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Henry Carrigan

THE READING ROOM: Bob Dylan Reveals Little in Musings on ‘Modern Song’

THE READING ROOM: Bob Dylan Reveals Little in Musings on ‘Modern Song’

This should be an easy review to write, right? Here beside me is Bob Dylan’s The Philosophy of Modern Song (Simon & Schuster), his long-awaited new book, and the first since the Nobel Committee awarded him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016. What is there to say here?

ALBUM REVIEW: Angela Easterling Bears ‘Witness’ to a Range of Emotions

ALBUM REVIEW: Angela Easterling Bears ‘Witness’ to a Range of Emotions

The opening track of Witness starts sparely, with Angela Easterling’s aching, crystalline vocals ascending over Brandon Turner’s Rusty Young-like lap steel guitar licks. The song builds layer by layer, evoking the exquisite pain of looking back folded into the clear-eyed embrace of moving forward. Easterling’s arresting vocals

THE READING ROOM: Linda Ronstadt Shares Life Story in a Desert Landscape

THE READING ROOM: Linda Ronstadt Shares Life Story in a Desert Landscape

In her 2013 autobiography Simple Dreams, Linda Ronstadt shares her life as a key part of the Southern California country rock scene of the late ’60s and early 1970s. Her voice soars in those pages much as it does on albums such as Don’t Cry Now, Hasten Down the

THE READING ROOM: Willie Nelson Celebrates ‘Fabled Friendship’ With Paul English

THE READING ROOM: Willie Nelson Celebrates ‘Fabled Friendship’ With Paul English

In the song “Me and Paul,” Willie Nelson immortalized his beloved friend and long-time drummer Paul English in lines such as “we received our education / In the cities of the nation, me and Paul.” Now, Nelson lets readers in on their lifelong friendship in his humorous, poignant new book Me

ALBUM REVIEW: Appalachian Road Show Puts Joyful Sound Into ‘Jubilation’

ALBUM REVIEW: Appalachian Road Show Puts Joyful Sound Into ‘Jubilation’

Appalachian Road Show’s new album, Jubilation, couldn’t be more aptly named: The 13 tracks on this collection celebrate life, love, and music exuberantly. The band — Darrell Webb on mandolins and banjo, Barry Abernathy on banjo, Zeb Snyder on guitar, Jim VanCleve on fiddles, and Todd Phillips on bass

THE READING ROOM: Margo Price Details Pain and Progress in Memoir ‘Maybe We’ll Make It’

THE READING ROOM: Margo Price Details Pain and Progress in Memoir ‘Maybe We’ll Make It’

Two-thirds of the way through her searing new autobiography, Maybe We’ll Make It (Texas), Margo Price shares the ways that music has transformed her pain — and Price has lived through more than her share of pain, especially losing one of her twin boys to an unsuccessful (actually, a botched)

ALBUM REVIEW: Beth Nielsen Chapman Collects Songs of Sanity for ‘CrazyTown’

ALBUM REVIEW: Beth Nielsen Chapman Collects Songs of Sanity for ‘CrazyTown’

Beth Nielsen Chapman’s new album, CrazyTown, opens with a joyous sing-along, “All Around the World,” a soaring affirmation of the goodness of human nature and the possibilities of community in a world sorely divided by strife. It’s one of those songs whose rhythms and lyrics echo in our