2004 March

Though you might call the Holmes Brothers blues or soul revivalists, there’s a quietness about their music that Wilson Pickett in his prime would never have tried to get away with. The blues original “I’m So...

Just when you thought that Rice Krispies Treats had finally collapsed under all the baby-boomer freight attached to them, along comes Leaving Iowa. Watching Tom Clue and Spike Manton's play, which continues its...

On one trip we had stopped at a gas station, and all of us scrambled out, to run, dance, sing, jump around the pumps. Two ladies in a car watched us with interest. One said to John Cage, "Are you comedians?" Cage...

The curse and blessing of the artistic life is that one must always move on, never remaining in a comfortable place. You might never know that, though, from listening to the glossy world of commercial jazz, which is filled with...

In October 1969, when the RFD Boys played their first concert together, they were still U-M students, and bluegrass was as unknown here as cable TV in the Ozarks. Today it's as common as e-mail in Appalachia, and the RFD...

The first time I played Sparky and Rhonda Rucker's CD Treasures & Tears on my computer, the screen froze and then went black, but the music kept on playing, sweet and sure. The Ruckers play music from a simpler time in...

Frank Bidart has always startled his readers. His first book of poems began with a long dramatic monologue in the voice of a homicidal pedophile. His second book ended with another monologue, at least partially in the voice of a...

How much brass quintet music can anybody stand? After all, a couple of trumpets, a horn, a trombone, and a tuba don't have the widest tonal range, the subtlest instrumental colors, or the most interesting repertoire. Of...

If you've ever wondered what it would be like to see your own video in a real movie theater, Cinema Slam is the answer. Started by Amelia Martin and now run by Keith Jefferies, the event is held every other month or so at...

The dull gray facade of a big warehouse on Michigan Avenue just east of downtown Ypsilanti hides a thriving, vibrant art colony. Through sheer willpower, the seven members of Gallery 555's managing collective have...

Gypsy Spirit is a musical voyage through the history and the vast geographies traveled by the Roma, the Gypsies of Europe. Migrating from northern India about 1,000 years ago, eventually making their way into nearly every part...