Interstate 74 connects the Midwestern United States with the South, running for about 450 miles from Iowa to North Carolina. In Peoria, Ill., I-74 crosses the Illinois River over the Murray Baker Bridge into East Peoria and, eventually, south of the Mason-Dixon Line. Built in 1958, the bridge has four lanes and is more than Read More
It seemed, on that hot, hazy spring day in 1974, as though the entire population of Nashville had turned out to watch Robert Altman shoot the finale of his epic film about the country-music business. The location was Centennial Park in the heart of the city. The scene was a political rally for a mysteriously Read More
Local Republicans say the national party didn’t help enough this year, suggesting that the seemingly pre-determined outcome tomorrow could have been different if they had.
News of Saddam Hussein’s death sentence could help some Republicans at the polls tomorrow.
Hillary Clinton leads Barack Obama among New York Democrats, and among black Democrats Read More
I see now that the Dixie Chicks are on this week’s cover of Time. (Sorry, I’m always the last to know). Now they’re “Radical.” Please. I tried to get at the bogusness of their political positioning earlier this week. But don’t read me. Read Kelefa Sanneh in yesterday’s Times. What a fine Read More
Hear Paul Bryan , Handcuff King (The BatsIsHappy Records). The songs on this debut CD work like recombinant DNA: After just a few spins, they’ll sound as if you’ve been playing the album for years instead of days. Mr. Bryan-a San Pedro, Calif. native who now lives in New York-is a bassist, singer and longtime Read More
Last year, Barneys had an unusual little item for sale: A green and yellow designer pillow with the seven deadly sins embroidered on it in a retro computer font. This faux flea-market charm, which looked like something you would have found on a distant cousin’s couch in 1983, cost about $200.
On the one hand, Read More
A quiet string of guitar eighth-notes rises and falls as drums brush along, and “Smoke Rings in the Dark,” a tune by Nashville singer Gary Allan, takes off in its starlit way. The guy’s romance-he understands it’s past denying-has collapsed. “Eye-ah-eye-ah-ah-eye,” as Mr. Allan phrases it, “know I must be going/ ‘Cause love’s already gone.” Read More
When he arrived on the scene in 1986, Steve Earle was lauded as a neo-Outlaw hillbilly singer (see Waylon and Willie). But as Mr. Earle’s songs got increasingly louder and the singer himself cultivated a biker look, his records straddled that lost consumer zone between Hank Williams and heavy metal. How was Mr. Earle’s poor Read More
Jazz guitar has never had much dirt under its fingernails. In R&B and rock, the guitar has always been the star, percussive and twangy, with bent blue notes aimed at your face. But jazz, older and more urbane, had already been up and running for two decades before anyone figured out how to plug in Read More
