Nashville Archives - Chicago Reader

Wynonna Judd and Cactus Moser invite you to crash their party

by Salem Collo-Julin July 20, 2021August 18, 2021

UPDATE: as of Wednesday, July 28 at 9 AM, both Wynonna Judd & Cactus Moser concerts have been canceled. Ticketholders should contact their point of purchase for refund or exchange information. Wynonna Judd’s voice is like chugging diet pop. Her raw, forceful alto sometimes burns a little going down, but the addictive sweetness keeps you […]

Music

Yautja perfect their maximalist metal on The Lurch

by Luca Cimarusti May 19, 2021August 18, 2021

Nashville metal trio Yautja are a great example of how the old adage “less is more” doesn’t always apply. For ten years now, these three dudes—whose band name is also the species name of the fictional extraterrestrial hunters in the Predator franchise—have been throwing everything into their maximalist music, and getting better and better results. […]

Music

Guitarist Sunny War boils life down to its essence on Simple Syrup

by Jamie Ludwig April 5, 2021August 18, 2021

The Nashville-born, Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter Sunny War is known for her clawhammer fingerstyle guitar playing, vivid autobiographical lyrics, and distinctive sound that starts at the crossroads of blues, country, folk, and punk, and only expands from there. She left home as a teenager to busk on Venice Beach and in San Francisco with friends she […]

Music

Josephine Foster keeps the freak-folk flame burning with the catchy but unnerving No Harm Done

by Steve Krakow December 21, 2020August 18, 2021

Back in ye olde early aughts, “freak folk” ruled the land. Championed and perhaps encouraged by photogenic weirdo Devendra Banhart, artists influenced by elegiac or subliminally psychedelic folk acts from the 60s and 70s—Tyrannosaurus Rex, the Incredible String Band, Michael Hurley—started coming out of the woodwork. For a hot strange minute, indie record bins were […]

Music

Tasha Cobbs Leonard celebrates unity in the historic Ryman Auditorium on her new live album

by Robert Marovich November 4, 2020August 18, 2021

Gospel singer Tasha Cobbs Leonard produced her latest full-length album, Royalty: Live at the Ryman, with a multiracial, multigenre crew of singers and musicians who joined her on the storied boards of Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium on August 3. Even though the pandemic eliminated the possibility of a live audience, the Ryman was an ideal location […]

Music

Paisley Fields makes out and open country music

by Salem Collo-Julin July 15, 2020August 18, 2021

The country-music world has been slow to embrace its queer community, so it’s been refreshing to see a new generation of queer country artists and songwriters—among them Brandi Carlile, Ty Herndon, and Shane McAnally, who frequently writes for Kacey Musgraves—live out and open lives in the spotlight over the past decade or so without their […]

Music

Wu Fei and Abigail Washburn bring China and Appalachia together

by Noah Berlatsky May 1, 2020August 18, 2021

Trump hates China in order to better hate the United States; by blaming the Chinese for the virus, he can pretend he’s not at fault for our own dead and our own misery. In that poisoned atmosphere, the new self-titled album by Wu Fei and Abigail Washburn isn’t just a relief but a call to […]

Music

Country-soul singer Yola makes Stax and Nashville her own

by Noah Berlatsky January 3, 2020August 18, 2021

Like many a British singer before her, Yola (born Yolanda Quartey) is obsessed with American roots music. She’s a worthy heir to predecessors such as Dusty Springfield and Rod Stewart, mixing country and southern soul into her own distinctive sound. “Faraway Look,” the first song on her Dan Auerbach-produced 2019 debut, Walk Through Fire (Easy […]

Music

Eve Maret builds new bodies for a new age

by Noah Berlatsky December 13, 2019August 18, 2021

When asked by online magazine Earhart whether she’s a musician or a performance artist, Nashville multi-instrumentalist and composer Eve Maret described herself as “a spiritual being that seeks to know herself and the divine within-without her through creative acts.” If that sounds like a quote from the liner notes of a new age album, well, […]