Wynonna approaches Christmas with a new perspective

While most of us are keeping pace with the holiday bustle, country music superstar Wynonna is taking herself out of the madness this year. “I’m not doin’ it,” she said. “I’m just not. Not after what I’ve been through this past year.” In addition to the rigors of touring, recording, and reality TV appearances, she’s […]

ARTS Pick: The Midtown Men

Lively choreography and four-part harmonies add Broadway brilliance to the holiday season as the original cast of Jersey Boys reunites onstage as The Midtown Men. Christian Hoff, Michael Longoria, Daniel Reichard, and J. Robert Spencer have kept their musical brotherhood alive since 2007 with hundreds of headlining performances, and now they add holiday hits and […]

Local songwriter Ellis Paul breaks down the craft

There’s a scene in Animal House where John Belushi’s character Bluto walks by a folk singer strumming a tune in the Delta Tau Chi fraternity house. He listens to the lyrics for a moment—“I gave my love a chicken that had no bones” —before smashing the guitar against the wall and handing it back to […]

Amahl and the Night Visitors sets the course for local opera careers

At 11 years old, Kate Tamarkin sat in a dark Laguna Beach, California theater, her mouth gaping, flabbergasted at the boisterous sounds produced by the singers in a performance of Amahl and the Night Visitors. “I had not ever heard opera before,” said Tamarkin, who 40 years later is now the director of the Charlottesville & […]

This week finds aliens in the club and gifts in the forest

Throughout last year, I kept hearing the name Guardian Alien. At first I wasn’t at all curious. The band name led me to the assumption that it was “some sort of dubstep or chillwave thing,” and its record sleeve—a watercolor drawing of an alien with dreadlocks, holding a repeating version of the record itself—was easily […]

ARTS Pick: Joseph Arthur

Don’t fret if you missed Joseph Arthur’s well-hyped recent album Boogie Christ, because the highly regarded musical talent has just released a follow-up entitled The Ballad of Boogie Christ Act 2. Arthur is a poet, artist, and musician from the Midwest who got his first record deal after sending Peter Gabriel a demo. Add on […]

ARTS Pick: Brooke Annibale

For Nashville-based singer-songwriter Brooke Annibale there was never any doubt that a career in music was in her future. “My family owns a music shop in Pittsburgh,” she said. “I started taking lessons and as soon as I knew enough chords, I started writing songs.” Annibale has four self-releases to her name including 2013’s Words […]

ARTS Pick: San Fermin

Named after the Spanish festival in Pamplona famous for the running of the bulls, San Fermin is the pop music outlet for Brooklyn-based composer and songwriter Ellis Ludwig-Leone. Along with vocal contributions from Allen Tate, Jess Wolfe, and Holly Laessig of Lucius, Leone brings baroque stylings to the indie arena in an operatic composition that unites familiar […]

ARTS Pick: Cindy Blackman Santana

Bridging the gap between jazz and rock, virtuoso drummer Cindy Blackman Santana is gigging on her new release, Another Lifetime. The album is a showcase for the critically acclaimed style that pays homage to her mentor Tony Williams, and the classical training that focuses her sonic explorations. Rising from humble beginnings as a busker in […]