Stage Review: ‘Black Pearl Sings!’
The song hunting expeditions of early 20th century musicologists, scouring rural backwoods to find tunes that have been become part of the nation’s fabric — as well as discovering authentic,…
Stage Review: Make Room for ‘Dada’
It was 100 years ago this year when Hugo Ball chose a nonsense word to label the anti-art movement of World War I - dada. At the Cabaret Voltaire, he…
The Feelies Do Record Store Day
The Feelies spent their Record Store Day in D.C. playing music — a lot of it. The bulk of it was a three hour show with two full sets and…
Jonathan Richman at The 9:30 Club
Jonathan Richman is the very picture of the traveling musician. On the expanse of the 9:30 Club stage, empty but for Tommy Larkins’ modest drum kit, he walked in for…
Colder-White-Skaggs at Birchmere
Cooder-White-Skaggs sounds like a legal firm or at the least a group of CPAs. Instead, it’s a grand musical merger of two storied families — country star Ricky Skaggs, who…
Opera Review: ‘After Life / Josephine’
What happens when American women move to Paris for creatively fulfilling careers? They sing. Or at least that’s what happened to a couple of singular women at the beginning of…
Review: Josh Ritter at The 9:30 Club
You could tell Josh Ritter was happy to be playing the 9:30 Club Wednesday night. He said so, for one thing. It was the second in a two night stand…
James Hunter Six at the Hamilton
The only trouble with a stone traditionalist is that you can’t expect much variation of the form album to album. But that’s not a bad thing with James Hunter, who…
Aimee Mann and Ted Leo Do Christmas
Like a gauzy, deadpan version of an old holiday TV special, the Aimee Mann-Ted Leo Christmas show that landed at the Birchmere in Alexandria Monday had all the traditional elements:…
Opera Review: WNO’s ‘Hansel and Gretel’
Every artistic company wishes it could come up with a seasonal title that could be come a holiday tradition — their own “Nutcracker,” “Messiah” or “Christmas Carol” to rely on…