When I started thinking about romantic stay-in music, this exchange from Barry Levinson’s fries and gravy classic Diner came to mind. Modell: When you want to make out, who do you make out to: Sinatra or Mathis? Shrevie: I’m married. We don’t make out. Stayin’ in I choose to believe that there’s romance afoot no […]
Rick Cornell
Posted inMusic
Tsunami relief
After the flood, music and aid flows W atching those images coming out of Southeast Asia a few weeks back no doubt led to a host of emotions–disbelief, sorrow, even anger. But eventually a thought works itself through the tangle: I’ve got to do something. For Gerry Williams, that means making phone calls, sending e-mails, […]
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Forbert’s endurance test
“You know, you’ve always wanted to sell records. Sam Phillips wanted to sell records, of course. But you didn’t have this broad, overriding factor of just what will sell–you know, what will be the easiest to sell the fastest,” responds folk-rocker Steve Forbert when asked about the changes he’s seen during his 25-plus years in […]
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in tres cryin’ truckers
While the recent Nashvillians in the Round show featured a post-modern spin on the guitar pull format, this gathering promises to be more of an old-fashioned, Bluebird Cafe-style song swap. It will be no less absorbing, though, thanks to the talents and tastes of Caitlin Cary (Tres Chicas, Whiskeytown), Kevn Kinney (Sun Tangled Angel Revival, […]
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DJs on the flipside
When I think of a DJ in a bar, I immediately picture someone spinning house or techno or whatever you sweaty kids are calling it these days. But at a handful of Triangle watering holes, you can hear–and watch–someone playing other types of music. For instance, on Monday nights at Slims in Raleigh, Joe Yerry […]
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In musical role-playing
People always seem to look down on cover bands. “If your band starts out playing other people’s songs, then you’re most likely going to always play other people’s songs,” the keyboardist for a formerly famous band whose name rhymes with Surmounting Foes once opined to me. But you won’t find me distributing grief: Cover bands, […]
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Feeds the soul
For a little over an hour on Election Night, music served as brief respite, daily-life soundtrack and gap-bridger, reminding me of several of the many reasons why it’s almost as crucial to me as oxygen and hope. Raleigh-based bluegrass band Chatham County Line and near-legendary rocker/troubadour/eccentric Robyn Hitchcock, labelmates on local Yep Roc Records, each […]
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The needle and the damage undone
Thanks to the several pieces of fabric that are attached to pages between its covers, it is, literally, a scrapbook. However, this red book–which belongs to Jennifer Reavis, CEO and one-person workforce of AltStitch–holds other items in addition to those scraps. There are photos and handwritten letters and a drawing or two, everything coming together […]
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in Southern rockin’
Memory No. 1: Eighth-grade English class, and a classmate is sporting an Eat a Peach T-shirt. “So you like the Allmans?” says teacher William “Bill to His Friends” Smith, adding, “They’re not bad.” Good God, teachers listen to rock music. Memory No. 2: A week after the plane crash, my best friend’s younger brother somehow […]
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In the answer is moot
It wasn’t until his music career took off that Dwight Yoakam started acting. Trenton, N.J.’s Moot Davis (whose familial roots stretch to West Virginia) was an actor first, traveling in productions of Our Town and The Glass Menagerie. These days, the 29-year-old Davis is based in Nashville and thinking more Tennessee Ernie Ford than Tennessee […]
