What lies beyond COVID-19 for the arts community?
Popular Music
Music Album Review: Phoebe Bridgers’s “Punisher” — A Stunning Sophomore Album
Phoebe Bridgers has crafted a disc filled with pristine, meditative songs that carry a brutal emotional weight.
Concert Review: Ticket to Park — Johnny A Plays the British Invasion Songbook at the Tupelo Drive-In
A by-the-carload ticket gets you a spot in the Tupelo Music Hall parking lot and an empty space next to it.
Rap Album Review: “Run the Jewels 4” — Heart, Wit, and Rage
Too many hip-hop artists stick to defined lanes, but Run the Jewels aspire to run rampant, with a growing sophistication as well as heart, wit, and rage.
Pop Album Review: “how i’m feeling now” by Charli XCX — What Life is Like, Sheltering in Place
Charli has successfully dramatized her impatiently jagged state of mind, supplying an emotionally honest stream of consciousness that suggests what she (and no doubt many others of her generation) is feeling and thinking in quarantine.
Music Feature: Gideon King & City Blog — Forward Motion in a Backwards Time
“As artists, it’s our obligation to keep going. I really believe we have to push for the world to open up again.”
Music Appreciation: Two American Musical Geniuses Named Steve, on Their Birthdays — Sondheim and Wonder
Musical theater giant Stephen Sondheim turned 90 on March 22, and Stevie Wonder—for my money, the greatest popular music composer of the last 60 years—turned 70 on May 13.
Arts Commentary: Endangered Species — Independent, Small Venues
What’s happening right now, this is a bloodbath. It is full on slaughter of small businesses. They lie in the streets gasping for breath.
Music Album Review: “Ghosts” — The Cowboy Junkies Confront Heartbreak and Sorrow
Darkness is pervasive in this Cowboy Junkies album, but it is not all-encompassing.
Arts Remembrance: The Three Funkiest Handclaps in Music History — An Appreciation of Bill Withers
When I think of Bill Withers I think of just three handclaps. It’s my favorite example in his music, or just about anyone else’s, of the power of restraint — not slamming and flailing about to shift a groove into overdrive.