Earl King’s “discs were among the rare ones where the words were as important as the music, where blues guitar was balanced with second-line piano, and where the B-sides were as strong as the A-sides.”
music
Posted inStory
Shelved: Yoko Ono
On Yoko Ono’s 1974 album “A Story,” and stepping out from behind the ever-present shadow of John Lennon.
Posted inNonfiction
I Will Always Love You: A Dolly Parton Reading List
Happy birthday, Dolly Parton! Here are seven longreads about the American singer-songwriter.
Posted inStory
Longreads Best of 2020: Music Writing
Music has been a salve this year, helping us cope with the myriad challenges that 2020 brought. Here are some favorite pieces of music writing we picked in 2020.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Yo-Yo Ma and the Meaning of Life
David Marchese interviews cellist Yo-Yo Ma on music, politics, culture, the pandemic, stereotypes, and the meaning of life.
Posted inArts & Culture, Essays & Criticism, Highlight, Quote Posts, Quotes
Sister Rosetta Tharpe: Electric Guitar Pioneer
“She wielded her guitar like a weapon and distorted the sound: a guitar technique that was completely original at the time and would be copied by legions of rock guitarists in the decades after.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
I Feel Most Southern in the Hip-Hop of My Adolescence
“Joy Priest creates a Southern rap soundtrack of the cars, songs, and forces that sculpted her sense of freedom and confinement coming of age in Louisville, Kentucky, in the early 2000s.”
Posted inStory
The Proving Grounds: Charley Crockett and the Story of Deep Ellum
Generations of musicians got their start busking the streets of the Deep Ellum neighborhood of Dallas, Texas. After a decade of ‘hobo-ing’ around cities like New Orleans, Paris, and New York, Charley Crockett discovered it was his turn.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Honky-Tonk Tokyo
Country music became popular in Japan after World War II. Today, Tokyo has a vibrant underground country music scene.
Posted inArts & Culture, Highlight, History, Quotes
If You Love the Music of the Carter Family, Thank Leslie Riddle
“First, you exclude black people from the festivals. Then write them out by not recording them. And pretty soon, ‘you have this manufactured image of country music being white and being poor.'”