Pop & Hiss

Accordionist, bandleader and New Orleans music icon Stanley “Buckwheat” Dural Jr. of Buckwheat Zydeco has died. He was 68.

His death was confirmed by the band’s manager and frequent collaborator, Ted Fox, who wrote on the Buckwheat Zydeco’s Facebook page that Dural had died early Saturday morning.

Anyone who has ever experienced the uniquely soul-stirring amalgam of musical celebration, spiritual rejuvenation, intellectual provocation and physical release-to-the-point-of-exhaustion that is a concert by Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band will feel right at home in the 508 pages of “Born to Run” (Simon & Schuster, $32.50), his 67-years (as of Friday)-in-the-making autobiography.

The Vegas Strip is about to get even more larger than life: The Backstreet Boys are set to call the city home. 

More than 20 years after declaring they’ve "got it goin' on," the boy band that managed to graduate from teenage dreams to full-fledged adults without losing their shimmer will head to Las Vegas for a trial residency next year. 

“Backstreet Boys: Larger Than Life” is set to launch on March

Kentucky-reared singer-songwriter Chris Stapleton was named artist of the year Wednesday by the Americana Music Assn. for his breakthrough with his debut solo album “Traveller.” Meanwhile, Alabama’s Jason Isbell took two other top honors — album of the year for his latest release “Something More Than Free” and song of the year for “24 Frames.”

Bob Mould, who has been making albums for three decades now, builds his records the way a carpenter builds a home.

The alumnus of Minneapolis hard-core punk band Hüsker Dü refined his craft through his work with the ’90s power trio Sugar and a dozen-odd solo projects. He returned this year with “Patch the Sky,” a work built in a particular sequence, with musical support beams and well-engineered foundations.

A modestly budgeted independent film documentary about a pop culture phenomenon that played out half a century ago is out-grossing multimillion dollar major studio feature films, proving anew a time-honored music industry adage, “Never underestimate the power of the Beatles.”