make a widespread cultural impact...

In 1976, the revolutionary singer-songwriter LAURA NYRO returned from self-imposed exile. But her comeback confounded expectations, shifting away from the impassioned intimacies of her early albums to embrace more radical perspectives. Fifty years on, Nyro’s collaborators revisit her striking second act. “She was a hip American from the Bronx,” one friend and producer tells Rob Hughes. “But her soul was old.”

Fifty years on from their first successes, Roger McGuinn, the 12-string architect of THE BYRDS , tells Uncut about their exceptional first 18 months – and his relationship with Gene Clark. As the young group make their jet-powered escape from the folk think tank, we hear about making the scene on the Strip, outraging Iowa and a muted response in the United Kingdom. But ultimately how “Eight Miles High” became the spectacular conclusion of the band’s first era. “I almost left The Byrds entirely to go and be in this space band With Dino Valente,” McGuinn tells John Robinson

H.e.a.t frontman Kenny Leckremo on the records, artists and gigs that are of lasting significance to him.

Jo Wood, 70, on how she has learned the value of resilience and finding joy in the everyday

Everybody’s favourite Yorkshire lass tells Shereen Low why life in her sixties is better than ever