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Arts, Culture & Music

John Anderson sings for the doctors who gave him his music back

By jewly hight

March 18, 2026

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John Anderson made his name throughout the 1980s and early ‘90s. Hearing issues stopped him in his tracks.

Filed Under: Arts, Culture & Music, WPLN News Tagged With: country music, health and music, hearing loss, John Anderson, Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Nashville pop artist — book NOT brooke — wants to dance

By Justin Barney

March 12, 2026

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Dancer First is the name of Nashville musician book NOT brooke’s debut album. It’s also her philosophy for making music. “If it’s good enough to dance to, then it makes the cut” she says.

Filed Under: Arts, Culture & Music, WNXP, WPLN News Tagged With: book NOT brooke, Local music, Nashville music, pop music

On her new album, Kacey Musgraves returns home, to the ‘Middle of Nowhere’

By jewly hight

March 11, 2026

The sounds of traditional country music "are baked into what feels like home to me," Musgraves says. Her sixth album, Middle of Nowhere, will be released on May 1, 2026.

Before making her upcoming sixth album, the country star returned to her small-town Texas home and discovered the power of in-between spaces. “I found a lot of clarity there,” she says.

Filed Under: Arts, Culture & Music, WPLN News Tagged With: country music, Kacey Musgraves

Key Changes: In Nashville radio, Contemporary Christian music, R&B, and hip-hop hold very different places

By jewly hight

March 6, 2026

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There’s a good chance that you already know Nashville’s the radio capital for country music. Christian music and R&B both have long histories here, too.

Filed Under: Arts, Culture & Music, Key Changes Tagged With: Contemporary Christian Music, Jefferson Street, Key Changes, Nashville hip-hop, Nashville R&B, radio, WLAC

The Live Nation trial could reshape the music industry. Here’s what you need to know

By Isabella Gomez Sarmiento, NPR

March 3, 2026

Prosecutors are expected to argue that Live Nation and its subsidiary, Ticketmaster, have engaged in anticompetitive practices that profoundly harm musicians, venues and ticket buyers.

On Tuesday opening statements will begin for the federal antitrust trial against Live Nation, one of the largest entertainment companies in the world.

Filed Under: Arts, Culture & Music, NPR News Tagged With: live music, Live Nation, Ticketmaster

Gothic romance reaches new ‘Heights’ as fan communities collide

By Ann Powers

February 26, 2026

Charli xcx's original soundtrack serves as a kind of secondary narrator for Emerald Fennell's adaptation of Wuthering Heights. The film arrives in a landscape where the fan cultures of pop music and romance literature have already been intertwining in striking ways.

Of course now was the moment for a Charli xcx-assisted Wuthering Heights: Pop fandoms and literary ones have rarely had more in common, especially when it comes to epic romance.

Filed Under: Arts, Culture & Music, NPR News Tagged With: books, romance, soundtracks

Nashville legacies are in the spotlight during Black History Month

By jewly hight

February 13, 2026

Black leaders march down Jefferson Street in 1960.
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This February marks one century of Black history month. While events across the nation are bringing greater awareness to African American cultural contributions, there’s a lot happening to highlight the history made right here in Nashville.

Filed Under: Arts, Culture & Music, WPLN News Tagged With: Black history, civil rights, civil rights movement, Jefferson Street, Jefferson Street Sound Museum, Museum of Christian and Gospel Music, Reverend James Lawson, U.S. Civil Rights Trail, Zora Neale Hurston

Farmer dreams of the region becoming the truffle ‘center of the universe’

By Derek Parham, WKU Public Radio

February 9, 2026

A fluffy, mottled white and brown dog is in an orchard of hazelnut and oak trees. He wears a fluorescent orange harness labeled "Luca: NewTown Truffle."

Truffle cultivators are becoming increasingly common across Appalachia and the southeast region, and say the climate and soil quality are ideal for growing the coveted fungi.

Filed Under: Arts, Culture & Music, Environment, WPLN News Tagged With: Appalachia + Mid-South Newsroom, farming, foraging, fungi, truffles

Where are all the protest songs?

By Ann Powers

February 6, 2026

Yasmin Williams, seen here performing during the 2022 Pilgrimage Music & Cultural Festival in Franklin, Tenn., had a confrontation last year with the interim president of the Kennedy Center, where she had been scheduled to perform, over the institution's rollback of DEI initiatives. Williams did not cancel her performance.

Protest requires people to take a stand and hold firm. Pop songs are designed to appeal across demographic lines. In music, as in the rest of the world, resistance takes place closer to the ground.

Filed Under: Arts, Culture & Music, WPLN News Tagged With: protests

Amid power outages, an unusual number of locals visit Nashville’s honky tonk district

By Justin Barney

February 3, 2026

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While winter storms caused major power outages in Nashville, the downtown music scene saw a lot more visits from displaced locals as they took up hotel rooms usually occupied by tourists.

Filed Under: Arts, Culture & Music, WPLN News Tagged With: honky-tonk, Lower Broadway, Roberts Western World, tourism, winter storm 2026, Winter Storm Fern

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