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Dec 14, 2015

Hardcover Rock: Do Music Memoirs Matter?

THIS Christmas, booksellers are featuring several memoirs by rock musicians in their product queues. The authors are not all household names, yet new volumes by Elvis Costello (an English singer-songwriter, pictured), Chrissie Hynde (of The Pretenders), Patti Smith (a New York musician), Carrie Brownstein (of Sleater-Kinney) and others have already made it onto the year’s bestsellers lists. The books are diverse in style and tone: Mr Costello’s witty “Unfaithful Music” is a c

Elvis Costello's Hardcover Rock: Why Music Memoirs Matter

Kristi Wooten

Dec 14, 2015

Elvis Costello's Hardcover Rock: Why Music Memoirs Matter

THIS Christmas, booksellers are featuring several memoirs by rock musicians in their product queues. The authors are not all household names, yet new volumes by Elvis Costello (an English singer-songwriter, pictured), Chrissie Hynde (of The Pretenders), Patti Smith (a New York musician), Carrie Brownstein (of Sleater-Kinney) and others have already made it onto the year’s bestsellers lists. If rock ‘n’ roll has waned on the pop charts for more than a decade, why would the per

The Endless Dance: Spending My Birthday With Spandau Ballet

Kristi Wooten

Dec 8, 2015

The Endless Dance: Spending My Birthday With Spandau Ballet

A woman checks my ID at ATL TSA and hands me my driver’s license. “Make it a good one,” she says. I walk to T Gates and fill my water bottle before boarding. In less than two hours, I’ll be in a taxi heading to my favorite museum, where Man Ray’s collages and Renoir’s “Luncheon of the Boating Party” await. On the plane, my row mate is already feigning sleep, so I pull the plastic shade over the window to avoid the glare of the intense morning sun. When the seatbelt sign dings

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

Ready and Worthy: Glen Hansard on Love, Money and Why Artists Should Never Give Up

Kristi Wooten

Sep 23, 2015

Ready and Worthy: Glen Hansard on Love, Money and Why Artists Should Never Give Up

Every great songwriter has a “bird on the shoulder” moment now and then. Glen Hansard says the melody of the lead track from his new album, Didn’t He Ramble, came to him in a New Zealand airport while waiting at baggage claim to pick up his guitar. “The muse shows up when it shows up,” he reckons. The song, “Grace Beneath the Pines,” is another of the Irish singer’s famously aching ballads—one that takes the listener to the bottom of the ocean before throwing out an emotional

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

Kristi Wooten

Aug 27, 2015

U2's Age Against the Machine

BY KRISTI YORK WOOTEN FOR THE ECONOMIST Many of today’s top touring artists, including Taylor Swift, One Direction, the Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney and Beyoncé, use huge catwalk stages and expansive video displays. But none of them has shared their spotlight with gadgetry in quite the way U2 does during “Innocence + Experience”. At New York’s Madison Square Garden in July, band members climbed inside a 96-foot-wide LED cage to perform a few songs while suspended above a st

Kristi Wooten

Jul 13, 2015

The Legacy of Live Aid, 30 Years Later

On July 13, 1985, Africa became a brand. The image of a starving Ethiopian girl named Birhan Woldu flickered across TV screens as Paul McCartney, David Bowie, and Madonna played beneath a “Feed the World” banner on stages in London and Philadelphia. Live Aid, as the event was known, was attended by almost 175,000 people at both venues, and raised an initial $80 million in aid for the victims of a horrific famine. But the 16-hour, transcontinental broadcast was more than just

Kristi Wooten

Jul 13, 2015

The Legacy of Live Aid

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

How 1980s Atlanta Became the Backdrop for the Future

Kristi Wooten

Mar 30, 2015

How 1980s Atlanta Became the Backdrop for the Future

Downtown Atlanta contains very little brick and mortar. A westward view of the city’s skyline—the same image used in the opening credits of TV’s The Walking Dead—reveals this Southern capital’s history at a glance: It burned to the ground in the Civil War and was rebuilt as a transportation hub filled with pulsating veins of highways and eager Fortune 500 companies. A construction boom during the Reagan years gave the ATL shiny buildings buttressed by tons of cement, creating

Portmandia: Atlanta Architecture in the Movies

Kristi Wooten

Mar 30, 2015

Portmandia: Atlanta Architecture in the Movies

BY KRISTI YORK WOOTEN FOR THE ATLANTIC The Southern capital has set the scene for dystopian thrillers such as Divergent and The Walking Dead, most notably via buildings designed by the architect John Portman. “Downtown Atlanta contains very little brick and mortar. A westward view of the city’s skyline—the same image used in the opening credits of TV’s The Walking Dead—reveals this Southern capital’s history at a glance: It burned to the ground in the Civil War and was rebuil

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

What Eva Longoria Learned in the Barrios of Cartagena

Kristi Wooten

Feb 2, 2015

What Eva Longoria Learned in the Barrios of Cartagena

Eva Longoria says some of her earliest childhood memories are of accompanying her family to volunteer at the Special Olympics in her hometown of Corpus Christi, Texas. “Volunteering was very big in our household,” the 39-year-old actress and youngest of four daughters remembers. “My eldest sister is mentally disabled, and we benefited from all of these community programs that helped her — whether it was an after-school program, Special Olympics, the Boys and Girls Clubs, arts

10 Inspiring Life Lessons From My Conversations With Jane Goodall

Kristi Wooten

Jan 1, 2015

10 Inspiring Life Lessons From My Conversations With Jane Goodall

THE HUFFINGTON POST One doesn’t need an encyclopedic knowledge of science to hang with Jane Goodall; instead, a dose of curiosity will do. The world-famous environmentalist and animal rights crusader -– who’s spent more than half her life working with chimpanzees – has a surprisingly sharp wit and a fiercely sensitive side. Her latest book (about plants), Seeds of Hope, came under fire regarding editorial citations, but her reputation as an earthy soothsayer remains decidedly

Walking Dead’s Danai Gurira Vs. Boko Haram

Kristi Wooten

Nov 30, 2014

Walking Dead’s Danai Gurira Vs. Boko Haram

Actress, activist and African American: Danai Gurira believes in the power of using her voice to amplify African storytellers. The set of The Walking Dead is a difficult place to stand out on Halloween: the zombie quotient is high and the makeup artists are two-time Emmy winners, but nobody rocks a katana and dreadlocks better than Danai Gurira in her role as the steely heroine, Michonne. This year, however, the actress tried something different. On a break from filming the s

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

This Infographic Explains How America Feels About Spandau Ballet

Kristi Wooten

Nov 13, 2014

This Infographic Explains How America Feels About Spandau Ballet

A new documentary called Soul Boys of the Western World follows the British band Spandau Ballet from its New Romantic beginnings in London in the late 1970s through an appearance at Live Aid in 1985 and a 1999 fight over royalties that landed most of its members in England’s high court for a whole month. Blitz Kids, yacht parties, acting gigs, beaches in Ibiza, marriages, divorces, side projects, the promise of a reunion … it’s all in there. So is the music. Everyone remember

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