Popular Music

Arts Commentary: “Fast Car” — Mainstream Country’s Detour from Diversity

July 19, 2023
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Black and openly queer women are not allowed in the Nashville club. Secretly gay white men are not doing too badly, though.

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Jazz Album Review: Steve Smith & Vital Information’s “Time Flies” — Deft and Muscular

July 13, 2023
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“Time Flies” offers approximately two hours of outstanding jazz, created by true masters with no other agenda than to play their asses off with the tape rolling.

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Concert Review: Les Claypool and the Fearless Flying Frog Brigade — Outta Sight

July 2, 2023
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Riddles are abound when Les Claypool comes to town.

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Concert Review: Judith Hill, Lettuce, and Steel Pulse at WasFest — Paying Homage to the Classics

June 27, 2023
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WasFest is a very welcome addition to Boston’s arts landscape, invaluable because it invites artists to push themselves forward while they acknowledge their still powerful influences.

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Music Preview: Les Claypool’s Fearless Flying Frog Brigade — Turning the Prosaic into the Psychedelic

June 25, 2023
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Bass-wielding provocateur Les Claypool is an expert at warping the seemingly conventional into carnivalesque oddity.

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Film Review: Two Music Docs That Go Deep — “City of a Million Dreams” and “Heaven Stood Still: The Incarnations of Willy DeVille”

June 18, 2023
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Both of these documentaries offer gratifying viewing for any curious roots music fan.

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Festival Preview: WasFest — Nothing If Not Multifarious

June 18, 2023
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“Everyone involved was committed to doing something different and eclectic,” WasFest curator Don Was said. “It’s a mixed bag, and that’s what we wanted.”

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Concert Review: Leslie Odom Jr. at the Groton Hill Music Center — The Room Where It Happened

June 12, 2023
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Given the overwhelmingly loud and appreciative response from the sold-out crowd, which hung on every note of Leslie Odom, Jr.’s diverse and stirring set list, he’s unlikely to forget Groton anytime soon.

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Concert Review: Pat Metheny’s Side-Eye — A Very Modern Organ Trio

June 12, 2023
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At New Hampshire’s just-christened Nashua Center for the Arts, 68-year-old jazz guitarist Pat Metheny shared a wily sidelong glance at his own broad compositional and improvisational history.

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Concert Review: Plenty of Boston at L.A. Festivals

May 29, 2023
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So why am I going to write about the Nuggets concert for a New England outlet? Because, totally surprising to me, there was a lot of Boston in the show.

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