Celebrating Community
Maybe I’m just getting old, but the New York music scene ain’t what it used to be. Only about a decade ago, there were venues that supported emerging artists of all styles and genres and the public had a greater interest in going to shows. One of the best and most legendary in Manhattan was of course CBGB’s, the birthplace […]
The t-shirt Blake Sandberg wears under his leather jacket speaks volumes. The iconic image — a line drawing of a mutant frog-thing with the caption bubble “HI, HOW ARE YOU” — is at least as famous as its creator, the troubled and sometimes revered singer/songwriter Daniel Johnston, who died in September at the age of 58, and the frog-thing’s question […]
In an earlier edition this year of the Red Hook Star-Revue, Mike Cobb wrote about the welcome revival of record shops in Red Hook (see “The Return of the Record Store,” February 2019). In his treatise, Mike told of the special relationship that music lovers have with vinyl records. To paraphrase his sentiments, he said something like “You can’t put […]
At 14 years of age, Nora Brown is a talented banjo player who sings ballads and traditional music with an interest in eastern Kentucky and Tennessee styles. She uses the clawhammer method of plucking and strumming with her thumb and fingers, resulting in a deep, muddy tone that lends an air of dark mystery and timeless depth to her playing. […]
The Queen Bee is back. 9 is Lil’ Kim’s first major commercial release in 14 years. Kimberly Jones, famously known as Lil’ Kim, is a hip-hop legend with a legacy stamped on rap music. There is a time before Lil’ Kim and after Lil’ Kim. Her entrance into hip hop is a marker in the evolution of rap. While other […]
What is jazz? The question isn’t philosophical, it’s practical—jazz is a practice. Jazz is just about 100 years old, with a give-or-take that depends on when your ears tell you musicians started playing it. The Original Dixieland Jass Band was the first group to record the music, in 1917, but they, and others, had been playing it for a considerable […]
Let’s say you get hired as a librarian. You go to your first day eager to please; suddenly they line up a bunch of Jameson shots to begin the shift. Things might just go off the rails. I have a job where that happens. Musicians that play in clubs have an interesting relationship with alcohol; there is not a lot […]
On September 20, students, teachers, and citizens attended the Children’s Climate Strike at Coffey Park in Red Hook, Brooklyn, organized by Resilient Red Hook, a committee dedicated to seeking local solutions to the global climate crisis. Together with millions of like-minded people worldwide, attendees expressed their concerns through speeches, poems, and music, including a rousing rendition of Woody Guthrie’s “This […]
Now a resident of rural Pennsylvania, Miriam Clancy hails all the way from New Zealand, home of musical luminaries Lorde, Neil Finn, and Flight of the Conchords (and who could forget OMC’s “How Bizarre”?). Clancy has recently released her new album Astronomy after a long creative and geographical journey. While developing a musical career, being the recipient of a major […]
Recently a song came on the radio that stopped me in my tracks. The singer’s arresting voice was at once soothing and eerie, not unlike Grace Slick’s part in “White Rabbit.” The vocals rested upon complex country blues guitar picking with a British sensibility reminiscent of Fairport Convention. All combined it gave me goosebumps. The tune was “Strange Country” by […]