Susan Werner grew up on a farm in the “pretty part” of Iowa, she says. That is, five miles southwest of Manchester, where there are hills and trees. She picked […]
Music
SCHOOL OF ROCK
The Kids Are Better Than All Right
The young rockers of Watch Your Step will take the stage at Preservation Hall
Twelve-year-old Alison Long stands front and center onstage, a bass guitar in her arms, her face shadowed by long brown hair. Behind her, nine-year-old Trent Burritt holds his drumsticks above […]
CABARET
James Jackson Jr. Likes to Change People’s Minds
The Broadway star favors the unexpected in music and social activism
Singer-actor James Jackson Jr. doesn’t take well to other people’s preconceptions about what he should and shouldn’t be doing. He’s turned defying expectations into something of a trademark in his […]
REVELATIONS
For a New Album, Women Are the Muse
In Silver City, Amy Helm turns secrets into songs
For her fourth solo album, Silver City, Amy Helm had a muse: a young fan. “The first time I met her, she was in the deepest, darkest throes of addiction,” […]
THE SONGWRITER
For Monica Rizzio, Music Is Everything
The Washashore Cowgirl says she’s here to stay
Monica Rizzio is singing something new. Her strong, sure voice fills the room; the guitar in her hands sounds bigger than it is. It creates its own kind of gravity: […]
PIANO MAN
Tedd Firth Plays With the Greats
The art of listening to a singer breathe
Pianist, arranger, and musical director Tedd Firth says he has always had only one goal in life: “I just wanted to play.” He took piano lessons as a child and […]
SING OUT
Mozelle Andrulot Comes Full Circle
The Cape Cod crooner makes time for family, a corporate job, and a swinging jazz career
It isn’t much of a surprise to learn that Mozelle Andrulot was a musical child. “My mother said that I didn’t talk at first — I sang everything,” she says. […]
MUSIC
Indie Playlist: Summer Sounds
Songs for sun, sand, and blue skies
For this installment of Indie’s Playlist, we asked six members of the Independent team to describe their songs of the summer: the song that best encapsulates the feeling of the […]
THE GREATS
The Borromeo String Quartet Does What the Music Demands
In its 34th appearance at the Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival, the group will play Beethoven and Schubert
Yeesun Kim says she and her Peregrino Zanetto cello, built in 1576, have a happy marriage. She accepts its shortcomings — its struggle, once, to project powerfully enough against an […]
MUSIC
The String Queens Live Up to Their Name
The trio’s sound is bigger than the sum of its parts
The first time The String Queens showed up for a gig as a trio, they were hired by one of their own: Dawn Johnson, the violist, was having a birthday […]
STREET MUSIC
Punk Kids Playing Jazz
The Dirty Rotten Vipers bring New Orleans to Provincetown
Eight members of the Dirty Rotten Vipers came to Provincetown for the season last year, and the band made the alleyway next to Marine Specialties on Commercial Street their summer […]
GIVE/TAKE
The Living Sounds of Ukraine
At Payomet, DakhaBrakha deals in shades of memory and persistence
There’s a game elementary students used to play, usually in P.E. class, stretched out on the grass or the polished wood of the gym floor. It involved a rainbow parachute, […]
OFF BROADWAY
Betty Buckley Is in Focus
The Tony-winning actress and singer is coming to Provincetown Town Hall
Picture it: early ’90s, a cruise ship sailing down the coast of Mexico. I was but a squirrely young thing on my first RSVP cruise rushing to the cabaret room […]
VOICES
May Erlewine Makes Music to Make a Difference
Singing to spread the power of love
May Erlewine’s songs speak of love, loss, and life’s dilemmas. Some have supported social causes, expressed the pain of women’s history, and voiced political worries about “being lost in the […]
Once Again, Taylor Swift Exposes Herself
Fans often call Taylor Swift’s music “diaristic”: at their best, her lyrics feel like the delicate and sometimes ugly truths most of us don’t dare utter aloud. “And I hate […]
