Reviews
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Brandi Carlile Retraces Her Steps
It started with a poem. Written on a plane. A year ago this month, actually. With the Hollywood Bowl Joni Jam checked off the to-do list and only herself to reckon with, Brandi Carlile embarked on her next adventure… an open horizon into which she flew and an empty page on which she wrote. And…
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Kelly Does Her Best: Top 25 of the 2010s
As we hit the end of the decade, it\’s worth looking back to survey the musical landscape. From debuts to breakthroughs, the 2010s saw a whole new vanguard emerge in roots music, including Jason Isbell, Brandi Carlile, Rhiannon Giddens, and Alabama Shakes. Some of these artists released more than one truly brilliant record during the…
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The Prison Music Project: Long Time Gone
Americans love to puff up and pound our chests about the U.S. being the greatest country in the world, never mind that our rankings on things like education, health care, and happiness don\’t even crack the top 20. Something we are number one at? Mass incarceration. With just under 5% of the global population, the…
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Indigo Girls: Look Long
If the butterfly effect hadn\’t already made it perfectly clear that everyone in the world is connected, the coronavirus pandemic certainly has. Geography and circumstances vary wildly, to be sure, but none of us lives in a bubble, and it is foolish, if not dangerous, to act as if we do. To be a good…
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Jason Isbell: Reunions
In any kind of art, there are pieces created to appeal to the masses and there are pieces created to capture a moment. The former are often done on a deadline, while the latter most generally come as they will. In that sense, songs are no different than television shows or food. On one side,…
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Gretchen Peters: The Night You Wrote That Song
No matter the artist on either side of the equation, covering songs is some tricky arithmetic. Everyone and their cousin stepping into (and on) John Prine songs for the past month in an attempt to honor him prove that point. If you can\’t do it better or, at the very least, different, maybe just don\’t…
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Sarah Siskind: Modern Appalachia
As with every person, every place has an energy that evolves and evokes its essence. The Romans called it genius loci — the protective, pervading spirit of a place. Each dot on a map resonates with a frequency to match its history. In the American South, that history is complex, to be sure, and so…
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Jill Andrews: Thirties
Raise your hand if you thought your life would look different at whatever age you happen to currently be? It\’s an endemic condition, that. Maybe it\’s from the movies that we watch as kids. Maybe it\’s from the myths that we portray on social media. Whatever the cause, dang near no one is who they…
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Dave Simonett: Red Tail
There\’s nothing quite like a global pandemic to highlight the bubbles that each of us exists within, unable or unwilling to see past its boundaries. We so easily forget or ignore the fact that not everyone shares our resources, privileges, interests, or values. That holds true for non-crisis moments and topics, as well, including music,…
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Brandy Clark: Your Life Is a Record
The artist\’s way is hardly ever a straight line or a single path. It often strolls to and fro, around and about, here and there. Sometimes the tangents are dead ends; sometimes they are new beginnings. But pretty much always, they are worthwhile wanderings and wonderings because the muse must be honored, no matter where…
