Raised in the fertile musical region of Galax, Virginia, Dori Freeman was never far from the sound of a bluegrass tune. She began to sing and play at a young age, and despite entering college and becoming a single mom, she gravitated to the role of musician. After a bold move—Freeman reached out to singer-songwriter […]
Raised in the fertile musical region of Galax, Virginia, Dori Freeman was never far from the sound of a bluegrass tune. She began to sing and play at a young age, and despite entering college and becoming a single mom, she gravitated to the role of musician. After a bold move—Freeman reached out to singer-songwriter […]
Big things happen when The Suffers go to work on their fusion of jazz, R&B, reggae, and funk. The eight-piece act plays Gulf Coast soul defined by the sultry vocals of Kam Franklin, whose warmth is so energetic she was asked to be a spokeswoman for tourism in the group’s hometown of Houston. The good […]
In Hedda Gabler, Henrik Ibsen crafted a painfully real representation of the 19th-century angel in the house. Stripped of her individuality, Hedda is repressed by her roles as daughter and wife. The production channels themes of subtle misogyny through love, rage, and a gripping sense of cruelty that leaves Hedda and those around her to […]
London’s National Theatre Live broadcasts I’m Not Running, a new play from critically acclaimed playwright David Hare. The drama centers around Pauline Gibson (Siân Brooke, right), a doctor turned politician who has her life turned upside down after a run-in with a stalwart loyalist of the Labour Party, who also happens to be her ex-boyfriend. […]
Before Charlottesville’s first hardcore punk band played Charlottesville’s first hardcore punk show, Lackey Die bass player Danny Collins had a prediction. “I think we’re gonna be the hottest thing that ever came out of this stinkin’ little town,” Collins said to one of his bandmates. It was 1983, and the band was about to take […]
It’s hard to decide what deserves your attention at a Falsies concert. Is it the music? The musicians themselves, constantly swapping guitars for saxophones, for drums, for keyboards? Or is it band founder Lance Brenner in his yellow chicken suit, gesticulating wildly while shoving a microphone into the beak to sing? Maybe you’re wondering how […]
Winter gray getting you down? Les Yeux du Monde offers a potent dose of Southwestern heat in the form of paintings by Russ Warren and sculptures by Ed Haddaway that will banish those February blues. The two artists, who are native Texans, met as students at the University of New Mexico in 1971, where they […]
Zyahna Bryant became an activist about three years before she wrote the petition to remove the Robert E. Lee statue and rename Lee Park in 2016. It was the day after George Zimmerman’s acquittal for second-degree murder charges in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, when Bryant, then age 12, organized her first protest. In […]
Blues on the side: A gospel singer as a child, Jontavious Willis made a life-changing discovery around age 14 when he came across a YouTube video of Muddy Waters’ “Hoochie Coochie Man.” The Georgia native became an instant fan, and began his mastery of the Delta, Piedmont, and Texas blues, honing his chops as a fingerpicker, […]
World classical: Conductor Benjamin Rous leads the Charlottesville Symphony at the University of Virginia through a whirlwind of global experiences, beginning with the slow processional dance of Maurice Ravel’s Pavane for a Dead Princess, followed by Siempre Lunes, Siempre Marzo (Always Monday, Always March), a piece by Venezuelan American composer Reinaldo Moya based on Gabriel […]