#MUSIC

Can Miley Cyrus Educate Millennials About the Fight Against AIDS?

Kristi Wooten

Dec 3, 2015

Can Miley Cyrus Educate Millennials About the Fight Against AIDS?

At Carnegie Hall this past Tuesday night, Miley Cyrus joined U2’s Bono and The Edge, Hozier and Jessie J for a World AIDS Day event featuring U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, former POTUS Bill Clinton, Bill and Melinda Gates, Michael Bloomberg and other luminaries of philanthropy. During the program, which celebrated the work of Bono’s organizations (RED) and ONE, Jessie J wowed with a cover of Prince’s “Purple Rain,” Hozier brought the blues to a collaborative version of U2’s

U2’s Disappearing Act: Age Against the Machine

Kristi Wooten

Aug 27, 2015

U2’s Disappearing Act: Age Against the Machine

LAST September U2 released its 13th album, “Songs of Innocence.” Critics lauded the collection’s lush ballads and rhythmically angular reminiscences of boyhood in 1970s Dublin. But, because it was released as part of a surprise iTunes giveaway, the backlash from users who found the album appearing unbidden on their devices overwhelmed reactions to the record itself. The Apple stunt should not have come as a complete surprise. U2 has sought again and again to use technology as

Why We Love Brian Wilson’s Melodies (and Matzo Ball Soup)

Kristi Wooten

Jun 11, 2015

Why We Love Brian Wilson’s Melodies (and Matzo Ball Soup)

After seeing the new movie, Love & Mercy, we’ll never hear The Beach Boys’ “God Only Knows” the same way again. During a scene in which Brian Wilson (portrayed by Paul Dano) brings the beloved 1966 song to life with a swirl of French horn and sleigh bells, the audience gets swept up in the 24 year-old musician’s auditory hallucinations as he dictates ascending chromatic scales to session players. This moment in the biopic reinforces Wilson’s reputation as one of the great mel

Noel Gallagher on Guitar Solos, Cowbells and Dirty Underwear

Kristi Wooten

Feb 27, 2015

Noel Gallagher on Guitar Solos, Cowbells and Dirty Underwear

PASTE MAGAZINE Twenty years ago this spring, Oasis holed up in a recording studio in Wales to create the defining album of the Britpop movement. 1995’s (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? was a yummy grab bag of whistle stop ditties and idealistic rock anthems that became—and remains—the Manchester quintet’s masterpiece and rainmaker. For more than a decade, the hilarity of the band’s antics was as pleasurable as its music: The rival Gallagher brothers (frontman Liam and singer

Original Recipe: Midge Ure and "Do They Know It's Christmas"

Kristi Wooten

Nov 19, 2014

Original Recipe: Midge Ure and "Do They Know It's Christmas"

THE ECONOMIST THREE decades before One Direction, Ellie Goulding and others added their voices and carefully mussed-up hair to “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”, Bob Geldof and Midge Ure (pictured together above) huddled in a London apartment to figure out what a couple of rock stars could do to help starving Ethiopians. Their directive was far-fetched. First, pen a song about the difficulties of life during an African drought. Then, gather famous British and Irish bands (plus f

The Original Recipe for "Do They Know It's Christmas?"

Kristi Wooten

Nov 18, 2014

The Original Recipe for "Do They Know It's Christmas?"

One of the driving forces behind the original Band Aid recording looks back 30 years. THREE decades before One Direction, Ellie Goulding and others added their voices and carefully mussed-up hair to “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”, Bob Geldof and Midge Ure (pictured together above) huddled in a London apartment to figure out what a couple of rock stars could do to help starving Ethiopians. Their directive was far-fetched. First, pen a song about the difficulties of life during

Kristi Wooten

Oct 21, 2014

Annie Lennox's Nostalgia: Timeless Soul

“NOSTALGIA”, the latest album from Annie Lennox, the British singer-songwriter, recalls an era of smoky clubs and street-corner swing. Many of the tracks, including Hoagy Carmichael’s “Memphis in June” and “Georgia on My Mind,” George Gershwin’s “Summertime” and Abel Meeropol’s “Strange Fruit”, are from the classic American songbook. In the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s female performers such as Billie Holiday and Nina Simone made recordings of these songs that today are considered

Kristi Wooten

Oct 21, 2014

Annie Lennox's Timeless Soul

BY KRISTI YORK WOOTEN FOR THE ECONOMIST “NOSTALGIA”, the latest album from Annie Lennox, the British singer-songwriter, recalls an era of smoky clubs and street-corner swing. Many of the tracks, including Hoagy Carmichael’s “Memphis in June” and “Georgia on My Mind,” George Gershwin’s “Summertime” and Abel Meeropol’s “Strange Fruit”, are from the classic American songbook … READ THE ARTICLE HERE. #PUBLICATIONS #THEECONOMIST #20122014 #AnnieLennox #topmusic #featured #MUSIC #M

Kristi Wooten

Oct 21, 2014

The Life Cycle According to James

BY KRISTI YORK WOOTEN FOR PURE POP “So this is it, our life on earth, we’re made of stars, we’re made of dirt,” Tim Booth sings in “Walk Like You,” the first track on James’s new album, La Petite Mort. It’s one of many tracks in which the English band – which formed in the early 1980s and got its start supporting Factory Records labelmates New Order – ponders mortality. “Let’s find a love as deep as as it is holy,” Booth continues as the song builds into a singalong chorus sh

Branford Marsalis and the Echoes of Grace Cathedral

Kristi Wooten

Oct 20, 2014

Branford Marsalis and the Echoes of Grace Cathedral

BY KRISTI YORK WOOTEN The latest album from saxophonist Branford Marsalis finds him playing at one of our country’s most beautiful spiritual homes – Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. In a live recording of an unamplified performance in the nave of the structure – called In My Solitude: Live from Grace Cathedral – he switches from JS Bach to Hoagy Carmichael with his usual ease, the virtuosity of the notes matched only by the warmth of his tone. From weighty tenor to sweet sop

Kristi Wooten

Sep 10, 2014

Howard Jones: Orange is the New Black

BY KRISTI YORK WOOTEN FOR THE HUFFINGTON POST When Howard Jones asked his fans on Facebook to wear orange to his performances this summer, he was not alluding to the Netflix series about women in prison. The 59-year-old British pop star — who sported a spiky mullet in the 1980s when he recorded hit singles (“New Song,” “No One is to Blame,” “Everlasting Love”) and gave an unforgettable sing-along performance on Freddie Mercury’s grand piano at Live Aid — may have cut his pump

The Summer of Ben Watt: It's Christmas in July

Kristi Wooten

Jul 5, 2014

The Summer of Ben Watt: It's Christmas in July

BY KRISTI YORK WOOTEN FOR THE HUFFINGTON POST Photo by Ian Webber. “Is this cheating on Tracey? I dunno,” Ben Watt asked. He felt a little funny performing Everything But the Girl’s “25th December” in Los Angeles a few weeks ago without his wife and creative partner, but the moment of intercession and a throwback tune were just what the crowded desired. “I wrote it, for Chrissakes,” he laughed, before singing one of his most memorable lines (“Have I enough time, have I just s

World Party on Tour: Long Live Rainbows and Revolutions

Kristi Wooten

Jun 15, 2014

World Party on Tour: Long Live Rainbows and Revolutions

BY KRISTI YORK WOOTEN FOR THE HUFFINGTON POST Karl Wallinger is sitting on the running board of his tour van and smoking a cigarette. He just finished World Party’s sound check at the Variety Playhouse, and I’m showing him iPad photos of the double rainbow that lit up the Atlanta skyline – and inspired end-of-the-world speculations on Twitter — the night before. “It felt transcendent,” I tell him. “It must’ve been some kind of scientific phenomenon,” he says. It’s not the fir

Rufus Wainwright Compares Verdi to Nirvana

Kristi Wooten

May 5, 2014

Rufus Wainwright Compares Verdi to Nirvana

BY KRISTI YORK WOOTEN FOR ORIGIN MAGAZINE Rufus Wainwright is an enigmatic singer from a family of Canadian-American musicians. He released his self-titled debut CD in 1998, and has recorded seven studio albums full of piano-based songwriting and emotive vocal performances, which have earned him a Grammy nomination and two Juno awards. On the heels of his recently released Vibrate: The Best of Rufus Wainwright, Wainwright is enjoying family life and writing his second full-le

When Johnnyswim's "Home" Comes on the Radio

Kristi Wooten

Apr 30, 2014

When Johnnyswim's "Home" Comes on the Radio

BY KRISTI YORK WOOTEN FOR THE HUFFINGTON POST Abner Ramirez and Amanda Sudano, better known as LA-based music duo Johnnyswim, released their first full-length album, Diamonds, on Tuesday. While driving down the freeway that day, they heard their single “Home” on a Nashville radio station for the first time, and quickly captured the milestone in a video for their Instagram account. It is a moment of unadulterated surprise and happiness. Click here to watch the video. Music cri

Joys of Moogfest: Geeks, Hippies and Nile Rodgers

Kristi Wooten

Apr 29, 2014

Joys of Moogfest: Geeks, Hippies and Nile Rodgers

BY KRISTI YORK WOOTEN FOR THE HUFFINGTON POST First, let me set the tone: Imagine you’re walking around in downtown Portland, Oregon. Now, subtract the waterfront. Add bacon and gravy. Grab a beet/ginger smoothie. Take off your sweater. Put on your sunglasses. Be careful not to step on the dog that’s sunbathing on a yellow pillow beside the shirtless, bearded guy who’s making jewelry out of fishing wire on a Himalayan blanket next to a lamppost on the sidewalk in front of a w

Kristi Wooten

Apr 24, 2014

Guy washes 12" single with Tootbrush and Dish Soap

Sounds sudsily good! #20122014 #issue1 #MUSIC #nowhearthis

Kristi Wooten

Apr 24, 2014

Where Were You in the Summer of 1986?

#1986 #petergabriel #20122014 #U2 #MUSIC #ThePolice #amnesty #loureed

Kristi Wooten

Apr 18, 2014

Spandau Ballet vs. SXSW

#austin #20122014 #SpandauBallet #MUSIC #sxsw

Kristi Wooten

Mar 19, 2014

Neil Finn's Third Act

BY KRISTI YORK WOOTEN FOR THE HUFFINGTON POST Falsetto is a rock singer’s secret weapon. The upper register of a man’s voice can transmit a sexy yowl, a vulnerable plea for understanding, or the simple joys of a high melody. In Neil Finn’s case, it’s all of the above. He just released Dizzy Heights, his third proper solo record and one that veers further into atmospheric territory than his work with Crowded House or Split Enz. With the help of his musician sons Liam and Elroy