Features
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Brandi Carlile and the Art of Kintsugi
I’ve long suspected something about Brandi Carlile, but it wasn’t until I read her new memoir, Broken Horses, that I fully knew it to be true: She is the scrappiest mystic this side of G.I. Gurdjieff, if not Joan of Arc. For the past 13 years, my suspicion was rooted merely in watching her, both…
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Katie Pruitt Debuts with Great “Expectations”
On a recent episode of the On Being podcast, shame researcher Brené Brown shared her finding that true belonging demands us to be who we are, even if it jeopardizes our relationships. She suggests that we must belong fully to, and in, ourselves before we can belong anywhere else, and that kind of self-acceptance requires…
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Inside the Making and the Movement of the Highwomen
When Newport Folk Festival\’s executive director Jay Sweet addressed the fans gathered at the Quad Stage at 5:35 pm on July 26 of this year, he said, “You\’re the first people anywhere to ever hear these words, \’Ladies and gentleman, please welcome the Highwomen!\’” The crowd erupted as Brandi Carlile, Natalie Hemby, Maren Morris, and…
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Lucy Negro Redux: Art, Agency, Love, & Lust
Every artistic form has the potential, on its own, to be both transformative and transcendent. So what happens when an alchemist pours three forms together? A piece of work that is so deeply profound, unyielding, and exalted that words inevitably fail to convey its power. Meet the Nashville Ballet\’s Lucy Negro Redux. The ballet\’s artistic…
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“Closer to Fine” at 30: The Legacy of Indigo Girls’ Spellbinding Sing-along
Though it wasn\’t their debut album, the Indigo Girls\’ 1989 eponymous release might as well have been, as it was the first thing most people outside of their hometown of Atlanta, Georgia, ever heard of the duo comprised of Amy Ray and Emily Saliers. The two had been friends since elementary school, eventually gigging around…
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Black Women’s Stories Front and Centered on Our Native Daughters Album
In a world founded on patriarchy and ruled by white men, the black woman lands at the bottom of the power structure, her voice muted and mangled, decade after decade, century upon century. But the bottom of any kind of structure is also its base, making the black woman the foundation upon which all else…
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Bluegrass Underground: Brandi Carlile Rocks the Rock
For nearly a decade, Bluegrass Underground has invited artists and fans to experience the joy of music together … underground. The Caverns, located at the foot of Monteagle Mountain in Pelham, Tennessee, plays host to both the Emmy Award-winning PBS program and other shows from March to December. Todd Mayo, owner of the Caverns and creator of Bluegrass Underground,…
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Brandi Carlile: The Work, In Progress
“A lot of times, as artists, we don’t write about what we’re good at; we write about what we struggle with,” Brandi Carlile confesses, then adds with a laugh, “I think I tend to write a lot about forgiveness because I’m quite judgmental. I’m a work in progress.” As evidenced in that thesis statement and…
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Emily Saliers: Back to Her Roots
It was 30 years ago that Emily Saliers and Amy Ray released their debut album, Strange Fire, as the Indigo Girls. They\’d been playing music together for a few years, at that point, and Saliers for much longer, on her own. The daughter of a theologian, Saliers grew up in a predominantly African-American neighborhood in…
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Melissa Etheridge: Still Brave, Not So Crazy
“If you look back to history, you\’ll see they all came from the same place,” Melissa Etheridge says, explaining the roots of American music\’s myriad genres. “They all came from the same musical movement in the South, from Appalachian music to the blues coming out of the freed slaves in the early 19th century, and…