We asked several musicians, journalists and fans to share their thoughts on Strangers Almanac 11 years after its release. Chris Stamey [Whiskeytown producer and collaborator] I first heard Strangers Almanac, unsequenced, in Mark Williams’ hotel room at SXSW. I sat there under headphones and played it all the way through. “Inn Town” was what grabbed […]
Rick Cornell
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Chatham County Line
Listen! If you cannot see the music player below, download the free Flash Player. It’s a breathtaking beginning: As “Chip of a Star” opens (and with it, IV), banjo and acoustic guitar curtsy, then dance, the results too brisk for a waltz, too fragile for a reel. It’s the aural equivalent of pine-scented. You can […]
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International Pop Overthrow comes to Chapel Hill for the first time
In 1998, Los Angeles music writer David Bash decided approximately 120 pop-leaning acts playing in a handful of venues around the city over 10 days seemed like a good idea. He called this festival of his International Pop Overthrow, a name borrowed from the early-’90s full-length debut from beloved power-pop trio Material Issue. Indeed, that […]
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Aretha, Curtis, Stevie and the Gospel Impulse
In the non-niche-marketed ’60s, Craig Werner heard soul music on the radio. But growing up in Colorado, he didn’t have much opportunity to see soul performers on tour. Then James Brown came to Denver on an intriguing bill with the Byrds. The teenage Werner, already a fan of the songs he was hearing on the […]
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The T’s
Listen! If you cannot see the music player below, download the free Flash Player. This debut from Raleigh’s The T’s comes courtesy of Doublenaught, the local label that brings us fellow straight-ahead rockers Terry Anderson and the Olympic Ass Kickin’ Team and The Cartridge Family. Among the three, you’ll maybe find a frill and a […]
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Ira Tucker and Solomon Burke tell soul stories
Listen! If you cannot see the music player below, download the free Flash Player. Ira Tucker has countless stories. Over 82 yearsalmost 70 of them spent singing in a hard-traveling gospel groupyou tend to collect a lot of them. For instance, schooled by singing at silver teas in his hometown of Spartanburg, S.C., Tucker felt […]
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Duke Performances presents Dr. Lonnie Smith, among others
Aaron Greenwald, director of Duke University’s Duke Performances, is talking soul music, and he wants the rest of us to do the same. “The idea behind the performances is to have as broad a conversation and as honest a conversation as you can have about soul music,” says Greenwald about the latest Duke Performances series, […]
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Delta Moon’s “Money Changes Everything”
Listen! Download Delta Moon’s “Money Changes Everything” (4.4 MB) or stream it below. If you cannot see the music player below, download the free Flash Player. Late ’70s. The music world had already suggested that money can’t buy you love and that, alternately, money was a crime and a hit. Now, courtesy of a homemade […]
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Bettye LaVette
Listen! If you cannot see the music player below, download the free Flash Player. Bettye LaVette says she’s not a songwriter or a producer. She’s a singer. And for more than 40 years, she’s been soul-singing in a voice that, during a lively phone interview, she describes as “very different,” “raw” and “harsh.” With that […]
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Greg Hawks
Listen! If you cannot see the music player below, download the free Flash Player. Greg Hawks served as John Howie Jr.’s right-hand man in the early Two Dollar Pistols and also led his own band, the Tremblers. With the latter he released the underappreciated Fool’s Paradise, which included a Tex-Mex-leaning take on Springsteen’s “Tougher Than […]
