In June 1967, a young singer and her band took the stage at the Monterey Pop Festival. It was Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company’s first large-scale public performance, but her performances riveted the crowd and introduced […]
Michaela Anne always has a book near, whether she’s at home or out on tour. A lifelong reader, she says that her reading informs her songwriting and that her new album grew out of at least two books — one […]
Last week, I provided a short list of books that offered readers a little guidance in digging deeper into the topics covered in Ken Burns’ PBS series, Country Music. As with all series like this, Burns can hit the high […]
Now that the sprawling Ken Burns series Country Music has finally begun making its way across the airwaves and revealing facets of the music and its industry that may be new to many, it’s a good time to revisit some […]
Somewhere between waking and dreaming Patti Smith wanders, extolling the poetry of Allen Ginsberg, puncturing the ballooning apathy of American culture following the 2016 presidential election, and looking back on, and gazing forward into, times marked by loss and measured […]
When Susan Sontag published On Photography in 1973, she raised many questions about the aesthetic and moral value of taking pictures. Sontag had already established herself as a cultural critic whose essays on science fiction (“The Imagination of Disaster”); Andy […]
Many of us spent the weekend getting back to the garden of upstate New York, reliving those three days — which turned into four days, since Jimi Hendrix closed out the concert early Monday morning with his bombastic version of […]
A few years ago, Ray Wylie Hubbard reflected on his life and the evolution of his songwriting and music in a humorous, candid, and cinematic memoir a life … well, lived (Bordello Records). He told the now-famous story — which […]
Anyone looking for intimate details about the personal life of North Carolina musician Ben Folds won’t find many of them in his new reflection on his life in music, A Dream about Lightning Bugs: A Life of Music and Cheap […]
While there have been many great albums released so far this year, there haven’t been so many great music books published so far this year. That’s not too surprising, since publishers usually save their big books for the fall, and […]
