In literature, Acadia is an idyllic place filled with plenty. Acadia is a fitting title, then, for the new album from Yasmin Williams. On this, her third album – her first for Nonesuch Records – the multi-instrumentalist, singer, and composer […]
On the high-octane Highway Prayers, multi-instrumentalist extraordinaire Billy Strings flies down bluegrass straightaways, careening around curves with blind speed. These songs pay tribute to the backroads and byways Strings barreled down in his youth, and some of them pay tribute […]
When Nanci Griffith died just a little over three years ago — on August 13, 2021 — many hearts were broken. We knew we had lost a woman who loved fiercely, sang tenderly, told stories of women embracing their power, […]
Walk along most streets in Greenwich Village these days, and you’re more likely to see banks, high-end clothing shops, and upscale restaurants than small clubs full of folk singers or jazz musicians. In the late 1950s through the late 1980s, […]
Amy Helm dwells in the songs she writes, turning her phrases and words in and out. She delivers little masterpieces of folk and soul that plumb the depths of human emotion. On Silver City, her fourth album, Helm tells the […]
Most musicians recognize the transformative power of music and the ways it can stir up listeners’ emotions. During a concert, a band might play a defiant anthem that has the crowd jeering angrily about the song’s subject; at another moment, […]
As she did on her 2021 debut album, Reckless (ND review), and on last year’s Psychopath (ND review), Morgan Wade showcases a vocal power that combines the clarity and aching vulnerability of Patty Loveless and the vibrant, soaring phrasing of […]
There’s an emotional yearning in Amanda Anne Platt’s crystalline voice, whether it’s for a person, a place, or a time. Her vocals come across with drenching clarity and vibrance, leaving the listener with their own desire to look back, to […]
Inspiring soul and gospel singer, civil rights activist, Bob Dylan’s crush: Mavis Staples can now add children’s book author to her resume. Partnering with award-winning children’s book author Carolyn Boston Weatherford (Unspeakable; Moses) and illustrator Steffi Walthall (Ain’t Gonna Let […]
Like Marvin Gaye, Jerry Butler, Curtis Mayfield, and gospel singer James Cleveland, Zeshan B combines soaring vocals with swaying rhythms that inspire the soul and move the feet to action. On his third album O Say, Can You See? he […]
