Tag: Folk Music

Steve Harley, ‘Make Me Smile’ Singer, Dies at 73

Steve Harley, the 1970s British rock star who topped U.K. music charts with the single “Make Me Smile,” died on Sunday. He was 73. He died at his home, his family said on Facebook. No cause was given but Mr. Harley had announced last month that he would step away from the stage to undergo […]

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Best and Worst Moments From the 2024 Grammys:

The most awards at the 66th annual Grammys went to Phoebe Bridgers, who picked up three with her band boygenius and one for a feature on a SZA song. SZA, who came into the night with the most nominations, was shut out of the biggest honors — for album (which went to Taylor Swift’s “Midnights”), […]

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Melanie, Singer Who Made a Solo Splash at Woodstock, Dies at 76

Melanie, the husky-voiced singer and songwriter who was one of the surprise stars of the Woodstock music festival in 1969 and two years later had a No. 1 single with the disarmingly childlike “Brand New Key,” died on Tuesday. She was 76. Her death was announced on social media by her children, Leilah, Jeordie and […]

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Black Folk Musicians Are Reclaiming the Genre

THE CAROLINA CHOCOLATE Drops and many others have now ensured that future generations can see themselves onstage but, once up there, such Black performers rarely see themselves in the crowd. Do Black artists need a Black audience? It’s a longstanding debate that sometimes pits the artistic against the sociopolitical functions of song. The writer Amiri […]

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The Artistry of Nashenas Speaks to the Afghanistan He Had to Leave Behind

A Secret He was born Mohammed Sadiq Habibi in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar in 1935 — a time, he says, when Kandahar “had one doctor and two homeopaths.” The conservative Habibi family was well known. Seven generations of its men before him had trained as Islamic scholars, known as Mawlawis. But his father, […]

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In Mountain View, Ark., Preserving the Ozark Way of Life

A merciful evening breeze kicked up, swatting away the Arkansas heat and giving wing to the melodies coming from two of the gazebos in the grassy park. In the larger one, a dozen people were playing the last strains of “Barbry Allen” on fiddles, mandolins, guitars, a stand-up bass, dulcimers, banjos and even a dulci-banjo. […]

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