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In the 1950s, Mike Seeger sought out and recorded the traditional Southern music of the autoharp, a 36-string instrument small enough to hold in your lap. An expanded version of that collection is now out on CD.

Most famously known as Cat Stevens, the folk songwriter returns under the name Yusuf Islam. On An Other Cup, his first album of pop songs since 1978, it's as if the man who wrote "Morning Has Broken" never missed a step.

The French band Phoenix's "Long Distance Call" is a lovably catchy power-pop nugget informed by early-'80s pop grooves, the insouciance of the '70s rock band Pablo Cruise and a flood of Hall & Oates sing-alongs.

Desperate Networks, a new book exploring the inner workings of the television industry, follows the sagas of top executives at the major networks through a traditional fall season. New York Times reporter Bill Carter describes the highs — the hit show Desperate Housewives, for example — to the lows, which is almost everything else on TV. The Hollywood Reporter television critic Andrew Wallenstein has a review.

Bishop Allen has mastered the art of quirky, unassuming pop with a fragile heart. The band's heartfelt, refreshing music is imbued with smart choruses and jangly guitars, and "Central Booking" exemplifies its charming, relatable songwriting.

From a 12-hour marathon piano concert held last Sunday to benefit tsunami victims, we hear three pianists. First, Elena Besprovanik plays Alfred Grunfeld's Vienna Soiree. Then we hear Jenny Lin play Secreto, by Federico Mompou, follwed by Jung Lin play the Fairy Tale, Op. 34, No. 2, by Nikolai Medtner.

Recent anti-Syria protesters in Lebanon include some of the authors featured in an anthology called Transit: Beirut. Their highly personal, often experimental work offers glimpses of a different side of the city.

The last time Philadelphia hosted a political convention, it was 1948, and the city got three for one: Republicans, Democrats and the Progressive Party all gathered there. Although the Progressive Party would place last in the election, it sponsored one of the livelier conventions, with singalongs led by Pete Seeger and Paul Robeson. Many of the reforms it advocated were later adopted. Host Jacki Lyden talks with John Hyde, co-author of a biography of Henry Wallace, the Progressive Party Nominee. (American Dreamer: The Life and Times of Henry A. Wallace, by John C. Culver and John Hyde, W.W. Norton & Company; ISBN: 03930

Max Morath, who has been researching and performing vaudeville for more than 50 years, talks about the significance of the song.