Jul 6
This week, NPR Music's critic shares the best records she's heard during the first six months of 2026.
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This week, NPR Music's critic shares the best records she's heard during the first six months of 2026.
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“...on [The] Rolling Thunder Revue she brought down the house. They listened, rapt, to her musical contributions, and then…the songs she started to write testified to what came next. The most famous is “Coyote,” about the playwright and tour scribe Sam Shepard, with whom she dallied when she wasn’t flirting with The Band’s Rick Danko or trying to get Dylan to sit down with her for more than five minutes.”
—Ann Powers “Traveling: On the Path of Joni Mitchell” (2024).
Paul Allen Anderson reviews Ann Powers's “Traveling: On the Path of Joni Mitchell.”
Joni Mitchell biography 'Traveling' tracks a journey that changed popular music
June 11,2024 "NPR music critic and author Ann Powers’ new biography, “Traveling: On the Path of Joni Mitchell” follows her wanderings and delves deep into the influences — the people, trends and circumstances — that paved Mitchell’s longer than 60-year journey.
LISTEN 10:54 READ MORE https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2024/06/11/joni-mitchell-traveling
Book excerpt: 'Traveling: On The Path of Joni Mitchell'
By Ann Powers
from the abum: Night Ride Home (1991), lyrics Joni Mitchell, music Larry Klein
Nothing Can Be Done Joni Mitchell LYRICS
Must I forgive you Each time And say you don't know what you're doing There are no victimless crimes I know of Out here in these graffiti ruins My love Oh I am not old I'm told But I am not young Oh and nothing can be done Don't start My heart Is a smoking gun Oh and nothing can be done I heard you leaving Late last night I heard you screaming down the mountain Like you were running red lights (Red lights) You had some trash-can-rock-band pounding Oh I am not old I'm told But I am not young Oh and nothing can be done Don't start My heart Is a smoking gun Oh and nothing can be done Must I surrender With grace The things I loved when I was younger Mmmmmmm sweet embrace Must I remember your face So well Nothing can be done What do I do here with this hunger Nothing can be done Oh I am not old I'm torn But I am not young Oh nothing can be done Don't start Don't start My heart My heart Is a smoking gun It's a smoking gun Oh nothing can be done Nothing can be done Nothing can be done Nothing can be done Ohhhhh nothing can be done Nothing can be done Can be done Oh nothing can be done Nothing can be done Nothing Ohhhhh Nothing can be done Nothing can be done Oooooohhhhhhh Nothing can be done Whooohoooo Nothing can be done
Do you think the reason why some people still think Taylor is in her mid 20s and pretty much refuses to see her as a grown woman is because she’s not engaged, not married and have no kids? A Vulture podcast with Ann Powers talked about this. Society only see females as an adult when they have kids and or married.
Yes, I do think that's the issue for some people, and they need to get past that and realise its not the case.
Just because a woman, or anyone tbh but we're focusing on women in this ask, isn't conforming to whatever expectations you have for her, it doesn't mean that you have the right to make a judgement!
Live your own life and let others live theirs! (Obviously I mean a collective you, not you in particular anon).
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Cecile McLorin Salvant was on BBC Radio 4's Kate Bush: The Power of Stranger Things hosted by Ann Powers. She talks about "Wuthering Heights" and why she chose to record it as the opening track to her own new album, Ghost Song. You can hear the program here.
“Very Disappointed” Aimee Mann Has COVID-19; Cancels New York City Appearance
Aimee Mann canceled her July 13 appearance in New York after testing positive for COVID-19.
The performance, dubbed Aimee Mann in Musical Conversation with Ann Powers, was nixed after Mann awoke June 12 with “mild” symptoms “and subsequently had two positive COVID tests,” said a statement from the Grammy Museum, which sponsored the show.
“She is very disappointed and hopes to return to Lincoln Center as soon as possible,” the museum said.
The show was to be free with first-come, first-serve ticketing. It will not be rescheduled.
“Feel better, Aimee,” Mann’s management said in its own statement.
7/13/22
Tune in to NPR Music's online listening party for Hurray for the Riff Raff's new album, LIFE ON EARTH, this Friday at 2pm ET! Alynda Segarra will share the album and discuss it with NPR's Ann Powers and writer adrienne maree brown, the author of Emergent Strategy. You can RSVP here.