Category: Music

  • Champion of the Underdog: An Interview With Dolly Parton

    Champion of the Underdog: An Interview With Dolly Parton

    “As a writer, I have to leave my heart open,” Dolly Parton begins. “That’s why I have always said I never could harden my heart, even against hurt or anything. Because as a writer, if you harden your heart, you’re not going to feel all that emotion you need to feel, and you won’t be […]

  • Bill Murray chats about his late-career dive into music

    Bill Murray chats about his late-career dive into music

    Bill Murray and Jan Vogler Bill Murray is on the road. Calling from Charlotte, North Carolina, where it’s well after midnight, he and classical cellist Jan Vogler are winding down after a performance on their unusual tour, which sees the famously quirky movie star singing – yes, singing – and reciting literature with a chamber […]

  • Guitarist Billy Martin of Good Charlotte discusses band’s new album, Generation Rx

    Guitarist Billy Martin of Good Charlotte discusses band’s new album, Generation Rx

    Good Charlotte hits Worcester on Tuesday, Oct. 23. SCN spoke with Billy Martin, far left, about their newest album. Photo: Ville Juurikkala. For nearly 20 years, Pop-Punk quintet Good Charlotte has used their talents to focus on the little things. Now in 2018, inspired by the death of an artist on the rise, they’re shifting […]

  • Respect: Saying Goodbye to the Queen of Soul

    Respect: Saying Goodbye to the Queen of Soul

    Aretha Franklin (Courtesy of Atlantic Records) “All I’m askin’ for, is a little respect,” sings Aretha Franklin in what would become her signature tune. But by dint of her swaggering, sweltering, church-wrought performance, she’s not just asking for respect: she’s demanding it. And she got it, on an unparalleled level, winning 18 Grammys, a lifetime […]

  • MC5 Guitarist Marks 50 Years of Kicking Out the Jams With Tour, Autobiography

    MC5 Guitarist Marks 50 Years of Kicking Out the Jams With Tour, Autobiography

    It’s been 50 years since The MC5 burst onto the Detroit rock scene with their groundbreaking sense of rebellion and their loud- and at that point, unheard of stage presence. The Motor City quintet’s music has gone on to influence countless punk, rock and metal musicians over the last half century, and guitarist Wayne Kramer […]

  • Punk In Drublic: An Interview with Fat Mike of NOFX

    Punk In Drublic: An Interview with Fat Mike of NOFX

    Punk rock has always been about going against the grain, and Fat Mike of NOFX has been tackling social norms and taboos on and off the stage since he picked up a bass guitar over 35 years ago. Aside from his brightly colored mohawk and sleeves of tattoos, he’s also cross-dressed for most of his […]

  • Program That Brings Classical Music to Shelters Receives Grant

    Program That Brings Classical Music to Shelters Receives Grant

    Photo: Julia McKenzie, Rebecca Strauss, and Rebecca Miller at Dimock women’s programs at Shelter Music Boston’s holiday concert in 2017. Courtesy. A private, boston-based charity is investing in music as a way to lift the spirits and lives of the city’s homeless. Shelter Music Boston (SMB), which employs professional musicians to perform classical concerts in […]

  • From the Violent Femmes to Tasmania: Ritchie and Famous

    From the Violent Femmes to Tasmania: Ritchie and Famous

    Brian Ritchie, bassist with the Violent Femmes, has enjoyed decades in the spotlight as a member of one of America’s finest folk punk bands. Here, he talks about his time in the Violent Femmes, fatherhood and finding paradise in Tasmania When I was 16 the one thing I had going on was music. I grew […]

  • Moe Pope: BMA Winner and Hip-Hop Vet is Ready to Rock Boston Calling

    Moe Pope: BMA Winner and Hip-Hop Vet is Ready to Rock Boston Calling

    Photo: Chris Rocco Moe Pope would love to rap about money, girls, and drugs, but over time, as he has watched injustices like police brutality toward unarmed black men go unpunished, it became clear to him that STL GLD, a collaboration between him and Cambridge-based producer The Arcitype, needed to strive for something bigger than […]

  • Flogging Molly’s David King is One of the Lucky Ones – and He Knows It

    Flogging Molly’s David King is One of the Lucky Ones – and He Knows It

    David King has always known he was lucky, and it has fueled him throughout Flogging Molly’s 20-year career, a span of time in which they’ve continued their success as one of the most well-respected names in rock and roll. The Irish punk septet is now celebrating with the release of its sixth studio album, “Life […]