2008 July

Madcat & Kane have been performing together for eighteen years, but in any poll of blues fans, they long ago were candidates — and voted in and elected — as one of the finest duos working in that genre. That’s not...

Bluegrass music is conservative in the best sense of the word, refining traditions into clearer, deeper forms. Players start out by learning the standards and continue to play them while adding slowly to that core repertory....

Onstage, Natalie MacMaster is a one-woman Riverdance, constantly step-dancing, prancing, whirling, twirling, stamping, stomping, all the while playing horsehair-sizzling tunes that most fiddlers can't manage even while...

I can't remember when or where I first heard Jen Sygit sing. We were sharing a stage somewhere, I think. But I remember, quite clearly, my response the second she opened her mouth. It was one word — "whoa"...

The first time I interviewed a comedian after a show, I was surprised when he dropped his stage persona and morphed into a businessman. In time, I came to expect it. Still, I kept looking for what my naive idea of a comedian is...

Confined animal feeding operations. Factory farms. For those of us who don't or no longer live in the country, these are the places we drive by on Sunday jaunts or pass on the freeway: acres and acres of buildings often...

Starting in the mid-1990s, a new generation of burlesque performers and troupes emerged worldwide. These are “New Burlesque” artists, nostalgic for the glamorous display of striptease, expensive costumes, bawdy...