When Gillian Welch and Rawlings released an album named for their studio earlier this year and gave interviews about it, the primary narrative was how they’d weathered the devastation of the 2020 tornado and what major repairs the building required. But that wasn’t the studio’s first brush with a tornado.
jewly hight
Music critic and journalist Jewly Hight has been based in Nashville for two decades. Often, she's interpreted developments in Nashville's music communities and industries for a national audience. Her work has appeared on NPR and in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, New York Magazine/Vulture, The Guardian, Billboard, The Oxford American, Slate and numerous other outlets, and she's lent her expertise to a number of podcasts and documentaries. Hight landed her first book deal while studying religion, gender, sexuality, music and the South at Vanderbilt Divinity School, she was the inaugural winner of the Chet Flippo Award for Excellence in Country Music Journalism and she helped launch WNXP as its Editorial Director in 2020. Now Senior Music Writer for Nashville Public Radio, and working with a diverse Nashville audience in mind, she's created the organization's first limited podcast series focused on music, "Making Noise."
Remembrance: Larysa Jaye left her mark on Nashville by transcending country boundaries and centering her experience
Nashville singer and songwriter Larysa Jaye died in a car accident over the weekend. She had just turned 40.
The songs of Gillian Welch and David Rawlings have added to the shared folk canon, but their career is their own
It’s easy to forget how unorthodox they seemed when they first arrived in Nashville in the early 1990s.
Nashville rapper Daisha McBride goes viral — again — with a freestyle on the streets of L.A.
She had her first taste of viral fame a decade ago. Now McBride’s having an even bigger online moment thanks to improvising verses to the pop song “Hotel Party” on the spot.
In a year of blockbuster crossovers, the CMAs double down on country continuity
The three-hour show was an ode to the robustness and stability of country music. But the genre dominated charts and discourse this year thanks to pop superstars Beyoncé, Post Malone and Shaboozey.
For years, Fancy Hagood faced prejudice and pop detours. Now he’s back to country music, and finally feeling less alone.
Fancy Hagood left small-town Arkansas to make music at age 17. He’s faced prejudice in Nashville and L.A., but on his sophomore album, “American Spirit,” the openly gay country-pop singer-songwriter shows how far he’s actually come.
Chuck INDigo, longtime leader in the Nashville hip-hop scene, clarifies where he’s coming from
Chuck INDigo opens his seventh project, Until I Get There, with a song that establishes the album’s reflective tone. During one verse, over a gently lurching beat and burbling synths, he contrasts the old him with the new.
Keeping the beat: An in-demand session drummer on Nashville’s evolving recording practices
When people picture how music is recorded in Nashville, they often imagine first-rate musicians sitting around in a studio, like they did in the 1960s. But evolving technology is leading to lots of other approaches to recording.
Hall of Fame caliber: The Rock & Roll and Country Halls welcome inductees the same weekend
The ultimate career goal for many of music’s star performers is making it into the Hall of Fame. And this year, the induction ceremonies for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the Country Music Hall of Fame are both being held this weekend.
A program aimed at diversifying the stages and board rooms of country music is already having an impact
Over the last several years, numerous articles, panel discussions and documentaries have focused on country music’s marginalized voices and called for greater diversity in the genre. In 2022, the Equal Access professional development program set out to do something about it.
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