Beck Contest Spoiled By Obscure Anti-Rabbit Law
Beck should've known better. I mean, come on. Giving away a rabbit is a serious offense in California. About as serious as Marijuana possession, apparently... read more
Cassandra Wilson
Complementing her entire career, the title of Cassandra Wilson’s 14th album defies assumptions. At first glance it seems Glamoured is a reference to the trappings of the tired diva stereotype. Instead, it has a more mystical derivation... read more
Dave Matthews
Dave Matthews is trying to get to the bathroom. When he stood up a few minutes ago, the door was only 20 paces away. Now it’s about 15, but with each step someone recognizes him and stops to shake his hand... read more
From the Cradle
Even if Ellis Hooks' music weren’t so utterly compelling and unusual, his story might warrant novelistic treatment by Walter Mosley or James Baldwin—or at least might personify some folk tale that traveled up north from the mysterious South via the underground railroad... read more
Howie Day
Bang her?” asks singer-songwriter Howie Day, accentuating his native Maine bark, “I just met her!” It’s a joke he’s heard thousands of times. Growing up in Bangor, he says, “There wasn’t much to do. We threw a lot of rocks off bridges."... read more
Ruthie Foster
Ruthie Foster and her musical partner, Cyd Cassone, sip rum and Cokes near the window—one of the only places in the country bar lit by more than the red neon Budweiser sign... read more
Elbow
So who is that sharp-dressed man over there, lunching on the posh hotel patio? Some visiting CEO, calling up his weekly appointments on his Palm Pilot? A traveling sales rep, working up his latest bargain-basement pitch?... read more
These Kids Are Alright
Our Feb/March issue features four of our favorite young artists (counterclockwise from bottom left): Erin McKeown, Josh Ritter, Kathleen Edwards and Sondre Lerche. We brought them together for a photo shoot in New York's Chinatown. read more
These Kids Are Alright
Erin McKeown is nothing if not surprising: the quiet girl wearing the Fluevogs and an impish smile is also the Brown-educated multi-instrumentalist who writes gorgeous, literate pop songs and looms much larger than her petite five-foot frame... read more
A Death in the Family
For those of us who knew him only through his songs, the unwelcome news of Elliott Smith’s suicide on the morning of October 21 last year might not have been completely shocking; anyone who listened closely to his lyrics tended to worry about him... read more
Starsailor
These young Brits lured legendary producer Phil Spector out of a 20-year retirement ... then mustered the nerve to fire him... read more
Califone Dreams of the Heron King
It’s fitting that Califone’s new record, Heron King Blues, get its inspiration from the mists of antiquity and the dream world of band-founder Tim Rutili, since this is a group whose music virtually defies time... read more
Jem
No, shrugs Jem, she has nothing to do with the same-titled ’80s cartoon, wherein a pink-haired pop-rock vixen and her band the Holograms battled a bitchy trio called The Misfits every episode... read more
Terry Allen
“You can go more places making stuff than you can just sitting around waiting to take it,” Terry Allen says, kicked back in a booth at a neighborhood bar in Santa Fe, New Mexico... read more
These Kids Are Alright
Sure, he’s no Britney Spears or Hilary Duff, but as far as singer/songwriters go, Sondre Lerche has lived a less than ordinary life in just 22 years... read more
These Kids Are Alright
It was one of the highlights of the year for me,” Kathleen Edwards says of the 2003 SXSW convention in Austin, Texas. Her breakout performance there this year became one of the most talked-about acts at the festival... read more
These Kids Are Alright
When you first meet Josh Ritter, sunken into his sand-colored thrift-store jacket and sporting a wavy Anglo-fro, and he greets you with his aw-shucks smile and Midwestern kindness, he doesn’t seem like an artist who’s spent too much time cooking up a master plan for his career... read more
Broken Bones & Canceled Tours
South frontman Joel Cadbury kicks back in a friend’s film studio in the London borough of Hackney, catching up on emails. He and his cohorts, guitarist Jamie McDonald and drummer Brett Shaw, took a creative leap... read more
Melissa Etheridge
“Without going too Oprah on you, I have never been so in love,” says Melissa Etheridge as she curls up on a couch in the living room of the comfortable, two-story home she shares with actress Tammy Lynn Michaels. Etheridge wrote many of the songs for her new album, Lucky, in this room, looking out over an expansive, neatly groomed yard that doubles as a playground for the kids, and at the moment she’s explaining how the mostly upbeat and playful tone of Lucky is evidence she’s finally writing from a place of happiness she’s never before approached. “It’s a... read more
Willard Grant Conspiracy
After nearly 25 years of living in Boston, Willard Grant Conspiracy frontman/ringleader Robert Fisher decided last year to move back to his birthplace, California’s Antelope Valley... read more
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