About last year: Looking back at 2018 — Arts

By Tami Keaveny and Erin O’Hare In May, before her opening of “Megan Elizabeth Read: Recent Works in Oil,” at McGuffey’s Sarah B. Smith Gallery, Read told us: “You know, if you stare long enough at anyone, you can fall in love with them.” But it was the viewer who became smitten with Read’s hyperrealistic […]

ARTS Pick: Antony and Cleopatra

Shakespeare’s tragedies are mercilessly disastrous, but Antony and Cleopatra elevates callousness with political intrigue and brutal battles for power. Caught between two war-torn empires, a Roman general (Ralph Fiennes), and the Queen of Egypt (Sophie Okonedo) find love against the odds—then face heavy consequences. Adopting a creative take on history, the classic play takes a new form […]

Hear us out: A never-complete list of local releases from 2018

It’s time for us to take up the sticks and beat this drum again. Here’s our never-complete (but still pretty comprehensive) look at what Charlottesville-area artists released this year. We’ve focused mainly on albums and EPs, but there are dozens of other bands and artists releasing single after single, or playing songs that haven’t been […]

ARTS Pick: Year of the Woman

It’s time to wrap up the year with a little glamour in honor of local ladies who pushed the boundaries on music. Year of the Woman is a concert featuring two stand-out performers from 2018: Erin Lunsford leads Erin & The Wildfire with bold, rock-soul blends from the album Thirst, and ADAR is led by […]

ARTS Pick: Sarah Shook & the Disarmers

The brutal country-rock quartet Sarah Shook & the Disarmers plays with a display of defiance that embodies the outlaw era—and such a biting reputation is not undeserved, but it pays off. The group’s spiteful LP, Years, is full of raw undertones inspired by Shook’s personal life. It received high marks from Rolling Stone as “a […]

ARTS Pick: Love Canon

In the spirit of tipping the cap to 2018, Love Canon kicks off the new year with a retro-bluegrass bang. Since 2010, the band has pumped out ’80s tunes in the style of Americana and traditional roots music. The group aims to begin 2019 with a touch of nostalgia, and create a musical rewind revolution […]

Treading water: Aquaman is as silly as it needs to be

After four disasters and one triumph, the DC Extended Universe offers the middling, non-event Aquaman, directed by James Wan (Saw, The Conjuring, Fast 7). This one is intended for folks seeking a visual experience who don’t care much about remembering what actually happens or why. It’s the sort of movie we might hate had it […]

ARTS Pick: Billy Strings

With lightening fingertips and a devotion to American roots music, Billy Strings plays the acoustic guitar with a fury akin  to a hurricane. His passion for traditional psychedelia inspires the electric country vibes of his 2017 album Turmoil and Tinfoil, on which Strings echoes tradition, then tears into it with his own zeal. At age […]

Universal chords: Hiss Golden Messenger digs into the deeper stuff

As Hiss Golden Messenger, M.C. Taylor has spent the past decade crafting songs that stand on musical traditions while summoning a world all of their own. That’s not surprising when you consider Taylor’s output in the new limited-edition Hiss Golden Messenger box set, Devotion: Songs About Rivers and Spirits and Children—it’s just one dichotomy in […]

ARTS Pick: Tonia Ray and the T Ray Band

Vocalist Tonia Ray and the T Ray Band bring joy to the season during An Evening of Neo-Soul. With a range of influences from jazz, funk, hip-hop, and electronic to pop, fusion, and African music, the group promises a high-energy set of holiday-themed favorites that will get you moving, while helping others, at this benefit […]