Chris Heath at GQ interviews nine sober musicians on thriving creatively.
Search results
You’re Just Too Good to Be True
My on-again, off-again love affair with Engelbert Humperdinck.
What to Read After ‘Leaving Neverland’
A list of longreads to make sense of ‘Leaving Neverland.’
When Readers Support Longreads, We Can Nurture Strong Relationships with Writers
There’s a direct link between our readers’ commitment to Longreads and our ability to commit your favorite writers.
Forgotten: The Things We Lost In Kanye’s Gospel Year
“We have forgotten that black gospel music was fashioned by the courageous inventiveness of black migrants from Southern states to places like Chicago and Detroit. The style they created had within it a political and economic critique of racial capitalism: One need only peruse the lyrical content about joblessness, motherlessness, despair, to see it. But […]
Pulling Out All the Stops to Understand a Distant Father
“The phrase ‘pull out all the stops’ comes from the organ; it’s fortunate for listeners’ eardrums that organists never do this.”
OK Listener, We’ll Talk About OK Boomer
Longreads editors chat with Internet culture reporter Taylor Lorenz about ok boomer, TikTok, patriotism, and more.
Working to Preserve Traditional Gospel Music
With approximately 75 percent of golden age gospel music lost, the Black Gospel Music Restoration Project is trying to save what’s left.
Hellhound on the Money Trail
Standard recording contracts screwed Bluesmen out of royalties in the early 1900s, and the system was no different when Columbia released “Robert Johnson: The Complete Recordings in 1990.”
The Wonder Valley Desert of Gram Parsons
A week alone in a California desert cabin leads one woman to the music of the legendary country rock songwriter and a sense of metaphysical perspective under the stars.
