#featured

Rocketman is a Bodacious Romp, But Elton John Deserves More

Kristi Wooten

May 19, 2019

Rocketman is a Bodacious Romp, But Elton John Deserves More

Rocketman opened at the Cannes Film Festival this week: it’s a glorious song-and-dance extravaganza interspersed with fantasy and...

Kristi Wooten

May 2, 2019

Rench Speaks Out About Lil Nas X

“‘The whole endeavor of trying to maintain some sort of genre purity or resist its evolution and mingling is a ridiculous notion.”...

Grammys 2019: How Music Reclaimed Its Power

Kristi Wooten

Feb 11, 2019

Grammys 2019: How Music Reclaimed Its Power

The four-hour broadcast silenced political division with dynamic performances by three generations of women and proved ‘less dancing,...

Rosanne Cash Opens Up About Her New Album

Kristi Wooten

Feb 8, 2019

Rosanne Cash Opens Up About Her New Album

The 63-year-old singer’s dedication to amplifying women’s voices is evident in ten new songs with atmospheric, country-gothic textures.

Kristi Wooten

Dec 7, 2018

Women Made the Best Albums of 2018.

Female songwriters topped publications’ year-end music polls, but few lists captured the gamut of their ages, genres, and talents. From...

Kristi Wooten

Nov 30, 2018

How Elton John Changed Fear of AIDS

The singer (and part-time Atlantan) paved the way for generations of activists determined to eradicate AIDS for good.

Queen's Brilliance at Live Aid: What Bohemian Rhapsody Missed

Kristi Wooten

Nov 14, 2018

Queen's Brilliance at Live Aid: What Bohemian Rhapsody Missed

Bohemian Rhapsody, the Queen biopic named after one of the British rock group’s most famous songs, opened in theaters two weeks ago. The...

Kristi Wooten

Oct 3, 2018

The Modfather Goes Pastoral Again

Paul Weller is consistently one of the most listenable artists of the past forty years, and his latest album is spot-on. The former Jam...

Sting and Shaggy's Reggae Party Broke the ATL

Kristi Wooten

Sep 18, 2018

Sting and Shaggy's Reggae Party Broke the ATL

He may like his toast done on one side, but Sting’s new tour with Shaggy is crispy all the way around. At Atlanta’s Tabernacle Monday...

Florence and the Machine’s New Feminist Sensibility

Kristi Wooten

Jul 9, 2018

Florence and the Machine’s New Feminist Sensibility

From the July 9 2018 issueof The Economist magazine: FLORENCE WELCH has made her name both as a hitmaker and as a kind of strong-willed...

Kristi Wooten

Jun 22, 2018

Digital Design, Analog Soul

From the June 2018 issue of Keyboard magazine: One of the joys of 21st century life is opening a digital music library and discovering an...

Kristi Wooten

May 17, 2018

An Oral History of U2 in Atlanta

U2’s intersections with Atlanta over the years have gone beyond the city as a requisite tour stop.

Kristi Wooten

Mar 22, 2018

Singing Your Life with The Zombies

ROD ARGENT AND COLIN BLUNSTONE began making music as The Zombies eleven years before I was born. By the time I was riding around in my...

What Happens When We Let Data Decide the Best Music of 2017?

Kristi Wooten

Dec 6, 2017

What Happens When We Let Data Decide the Best Music of 2017?

For my 2017 list of the Top 50 Best Songs and Top 20 Best Albums, I let my stats on Spotify, YouTube, and Shazam–plus my vinyl...

What No One Else Will Tell You About the New U2 Album

Kristi Wooten

Dec 3, 2017

What No One Else Will Tell You About the New U2 Album

When music critics focus on confirming or denying the band’s place in music history, they miss the real story of Songs of Experience. I...

Premiere: Watch Tom Chaplin Sing The Pretenders’ Holiday Classic, “2000 Miles.”

Kristi Wooten

Nov 20, 2017

Premiere: Watch Tom Chaplin Sing The Pretenders’ Holiday Classic, “2000 Miles.”

As Thanksgiving turkeys fill the dining table and twinkling lights hang from every lamppost, Tom Chaplin’s Twelve Tales of Christmas...

Halloween Special: PVRIS’s Lynn Gunn on Finding Light in the Darkness

Kristi Wooten

Oct 31, 2017

Halloween Special: PVRIS’s Lynn Gunn on Finding Light in the Darkness

PVRIS is an esoteric band whose latest release, All We Know of Heaven, All We Need of Hell, makes a timely addition to your autumn...

Watch Dua Lipa Jump into Crowd of Atlanta Fans

Kristi Wooten

Oct 3, 2017

Watch Dua Lipa Jump into Crowd of Atlanta Fans

Summer’s over and the leaves are falling, but we’ll always have memories of the music festival season to get us through fall and winter....

Kristi Wooten

Sep 30, 2017

Neil Finn’s Quiet Masterpiece

Neil Finn’s latest solo album, Out of Silence, offers us the gift of catharsis in a season of unpredictable politics and societal...

Mark Ruffalo's Environmental Superheroes

Kristi Wooten

Sep 20, 2017

Mark Ruffalo's Environmental Superheroes

MARK RUFFALO is making the most out of his time in metro Atlanta, both on and off movie sets. While filming his roles as Bruce Banner and...