There’s a valuable lesson to learn from the music of Nora Jane Struthers—and it’s that showing vulnerability takes a gritty kind of personal strength. Struthers wears her heart on her sleeve on her most recent album, Wake, which is powered by her signature bluegrass-tinged rock, and tells a powerful story of falling in love. Backed […]
You already know that Sheryl Crow is the voice behind a long list of top-40 songs, from “Soak Up the Sun” to “Everyday is a Winding Road.” But did you know she is also an outspoken supporter of a number of charities, from the Children’s Defense Fund and AIDS research to the Special Olympics and […]
Are you alone? Are you searching? Do you have visions? Have you been receiving their messages? These are the questions posed in the bio of Asheville, North Carolina’s Playdate, a band that credits a distressed mental state for its inception. The duo joins heartfelt, modern synth-pop outfit Synthetic Division, along with the raw beats of […]
Finding true love is never easy, but in Shakespeare’s world, it can be downright treacherous. Join young lovers Claudio and Hero in Much Ado About Nothing as they attempt to trick Claudio’s cousin into admitting his love for his professed enemy—while the lurking villain Don John attempts to make Claudio and Hero’s wedding end in […]
During his first year at UVA, Louis Smith felt homesick. He missed his hometown, Virginia Beach, and places like Kendall Street, a beach access road where Smith and friends lit bonfires and watched fireworks. Fast forward five years, and Smith, still in Charlottesville, feels right at home. While studying music at the University of Virginia, […]
When rock band Trees on Fire went on hiatus a few years ago, not only did the local scene lose a source of rhythmic, groove-driven innovation, but a passionate voice in the fight for protecting the environment was disbanded. The group is reuniting to head up a new family-friendly music festival that includes the Greg […]
“My fascination with the Underground Railroad began in elementary school,” says photographer Jeanine Michna-Bales in an email. “It was part of our school curriculum and I remember just being amazed that people had to go through this long journey in order to be free.” Michna-Bales, now based in Texas, grew up in the Midwest amid […]
Well, the good news is that The Mummy is not a remake of the 1999 Stephen Sommers film starring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz (itself a remake of the 1932 film by Karl Freund starring Boris Karloff). The bad news is, well, everything else. Where the 1999 film was self-serious and knowingly preposterous in equal […]
A mysterious woman named Iz arrives at a sanatorium-cum-medical spa, completely mute. She’s brought in by her husband who explains that one night, while putting their son down to sleep, Iz stopped singing mid-lullaby and hasn’t uttered a word since. Everyone at the sanatorium/spa finds Iz—and her silence—compelling. So begins Drugsong, theater and performance artist Jennifer […]
Justin Townes Earle Kids in the Street (New West) Being Steve Earle’s son and Townes Van Zandt’s namesake unfairly provokes expectations of preternatural songwriting gifts. Happily, on Kids in the Street, oft-troubled Justin Townes Earle lives up to his lineage. It kicks off with the Stones-y stomp of “Champagne Corolla”—the band sounds great, horns nestling […]