Clik here to view.
Working My Way Back to You: The Heart of Rock & Soul and the Ties That Bind
At the end of my semester, I had my second level composition students write a little journal about a record or song that they would call a favorite. This activity was literally inspired by a dream...
View ArticleClik here to view.
My 2018: The End of Something and the Beginning of Something More
As a recovering cultural critic, one of the things I need to let go of is the sense that I have to write about some quota of things to see the Old Year out and the New Year in. I am a part of a core...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Flemington Meets KC: Nalani & Sarina Prove It All Night in 45
On the EP and album (2015's Scattered World and 2018's The Circle) I’ve been listening to over the past two years, New Jersey twin rockers Nalani & Sarina have come to represent what I find missing...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sudden Sympathy: Stars at Night and Le Butcherettes
I haven’t claimed to be a punk in a long time, though that fire was the thing that first lit the rock and roll path at my feet. Seeing LA’s Stars at Night and Le Butcherettes at KC's RecordBar shook...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Beyond Human Expectation: Music, Teaching and "The Orphan of Asia"
Luo DaYou When I teach writing, I feel like I'm passing on what I best know how to do. When I write or teach about music, I'm talking about my inspiration, things spiritual that continuously forge my...
View ArticleClik here to view.
I Shout and I Fly and I Cry and I Run: Searching for Freedom through Ariana...
On the title track of Gillis’s third album, she offers the ribbon from her hair as Ariadne’s thread, a lifeline to find one’s way out of the darkness. In a gently pulsing and shimmering...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Movie stars and American heroes, the ones that lie ahead and the last that...
As a Hollywood cowboy (archetype, bit player, singer and stunt man), Bruce Springsteen—the rock and roll animal who happens to play syllables as well as he handles guitar, piano and voice—has once...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Only Light We See: Craig Werner and Friends Making a Way Out of No Way
Group Picture: Last Day, Last Session of Calls and ResponsesWhen I introduced Craig Werner at a Springsteen conference in 2005, my friend Charles Hughes tells me I said, “I could go on about all the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Dream Baby Dream: The Promise of Blinded by the Light
Review by Billy ChinStaking out our spot in the pit before Bruce’s Nashville show in April 2014, I spotted a peculiar sight: A man of Asian or Middle Eastern descent with dark, curly hair was milling...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Joy Inside My Tears--Intocable's Vital Percepcion
Singer/accordionist Ricardo Munoz cries out in pain and also cries for joy, often at once, each syllable of his delivery as nuanced as that of a legendary soul or country singer. But,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The 40th Anniversary of The Most Thrilling Mess I Ever Heard
After three decades, I've all but hung up my rock criticism work, but I haven't really, and I don't suppose I ever really could. I just feel alienated from the forms it takes today. Maybe they were...
View ArticleClik here to view.
On All the Lines and Crossing Over: Jimmy Webb with John Fullbright at...
After seeing last night’s Jimmy Webb show, I imagine most of the house agrees we have to read his memoir, The Cake and the Rain. Webb spent much of the evening turned to his right on...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Songs 2020 #1, Mavis Staples, "We're All In It Together"
A record that helps me get out of bed. According to Rolling Stone, early in the pandemic, Mavis Staples called up her buddy Jeff Tweedy and said, “Tweedy, have you heard them saying the title of our...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Songs 2020 #2: Lil Baby's "Bigger Picture"
It’s hard to imagine a musical form more suited to 2020 than trap, and it’s hard to imagine an artist tackling it better than Lil Baby does here.The record starts with the sound of thunder and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Songs 2020 #3: "Esta En Ti," Adriana Rios
Rios starts with a deep breath, like she's uncertain before a big statement, maybe she's bracing herself for saying anything at all in the middle of the pandemic. Guitar arpeggios lay a path for her...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Songs 2020 #4, "I Can't Breathe" H.E.R.
Dedicated to Jenay Manley, who (alongside Dominique Walker of Moms for Housing; Nicole McCormick of West Virginia United Caucus; and Maria Estrada, President of Southern California League of United...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Before the Dust Settles: My 2020
This has been a strange year for everyone, and, as with many others, it called for me to think about changes in direction.It's been a year when I've all but let go of the idea of myself as a music...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Remain in Love: Chris Frantz's Wonder-Filled Tribute to Collectivity and...
Recalling a moment when (the rest of the band itching for solo projects) he and wife Tina Weymouth started thinking up Tom Tom Club, Chris Frantz makes a distinction central to Remain in Love. Frantz...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Place of No Words: Love in the Face of Death
Midway through The Place of No Words, the movie's 5-year-old protagonist, Bodhi asks his dying father why people have to die.His father responds, "It's part of life."Bodhi replies, "Then I don't...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sarah Langan's Good Neighbors: My Novel on Replay
Almost at its dead center, not for the first or last time but decidedly, Good Neighbors grabs me by the throat.A terrible thing has happened, and the easy scapegoat is the family that doesn't quite fit...
View Article