Although Queen Elizabeth has been neatly reinstalled in Buckingham Palace after her recent visit to the former colonies, Western North Carolina still seems to have a case of royalty fever. For those looking for a reason to curtsey, the Teen, Miss and Mrs. North Carolina International Pageant takes the stage at Diana Wortham Theatre this […]

Forget the cliché about recording artists who find inspiration after downing a bottle of Jim Beam and driving their Harley out the second-story window of a Beverly Hills mansion into the oversized swimming pool below. Laura Veirs uses a lot of oceanic imagery, but she keeps her head above water. Because singer/songwriter Laura Veirs isn’t […]

When did our collective fascination with all things futuristic (mod boots, The Jetsons, hovercraft) grow stale, and nostalgia for a distant, golden past kick in? We’ve barely embraced Bluetooth technology—meanwhile, a hipper generation of hipsters is scouring eBay for rotary-dial telephones and the portable record players once found in junior-high language labs. “I think we […]

“Rue McClanahan has also played witches and bitches, killers and drunks,” that actress reminds us in her tell-all memoir, My First Five Husbands … And the Ones Who Got Away (Random House, 2007). Still, she’s best known as sex-pot Southern belle Blanche Devereaux from TV’s The Golden Girls. And, as often happens, many fans confuse […]

When controversial American Idol contestant Sanjaya sang his teary farewell, he cleverly improvised “Let’s give ‘em something to talk about … other than hair.” While Bonnie Raitt may not get it, chances are Aussie rocker Andrew Stockdale—front man of Wolfmother—shares the sentiment. Wolfmother is more than just arena rock with curly locks. Known for his […]

If you want to go to a music festival and spend the weekend kicked back in a lawn chair, koozie in hand and a few thousand of your closest Crocs-with-socks-wearing friends doing the firefly-catching dance to the jam band of the moment, it’s (as they say) all good. The sound of music (that’s not roots-based): […]

If you never “got” world music, don’t feel uncultured. Ori Kaplan, co-founder of the definitely-file-under-world-music band Balkan Beat Box, doesn’t like it either. “When I hear [it], I cringe,” confesses Kaplan, whose band also eschews flags, nationalities and borders. “[It’s an] overly produced concept where you try to have some slick beat with some aboriginal […]

People are looking (and listening) for something new, agrees Ira Glass, the nerd-sexy host of National Public Radio’s quirky-intellectual program This American Life. Why radio? “I didn’t have any other prospects,” admits the lovably nerdy Glass. Photo ©2006 Nancy Updike “Whether they’re looking for us is the real question,” he muses dryly. For anyone who’s […]