September/October 2011 
I’m Right Here: A Q&A With Mason Jennings(1)
You wouldn’t expect someone born in Honolulu to gravitate to the wind-blown, hardscrabble state of Minnesota, but singer-songwriter Mason Jennings has lived happily in his adopted home turf for 17 years. It’s there that he conceived the nine love-themed songs found on Minnesota, his acclaimed new album. We asked the artist about the influences on [...]
R.E.M. Life’s Rich Pageant
R.E.M. Life’s Rich Pageant (Capitol/I.R.S.) Rating: When Life’s Rich Pageant hit the airwaves in 1986, no one – not even the bandmates themselves – could have predicted the mainstream success that awaited R.E.M. later that decade. Document, with its polished production and blockbuster radio singles, was only 13 months away. At the time, though, Life’s [...]
Nirvana: Nevermind: 20th Anniversary Edition
Nirvana Nevermind: 20th Anniversary Edition (Geffen) Rating: In twenty years, Krist Novoselic’s short rendition of “Get Together” has lost none of its weirdness or pointed humor. The bassist yelps a few lines at the beginning of “Territorial Pissings,” opening side two of Nirvana’s Nevermind on an unexpected note (or several missed notes, actually). By 1991 [...]
Judy Collins, Sweet Judy Blue Eyes: My Life In Music
Sweet Judy Blue Eyes: My Life In Music Judy Collins Crown Archetype Rating: Judy Collins, alcoholic? That’s one of the themes running through this new memoir penned by the folk music queen, whose recording career predates Bob Dylan and The Beatles. Collins looks back on her life and the people who were in her orbit, [...]
More in this category:
- Review: Murphy’s Laws of Songwriting: The Book
- Arcade Fire: Scenes From The Suburbs
- Review: The Chitlin’ Circuit And The Road To Rock And Roll
- Laura Marling: A Creature I Don’t Know
- Various Artists, Rave On Buddy Holly
- Robert Ellis: Photographs
- Inside The Trojan Horse: Santa Cruz Guitar Company
- Guitar 101: The Three Most Common Guitar Playing Problems
- Makin’ Stuff Up: Why I Failed To Blush
- Beirut: Recording The Rip Tide
- Nikki Jean: The Collaborator
- Chip Taylor: Role Models
- Gold Dust Woman: A Q&A With Stevie Nicks
- Paul Simon On Songwriting: I Know What I Know
- St. Vincent: Method Actor
- Old 97′s: Play A Train Song
- Nikki Lane: Walking The Line
- Brian Wilson: On Record
- Paleo: Digging In The Dirt
- Behind The Song: “Thunder Road”
- How To Make The Whole World Sing: “There Is A Light That Never Goes Out”
- Jim Lauderdale: Reason And Rhyme
