“People who love Phish do so with a quasi-religious devotion. People who dislike Phish do so with an equal fervor.”
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20 Years Later: Little Brother, “The Minstrel Show”
Like minstrelsy, Little Brother’s album shows you one hand, convinces you of one thing, while something else works behind the scenes.
Abandoned Music Dreams and The Week’s Top 5
“It felt like a homecoming but in retrospect seems more like a goodbye: a last great musical act before leaving that period of my life. It felt romantic, anyway, to record in a barn. We set the drums next to the tractor, tried to coax the chickens into cooing for the microphone, and had a […]
The Ballad of Ollie Jackson
“How the baddest man int he St. Louis underworld failed to become a folk hero.”
My Father, Guitar Guru to the Rock Gods
“When the greatest musicians of the 1970s needed an instrument—or a friend—my dad was there.”
Acid Blues (Slight Return)
“The music of Jimi Hendrix continues to strike a chord.”
Lost Recipes
“The Mind Squad and editorial staff like theirs—people who understood and loved the music—would create a new, vibrant, and deeply informed style of cultural journalism that defined an era.”
If You Think This Instrument Is Hard to Play, Try Building One
“The oboe has 500 parts. Turning a profit is a killer. But Jim Phelan is bent on reviving one of the great names in classical music.”
Remembering D’Angelo: The Eternal Spell of ‘Voodoo’
“’Voodoo’ has remained one of the pillars of soul music that’s transcended its era and defined its genre, nearly as much as one video almost came to define D’Angelo.”

