The summer of 2012 was pivotal for my husband and me. We had loved living in Boston, but the time had come to move on. Between the two of us, we had a pair of music school degrees, decades of instrumental experience, resumés that were useless outside of the entertainment world, and a handful of enticing prospects…
About a month and a half ago, we decided, along with our friends at (le) poisson rouge, to throw a different sort of concert. So often, I find myself going to shows where the audience feels like an after-thought — a necessary prop to fulfill the musicians’ goals of playing in public rather than the…
Graduation has come and gone. You defied your parents’ wishes of having a doctor in the family and instead majored in classical guitar with a minor in music of the late 1790s. Four years of expensive music school later—hours of practice, recitals, juries—you’re about to embark on a strange new world. All-in-all, music school was…
Chesney Snow is a poet, a songwriter, a beatboxer, an actor, but most of all, he’s an artist through and through. Talking to him can feel a little like receiving a sermon from a beatboxing prophet of some sort, as he waxes lyrical about life as an artist today and the power of art to…
We’ve all heard that word before — a blend of German-sounding “ocks” and “schps” that, at least for me, conjures up images of old cuckoo clocks or Alpine adventures. But for those who don’t know, a glockenspiel is actually a small metallic xylophone with tuned keys that produce a high-pitched set of percussive tones. The…
Stockings are coming down, crumpled wrapping paper’s being shoved into recycling bins, and people worldwide are skeptically patting their winter weight in anticipation of the coming year. While we whole-heartedly support your decisions to start taking cross-acro-zum-fit classes and maintaining a strict paleo-free-tarian diet, why not add something painless to your resolution list? Here are two…
This week, my band and I had a recording session for a new album and I was reminded, as I am every time we record, just how much preparation plays a role in a successful recording session. Obviously, you always hope to just show up and the magic will take over, and before you know…
I won’t keep you waiting — the short answer is yes. I was curious though since I’ve never purchased a holiday album in my life. I do immaculately own two copies of A Charlie Brown Christmas, but have no idea where they came from. So, what’s the deal with holiday albums and who’s buying them?…
The djembe is one of West Africa’s best known instruments. It is essentially a goblet-shaped drum carved from a single piece of African hardwood with a head made from rope-tightened animal hide.
