The Current's Guitar Collection is a look at some of the instruments that have been played in The Current's studios. Many times, there's a good story behind a guitar, often known only to the person who plays it. This week's guitar belongs to Max Kakacek of Smith Westerns.

nelle Monae's music is often called futuristic. That's partly due to her subject matter: Her breakthrough releases, the 2007 EP 'Metropolis' and the 2010 album 'The ArchAndroid,' form a connected story arc about a robot who falls in love with a human. But moreover, the work of the 27-year-old singer is difficult to classify -- rooted in R&B but pulling from too many different genres to count.

While making her new album, Case went through a series of deaths and a bout of depression. But once she stopped fighting it, "it's like a bottleneck broke open, and everything started to flow again and my circulation came back," she says.

Paul McCartney has released a new single, the appropriately titled "New," and it's coming out ahead of his upcoming album, which is set to release in the U.S. on Oct. 15.

Tomorrow at 8:30 a.m., The Current's Steve Seel and Jill Riley will share their interview with Paul McCartney. In the meantime, we put the question out on Facebook and Twitter: What would you ask Paul McCartney if you had the chance to interview him. Here are some of your replies.

When dealing with The Replacements — a band that means so much to so many — it's easy to forget that not everyone knows it all when it comes to Minneapolis' best rock 'n' roll band.

Deborah DeStaffan of New York was the art director of the Replacements' Tim album. She shares insights about the artwork and about the creative community from which it emerged.

Actor and Twin Cities native Josh Hartnett stopped by the MPR booth during The Current's Morning Show live broadcast from the Minnesota State Fair. Hartnett picks some songs for summer, talks about his upcoming projects and describes what he loves about Minnesota.

Jake Rudh had a chance to chat with Adam Ant about his sixth studio album Adam Ant Is the Blueblack Hussar in Marrying the Gunner's Daughter just in time for his performance at Mill City Nights September 1.

On the new album Pushin' Against a Stone, the Tennessean surveys a spectrum of her home state's signature sounds. She tells NPR's Audie Cornish that she got over old anxieties about her singing voice by embracing it as a storytelling tool.