Creating Bad Blake And The Authentic Sounds of Crazy Heart

All photos by Dustin Cohen
Like the character he plays so convincingly in Crazy Heart—Bad Blake, an aging Texas troubadour grown weary of his hard-drinkin’, honky-tonkin’, country-music career—Jeff Bridges has been around music all of his life.
But unlike Blake, he has loved every minute of it so far. And that actually has helped him approach his [...]

Exclusive: Hear Townes Van Zandt’s Unreleased Recordings

Lyric of the Week | Lou Reed > January 5, 2009

You know, man when I was a young man in high school you believe it or not / I wanted to play football for the coach / and all those older guys they said he was mean and cruel/ but you know I wanted to play football for the coach

GORDON LIGHTFOOT: Sunrise to Sundown

“I always sang and I always performed. I always had a job.”

DEAN DILLON: Putting Heart on Paper

There has to be part of your heart on that piece of paper sometimes.

ORNETTE COLEMAN: The Language of Sound

It’s the opportunity to make a positive statement on behalf of humanity that I play music.

LEGENDS OF THE CHELSEA HOTEL > Living With the Artists and Outlaws of New York’s Rebel Mecca by Ed Hamilton

Aside from Hamilton’s occasional insertion of bland declarative sentences-i.e. “The Chelsea is a mix of permanent residents and transients,” he deftly unsews the lining of Chelsea’s cheaply stitched secrets with the quickness of a nimble-handed seamstress. The room where Sid stabbed Nancy, the place Edie Sedgwick caught on fire, and the song about Leonard Cohen’s [...]

FATS DOMINO: Seven Decades In Song

The man who laid the groundwork for doo-wop.