When he was around 13, Robert Charles Guidry began singing with a band around his hometown of Abbeville, La., deep in the Cajun swamps. The group played Cajun and country music and, after he passed through town and played a show, Fats Domino's music. It was a life-changing experience for the young man, and he found himself with a new ambition: to write a song for Fats.

Even before the gates had opened on the first day of the Sasquatch! Music Festival over Memorial Day weekend, we managed to get backstage of the Gorge Amphitheater to capture a live session with one of the hottest new bands to hit the festival circuit, Of Monsters and Men. No strangers to natural beauty, the Icelanders were nevertheless stunned by the picturesque backdrop of the Gorge as they performed "Mountain Sound," one of the new songs added to the American release of their debut album.

There are now at least 19 large wildfires burning in nine Western states U.S. Forest Service officials say.

Some lesbians in South Africa are becoming victims of so-called "corrective rape." Men are raping women with the alleged intent to "cure" them of their sexual orientation. Host Michel Martin speaks to Johannesburg-based journalist Charlayne Hunter-Gault. Advisory: This segment may not be comfortable for some listeners.

Florida's controversial voter eligibility program is intended to purge non-citizens from its rosters. State election officials say it's necessary to protect the integrity of elections. But the U.S. Justice Department has filed a lawsuit, saying eligible voters could get caught up. Host Michel Martin talks to Florida Governor Rick Scott.

I'm spending June in New Orleans, digging into the soft wet earth of American music. A week in, I feel like I've barely begun to explore. The minute I try to say what draws me to New Orleans music, I realize that the core of it is always changing. It's not just the variety, though I love that in the first few days here, I caught classic blues on Frenchmen Street, a wild bounce night downtown, my longtime favorite Susan Cowsill singing Dusty Springfield covers in the Garden District, and a brass band on the corner in the French Quarter.

At Misty Cargill's funeral, the minister called her an advocate for other people with intellectual disabilities. She was — although a reluctant one.

Cargill became an advocate when NPR did a story about her fight to get a life-saving kidney transplant. Misty, 30, died in her sleep on Saturday. She was on a list to get that transplant when she died.

Saying that his country is "not violating any international law," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov today defended his country's sale of weapons to Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime. He said Russia is not supplying anything that "can be used in battles with peaceful demonstrators."

And, Reuters reports, he "accused the United States of supplying rebels with weapons to fight against the government" — a charge the U.S. has rejected many times.