There was no doubt about it in this youngster’s mind. From the time he was 10 years old, Dave Pahanish knew he was going to be a songwriter. Music came easily to him and filled him with such joy that his head…
Legendary critic Whitney balliet once labeled jazz “the sound of surprise,” and no one exemplifies that more than the great sonny rollins. As a composer and soloist, he has dazzled, delighted, and stunned musicians and fans with inventive passages, unusual phrases, and quick shifts…
Though he didn’t invent the three-finger picking technique on the banjo, Earl Scruggs’ brilliant, imaginative solos and playing elevated the standard of excellence on the instrument. The songs of Scruggs and his partner guitarist Lester Flatt triggered a wave of…
Prepping for what could be the music year’s most quintessentially “Nashville” collaboration, genre-melding indie pop singer-songwriter K.S. Rhoads was talking to the Nashville Symphony Orchestra’s principal librarian, Wilson Ochoa. “I’ve got a song called “Hiyayayaya,” with a hip-hop beat,…
The National Folk Festival, one of the longest-running celebrations of the arts, is coming to Nashville for a three-year tenure in September of 2011. Husband and wife team Garry West and Alison Brown, founders of Compass Records, fought hard for…
Sunday nights can be slow in Sylvan Park. But behind Charlotte Avenue’s dark storefronts, across N. 49th Street from Betty’s Grill, a light shines over the entryway into the Global Education Center. Step inside and you’re in a spacious,…
by Lizza Connor Bowen
At a historic house in downtown Franklin, Tennessee, Nashville Arts Magazine recently had the chance to catch up with breakout folk duo The Civil Wars. With nineteenth-century wallpaper peeling from the walls and antique chandeliers casting…
So a few months ago Jed Hilly was about to mow his lawn. It was a Saturday like any other, and—b-r-r-ring!—Merle Haggard rang him up. Hilly didn’t know Merle. They weren’t buds or work associates. But there it was, Haggard…
It is not easy to describe seeing the Jubilee Singers perform. Some of the songs are soothing and harmonious, while others are gut-wrenching and powerful. Most striking, though, is the overall effect: the experience creates a connection to the…
Bringing Timeless Culture to Life
A Shen Yun performance is an entrée into a timeless past. An unprecedented gathering of world-class dancers, choreographers, vocalists, and musicians with a singular purpose: to rekindle the best of China’s classical dance heritage and to…
