O ne day in the spring of 2018, Jenn Marie Earle was washing dishes in her Portland, Oregon, home, when her husband, Justin Townes Earle, walked into the kitchen with his guitar to play her a song he’d just written. As Justin started singing, Jenn Marie began to cry. On …
Read More »500 Greatest Albums Podcast: Daddy Yankee's 'Barrio Fino' and the Rise of Reggaeton
In the mid-2000s, Daddy Yankee was a married father of three living in the Villa Kennedy public housing projects in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He was about to change the world, though, with an album that did perhaps more than any other to turn reggaeton — an underground urban movement …
Read More »A Hip-Hop Pioneer Loses His Leg. The Optimism Remains
Andre Brown was leaving his sister’s house on Memorial Day when he misjudged the location of a railing and fell down a flight of stairs. His son Arahmus jumped over the railing to prevent the 56-year-old from hitting his head. While Brown damaged his right ankle, he laughed off the …
Read More »Musicians on Musicians: Lil Wayne & Lil Baby
L ate on a Friday night, Lil Wayne fires up a joint at his Miami studio and logs into Zoom as “Mr. Carter.” “What up, Baby?” he says. “How’s the fam?” “Good, man,” says Lil Baby, grinning from L.A. “That’s what’s up,” says Wayne. Wayne doesn’t listen to a lot …
Read More »Brittany Howard and Margo Price on Fishing, Life in Quarantine, and Social Change
Brittany Howard and Margo Price talk life in quarantine, fishing, and speaking out for social change in a new video for Musicians on Musicians. The duo kick off with Price showing Howard eight one-month-old kittens in her Nashville home. “You can have pick of the litter,” she tells her. “This …
Read More »'Kid A' at 20: Why Radiohead's Futuristic Masterpiece Sounds Right on Time
Twenty years ago, Radiohead released their greatest album, Kid A. It dropped on October 2nd, 2000, and instantly hit Number One, with zero airplay. The electro-glitch masterpiece was controversial at the time, but the mess Radiohead made on Kid A is a thing of beauty forever. Its mystique just keeps …
Read More »Song You Need to Know: Joe Grushecky With Bruce Springsteen, 'That's What Makes Us Great'
Certain songs have a way of coming back right when they’re needed again. When Joe Grushecky and the Houserockers first put out “That’s What Makes Us Great” — a duet with Grushecky’s longtime champion Bruce Springsteen — in 2018, the fist-in the-air anthem didn’t resonate the way it does now. …
Read More »Song You Need to Know: Chris Stapleton, 'Starting Over'
Chris Stapleton is headed somewhere in his new song “Starting Over.” Over a brushed snare rhythm by drummer Derek Mixon that evokes Willie Nelson’s version of “City of New Orleans” and lyrics about a road rolled out “like a welcome mat,” the country singer is in perpetual motion, his sight …
Read More »Listen to This Hip-Hop/Bluegrass Rendering of 'This Land Is Your Land'
“Rebuild the system, reclaim the power,” raps Philadelphia artist R-SON the Voice of Reason on Gangstagrass’ cover of Woody Guthrie‘s “This Land Is Your Land.” “If this land is yours, it’s certainly ours.” Gangstagrass is a rising bluegrass/hip-hop fusion collective, best known for contributing the theme song to FX’s Justified. …
Read More »Read and Watch Our New Ringo Starr Interview on His 80th Birthday
Ringo Starr was hoping to have a big party for his 80th birthday on July 7th, but the pandemic is keeping him away from his friends and loved ones. Instead, he’s throwingRingo’s Big Birthday Show, a virtual charity concert that will hit YouTube at 8 p.m. EST July 7th, and …
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