Natalie Haas talks about traditional music comebacks

In the fashion world, LuLaRoe is bringing leggings back, one pop-up at a time. And it could be said that in the music world, Natalie Haas is helping to bring the cello back as a substratum for Celtic songscapes. Over the years she’s embraced the instrument, transforming its sound to complement those by the legendary […]

WTJU celebrates 100 years of jazz recordings

When Rus Perry arrived at WTJU in 1972, he was really into rock ’n’ roll. But the more he hung out at the station, the more he expanded his musical horizons, playing the latest Bruce Springsteen or Elvis Costello cut next to Ornette Coleman or Blind Lemon Jefferson. “We learned from each other,” Perry recalls, […]

Album reviews: Spiral Stairs, Alison Krauss and The xx

Spiral Stairs Doris and the Daggers (Domino) After eight years, Scott Kannberg, aka Spiral Stairs, sounds rested and rejuvenated. Doris and the Daggers kicks off with “Dance (Cry Wolf),” a flashing ’80s glam jam. When Kannberg’s baritone comes in like a countrified Ian Curtis, it’s a little startling, and on the chorus he sounds like […]

ARTS Pick: Jordan Tice

Jordan Tice’s journey to becoming a force on the bluegrass scene started with classical guitar, jazz and rock ’n’ roll, then expanded into a variety of projects that found him keeping musical company with members of Crooked Still, Punch Brothers, Dave Rawlings Machine and Canadian folk act The Duhks. He was even tapped by banjo-playing […]

ARTS Pick: Chicago

Murder, fame and greed consume the lives of two 1920s jazz club performers in Chicago, the longest-running American musical in Broadway history. From behind bars and in the courtroom, Velma Kelly and Roxie Hart compete with each other for public attention, while singing and dancing through a media frenzy. Directed by Edward Warwick White with […]

ARTS Pick: Sleigh Bells

Brooklyn noise pop act Sleigh Bells melds punchy distortions into slick pop so smoothly that not only have several tracks been placed in commercials and TV series, but the duo recently filed a lawsuit against pop star Demi Lovato and her producers for sampling tracks from their Treats LP without permission. The duo continued their […]

ARTS Pick: Arthur C. Greene Rising Star Awards

“Talent is an accident of genes—and a responsibility,” said the late actor Alan Rickman. For the past 20 years, the Piedmont Council for the Arts has identified more than 250 area high school students as bearers of that responsibility through its annual Arthur C. Greene Rising Star Awards. This year, teachers and nonprofit organizations have […]

First Fridays: March 3

First Fridays: March 3 In “Drawings, Old and New,” at the downtown Mudhouse through the month of March, Mae Read exhibits a series of nudes, mostly women, drawn either from life, or from photographs. When Read draws, she connects deeply to her subject and herself. “Spending that many hours staring at almost any person will create […]

The Front Porch celebrates inclusivity at new location

The Front Porch’s Emily Morrison wants artists of all backgrounds to find peace at the roots music school she founded in 2015. With help from friends, Morrison began the school in a back room in her home and soon moved into a space at Mountaintop Montessori. Last June the nonprofit moved into the old Michie […]

Kevin Everson looks to the night sky for comment on history

It’s a busy, blustery Tuesday on Grounds. Outside The Fralin Museum of Art, UVA students rush by in droves, pulling overcoats tight against the wind. Inside, I stand in darkness staring at craters on the moon. The air is hot and loud, filled by the whir and clank of unsteady projectors shining on gallery walls. […]