Plenty of rappers who’ve been in the game for a while understand that establishing their place in an ever-expanding lineage requires not only referencing and paying homage to the sounds and figures that preceded them, but engaging with new ones rising up. The impulse to evolve might propel an artist through multiple, distinct aesthetic eras. […]
This is the relaunch of our Community Beats series, where we bring you stories about fascinating people, pivotal perspectives and important work being done in and around music right where we live. TRANSCRIPT: Host intro: Over the last several years, there’s been growing recognition of the ways that Black and queer people have been marginalized […]
An un-ironic call for more “peace and love” might seem out of step in 2021 were it not coming from the mouth of Jim James, lead singer and principal songwriter of My Morning Jacket. WNXP filmed a special session with the band in early September at Nashville’s historic RCA Studio A, including a live performance […]
Tonight, Merge Records artist Torres — whose newest LP Thirstier was our #RecordoftheWeek (and the subject of a simultaneous NPR Music feature) not too long ago — graces one of the most storied stages in Music City, a room that live music fans (and longtime residents clutching to wisps of Old Nashville) hope remains a […]
“I don’t like to talk down to children,” Tom T. Hall told me over a decade ago. He didn’t condescend to me either, even though I was a young, somewhat green interviewer back then, probably overreaching in the questions I asked on the two occasions when he welcomed me into the studio behind his home, […]
Madi Diaz didn’t always grasp how to capture the unraveling of complicated emotions in her writing and delivery, but she certainly does now, as she displays during the chorus of “New Person, Old Place” from her new album History of a Feeling. “What use to hurt doesn’t hurt anymore,” she sings, trailing off with relief. […]
In 2019, Brittany Howard released her first solo album Jamie, a record acclaimed for its fearless and imaginative execution of musical arrangements and lyrical depth. It earned Grammy nominations in a variety of genre categories, from alternative to R&B, American roots and rock. Howard’s newly released project Jamie Reimagined expands that stylistic breadth even further […]
Pop music has its expected moves, its reliable strategies to get a musical payoff by making the melody’s apex the main event. Torres isn’t interested in reserving her intensity for the high notes. She engineered the chorus of “Don’t Go Puttin’ Wishes In My Head,” a muscled-up power-pop song on her ravishing fifth album, Thirstier, […]
This week on the New Music Experience, supported by Tennessee Brew Works, it’s all about Nashville and surprises.
It’s a heater in Nashville, and on the July 9 edition of #ThematicStatic, particularly.