This is the grave of Billy Paul. Born either in 1934 or 1935 (sources vary), Paul Williams grew up in Philadelphia in a musical family. I don’t see a lot of evidence that his family played a lot
When I was a kid, I spent a fair amount of time visiting my cousin, who lived in Cambridge, MA. He’s a few years older than me, and I thought he was just the coolest. He built large, complex Spa
Since tis’ the season, I thought I’d write a little bit about Christmas albums. I really, really, really do not get this subgenre, based on the principle of who the hell would want to list
Guess what? I saw LIVE MUSIC! That’s right–LIVE MUSIC! Holy mother of God, LIVE MUSIC! Moreover, who was it? NEKO CASE! There’s a place called South Farms in Morris, Connecticut. I h
Paul discussed the death of Toots Hibbert, so I will focus a bit on the other major musical death of the last couple of weeks, which is the great jazz bassist Gary Peacock. The rare jazzman from Idaho
The big news in music right now is the death of Justin Townes Earle. He had both the blessing and the curse of being the son of Steve Earle and named after Townes Van Zandt, but he was certainly a ver
One of the benefits of the folk revival of the 60s was a lot of people went out and shot documentaries of the aging musicians of the South, at times when a lot of rural musical traditions were nearing
This is a genuinely astounding document. An hour of interviews with old musicians concluding with them playing the Dr. Pepper theme song. Doc Watson, Muddy Waters, Maybelle Carter, Bill Monroe, Bo Did