How Taylor Swift’s Music Became the Soundtrack of My Southern Youth
Taylor Swift has written and performed her country girl coming-of-age story. Despite resistance, she’s part of mine too.
Hopscotch 2018: Lomelda’s Hannah Read Offers a Tender Treatise of Gratitude for Those Closest to Her with Thx
LOMELDA Friday, Sep. 7, 10:30 p.m. | Nash Hall For Hannah Read, growing up in Silsbee, Texasa town of fewer than 7,000 peoplewas no more exceptional than most people’s childhoods. “Just the same old shtick,” Read says. “You play Mario Kart, you try to be in a band, you play open mic nights. It wasn’t…
For MMA Fighters, the Perfect Walkout Song Makes a Powerful Impression Before a Bout Begins
Collectors of music are often compelled to exist in paradox. On the one hand, there’s the drive to hearto amassas much music as possible. On the other, the compulsion to narrow vast stores of records and songs into finite lists: albums of the year, songs of the decade, even the true crucible of music fandom,…
Punch Brothers May Be Packed with Talent, But Their New Record Barely Stays Afloat
PUNCH BROTHERS Sunday, July 22, 8 p.m., $35–$183 Durham Performing Arts Center, Durham www.dpacnc.com P>unch Brothers has always been a band of big leaps. Its mere existence is a feat of sleight of hand. Its componentsmandolin, banjo, fiddle, acoustic guitar, and upright bassindicate a bluegrass ensemble on paper, but their music has always rejected any…
Betty Davis Changed the Face of Funk. It’s Time to Celebrate Her on Her Own Terms.
THEY SAY I’M DIFFERENT: A CELEBRATION OF FUNK ICON BETTY DAVIS WITH FUNK HOUSE Thursday, June 28, 8 p.m., $15 Motorco, Durham www.motorcomusic.com She’s been called funk itself: libidinous, formidable, and raw. She’s the queen of self-possessed sexuality, a feminist cult hero, the lesser-known inspiration for Bitches Brew and one of the mothers of jazz…
From Johnny and June to Tim and Faith, Country Music Loves Power Couples, But There’s More to it Than Meets the Eye
FAITH HILL & TIM MCGRAW Friday, June 22, 7:30 p.m., $26–$126 PNC Arena, Raleigh www.thepncarena.com Last November, the Country Music Hall of Fame opened Mississippi Woman, Louisiana Man, an exhibit exploring and celebrating the careers of Tim McGraw and Faith Hill. It was timed to coincide with the fourth joint tour in the duo’s twenty-year…
Can Bob Weir and the Boys Bring the Grateful Dead Back to Life?
DEAD & COMPANY Saturday, June 9, 7 p.m., $45–$250 Coastal Credit Union Music Park at Walnut Creek, Raleigh www.livenation.com The continuing exploits of Dead & Company are a reminder that loving The Grateful Dead has become an increasingly complicated proposition ever since Jerry Garcia’s death in 1995. In 1998, the surviving members of the band…
More Music Essay Coverage
Mahavishnu Orchestra’s John McLaughlin Looks Toward Retirement After Half a Century of Groundbreaking Guitar Work
JOHN MCLAUGHLIN & JIMMY HERRING Sunday, Nov. 12, 7:30 p.m., $10–$85 Durham Performing Arts Center, Durham www.dukeperformances.duke.edu Even if John McLaughlin had never released a single solo album or formed his pioneering fusion band Mahavishnu Orchestra, he would still be regarded as a visionary who changed the game for guitarists and profoundly altered the course…
Two Decades In, Scotland’s Belle and Sebastian Keeps Flipping the Indie Rock Script
Monday, July 31, 7:30 p.m., $34–$50 N.C. Museum of Art, Raleigh www.ncartmuseum.org “Museums are traditionally places you get dragged to by girlfriends,” cracks Stevie Jackson, longtime lead guitarist and cosongwriter for the legendary Scottish indie-pop iconoclasts Belle and Sebastian. Reached by phone on a late July day, he’s in good spirits and is playing a…
Forty Years After Her First LP, Carlene Carter Looks Back on a Long Career and the Ties That Bind
JOHN MELLENCAMP, EMMYLOU HARRIS, AND CARLENE CARTER Wednesday, June 28, 7 p.m., $49–$120 Koka Booth Amphitheatre, Cary www.boothamphitheatre.org By the time Carlene Carter went to record her rock- and new-wave-informed debut LP in 1978, the then-twenty-two-year-old was twice-divorced and saddled with an intimidating musical legacy: her mother, June Carter, and her stepfather, Johnny Cash. Her…
Car Seat Headrest Has Buzzed Toward Moderate Millennial Acclaim, But Is it Interesting?
CAR SEAT HEADREST Monday, June 5, 8 p.m., $17–$20 Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro www.catscradle.com Diss tracks aren’t quite as storied in indie rock as in hip-hop (remember Pavement’s R.E.M analysis on “Shady Lane” B-side “Unseen Power of the Picket Fence?” No?) but they crop up here and there. Car Seat Headrest’s Will Toledo knows a thing…
Moogfest and Art of Cool Tell Durham Two Different Stories About Itself
For better or worse, the Art of Cool Festival and Moogfest have spent the past two years locked in comparison and competition for city resources. The festivals take place less than a month apart, making use of many of the same spaces but courting different audiences. During Moogfest’s second year in Durham after moving from…
Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.