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Nothing Personal: An Interview with Mary Lambert
Before July 18, 2012, few people outside of Seattle\’s hip hop and spoken word scene knew who Mary Lambert was. The, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis tapped the out gay singer for their “Same Love” single. A year-and-a-half later, Macklemore, Lewis, and Lambert were on stage at the Grammy Awards, along with Trombone Shorty and Madonna,…
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Ryan Culwell Conjures the Plaintive Texas Landscape on "Red River"
There\’s a reason so many great songwriters come from Texas — it\’s a desolate expanse of land with more than enough room for the imagination to wonder and wander through the hard-scrabble lives of its people. Like Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Rodney Crowell, Nanci Griffith, and so many others before him, Ryan Culwell wears his heritage on…
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Five Questions: Caitlin Canty
Making her way from the clear and easy backroads of small-town Vermont to the rough and tumble streets of New York City, singer/songwriter Caitlin Canty took the long way around… through a job at the Artists\’ Den. Eventually, though, she started to explore the various rooms of her own artistry. Between side gigs with Down…
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A Wider Stage to Stand On: Gregory Alan Isakov at 3rd & Lindsley
After Nathaniel Rateliff worked through a solid set of “many uplifting songs” presented by a big ol\’ voice he wasn\’t afraid to use, Gregory Alan Isakov and company took to the stage, swallowing the whole room up in their gorgeous sound. As evidenced in the lull and build of “Amsterdam,” Isakov knows how to craft…
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Squared Roots: Shawn Mullins x Doc Watson
Born in Deep Gap, North Carolina, in 1923, Arthel Lane \”Doc\” Watson went blind before he saw his first birthday, but that didn\’t keep him from greatness. Watson bought his first guitar for $10 from Sears Roebuck and taught himself how to play the Carter Family\’s \”When Roses Bloom in Dixieland.\” Jimmie Rodgers was another…
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Let Freedom Sing: At the Top of Their Lungs
“All censorships exist to prevent anyone from challenging current conceptions and existing institutions. All progress is initiated by challenging current conceptions, and executed by supplanting existing institutions. Consequently, the first condition of progress is the removal of censorship.” – George Bernard Shaw As the 1990s rolled in, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) continued to employ…
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Six Decades of Humor and Hits: Kenny Rogers with the Nashville Symphony
When you grow up listening to an artist like Kenny Rogers — and count him as one of your first concerts — it\’s a strange and wonderful thing to see him perform 35 years later. After opening up with “Love or Something Like It” and “It\’s a Beautiful Life,” replete with punchy horns and audience…
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Slinky and Sultry, Fierce and Funky: Lisa Fischer with Grand Baton at City Winery
Let\’s just face facts: Lisa Fischer may well be the most exquisite singer in the world. That\’s not hyperbole; that\’s just observation. Taking the stage at Nashville\’s City Winery, Fischer closed her eyes, took some deep breaths, and sank into the space as her voice wandered around some ambient vocalizations before easing into a gorgeously…
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The Forever of a Moment: An Interview with Ani DiFranco
Pretty much since she started releasing records in the early 1990s, Ani DiFranco\’s songwriting has been the gold standard by which others in her realm are measured. And, yet, very few even come close to challenging her gift. They can\’t. DiFranco\’s phrases and phrasing are so unique and specific to who she is as a…
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Let Freedom Sing: A Change Is Trying to Come
“Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.\” – Harry S. Truman…