There is a sense in which this book should not need to be written. Bessie Smith, Nina Simone, Mahalia Jackson, Mother Maybelle Carter, and Sister Rosetta Tharpe, among others, are the fount of the blues, jazz, gospel, country, and rock. […]
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Amy Speace creates landscapes of the human heart in her songs through her exquisite use of words and images. On her ninth album, The American Dream, Speace shines a light into the corners of our lives where we hide hopes […]
For millions of fans who bought their eponymous 1975 album and their 1977 Rumours, the only Fleetwood Mac they’ll ever know was the band that churned out light rock hits. They’ll know it was fronted by guitarist Lindsey Buckingham and […]
In literature, Acadia is an idyllic place filled with plenty. Acadia is a fitting title, then, for the new album from Yasmin Williams. On this, her third album – her first for Nonesuch Records – the multi-instrumentalist, singer, and composer […]
On the high-octane Highway Prayers, multi-instrumentalist extraordinaire Billy Strings flies down bluegrass straightaways, careening around curves with blind speed. These songs pay tribute to the backroads and byways Strings barreled down in his youth, and some of them pay tribute […]
When Nanci Griffith died just a little over three years ago — on August 13, 2021 — many hearts were broken. We knew we had lost a woman who loved fiercely, sang tenderly, told stories of women embracing their power, […]
Walk along most streets in Greenwich Village these days, and you’re more likely to see banks, high-end clothing shops, and upscale restaurants than small clubs full of folk singers or jazz musicians. In the late 1950s through the late 1980s, […]
Amy Helm dwells in the songs she writes, turning her phrases and words in and out. She delivers little masterpieces of folk and soul that plumb the depths of human emotion. On Silver City, her fourth album, Helm tells the […]
Most musicians recognize the transformative power of music and the ways it can stir up listeners’ emotions. During a concert, a band might play a defiant anthem that has the crowd jeering angrily about the song’s subject; at another moment, […]
As she did on her 2021 debut album, Reckless (ND review), and on last year’s Psychopath (ND review), Morgan Wade showcases a vocal power that combines the clarity and aching vulnerability of Patty Loveless and the vibrant, soaring phrasing of […]
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