Some aging rock legends make music that feels like a shadow of the early work that cemented their fame. Not Nina Hagen, though. On Unity (Grönland), her first album since 2011, the German pop-punk icon unleashes a blast of feral camp that sounds if anything more Hagen than ever. Her distinctive theatrical voice has roughened […]
Tag: Bob Dylan
Posted inArts & Culture
Amy Sillman breaks down art barriers
In her book Faux Pas, the painter makes a rarified field approachable with humor and profundity.
Posted inColumns & Opinion
Bob Dylan’s ode to Chicago
The new Michael Reese TIF plan tries to undo the damage of the old one.
Posted inCity Life
The Reader’s stay-at-home chronicles: day 53
What we’re reading, watching, listening to, etc., to pass the time.
Posted inMusic
Did John Prine die for Donald Trump’s sins?
The cruelty, ignorance, and incompetence of the federal pandemic response have cost the life of beloved singer-songwriter John Prine, who stood against all those things.
Posted inMusic
Cult songwriter Amy Rigby makes her book debut
Amy Rigby’s new memoir, Girl to City, crackles with the kind of sharp insights and perfectly chosen details her fans already love.
Posted inMusic
J.S. Ondara creates Americana imbued with the heartache of the immigrant experience
The first time Kenyan singer-songwriter J.S. Ondara heard the music of Bob Dylan, he was blown away. As a bow-tie-wearing, poetry-writing teenager, Ondara often felt out of place among his peers, but listening to America’s most famous folk troubadour inspired him to set his own verses to music. In 2013, at age 20, Ondara won […]
Posted inMusic
David Dann on his new biography of blues-rock guitarist Michael Bloomfield
From Glencoe to Monterey Pop to oblivion: Michael Bloomfield’s huge talent and unique style changed rock guitar forever, but while Clapton and Hendrix entered the canon, he faded away.
Posted inMusic
Bettye LaVette can make any song sound like it was written for her
Bettye LaVette debuted with a hit soul single in 1962, but she’s long since transcended genre, singing blues, country, pop, funk, rock, and more.
Posted inMusic
Muddy Waters drummer Willie ‘Big Eyes’ Smith never escaped the sideman shadow
Even when Willie “Big Eyes” Smith won a Grammy at the end of his life, he shared it with pianist Pinetop Perkins.
Posted inBlogs
How the 1968 DNC protests in Chicago ‘killed’ protest folk singer Phil Ochs
Fifty years ago, Phil Ochs performed at the bloody and chaotic protests in Lincoln Park and left a changed and broken man.
Posted inArts & Culture
Will the music finally stop at one of the state’s oldest record stores?
Recycled Records features 30,000 records for as little as $2 each, but its owners are ready to move on.
Posted inBlogs
Ten great photos taken during the heyday of the blues
Images of Muddy Waters, James Cotton, and Bob Dylan are among 1,000 searchable photos by Raeburn Flerlage that are now online.
Posted inMusic
Blues drummer Sam Lay has made five careers’ worth of music
Sharp-dressed drummer Sam Lay has played with Dylan and Howlin’ Wolf, and in 2015 he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame with the Paul Butterfield Blues Band.
Posted inMusic
Gifts that sing—are you listening?
The best best box sets of 2017 include 11 CDs from David Bowie’s Berlin period, 529 tracks of live vintage country from Louisiana Hayride, Roland Kayn’s 14-hour electronic masterwork, and the most complete portrait yet of Hüsker Dü’s early years.