The Anglo-Irish playwright Martin McDonagh has one of the theater’s most singular voices: perhaps Pinteresque in its menacing tone, but often funnier and with a larger cast.
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Initially it’s confusing that Amy Speace, who grew up in Baltimore and lived in New York before settling in Nashville, should title her new seven-song EP Tucson. Further explanation reveals that she spent part of the summer of 2020 at Cottonwood de Tucson, a treatment center for “trauma, complicated grief and depression.”
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Tracy Letts, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and Tony Award-winning actor, displays both his talents in his new play, The Minutes, now at Studio 54 on Broadway. Using just one set and one scene, The Minutes, describes a city council meeting during a stormy night in the small town of Big Cherry.
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For many years Christine Lavin was close friends with the songwriter Ervin Drake ("Good Morning Heartache," "It Was a Very Good Year") and his wife Edith.
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Having missed spotlighting an album in the short month of February, I’m doubling down with two Spotlight Albums for March: Anais Mitchell and Aoife O’Donovan.
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he New Folk Initiative is proud to offer this exclusive video premiere of "After the Flood" and to invite you to hear Karen, along with Side Pony and Billy Woodward, as part of On Your Radar at Rockwood Music Hall Stage 3 on Tuesday from 7-9 p.m.
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With their rigorous instrumental versatility and wide-open approach in their repertoire, Punch Brothers have always had a special place in my heart. On their new release, Hell on Church Street, they add another dimension to their skill set , the Unconventional Cover, by reimagining Tony Rice’s 1983 album, Church Street Blues.
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In the wake of Stephen Sondheim’s hugely mourned death, the revival of Company, one of his most accessible musicals, at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, couldn’t be more timely. This new production comes with a caveat: the main character, the marriage-phobic Robert (a.k.a. Bobby), has been cast as a woman, Bobbie. Have no fear, though, the gender switch works fine, and the production is first-rate all-around.
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James Lapine’s name has come up frequently as Stephen Sondheim’s collaborator, writing the book and directing Tony Award winners Passion and Into the Woods, and earning a Pulitzer Prize for Sunday in the Park with George (which inspired Lapine’s recent book, Putting It Together: How Stephen Sondheim and I Created Sunday in the Park with George).
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As I’ve been processing the death of Stephen Sondheim, there is so much of his music at my disposal to appreciate, from soundtrack albums such as Sweeney Todd and Sunday in the Park with George to revues like Sondheim on Sondheim to tribute albums by the likes of Judy Collins, Melissa Errico and Crylle Aimee. But the one I’m drawn to the most is A Pretty Little Death by Eleri Ward, which suits the bittersweet moment.
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If you check out Bruce Sudano on All Music, it lists his genres as Pop/Rock, Country, and Rap. You’d think those would be mutually exclusive, but they’re an indication of his range as a songwriter.
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Although she had four well-regarded albums previously, it was The Firewatcher’s Daughter that really drew attention to Brandi Carlile, followed by the half-dozen Grammy nominations for 2018’s By the Way, I Forgive You that propelled Brandi’s career to a whole different level. This fueled expectations for her latest, In These Silent Days, and evidenced by her success on Billboard (entering at #1 on the Rock and Americana/Folk charts), Brandi doesn’t disappoint. More to the point, there’s no letdown in the musical quality.
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Almost two years ago to the day, I had the good fortune to witness David Byrne’s American Utopia at the Hudson Theatre. David laced selections from Talking Heads and his solo career between wry stage patter, and the music and movement of the multi-cultural ensemble just blew me away. Despite getting packed houses, it had to close in February, 2020, but promised a new run that September. The pandemic changed those plans, but thankfully the show is back on Broadway and once again not to be missed.
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There are no dramatic departures in Dar Williams’ 13th album, I’ll Meet You Here. It’s simply filled with the kind of superbly crafted songs you’d expect, enhanced by the tasteful production of Stewart Lerman, known for his work with The Roches, Elvis Costello, Neko Case, and countless others. After a six-year hiatus from recording (save the limited release of a superb live Cry Cry Cry album), this is a welcome comeback.
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Over the course of more than a dozen albums, Brooklyn's Ana Egge has been one of folk's most consistently satisfying songwriters.
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Recent photos of Jackson Browne have caught some fans by surprise. The guy who always looked eternally youthful now looks all of his nearly 73 years – still handsome but just a little grizzled. His new album, Downhill from Everywhere, is the work of an artist comfortable with his age, but with great vitality, mixing both the personal and the topical.
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Music fans were heartbroken when they heard that a singer-songwriter with a pure voice and great empathy, Nanci Griffith, had passed away in Nashville. I had a conversation with her in 1998 at Atlantic Recording Studios in NYC.
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As a young artist raised in New York Diana Jones leaned heavily into rock, but after learning that her birth family was from Appalachia, she discovered her voice as a songwriter and singer. The flowering of that was My Remembrance of You in 2006, which led to critical acclaim and five subsequent albums. Her newest, Song to a Refugee, is her strongest yet for the clarity of her vision and the depth of her writing.
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Four years ago, Paula Cole, who made her name as a protégé of Peter Gabriel and a Grammy winner for Best New Artist in 1998, released an astonishing album, Ballads…This spring she’s topped herself with American Quilt, which she describes as “a patchwork of heritage, a stitched-together history of culture, both painful and beautiful.” It’s an easy choice to be the Spotlight Album for June.
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When I heard Allison Russell’s voice on the first Birds of Chicago album in 2012, I knew she had a special voice…Now, though, Allison, a woman of mixed race and complicated background, has truly found her voice in her first solo album, Outside Child. It has taken her artistically and personally to a whole new place and made me how realize how much more I had yet to discover.
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