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Wallace Baine on August 4, 2018
John F. Kennedy was in the White House when young Frankie Valli first unleashed his scorching falsetto on the world, driving such hits as “Big Girls Don’t Cry” and “Sherry.” Valli and his group the Four Seasons were remarkably durable as hitmakers into the late 1970s (That’s Frankie doing the theme song…
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Andrew Lentz on August 1, 2018
An acoustic guitar-wielding troupe of Andalusian descent, the Gipsy Kings came up in the south of France and play a Roma-influenced flamenco style known as Catalan rumba. But don’t let that intimidate you. Even if you’ve never owned any recordings by Gipsy Kings, you’re likely guilty of crooning uber-ballad “Volare” in the…
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Bill Kopp on July 27, 2018
Taj Mahal is a timeless artist who’s always been ahead of his time. The singer, songwriter and guitarist was making Americana and world music long before either musical genre had been coined. He’s earned many accolades—three Grammys and more nominations, the Americana Music Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award, an honorary Doctorate—and released over…
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Bill Kopp on July 25, 2018
In the 1960s, the Byrds pioneered folk rock. The chiming electric 12-string guitars on the 1965 singles “Turn! Turn! Turn” and “Mr. Tambourine Man” influenced a generation of musicians. Soon thereafter, the group moved in a more psychedelic and even jazz-influenced direction, exemplified by 1966’s “Eight Miles High.”
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Winona Rajamohan on July 18, 2018
In 2016 Donald Glover—a.k.a. Childish Gambino—told James Corden that “Kiss From a Rose” is his go-to karaoke jam. We’ll have to wait until his Oct. 2 Shark Tank performance to see if he indulges us as he did the Late Late host. The voice behind one of the most epic love songs…
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Bill Kopp on July 12, 2018
Founded in 1996 when all of its members were students at Indiana University, a cappella group Straight No Chaser has gone through more than its share of changes. But the group’s unique, old-meets-new approach—all-vocal performances of original and classic songs with beatboxing—has endured and expanded its audience.
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Nick Veronin on June 30, 2018
Chris Isaak is a bit of an enigma. With his perfectly coiffed hair, rhinestone-studded cowboy blazers and beefy, one-of-a-kind Gibson guitar, Isaak’s stage persona would fit right in at the Grand Ole Opry. Yet he is an icon of the Generation X-led alt rock movement and a muse for oddball auteur David…
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Nick Veronin on June 27, 2018
The Indigo Girls are certified Lilith Fair royalty. The folk rock duo from Decatur, Georgia, played the main stage all three years during the tour’s original run—from 1997 to 1999—and truly captured the ethos of the late-’90s boom in female-fronted alternative bands and solo artists. Two of their biggest hits, “Closer to…
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Wallace Baine on June 20, 2018
At first, it sounds like one of those weirdly random food combinations that bored stoners might experiment with (bananas and taco sauce?). On Thursday at the Mountain Winery in Saratoga, 1980s hitmakers Violent Femmes (“Blister in the Sun”) will take the stage with Indian-American sitar master Ashwin Batish.
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Avi Salem on June 14, 2018
Best friends and comedians Kristin Hensley and Jen Smedley are two moms who actually know how to use hashtags. Their viral web series, #IMOMSOHARD, has amassed more than one million followers and hundreds of millions of video views in just two years. The duo will bring their lively and laughable observations on…
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