Music
Rev. Horton Heat confesses to less punk, more country on new...
Reverend Horton Heat wants his fans to...
The beautiful madness of Shovels & Rope
Michael Trent and Cary Ann Hearst, the husband and wife duo behind folk-rock outfit Shovels & Rope, were on their way to play Codfish...
Family circus
In the fall of 1995, Tammy Ealom only knew two chords — open E and open A. She met a guy named John Hill,...
The language of the people
In 1990, a lawyer named Craig Ferguson found himself in a hotel room in Chicago dreaming of a new phase of his life, one...
An orchestra’s VIP
If you have attended a classical orchestra concert, you’ve seen the concertmaster.
He or she enters after the rest of the orchestra is onstage, to...
Always ‘Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell’
Social Distortion, along with their contemporaries, Agent Orange, Black Flag, Circle Jerks, X, The Vandals, D.l., Bad Religion, T.S.O.L. and the Offspring, helped shape...
Top five mixtapes of 2009
Industry rule number 4,080, as set forth by A Tribe Called Quest on The Low End Theory, is still true. Record company people are still shady. Luckily, record company people hold dwindling influence over what hip-hop music you get to hear...
Jazz sextet, tap dancer, vocalist and choir? It must be Ellington!
Duke Ellington, jazz legend, pianist and band leader, spent the last decade of his life creating and presenting “sacred concerts.” Described by one critic...
New directions
When Rachel Eckroth was an up-and-coming keyboardist in the jazz scene in Phoenix, Arizona, it was her father who took the teenaged Rachel to...
The Bela Fleck of the ukulele
In the world of stringed instruments, the four-string ukulele has a small and kitschy lute that was associated with the likes of the late...
