Pick: Robert Earl Keen

Holiday roots: Raised on classic rock and Willie Nelson, singer-songwriter Robert Earl Keen likes to take the road less traveled. Steering clear of mainstream country, Keen is lauded as an outlaw of the Americana music style and became a grassroots sensation thanks to his poetic musings, razor wit, and killer live band. With 21 records […]

Pick: Let There Be Light

Twinkle, twinkle: Let There Be Light returns for two evenings of whimsical illumination ahead of the longest night of the year. The outdoor exhibition includes a variety of light-centered art installations and performances. The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts’ Artmobile traveling gallery will be set up on opening night, and hot cider will be available […]

Extended play

By Dave Cantor The opening track of Julian Lage’s first Blue Note album is titled “Etude”—a nod, perhaps, to the lifetime he’s spent studying his instrument. The guitarist, who came to national attention in a short 1996 documentary focused on his prodigious talents called Jules at Eight, has been recording as a bandleader for just […]

All the joys of life

The Charlottesville arts community lost one of its greatest champions and brightest stars in Carolyn “Lyn” Bolen Warren, who died on Sunday, November 21, at the age of 60 after a valiant battle with cancer. Warren’s art gallery, Les Yeux du Monde, has been a cherished Charlottesville institution for more than two decades, featuring beautifully […]

Pick: Crozet Winter Brews Festival

Holiday hops: Craft brews and mountain views await at the Crozet Winter Brews Festival, a celebration of dark beers and winter sips from Virginia breweries and cideries. Enjoy toasty stouts, chocolatey browns, crisp ciders, and never-before-seen beers as you relax in a heated lounge. Lord Nelson and Matthew O’Donnell bring the tunes, and a variety […]

Pick: Virginia Women’s Chorus

Hark! Do you hear singing?: Herald in the holiday season with the Virginia Women’s Chorus, the University of Virginia’s oldest women’s music organization. Directed by KaeRenae Mitchell, the group is back beneath the vaulted ceilings of the UVA Chapel for its 38th annual candlelight concert. These beloved performances feature a diverse selection of music, from […]

Pick: Corey Harris

New blues: With imaginative compositions and an eye for eclectic experimentation, guitarist and vocalist Corey Harris has his own vision of the blues. Drawing on his origins as a New Orleans street singer and his travels through the South and Cameroon, Harris takes the traditional blues formula to the next level with influences from reggae, […]

Hands on

By Julia Stumbaugh As any parent knows, kids share more than just toys when they play—so it’s no surprise that a pandemic spells disaster for children’s museums. A century after the 1918 Spanish flu caused health boards to shutter kids’ museums across the United States, the 2020 coronavirus again made touch-heavy exhibits impossible. Satellite branches […]

Sit and stay

While most traditional westerns take place around 1890 or so (when the American frontier was officially no longer deemed unsettled), Jane Campion’s gripping, brilliantly acted The Power of the Dog begins in 1925. We know this because brothers Phil (a mesmerizing Benedict Cumberbatch) and George (Jesse Plemons) get nostalgic during a cattle drive, and reminisce […]

Galleries: December

Pieced with love “It is a real thrill when someone sees one of my paintings and feels a connection,” says painter and collage artist Scheline Crutchfield. “It’s almost like we were in the same place at the same time.” Like many artists, Crutchfield was missing that connection during COVID closures. “I created a lot of […]