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Cyrus rocks TD Garden but keeps it in check
Miley Cyrus rippled the waters last week when she essentially disowned her current radio hit, a tasty slice of dance pop called “Party in the USA.’’ Asked in a video interview what her favorite Jay-Z song is, because “Party in the USA’’ mentions the radio playing it, Cyrus admitted she didn’t know anything by the hip-hop titan.
Seasoned songs, classic Prine
The showstopping line, at once classic and familiar, came toward the end of John Prine’s show at the Citi Wang Theatre Friday night: “You know that old trees just grow stronger.’’
With instrument - and computer - in hand, music students learn from experts online
Tony Trischka, a seasoned banjo virtuoso often ranked alongside masters such as Earl Scruggs and Béla Fleck, was checking in on his latest crop of students the other day. Well, it was actually around midnight, and he was nowhere near a classroom with the usual chalkboard and cluster of desks.
James Reed learns to play banjo from a master - all online
I’ve admired Tony Trischka in the best possible way - from afar. I’ve listened to his albums at home and marveled at how someone learns to play banjo like that, which is to say like a total rock star. I’ve stayed up late and watched him hold his own alongside Béla Fleck and Steve Martin on David Letterman’s show. I’ve ...
On our minds and on our playlists
Please complete the following sentence: During my lunch hour, I am _________. (A) Out at a restaurant having nachos and a beer.
Monsters unleash a collective chemistry built of folk and rock
They call themselves Monsters of Folk, but that’s a tongue-in-cheek handle for a group of guys who couldn’t be more serious about their cosmic approximations of rock, country-blues, and folk so heartfelt it made the Orpheum Theatre feel like a shoebox Tuesday night.
Norah Jones seems to be heading in a more pop-oriented direction
Never the most ardent of fans, I took an interest in Norah Jones early on, a few months before her debut, “Come Away With Me,’’ became 2002’s sleeper hit. I liked her songs’ honesty, her graceful understatement, and her small but expressive voice that made her heartbreak palpable.
Couple behind Clare and the Reasons use honesty and humor as their creative spark
They’re only in their 30s, but already Clare Manchon and her husband, Olivier, have the withering repartee of an old married couple - the kind of folks who obviously adore each other but still tell opposing accounts of how they met and feel comfortable enough to make criticism sound like pillow talk.
Sound off: Sex still sells
Call us prude, but we were starting to think the year in pop music was surprisingly light on the smut. Already into October, we haven’t had anything remotely as fierce as Sasha Fierce, Beyoncé’s S&M alter ego from last year; or as divisive as Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction; or as calculated as a liplock between Madonna and Britney Spears (inset).
‘How Sweet the Sound’ on PBS spotlights Joan Baez’s 50-year career
As sirens wailed in the night and bombs dropped around her in 1972 in Hanoi, North Vietnam, Joan Baez suddenly realized something she had spent most of her early career forgetting: She was a mortal and not just an icon who carried the world’s burdens on her shoulders.
Al Green’s classic sound, updated
A chat with soul legend Al Green starts like any other interview, but soon enough the good reverend gets excited and suddenly the conversation jumps the tracks.
Kelly brings it home, with feeling
Like Marvin Gaye and Al Green, the legendary lovermen whose songs set the mood before he took the stage, R. Kelly has a potent sway over women. He inspires them to do all kinds of things, from scribbling their phone numbers on pieces of paper tossed onstage, to dabbing his sweaty brow, to hurling their pink panties in his direction. ...
Marie Daulne’s iPod - make that iTunes - shuffle
Marie Daulne, the larger-than-life mastermind behind the world-fusion band Zap Mama , used to have an iPod - several, in fact. “To tell the truth, I don’t have an iPod now,’’ she says. “I lose them all the time. I said, OK, I need something big and heavy that I won’t lose, like my computer.’’ With that in mind, her ...
Actor Ryan Gosling and pal scare up a band
For as long as they’ve been told, ghost stories have been intended to haunt us, making the darkness unbearable for what might emerge from it. But the guys in Dead Man’s Bones don’t interpret them that way at all. What you might consider scary they think of as fun, even tender, and they’ve just released an entire album that tells ...
Steve Martin on banjo on his first music tour, no joke
Yes, that Steve Martin. The funnyman with powder-white hair has worn a lot of hats over the years - stand-up comedian, actor, novelist, screenwriter, playwright, juggler - but his latest might as well be a straw one.
‘Latin Music USA’ traces cultural impact
Halfway into the second episode, “Latin Music USA’’ compels - no, forces - you to sit up in your chair and wonder what rock you’ve been hiding under for the past 40 years. The salsa revolution, we learn, got a rip-roaring start in New York in the late 1960s, and watching the Fania All-Stars essentially dismantle a packed Yankee Stadium ...
On our minds and on our playlists
The story goes that before Mackenzie Phillips dropped her sickening allegations about her late father, John Phillips, she had kept quiet for years to avoid tainting his legacy. There was a lot on the line, too: his pivotal role in shaping the sound of ’60s flower-power rock with the Mamas and the Papas and his fascinating and overlooked solo catalog ...
On ‘Angel,’ Carey returns to glory of her R&B days
There’s always a moment on a Mariah Carey album when her voice sounds like a helium balloon suddenly released to drift into the stratosphere. She trills, she wails, she coos, and then somehow she crash-lands back into the melody right on cue with her diva tresses perfectly in place.
Tom Russell’s American expansion
Tom Russell has thought about that proverbial moment on the airplane when someone turns to him and asks what he does for a living. He’s a songwriter and a singer - that’s the easy part of the answer - but his genre? That’s slippery.
Lovelorn and lyrical, Sharon Van Etten tells all
NEW YORK - In the liner notes to her new debut album, singer-songwriter Sharon Van Etten thanks the folks you’d expect. There’s a shout-out to “the whole entire Van Etten family’’ and to the musicians (TV on the Radio’s Kyp Malone, Espers’ Meg Baird) who inspired and encouraged Van Etten to take her songs out of her home and into ...
This time, bigger isn’t better for U2
Right after the triumphant first song, Bono explained what everyone must have been curious about early in the evening: What, exactly, was the massive green canopy with orange disks that arched ominously over the stage. Was it a spider? A tentacle?
Geoff Muldaur is a restless troubadour
Geoff Muldaur, who’s inexplicably unsung outside a vast circle of admiring musicians such as Bonnie Raitt and Richard Thompson, has never stood still for too long. From his 1960s Cambridge days in the Jim Kweskin Jug Band, through his folk-blues records alone and with then-wife Maria Muldaur, and up to his recent reimagining of jazzman Bix Beiderbecke’s music, Muldaur has ...
Spektor brings freestyle charm to Boston performance
The bad rap on Regina Spektor’s latest isn’t that the lovably kooky singer-songwriter has ironed out the wrinkles as her star has ascended. With four producers in the mix, the common complaint is that “Far,’’ Spektor’s third and most burnished studio album, simply had too many hands at the mixing board.
This time, bigger isn’t better for U2
FOXBOROUGH - Right after the triumphant first song, Bono explained what everyone must have been curious about early in the evening: What, exactly, was the massive green canopy with orange disks that arched ominously over the stage. Was it a spider? A tentacle?
Club Passim icon heads up folk archives project
Last year, in an intimate interview before a full house at Club Passim, Joan Baez was asked how the iconic folk venue had persevered to mark its 50th year.
Pearl Jam’s ‘Backspacer’ is short and sharp
The skeptics can take a deep breath and exhale. Early buzz on Pearl Jam’s new album, courtesy of an interview lead guitarist Mike McCready gave this summer, was that “Backspacer’’ had pop and new-wave accents. No doubt visions of Eddie Vedder with a Flock of Seagulls haircut began haunting the dreams of Pearl Jam diehards.
Popular or not, Yo La Tengo still thrills its fans
“Popular Songs,’’ the name of Yo La Tengo’s terrific new album, could be read as an in-joke between the band and its fans. The humor lies in Yo La Tengo’s definition of what’s popular, and safe to say its latest isn’t going to give Lady Gaga a run for her Top 40 money.
Steeleye has spanned decades
The next time you have an hour to spare, check out Steeleye Span’s Wikipedia page. That’s how long it will take to digest the pioneering band’s various lineup changes, stretching from its genesis in 1969 at the dawn of the British folk-rock movement all the way up to today.
Scarlett Johansson lends cachet but no chemistry to ‘Break Up’
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: The idea came to him in a dream. Restless and down and out, alt-rocker Pete Yorn was struggling with a bout of insomnia after the demise of a relationship back in 2006. After he finally fell asleep, he suddenly woke up and had a fully baked proposition. He wanted to record an ...
Rascal Flatts knows how to throw a party
MANSFIELD - Through a mist of rain and an autumnal breeze whipping across the lawn seats, Rascal Flatts’s opening salvo should have felt woefully out of place. But sure enough, “Summer Nights’’ - timed to a pop of bright lights, pyrotechnics, and crunching electric guitars and fiddle - gave the Comcast Center one last hurrah for the season on Saturday ...