Album of the Week #8

Chloe Hotline’s latest album recently landed on my radar. Since following her career for the past few months, I was really excited to hear what she had in store: and have not been disappointed.

+NSTYNCT is Chloe’s debut album, following a string of singles, EPs, and a previous full-length project in 2018, Cynthia. Chock full of eclectic features, varied instrumentals, and engaging hooks, it’s a moody, and moving record that has an iridescent sheen to it. …

Live Concert Series PT 7

As a grad school student in the 1980’s, I often found myself in places I couldn’t have imagined an hour before I arrived. In one of these places — a house one street over and down from my apartment — I remember entering a large room, and in it were a bed, a dresser, an old chair, and several people sort of lounging as if the day, or the year, had totally depressed them.

Everyone wore a variation of black, and no one much was talking or even that interested that a stranger to them had shown up. …

These days, I’m listening to more female rappers than ever before. I think my brain just got sick of male rappers constantly putting down women — and especially Black women.

Songs by male rappers usually zap my energy if I think about them too hard. Whenever I listen to female rappers, I feel like the baddest chick on the planet.

Guess I need to switch up my Spotify playlists — don’t you think? Below are a few of the songs I’ve got on repeat.

1. Buss It — Erica Banks

When I first heard “Buss It” I immediately understood why it went so viral. The…

When 16-year-old Taylor Swift released her debut song “Tim McGraw” in June 2006, no one thought this blonde Pennsylvanian would become a dominant force in the music industry.

She’s arguably one of the most influential musicians in recent years. Whether you like her or not, there’s no denying Swift has taken the music world by storm.

In 2014, she completely switched from country to pop with her critically acclaimed album “1989,” initiating her image as a pop star.

Since then, four more album followed, including 2017’s “Reputation,” 2019’s “Lover” and in 2020, two new unexpected sister albums called “Folklore” and…

The 1960s was a watershed era for blue-eyed soul, with multiple hits by the Rascals, Mitch Ryder and the Righteous Brothers. Add the Box Tops, whose 1967 “The Letter” became a number one single that would sell four million copies.

The band had been together four years before they were discovered by Memphis DJ Ray Banks, who asked Chips Moman of American Sound Studio to give them a break. Moman passed the group onto his assistant Dan Penn, who was anxious to produce his own records.

When the Box Tops arrived at American Sound in 1967, Penn was surprised that…

(Note: In the spring of 2020, COVID-19 quarantine began and everything else stopped. Live concerts stopped. The world stopped. I wrote this piece during the first couple of months of the pandemic. The isolation was just sinking in. A year later, it still rings true. Now, more than ever, the memory of live music is worth preserving.)

Prince played a show to 40,000 people in my hometown last week. And I missed it.

Yes, I’m aware the performance occurred some 35 years ago. But it felt live, like something communal and immediate, because the Prince Estate had just released a…

I was born in 1982, so in terms of music, the ’80s hold no interest for me. I’m not into hair bands. I appreciate a good Whitney Houston power ballad as much as the next person, but she’s not making my road trip playlist. I contemplate murder when my husband blasts Huey Lewis (sorry, Christopher Robin). Maybe I was too young for the ’80s since they never really got a hold on me’ (throwback reference there, thanks, Smokey Robinson).

The ’90s, though? The ’90s were it.

First music memories

My first real memory of being interested in music was in 3rd grade. We…

Music

When you think of hotbeds of music, certain cities stand out; New York, Chicago, London. Sometimes Seattle gets a nod. But a unlikely college town in Georgia has also gifted us several bands. REM, Pylon, and the B-52's all got their start in Athens Georgia.

Starting in the mid-Seventies, the B-52’s have always been known for their unique sound and party band atmosphere. When you think of the them, popular songs like “Love Shack” and/or “Roam” probably first come to mind. You likely also either love or hate them, and the odds are pretty good you’ll hear one of the…