Steve Horowitz

Steven Horowitz has a Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Iowa, where he continues to teach a three-credit online course on "Rock and Roll in America". He has written for many different popular and academic publications including American Music, Paste and the Icon. Horowitz is a firm believer in Paul Goodman's neofunctional perspective on culture and that Sam Cooke was right, a change is gonna come.

Recent

Pitchfork Music Festival 2019 Conquers Heat and Rain

While Pitchfork Music Festival may not be a cutting edge music fest anymore, it shows that festivals will never die as long audiences and artists believe in the power of the music.

Events

Americana's Eilen Jewell Celebrates the 'Gypsy' Life

Eilen Jewell's music provides a way for us to sonically amble through the daily grind without being weighed down by it. We can all be gypsies for the length of a song, even when lamenting our restricted existence.

Music

Car Seat Headrest Commit Themselves Completely on Their Live Release

Car Seat Headrest leader Will Toledo selected nine songs from over 50 gigs from around the globe recorded during 2018 for the band's new live recording.

Music

Folk Singers Mat Callahan and Yvonne Moore Show That a Working Class Hero Was Something to Be

Folkies Mat Callahan and Yvonne Moore present a collection of pre-World War II songs about the struggle for economic justice with Working-Class Heroes: A History of Struggle in Song.

Music

The Black Watch Make 'Magic Johnson' the King of America

Many of the songs on the Black Watch's Magic Johnson explicitly deal with the trope of insanity, a staple of late '60s / early '70s music that declared that the only sane response to living in an insane world was to be crazy.

Music

Diplomats of Solid Sound Take You to 'A Higher Place'

A music historian could pick out the multitude of sources that inform Diplomats of Solid Sound's A Higher Place. That may be fun and even illustrative, but it's beside the point. This is music to party with, dance to, and enjoy.

Music

Bruce Robison and Kelly Willis Honestly Tell a 'Beautiful Lie'

Americana duo Bruce Robison and Kelly Willis capture the sound of classic country music from the past and make it part of the here and now on Beautiful Lie.

Music

Rhiannon Giddens Understands That 'there is no Other'

MacArthur genius grant winner Rhiannon Giddens' new album, there is no Other, invites us to do more than share our misery. It asks us to see ourselves as part of something bigger.

Music

Mavis Staples Reminds Us That 'We Get By'

Mavis Staples has witnessed the great transformations that have been made in terms of race relations in American life. But she is not satisfied on We Get By.

Music

Stefan Goldmann Follows a 'Tacit Script'

Electronic producer Stefan Goldmann's recordings on Tacit Script convey the industrial aspects of the world as natural as the primitive environment.

Music

The Felice Brothers Want Us All to 'Undress'

The Felice Brothers take the bromide "the personal is the political" and stand it on is head and have it stick out its tongue so that the political becomes personal on Undress.

Music

'I Like It Down Here' Southerner Will Kimbrough Says

The American South may not be a perfect place, but Will Kimbrough displays its riches through these tales of life on I Like It Down Here.

Music

Charlie Chaplin's Film Music Can Stand Alone and Provide Solace Today

While Charlie Chaplin's music may have been meant as accompaniment to his movies, it can stand alone and provide solace today.

Music

Lissie Goes It Alone on 'When I'm Alone: The Piano Retrospective'

As the album title suggests, Lissie has stripped down the songs to their essence. It's just her voice and piano. It's like putting a lion in a cage and calling it a cat. She should let herself out.

Music

Liz Carroll and Jake Charron Take a Trip on the 'Half Day Road'

Two North Americans take Irish traditional music into the future by enhancing its distinctive features and making it fresh and contemporary.

Music

Terry Allen and the Panhandle Mystery Band Dramatically Traverse the American Landscape of the Mind

Terry Allen's musical compositions suggest that the Southwestern desert landscape is made up equally of wavering guitar lines, a broken television set, mad women, pounding drums, Indian chants, buzzing insects, and of course rodents and birds of all variety.

Music

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Outside Lands 2019 in Photos

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