When Record Labels Blasted Through the Barriers in Segregated America
While their motives were more mercenary than musical, American small record label impresarios could hear the barriers falling between the races right before their ears.
gospel
The Many Sounds of Bob Dylan’s Voice
Are Bob Dylan’s improved vocals in his later years a deliberate aesthetic choice? Has he re-focused his attention on the art of singing?
All Things Reconsidered/Culture/Featured: Top of Home Page/Features/History/Music/Music Features/Performing Arts/Visual Arts
Bob Dylan’s Art Is Best Served Naked
As Bob Dylan learned, only through baring of one’s soul does one show the way forward, providing both a glimpse into the other and perhaps the shape of things to come.
Bob Dylan’s ‘John Wesley Harding’ Was No Friend to the Poor
Bob Dylan’s 1967 album John Wesley Harding is more about what it is not than what it is. Does that hold true for the mythology of John Wesley Hardin himself?
A Hero’s Homecoming: Jon Batiste Steals the Show at New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
A show with this many moving pieces could easily have devolved into chaos, but in Jon Batiste’s hands, it was a wonderfully diverse, talented vision of what America can be at its best.
Iris DeMent Creates Songs for a Better World on ‘Workin’ on a World’
While Iris DeMent may moan against the world’s evils in Workin’ on a World, the album offers an optimistic message. We can change the world!
Hiding in Plain Sight: Bob Dylan’s ‘Good As I Been to You’ at 30
Good As I Been To You was warmly received by critics, but a Bob Dylan album of covers with a stripped-down, rough-edged acoustic aesthetic did not satisfy fans’ hunger for new Dylan material.
Featured: Top of Home Page/Features/Lists/Music/Music Features/PopMatters Picks/The Best Music of 2022
The 10 Best Progressive Rock/Metal Albums of 2022
The best progressive rock albums are profoundly ambitious and forward-thinking, music that’s immense, expansive, and mind-blowing, with dramatic elements.
Bob Dylan Remains Hard to Pin Down with ‘The Philosophy of Modern Song’
In The Philosophy of Modern Song, Bob Dylan conveys his thoughts in his signature styles, as in his lyrics, he can be plainspoken, gnomic, and over the top.
The Joke’s on You: Bob Dylan’s ‘The Philosophy of Modern Song’
Bob Dylan’s The Philosophy of Modern Song is an awful book, awash with misogyny and crusty old man rants like a drunken, MAGA hat-wearing uncle.
Ruthie Foster Sings to the Choir and with Them on ‘Healing Time’
The desire for personal love, secular community, and religious redemption make for a powerful package on Ruthie Foster’s Healing Time.
The Staple Singers Still Provide Consolation for Living in a Cruel World 50 Years Later
Craft Recordings releases a 50th-anniversary edition of the Staple Singers’ soul classic ‘Be Altitude: Respect Yourself’ and the music has never sounded better.