Singer-Songwriters
Persons of Interest
Victoria Canal Feels Seen
A rising star of sad-girl pop talks disability, public personae, and just going for it.
By Hugh Morris
Listening Booth
Nanci Griffith’s Lone Star State of Mind
The late singer-songwriter rarely felt at home either in her native Texas or in the music industry, but her nostalgic ditties of girlhood captured a potent sense of place.
By Rachel Syme
Daily Comment
It’s Time Rubén Blades Was Accepted Into the American Canon
A major figure of New York City’s cultural life for more than half a century, Blades brought a New York-born musical style to the world at large.
By Graciela Mochkofsky
The New Yorker Interview
Olivia Rodrigo on the Meanings of “Guts”
The singer-songwriter speaks about her new album, life in the spotlight, and the power of four-letter words.
By David Remnick
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Kelly Clarkson on “Chemistry,” Her Divorce Record
The singer tells the staff writer Hanif Abdurraqib about chronicling the end of a marriage in real time. Plus, the novelist Hernan Diaz, and Robert Samuels on figure skating.
Postscript
A Sunset Toast to Jimmy Buffett
The singer-entrepreneur created a world that many wanted to live in forever.
By Nick Paumgarten
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Emily Nussbaum on the Culture Wars in Country Music
The staff writer talks with David Remnick and the singer Adeem the Artist about the increasingly polarized politics of Nashville. Plus, James McBride on his new novel.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Regina Spektor on “Home, Before and After,” and a Trip to the Boundary Waters
The singer talks to the music critic Amanda Petrusich about her most recent album, and the writer Alex Kotlowitz makes an annual pilgrimage to the northern woods of Minnesota.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Dexter Filkins on the Dilemma at the Border, Plus the Singer Joy Oladokun
The staff writer reports on the chaotic situation created by the political impasse over immigration; and the singer-songwriter on how Tracy Chapman changed her life.
The Weekend Essay
The Poet Who Became My Muse
In the late seventies, I fell in love with the poet Frank Stanford. His suicide would leave an indelible mark on my music.
By Lucinda Williams
Listening Booth
Kara Jackson’s Plaintive, Playful Folk Songs
On her début LP, “Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love?,” the poet and singer-songwriter makes music that is spare yet expansive and able to surprise.
By Hanif Abdurraqib
The New Yorker Interview
Natalie Merchant’s Lost American Songs
Merchant, who’s releasing a new album, never wanted to be a pop star. Her passion is for forgotten people, problems, and sounds.
By Mike Sacks
Listening Booth
Boygenius’s “Record” of Friendship and Mutual Obsession
The first full-length album from Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker, and Lucy Dacus evinces a preëmptive nostalgia for the honeymoon phase of creative collaboration.
By Rachel Syme
The New Yorker Interview
Nick Cave on the Fragility of Life
The singer-songwriter believes that we are deeply flawed, impermanent creatures who can sometimes do extraordinary things.
By Amanda Petrusich
The New Yorker Interview
Hayley Williams, Without a Guidebook
The singer-songwriter talks about growing up in the South, trusting your teen-age self, getting divorced and getting exhausted, and the search for a home.
By Amanda Petrusich
Postscript
Jerry Lee Lewis’s Life of Rock and Roll and Disrepute
A thrilling performer with a volatile persona, Lewis always knew he was playing the devil’s music.
By Tom Zito
Culture Desk
How Fleet Foxes Songs Shiver and Breathe
There is always more to say about the music that means the most to us.
By Brandon Taylor
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Dave Grohl and Aimee Mann—Live
The Foo Fighters front man tells stories from a life of rock and roll. And Mann, a singer-songwriter, discusses her latest album, “Queens of the Summer Hotel.”
Persons of Interest
How Sara Bareilles Evolved Beyond Being a Pop Star
The singer turned actress turned musical-theatre virtuoso discusses her role as the Baker’s Wife in the Sondheim musical “Into the Woods.”
By D. T. Max
Shouts & Murmurs
I’m the Person “Your Song” by Elton John Was Written for, and I Would Like a Real Gift Instead
It’s a lovely tune, but it didn’t do me much good at a housewarming party where I was completely out of ice.
By Tom Smyth