The musician always seemed to be more of a friend to his fans than a distant celebrity.
music
On Why Joni Mitchell Deserves Her Due
Carl Wilson argues that her genius has been overlooked for far too long, because of her gender.
The Brief Career and Self-Imposed Exile of Jutta Hipp, Jazz Pianist
Europe’s “First Lady of Jazz” moved to New York in 1955, played for five more years, then disappeared — while royalty checks piled up with her record label.
Billy Bragg: Skiffle Songs Are Railroad Songs
“The British kids were trying to escape the past as quickly as they could and the guitar offered them the best means to do that.”
Nina Simone’s Three Years of Freedom
At Guernica, Katherina Grace Thomas turns a lens on the years Nina Simone spent in Liberia in the mid-1970s.
Where Have All the Guitar Heroes Gone?
Where’s the next generation of guitar heroes? The guitar industry misses you.
Prog Rock: The Musical Genre That Won’t Die
The “progressive” form of 1970s rock and roll still has as many devoted fans as it does diehard enemies. Why?
Faster Than the Speed of Sound: An Interview with Holly Maniatty
American Sign Language interpreter Holly Maniatty uses every molecule in her body and the beautiful nuances of ASL to interpret musical performances for Deaf concert patrons.
Stories are Everything: A PJ Harvey-Inspired Reading List
Frank Matt, inspired by PJ Harvey’s 2011 album Let England Shake, shares an article that resonates for each song on the record.
How The Whitest Singer Of The ’70s Became An Icon In The Philippines
Karen Tongson — named after the ’70s soft rock music icon Karen Carpenter — immigrated to the United States from the Philippines soon after Karen Carpenter died in 1983, at age 32. As she returns to the country of her birth, Karen examines what fuels the Carpenters’ huge continuing popularity in her home country and […]
