In 1963, with his star on the rise, Sam Cooke went to a nightclub in Miami to record a live album in front of his fans. The result was one of the great concert recordings in history, and one that almost didn’t see the light of day. (Image: Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
A little song that started an earthquake, this 1960 gem carried the seeds of reggae and ska music, and gave wider audience to a fledgling religious movement called Rastafarianism.
Leaning hard into a mash up of 60’s psychadelia, surf rock and dance, the B-52’s burst onto the scene with this utterly bizarre beach party fantasy. (Image: George Dubose)
Performing at the height of her powers in 1970, Aretha Franklin turned Paul Simon’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water” into a gospel number of extraordinary power. (image: Robert Altman/Getty Archives)
Godfathers of the Alternative scene, creators of Lollapalooza, and over and done with (for a time) far too soon, Jane’s Addiction broke through massively on this joyous ode to petty theft.
For Track 1 of my mixtape, the song I’ve listened to more than any other in my life, and the one song I know I loved before I even remember hearing it.
All the Good Songs is a brand new series where I’ll break down a series of songs and the impact they’ve had on music, and on my own life. Read the introduction here.
He’s been the ultimate collaborator in New Orleans’s emerging country music scene. Now, with a brand new solo album, Sam Doores steps out on his own.
Singers, songwriters, activists, and prosthelytizers of the concept of slowing down, the extraordinary group Rising Appalachia has created a new concept of what a touring band can mean to the communities they travel through.
Headed up by multi-talented singer-songwriter Cindy Emch, The Secret Emchy Society has quickly become a cornerstone band of a burgeoning music scene that’s putting marginalized voices at the forefront of an often marginalizing music scene.