Interviews
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One Hot Minute: Amythyst Kiah
Amythyst Kiah’s voice is powerful. It booms out to fill every corner of every room she enters with its warmth, wit, and wisdom. It’s the kind of voice that cuts into your core even while it wraps around your heart. You feel it from both the outside-in and the inside-out with every cell of your…
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In Conversation: Kelly McCartney with Rissi Palmer
When Holler asked me to interview Rissi Palmer about the beautifully non-stop career ascension she is currently enjoying, I told them it wouldn’t be a normal Q&A between a journalist and an artist. It would absolutely lack any and all objectivity because, at this point, our fates are pretty tightly bound, Rissi’s and mine.
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In Conversation: Valerie June
Singer, songwriter, Memphis native, meditator, dancer, dreamer… those are some of the many monikers attached to Valerie June, and yet they all, individually and collectively, fail to capture her truest essence. She\’s elusive that way, existing with both her feet on the ground and her head in the clouds as a magical conduit between the…
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In Conversation: Elizabeth Cook
Back in the early 1970s, the original outlaw country movement started in reaction to Nashville\’s lean into formulaic writing and slick production that artists like Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Jessi Colter, and Tanya Tucker considered sacrilegious. Looking back from now, they likely had no idea how formulaic and slick…
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Cuts the Deepest: Brandy Clark
Since moving to Nashville, Brandy Clark has drawn in millions of listeners across the world with her honest and authentic songwriting. Whether it be when writing for rising star Hailey Whitters, international badass Miranda Lambert or simply for herself – Clark’s songs possess all the wit and wonder to make you feel warm, empowered, like…
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Keepers of the Weepers: Talking Sad Songs with Lori McKenna and Lucy Wainwright Roche
Grief is the great leveler of life. No matter who you are, you have experienced some kind of loss, whether of a partner, a parent, a pet, or a profession. Much like love, loss is loss. And grief is a wild ride, even in the best of circumstances, but there is beauty in that pain…
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The Urgency of History: A Conversation with Rhiannon Giddens
Every now and then, a voice comes along that is so thoroughly in tune with the times that it can\’t — and shouldn\’t — be ignored. This year, that voice belongs to Rhiannon Giddens. Her latest album, Freedom Highway , takes its cues from the warriors of justice who came before her … Joan Baez,…
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There Will Be Dancing: Emily Saliers in Conversation with Chastity Brown
To be a great songwriter is to, necessarily, wear your heart on your sleeve. Whether you want to or not, you must summon the courage to lay it all on the line — the heartache and the hope, the virtues and the vices. The same necessity could be applied to being a queer woman in…
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Squared Roots: Pieta Brown x Rickie Lee Jones
There are some artists who defy every convention and expectation we attempt to impose upon them. Rickie Lee Jones is one of them. Right out of the gate, she played by her own rules and danced to her own very groovy drum. Her eponymous debut in 1979 — with stunning songs like “The Last Chance…
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Five Questions: Tift Merritt
On her seventh studio album in 15 years, Stitch of the World, singer/songwriter Tift Merritt has churned out another solid set of roots-infused tunes that reach backward, forward, and side to side. You see, Merritt has a lot of musical ground to cover and she does just that, from the throwback folk-country of “Dusty Old…