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Music

Repeatedly Almost Famous

In the late 1960s, a soul band called the Chevelles came together in Milledgeville, Georgia. By the time they graduated high school, they already had a hit record and had performed at Harlem’s legendary Apollo Theater. But they never got their due. Here’s their story.

Elvis Saves

How a Yankee found religion in the music of the boy from Tupelo

Willi Carlisle’s Song of Himself

“Salvation.” It’s right there in our name. It’s an elusive state attained via unexpected detours and poorly drawn maps. Willi Carlisle’s second album, “Peculiar, Missouri,” lays bare the peculiar path that this Arkansas man traveled to a place where he can see salvation waiting for him.

From a Little Spark …

How can a music festival transform a city? The Big Ears Festival in Knoxville is bringing the community together in ways folks never dreamed of only a few years ago. This is the second in a three-part series exploring how Big Ears is creating little miracles in Tennessee.

What a Way to Make a Living

The Preservation Hall Brass Band and the East Tennessee Bluegrass Association find common ground in Dolly Parton.

Finding Mississippi John Hurt

The guitar was pulled from a white cabinet that looked like all the other white cabinets we saw that morning.

On the Wonder

New Orleans’ long tradition of celebration as resistance is the driving force behind the musical outfit Sabertooth Swing.

Oh, Mersey!

In which our Culture Warrior heaves anchor and explores a new album of sea shanties, among other oddities along the passage.

End of the Groove

Remembering Memphis drummer Howard Grimes, who backed Al Green, Ann Peebles, O.V. Wright, Willie Mitchell and others

Virginia’s Yasmin Williams Puts a New Shimmer Onto the Music Scene

Yasmin Williams’ amazing guitar techniques have created a new genre that critics (well, at least one critic, ours) is calling shimmer

Word of South Returns to Tallahassee

Tallahassee’s dizzying mashup of the literary festival and the music festival is set to return in April. Salvation South will host a stage.

The Weight on Jimmie Allen’s Shoulders

The biggest Black star in country music knows his success puts a lot of responsibility in his lap. But he was raised right. He can handle it.