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
A Vision Shared
Both Pat Sansone and John Stirratt cite Love’s seminal Forever Changes LP as the cement in The Autumn Defense’s foundation. “When we first started working together we bonded over records,” Stirratt recalls... read more
Kinky's World Party
On Kinky’s second album, Atlas, the five-piece Mexican group’s music lives up to the record’s globe-spanning title, encompassing world-dance beats and more traditional Latin and rock rhythms... read more
Heirs to the Throne
An essay by Paste writer Curt Cloninger on the inheritance of some of rock 'n' roll's most coveted thrones. Who has taken the place of T. Rex, The Stooges, Pink Floyd and Nick drake in modern music? Read and find out... read more
Barenaked Ladies
Each successive release from Canadian pop-rock heroes, Barenaked Ladies, comes with the suggestion they’re not as funny as they used to be... read more
Corey Harris
Corey Harris has always been a musicologist, and his subject of choice has always been the blues. His college experience took him to Cameroon where he learned that the area’s Juju music was a seminal form of American blues... read more
Mekons
Few artists exemplify indie integrity like the Mekons. Less a “band” than a collective of like-minded friends—a mobile musical kibbutzim spread across two continents—the British punk rockers have kept alive the post-punk dream... read more
Garland Jeffreys
He’s been part of the New York music scene for more than 30 years and is as representative of the city’s multicultural, multi-ethnic mosaic as a subway car at rush hour... read more
Jolie Holland
It isn’t much, this tiny cubbyhole in the back of a four-room San Francisco apartment. Crammed with countless collectibles, plus a vintage player piano and several toy accordions, it’s barely big enough to house necessities like a bed, stereo system and writing desk... read more
Ann McCue
What a long, strange trip it’s been, the serpentine road leading to Roll, the first U.S. release from already-established Aussie chanteuse Anne McCue. Even the most experienced cartographer would have trouble mapping it all out... read more
The Bottle Rockets Find Bluer Skies
Somewhere deep down—not always hidden, but rarely emphasized—St. Louis Americana rockers, The Bottle Rockets, have a gentle, sensitive side... read more
Parades, Peeps, & Pop Stars
Newly-signed Nettwerk America artists Old Crow Medicine Show are in New York, scheduled to perform on the Peeps float at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Yes, Peeps. Those little yellow sugar-coated marshmallow chicks... read more
Edie Brickell
It doesn’t happen often, but once in a while we run across a song that slyly drops a line on us, effortlessly painting a vivid image of something we’ve all experienced... read more
These Kids Are Alright
Of the four artists gathered for the photo shoot, only Josh and Erin knew each other. Kathleen took the train down from Boston a night early and caught Sondre’s set at the Bowery Ballroom. Erin flew in after finishing her tour in Ireland, and Josh drove up the day after a gig in New Jersey... read more
Till the End of Time
Legendary rock 'n' roll writer and former Rolling Stone editor Ben Fong-Torres delivers a first-person account of his experience producing the debut album of 82-year-old Chinese-American torch singer Larry Ching... read more
Nick Drake: Out From the Shadows
It was a bad fit all along. Painfully shy people don’t make good pop stars, and Nick Drake may have been the most awkward and unlikely ever to grace that category... read more
Production Notes: T Bone Burnett
Filmmaker Anthony Minghella (The English Patient) had good reason to call on T Bone Burnett to produce the music for Cold Mountain, his cinematic adaptation of Charles Frazier’s acclaimed Civil War novel... read more
4 To Watch For: Rachael Yamagata
Huddled in the darkest corner of San Francisco’s Café Du Nord, sultry songstress Rachael Yamagata shivers as patron after patron shambles in, gradually filling up every inch of sold-out floorspace... read more
4 To Watch For: Mindy Smith
Mindy Smith never set out to record a hit song, and she sure as hell never thought her first exposure to a mass audience would come from a video that went with her version of a country-music classic... read more
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