Category Archives: Uncategorized

When David Letterman retires this month from CBS’s “Late Show,” musicians everywhere will be singing the blues as the talk-show host winds up more than three decades as their champion. Mr. Letterman’s departure is a particular loss for a genre enjoying a renaissance: Americana. … Continue reading →

By Steve Beard The symbolism was profoundly countercultural. When Sergei Rybko lumbered onto the stage in between rock bands at a dingy nightclub in Moscow, his appearance was sure to provoke a whiplashed double-take. Draped in a flowing black cassock … Continue reading →

When tourists started showing up here, I couldn’t figure out what they saw in the place,” says Jimmy “Duck” Holmes, a 67-year-old blues musician and owner of the Blue Front Café. It’s a scruffy little drinking spot and informal music … Continue reading →

Ben E. King, the lead singer for the Drifters and solo star whose voice graced classics like “Stand by Me,” ”There Goes My Baby” and “Spanish Harlem,” recently died at 76. Barely two weeks earlier, another legendary singer-songwriter, Tracy Chapman, covered “Stand … Continue reading →

The Age of Atheists will likely stay confined to certain intellectual circles: The casual philosopher, the dogmatic non-believer, the coffee-table book collector. But insofar as its argument represents a broader pathology in contemporary conversations about belief, this book matters. Most people … Continue reading →

By Emma Green “We don’t challenge any heresy in the church!” John Perkins declared at a recent meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention. “We don’t challenge the ugliness and dehumanization of rap in our community because it makes money for … Continue reading →

By Fayemi Shakur “Although Margo Cooper did not know it when she began more than 20 years ago, she has followed that tradition and produced a documentary project that archives the oral and visual histories of blues musicians, their families and communities in … Continue reading →

By John Leland, The New York Times “Let’s be frank here: Elvis devotees are a lot like fish in a barrel. Anyone can shoot them, with reliably satisfying results. Their reverence almost invites intrusion. So the measure of a portfolio … Continue reading →

                      By Steve Beard “When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: ‘Death has been … Continue reading →

By Kenneth Tanner If you were inventing a story that you wanted people in the ancient world to believe as fact, the last thing you’d want to do is start with a woman seeing someone walking around alive whom everybody … Continue reading →