The songwriters's collective Chicks With Dip originated in New York City and first made a splash with their tribute to Joni Mitchell's Blue album. It now includes women throughout the United States and Canada. They have just released this video, a mashup of two iconic anthems, Tracy Chapman's "Talkin' 'Bout a Revolution" and Melanie's "Lay Down (Candles in the Rain),” meant as a generational reflection on our paradoxical times. The project underscores the urgent need for change while embracing the hope for peace. Arranger/producer/mixing engineer Katherine Etzel says, "I had the idea for this ..read more

The Avett Brothers are now on Broadway – not as performers, but the creators of a new musical, Swept Away, which just opened at the Longacre Theatre ..read more

Ever since I heard Songs for Bright Street in 2006, I’ve been a champion of Amy Speace, whose writing and singing have stood out from the crowd. Since then she’s recorded 9 more albums, the last 8 in Nashville, where she’s lived for many years ..read more

One of the most eagerly-awaited Broadway productions this fall is the revival of Sunset Boulevard (now at the St. James Theatre), which took London by storm, winning seven Olivier awards ..read more

The production of McNeal, now at Lincoln Center Theatre, opens with a projection of an iPhone looming over an empty stage. Instantly, I thought of Steve Jobs’ minimalist ethos and flashed on the new iPhone’s AI capacity. It turns out that artificial intelligence is very much at the heart of McNeal, and that projections are essential to the production.  ..read more

For almost 30 years, starting with the Grammy-nominated Revival album in 1996, Gillian Welch and her partner in music and life, David Rawlings, have set the standard for acoustic Americana duos ..read more

For years Neale Eckstein had a career as a pediatric dentist while pursuing a passion for music on the side ..read more

When Madeleine Peyroux released her debut album, Dreamland, in 1996, she was a 23-year-old singer who spent years busking in  Paris and had an uncanny vocal similarity to Billie Holiday ..read more

Over nearly 50 years, banjo maestro Tony Trischka has managed to satisfy both bluegrass purists and progressive bluegrass fans, who are drawn to groups expanding the genre with outside influences like jazz and psychedelic music (which he did in the ‘70s, ‘80s, and ‘90s with Country Cooking, Skyline, and Psychograss). On his new album, Earl Jam (a sardonic nod to rockers Pearl Jam), he pays tribute to his hero Earl Scruggs, bringing together an all-star cast which bridges generations and styles. The genesis of Earl Jam was a series of informal gatherings that Earl Scruggs and John Hartford had ..read more

In a career that has spanned 57 years, beginning as a teenager in London as a member of the seminal folk-rock group Fairport Convention, Richard Thompson has given us a body of work with sharply drawn lyrics and melodies accented by his distinctive guitar playing. His new CD, Ship to Shore, his 27th solo studio album (and first in six years), offers plenty of those attributes. Recorded in Woodstock, NY (where he briefly lived), Ship to Shore leans into Thompson’s electric side, employing his longtime band, augmented by his wife Zara Phillips on harmony vocals and David Mansfield on occasional ..read more