Archive for February, 2011
John Legend
You listen to music and use it to try to create something new, and who knows what’s going to come into your head. A song is a song. You produce a song, and at that moment when you produce it, that’s when you take it into a genre. Before you produce it, it’s just a […]
Amy Grant
I’m harder to please now. Your standard goes up. It’s increasingly harder for me to move myself. And if I can’t be moved by an idea, there’s no chance somebody else is going to be moved. But I don’t feel like it’s my job to pump out songs every week anymore. Now it’s like fishing—I […]
Eva Cassidy: Simply Eva
These previously unreleased acoustic recordings on “Simply Eva” are like hearing Eva Cassidy for the first time. Again.
Don Henley
“I would advise any aspiring artist to read books, read poetry, and listen to the songs of great writers. Being able to play an instrument well and knowing something about theory is great, but there are a hell of a lot more good players than there are good lyricists. There is a real gap in […]
Tori Amos
You have to know what your theme is for each project and what it is that you’re whispering into people’s spines. I believe your spine responds to music in a way that it might not respond to visuals. That sound can reach inside you in a very primal way. I like to create these sonic […]
Buddy Guy
When I was 6 I didn’t have nothing. I never saw a guitar, I didn’t know what it was. What I would do is go and strip the screen wire off the windows. You didn’t have air conditioning or no electric fan, and those mosquitoes in the Louisiana bayou are big enough to lift you […]
Janis Ian
I think people write their best when they’re at their most sane and most rested, and when they feel safe. Any good work that happens when you’re in turmoil happens in spite of that turmoil. You may find yourself writing out of your life experience, and the more life experiences you have, obviously, the better […]
Smokey Robinson: The Master of Motown
Born in Detroit on February 19, 1940, William “Smokey” Robinson spent his childhood mixing a love of Sarah Vaughan’s voice with dreams of becoming a cowboy. When Smokey was 7 years old, his father took him on a trip through the American Southwest, presumably to offer him a glimpse into the rigors of a rancher’s […]
Alanis Morissette
“My songwriting process has come full circle. It’s exactly the way I wrote when I was 10. Usually I start with a note that I hit, and that starts a melody and lyric all at the same time. Or I’ll have a line written down that I know I want to sing about, and I’ll […]
The Civil Wars: Barton Hollow
This Nashville-based duo delivers a stunning debut that is sure to be one of the best albums of 2011.