By Katherine Cole I have a confession to make: my new favorite holiday is April 20th, AKA Record Store Day! Unfortunately, I’ve got to wait 51 weeks until the next celebration. I know what you’re saying–who needs to go into a bricks and mortar store when you can download a song on your phone or […]
Remembering Richie Havens
By Katherine Cole In all honesty, that’s a stupid title for this blog post. How could we ever forget a guy who looks and sounds like this??? It was that opening performance at Woodstock in 1969 that catapulted Richie Havens into the history books, but did you know that it almost didn’t happen that way? […]
SOCK! POW! ZOK!
By Eric Felten According to Variety, the superhero flicks lined up for this summer’s silly-film season are being scored with music that breaks the genre’s tired molds. I can’t say that I’m convinced. The sound of superhero soundtracks has for years been dominated by orchestral angst: Heroic, yes, but always drenched in a moody ambivalence […]
Play Ball 2013!
BY KATHERINE COLE This is a very happy week for baseball fans the world over—the 2013 major league season officially started on Sunday March 31st, when the Houston Astros beat their in-state rival Texas Rangers 8-2. OK, calm down. This isn’t turning into a sports blog. But there’s a longtime love affair between music and […]
Happy news from Austin…
By Katherine Cole In my South By Southwest wrap up, and on Roots and Branches this week, I teased that I had one more South by Southwest story to share. One with a very happy ending. It involves Carrie Elkin and Danny Schmidt –both touring folk musicians who call Austin home. The brilliant news is […]
SXSW—My ears are still ringing!
By Katherine Cole What a week it was in Austin! I didn’t keep track of all the shows I attended during SXSW 2013, but my unofficial tally is a hundred bands/singers heard between Tuesday March 12 and Sunday the 17th. Sounds like a lot, but it’s totally doable when you realize music starts when the […]
Theodore Roosevelt, Frank Lloyd Wright …Bob Dylan?
By Doug Levine It’s another first for singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, who will become the first rock and roll artist inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Previously, Dylan was the first rock star to earn a nomination from the National Book Critics Circle for his memoir “Chronicles: Volume One,” and, in 2008, he […]
AJ Croce
By Katherine Cole Hello again from Austin. Day three of SXSW Music 2013 and I’m still running around like a crazy person. I’m getting over my disappointment at not winning the Prince ticket lottery, thanks to all the other great music at all other great music going on around town. (That’s not entirely true, but […]
Hello from Austin and the craziness that is SXSW!
Greetings from Austin, Texas. I’m here with thousands of my closest friends to attend the annual South By Southwest music conference. This is year 27 for the event and it’s bigger than ever! I’ve learned that the easiest way to manage the city during SXSW is on foot. Forget about driving in downtown Austin during […]
When Music Meets Politics — Part 3
Just the other day Katherine Cole told us about the squabble in Massachusetts over naming an official state rock song. She noted that Massachusetts already has a state song and an official state polka. Now, as the Wall Street Journal reports, the state next door, Connecticut, is scuffling over whether to have an official polka […]