Where ‘Old Town Road’ Is Leading Country Music
Last weekend at the Pop Music Conference in Seattle, music journalists, writers, and academics gathered to share papers and trade conversation about the frontlines of music today. Perhaps not surprisingly, Lil Nas X and the recent controversy over his meme-ified country trap song “Old Town Road” kept popping up in
Ruthie Foster, the Blues, and a Town That Needs Lifting
“Blues is like a witness,” Ruthie Foster said with a delicate voice while warming her throat with a cup of tea in a conference room of the Freedom Hall in Park Forest, Illinois. Beyond the way that a masterful blues guitarist bends a lick, or a great singer lets out
Marc Broussard Makes Himself at Home by Revisiting Soul Favorites
Marc Broussard is an acrobat, a genre-juggling time traveler straddling two very different generations in his fan base, uniting them with the power of his voice. The 37-year-old Carencro, Louisiana, native revives soul with remakes of the classics from icons including Solomon Burke and Otis Redding as well as weaving
David Grier Enlists Talented Friends to Explore ‘Ways of the World’
Talented musicians have surrounded David Grier since childhood. His father, Lamar, performed with Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys in the 1960s, and Roland White taught some of Grier’s earliest guitar lessons. His lengthy run as an influential flatpicking guitarist has kept the circle of like-minded family and friends
A Deeper Blue: 'Sky Blue' Shows Townes Van Zandt in his Comfort Zone
The mid-1970s were not a fertile time for Townes Van Zandt’s recording career. Though he had released six albums by 1972’s The Late Great Townes Van Zandt, its follow-up, Flyin’ Shoes, wouldn’t see the light of day until 1978. In the years between, Van Zandt spent his
