The premiere of a new documentary, “Safe For the Whole Family: How to Make a Christian Superstar,” was just announced for the Nashville Film Festival. It explores damaging treatment several former Christian pop stars received as they charted careers through their industry’s inextricably intertwined commercial and evangelistic priorities and its exacting image standards.
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."
Alabama Shakes leaned on each other in new ways to make their first album in more than a decade
Plenty of long-dormant bands have proven that getting back together pays off. But that wasn’t what persuaded the Alabama Shakes to reconvene, hit the road, and ultimately make their first album in more than a decade, “I Must Be Dreaming.”
Playlist: The breadth and depth of Dolly Parton
A Dolly Parton playlist that reflects the depth and breadth of the musical mark she made, from her own iconic, enduring and underrated songs to her wide-ranging collaborations across generational and genre boundaries.
Dolly Parton, one of country music’s most singular performers, has died at age 80
The artist was a star performer in country music, and went on to become one of the genre’s most recognizable and universally adored ambassadors to broader popular culture.
Houston Kendrick’s record deal fell apart. So he enlisted Nashville friends to help complete his ambitious new music and visuals.
Houston Kendrick has never been a timid performer. Even so, his new album “Portrait of a Boy on Fire,” finds him flexing his expressive range more vigorously.
Thousands of independent musicians join lawsuits against AI companies
Revelations about music databases that AI companies might have accessed have prompted independent musicians to join a pair of class action lawsuits.
Besides writing hits, these nominees helped remake their industry
Nominations for the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame always include hit-making heavyweights. That latest group is notable thanks not only to the quality of their catalogs, but the profound and reshaping influence they’ve had their industry.
Banjo virtuoso Tray Wellington has been honing his bars
The award-winning banjo player and producer Tray Wellington is known for breaking boundaries, infusing folk and bluegrass with jazz elasticity. His new album finds him flexing his hip-hop fluency.
Why new revelations about the training of AI music models hit close to home
Musicians are expressing alarm at finding their music listed in sets of data that might’ve been used to train AI models. The Atlantic’s AI watchdog project ignited the conversation and Nashville-based digital strategist and songwriter Charles Alexander weighs in with senior music writer Jewly Hight.
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