In 1991 I had the great pleasure of meeting and interviewing Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, the world’s greatest singer of qawwali, a devotional vocal style associated with the mystical Islamic practice of Sufism. Sadly, in 1997, I was tasked with penning his obituary.
My Bloody Valentine: Beauty in the Beast
It’s a Friday night in 1992, and the members of My Bloody Valentine are squashed together in a rental van and barreling down one of the many endless, flat streets of Houston, Texas.
Tom Waits: Weird Science
TweetIf you ever find yourself interviewing Tom Watis, don’t expect straight answers. Don’t even expect bent answers. He doesn’t really answer questions. He questions questions. […]
Why We Need Phil Ochs Now More Than Ever
“Phil Ochs was like Lenny Bruce – he just totally uncensored himself. He wrote the songs nobody else would.” — Butch Hancock
All the Young Dudes: Bowie at 50
TweetIn 1997, I was invited to a small birthday party for David Bowie at the English restaurant Tea & Sympathy in downtown Manhattan. At the […]
‘Leaving Eden’: A Story of Music, Race, and Old Endings in an Old Southern Mill Town
Leaving Eden tells the story of countless small towns across the South since the days of slavery.
Yoko Ono: She Who Laughs Last
It’s been said that falling in love with John Lennon was the worst career move that Yoko Ono could have made.
Adrienne Nixon Basco Knows Why the Free Bird Sings
“It was difficult to get them to believe in me … I mean, Southern rock is by nature a very white, very male-dominated genre.”
Remembering Michael Jackson
Tweet A decade ago this year, Michael Jackson died. Two days after his death on June 25, 2009, I wrote the following tribute for The […]
A Mother’s Wisdom: ‘You Can Do Whatever You Want To do’
TweetI wrote the following tribute to my mother, Joan Carlton Kemp, for a Charlotte, North Carolina, publication on February 18, 2018, the morning after she […]