Hayes Carll 2009
Texan Hayes Carll made a splash last year with “She Left Me for Jesus,” an outrageous little portrait of an apparently religiously unaffiliated redneck who laments, “She says that He’s perfect. How could...
Read MoreCulture
The Glazier Way Parade
I am still in the kitchen making breakfast when the police sirens begin to sound. The children, who have been running in and out of the house all morning, shout, “The parade is here! It’s starting!”Ann...
Read MoreMillion-dollar Ears
In August 1962 jazz composer-pianist George Russell recorded a forward-looking album, The Outer View, that included a twelve-minute version of “You Are My Sunshine,” a song first recorded in 1939 by the Pine Ridge...
Read MoreRemaking Tradition
Brothers John and James Abrams, joined by their cousin Elijah, come from Kingston, Ontario. All rather adorable teenagers, they started out very young playing bluegrass music, follow-ing three previous generations of musicians...
Read MoreQuaffable History
U-M chemistry professor emeritus Daniel Longone curates the current exhibit at the Clements Library. His knowledgeability and elbow-patched blazer are quintessentially professorial—especially surrounded by the Clements’...
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William Bolcom’s Lady Liberty
Under the skillful direction of Ben Cohen, the Vocal Arts Ensemble has grown into a highly respected small choir. Now it’s putting on a multimedia extravaganza at Lydia Mendelssohn Theater on Saturday, May 9.Extravaganza...
Read MoreThe Cat Fanciers Show
The auditorium is lined with rows and rows of cat houses; big, beautiful comfy cat houses. Although this is only one of the many Cat Fanciers pedigreed cat shows held around the country, it’s my first, and I’m...
Read MoreThe Counterfeiters
During World War II, dozens of Jews skilled in the printing trade were placed in isolated, top-secret barracks within the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. There, under threat of death, they counterfeited British currency worth...
Read MoreJohn McCutcheon at the Ark
In a fine new John McCutcheon Live DVD recording issued by Ann Arbor’s Bamboo Concerts, the musician diverges almost immediately from his opening numbers into monologues recounting episodes in his education as a folk...
Read MoreViolinist Julia Fischer
What is this—a movement?For the second time in the same season, the UMS has hired a very attractive German violinist to perform in town immediately after she released recordings of Bach’s violin concertos. Earlier this...
Read MoreChris Bathgate 2009
“I blame Bob Dylan for records like this.” That’s what my friend, Steve, said to me as we listened to Chris Bathgate’s A Cork Tale Wake, released last year. Steve was referring to the inscrutable lyrics...
Read MoreAfter Great Pain
There are at least a couple of ways of reading a book of poetry. You can jump around in it, looking for individual gems that move your fancy—or you can read the whole thing from beginning to end, including even the blurbs, the...
Read MoreMuseums in the 21st Century
A hot orange wave catches my eye as I walk into the new exhibit at UMMA. It’s a study for the roof of the Paul Klee Centre in Switzerland. Like most of the buildings featured in this exhibit of 21st-century museum...
Read MoreFestifools
The first weekend of April is pay dirt for pagan celebrations. The Hash Bash and the Dance for Mother Earth Ann Arbor Powwow (this year being held at Saline Middle School) have been around since the 1970s, and they were joined...
Read MorePaul Thorn
One of former Ark program director Dave Siglin’s great legacies is the group of strong, often outrageous roots music personalities he brought to the club—a group seldom seen at most other folk and acoustic music venues...
Read MoreThe Life of Galileo
Bertolt Brecht wrote The Life of Galileo between 1937 and 1939 as a response to Nazi censorship and manipulation of the work of scientists and artists. Among numerous other examples, the Nazis dismissed Einstein’s...
Read MoreChild Bite
When a guitarist hopped onstage at the Elbow Room carrying a hot-pink translucent electric guitar, I knew Child Bite was going to put on a show. My intuition wasn’t wrong, but I had no idea that show would stamp such a...
Read MoreA TIme and an Occupation
Unless you are part of a select group with some specialized knowledge, you might find it hard to believe that Ann Arbor was once known for making cameras. But, yes, the Argus Camera Company made cameras here. The Argus Buildings...
Read MoreIntimate Swing
Detroit is celebrated as a place of origin for some of the finest musicians in jazz, but it is also a crossroads that has attracted and nurtured fine players from other towns and other lands be-fore sending them back out into...
Read MoreA Streetcar Named Desire
You can sit back and appreciate Tennessee Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire as a bluesy, boozy 1940s love song to New Orleans if you want. And no one will blame you if that’s all you want to do with this...
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