Noah Gundersen Carry the Ghost/Dualtone Records Carry the Ghost is an apt title for Noah Gundersen’s latest collection of songs: Some would give up the ghost, but he’d rather figure out why it’s there in the first place. And while this does not make for an overly pleasant record, there is beauty in the darkness. […]
Named after a bar in Florida that inspired Jimmy Buffet to write his songs, local cover band Full Moon Saloon is gaining notoriety and stacking up the gigs, including a recent Fridays After Five appearance. Since forming in 2000, FMS has had Parrotheads and reggae fans alike eating out of its musical hand as the […]
Decades after laying down licks for Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band, Ry Cooder remains unobtrusively prolific as a slide guitarist and an album producer. His work with Buena Vista Social Club and Ali Farka Touré has added Grammy Awards to his shelf, while collaborations with The Rolling Stones, Lowell George, Van Morrison and Judy Collins […]
Inspired, electric and full of the same rawly honed talent that drove its subjects to their creative heights, if Straight Outta Compton were the last musical biopic ever made, it would have been worth suffering through all of the perfunctory crap the genre has produced in the past. Where most biopics lean on the lead […]
It took Victor Captain more than 12 months, a brand new birth certificate and his first flight on an airplane to bring his artwork to Charlottesville. “When I got to New York, my nose was like stuff, stuff, stuff. There was no clean air to breathe,” says Captain. He says it with a smile and […]
If you only know one thing about the Virginia Arts of the Book Center, it’s probably that its tagline is “Beneath The Art Box.” This hints at the rich history of underground presses but also provides a literal reminder to help geolocate the community printmaking studio in its off-the-radar location. However, that motto needs an […]
I’ll Be Me documents the courage of country musician Glen Campbell who, when diagnosed with Alzheimer’s-related dementia, decided to plan an amazing farewell tour across the U.S. with his family. The film shows the struggle of the affliction, but also how friends, family, love, laughter and music can help a person cope with its unpredictable […]
Briana Marela All Around Us/ Jagjaguwar This is a beauty of a record. Abstract, ambient and guided by a first-rate vocalist and songwriter who makes All Around Us a stunner. Deliciously paradoxical, the album manages to sound explosive and subtle all at once, its exploration of relationships in their myriad forms is universal, while lyrically […]
Alt-country singer-songwriter Drew Gibson proves that home is where his heart is on the new album, 1532. Drawing on family history, the finger-picking guitarist proves his talent as a storyteller though a mosaic of memorable events turned into song. The tracks convey the hardships in Gibson’s life from an uncle’s battle with leukemia to family […]
In a film industry where every studio release is engineered to appeal either to all audiences or hyper-specific target demographics, the fact that a film like Ricki and the Flash found release is refreshing. Baby boomers/Gen Y, liberals/conservatives, wealthy/working class, no one subset of American filmgoers will find their entertainment whims catered to in this […]