At the 2017 Grammy Awards, A Tribe Called Quest delivered an unforgettable performance during what had been an otherwise dreary show. Joined onstage by Busta Rhymes, Consequence, and Anderson .Paak, the Tribe wasted no time in reminding the audience of […]
The first time I met Jack Torrey of The Cactus Blossoms, we were standing in line to use the latrines at a music festival in Madison, Wisconsin. I had first heard The Cactus Blossoms about a year earlier, in 2014, […]
Readers of this column have heard me say more than a few times that we are in the midst of a roots revival, and we are in the midst of an analog revival as well. In my town alone, we’ve […]
Alongside her music career, set to blazing in the wake of the release of Silences a few weeks ago, Adia Victoria is also a working poet. For a deeper look into the art and heart of No Depression‘s February Spotlight […]
Her eyes are alive, her hair a radiant curtain, her smile a Klieg light. Her voice alternates between smoke and fire. She’s a fine guitar player, but her forte is the piano. Sitting on the bench at a baby grand, […]
Music can feel like magic sometimes. Even if we’re not listening closely, it can stir something deep inside of us. But when we engage with it, we realize, almost in our bones, that music is a survival tactic. As social […]
I was driving to work several days after the New York Times story on Ryan Adams broke and was in shuffle mode, letting the algorithms pick my tunes. About four or five songs into the ride I heard a favorite […]
Award-winning journalist Hal Crowther deserves to be better known, or at least more widely known. He certainly made a name for himself in the South, where his work has appeared regularly in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Oxford American, and Independent […]
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 […]
This week’s column highlights just some of spirited upcoming releases, notably on Feb. 22. I wonder what’s behind this confluence of riches? Whatever mystical forces that may be at work here, it’s going to be an exciting weekend of new […]
