Music Archive

The Book of Mormon - “The music is often dull and, worst of all, derivative within the musical theater genre.” That was the review of "The Book of Mormon" from the Salt Lake Tribune.    The other reviews

The Byrds: Sweetheart of the Rodeo - 600 of the 16,592 American servicemen killed in Vietnam in 1968 died that July. Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy were only recently murdered. In late August, at the Democratic

The Crane Wife -   The Crane Wife

The Dionne Warwick Collection - How can you tell if you're young? Well, when you think of Dionne Warwick, do you think of those infomercials for the Psychic Friends Network? Is the last thing you remember about

The Doobie Brothers Greatest Hits -       Soon after I launched Head Butler, a friend told me about The Yummy List,

The Dreaming Fields - A disc jockey once explained to a journalist why his country music station didn’t play Emmylou Harris. It wasn’t that she’d moved beyond country into some other category. It was

The Feelies - Full attention, please. We have come to pay homage to The Feelies. It’s safe to say very few of you know them. Well, that’s almost by design. This band formed in

The Harder They Come - As I write, it's 38 degrees in New York. In Negril, where I spent the most joyous holidays of the last decade, I'd be finishing a beach walk, waving off

The Hologram Cowboys Lay Down With Their Horses -       Bob Lugano is a persistent

The Kali Yuga - What if what's going on is bigger than politics, economic inequality, jingoism, racism and sexism? What if we’re experiencing a series of prompts that, taken together, should open our eyes

The Killers: “Quiet Town” - In 1994, 3,500 people lived in Nephi, Utah. The entire town occupied just 4.6 square miles. It’s 90% Mormon. Everybody knew everybody. On November 8, 1994, JaNae Taylor and Raymond Leo

The Long Road Home: The Ultimate John Fogerty Creedence Collection - Thought I heard a rumblin' Callin' to my name, Two hundred million guns are loaded Satan cries, "Take aim!" I never heard that line --- it's from 'Run Through the

The Opera Album - A man I know --- rich, powerful, you know his name --- fell in love with a woman of almost equal accomplishment. His passion was opera. One great thing about

The Origin of Fire: Music and Visions of Hildegard von Bingen - In the Middle Ages, the world was tiny. Walk ten miles from your town, you might never find your way back. Look at "The Harvesters," a great painting by Bruegel

The Rolling Stones: Aftermath - The "world's greatest rock band" has been a parody of itself for so long that even those of us who were around when they earned the title have trouble explaining the

The Source -   Six hundred years ago, Timbuktu was the trading capital of the world. One hundred thousand people lived there, including 25,000 scholars and students. Now the city in dusty, hot Mali

The Tallis Scholars Sing Thomas Tallis - Thomas Tallis (1505 – 1585) wrote glorious music under the watchful eye of four English monarchs, some Catholic, some not. His hand never wavered. He composed choral music in English, Latin,

The Traveling Wilburys - George Harrison had been in a band. He wasn't looking to start another. But in 1988 he had a solo CD coming out. He had a song that could

The War on Drugs: “A Deeper Understanding” - If I have a late-life dream, it is this: to stand on a stage with those guys, playing the least important guitar. I saw The War on Drugs at Terminal 5,

There Will Be a Light - A few years ago, Americans flocked to a George Clooney movie. When they left the theater, they went immediately to music stores and bought the soundtrack. And suddenly "O Brother