River Whyless patches world music influences into new album

‘‘We all deserve the light” members of River Whyless croon on “Baby Brother,” the captivating opener on their second full-length album. The lyric resurfaces in the record’s final stretch: It’s both the name and crux of the closing track, before it fades into reverie. The Asheville-based quartet even used the line to inform the album […]

Stories of how failures lead to successes

As consumers, we’re inundated by success. Hit records, blockbuster movies, the latest app. Creators, on the other hand, are surrounded by failures. They churn out ideas—some brilliant, some bad—and create until something sticks. How do they find the guts to fail their way to success? Three accomplished local artists are opening up in The Art […]

Movie review: Get Out digs deep with powerful message

Jordan Peele’s Get Out is a perfect movie in its own right, a masterful effort in raising then subverting audience expectations while delivering a powerful message on a subject that has gone tragically unaddressed in film. It is also a revelation for Peele himself, half of the beloved comedy team Key & Peele, whose feature […]

Ruth De Jong designs real life in Manchester by the Sea

While on a scouting excursion for Kenneth Lonergan’s film Manchester by the Sea, Ruth De Jong walked into a coastal Massachusetts shop selling GPS systems for boats. “I’ve been here for 45 years!” the shop owner exclaimed, showing De Jong his office. The room was packed from floor to ceiling with papers—stacks of receipts, notes, […]

ARTS Pick: Will Overman

Not only does Will Overman charm the crowd with his arsenal of lyrically enticing folk rockers, the lead singer can’t resist stepping off the stage and into the audience to groove among his fans. Following up on the album Will Overman Band, “a love letter to the Commonwealth of Virginia” that was released in June, the […]

Anything goes in the world of synth experimentation

The bleeps and bloops of modular synthesizers can be heard all over music these days, says Travis Thatcher, the technical director for the composition and computer technologies program in UVA’s music department. It’s audible in pop music, techno, house, trap, even indie rock and hip-hop, and that’s precisely what makes it interesting. Plus, he says, […]

ARTS Pick: WinterSongs

Music is in the air when the third annual WinterSongs concert brings together women’s choirs from nine area schools to raise their voices to benefit the Shelter for Help in Emergency. The event, created as a response to violence against women in our community, includes students from Charlottesville, Albemarle and Monticello high schools, Burley, Sutherland […]

ARTS Pick: Blood Wedding

UVA Drama’s David Dalton approaches Federico García Lorca’s Blood Wedding with a modern hand, as he connects themes in the early- to mid-20th century script that resonate in a contemporary treatment. The entangled love story (translated poetically by Langston Hughes and adapted by Melia Bensussen) descends into tragedy as bloodlines clash and difficult choices must […]

ARTS Pick: Miranda Lambert

Coming up as a teenage country singer, Miranda Lambert was disenchanted by the pop music style that Nashville starmakers tried to push on her. Instead, Lambert blazed her own groove down the well-worn path of traditional country music and defined herself with hits such as “Gunpowder and Lead,” “The House That Built Me” and “Little […]