Breaking the Silence

Can music change the world?  The answer is, of course, a resounding yes.

Music possesses a power—to a greater extent than any other art form—to bring together people of diverse backgrounds, varying religions, opposing political views, and other typically divisive issues. Whether on a front porch in Appalachia, a New York City subway station, a street corner in Los Angeles or New Orleans, on a park bench, in an arena or stadium, or anywhere at all, music attracts a crowd that can, at least temporarily, agree—a group willing to unite, whether they realize it or not, in the moment. Read more…

The Dead are back on the road again. Are you?

The current tour, which began on Easter Sunday in Greensboro, N.C., continued last night in the nation’s capital and on to Charlottesville, Va., tonight—then 19 other stops through mid-May, culminating with the Rothbury Festival in July. Did you attend the kickoff in Carolina? Share your experiences and stories from the show—or any other during this run—with The Madness of Art.

E-mail us your thoughts, opinions, experiences, stories, photos, and reviews.

He’s Gone, but the Music Never Stops

As the witching hour arrived, bringing Easter Sunday to a close, the message was clear: The Dead have risen! Read more…

Surviving Grateful Dead Members
Kick Off Tour Tonight in Greensboro, NC

In less than seven hours, my wife and I are headed to the promised land—Greensboro, North Carolina. That’s where the Phil Lesh, Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, and Bill Kreutzmann (original members of the Grateful Dead), along with guitarist Warren Haynes and the keyboardist Jeff Chimenti, kick off The Dead’s 2009 tour—a reunion of sorts, consisting of 20-plus shows, after a five-year hiatus.

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It’ll be difficult to watch the Oscars tonight with even the slightest bit of respect. When the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced its nominees last month, Bruce Springsteen’s “The Wrestler” failed to make the cut in the “Best Original Song” category—thereby undermining the credibility of the entire selection process.

Not nominating the song, which won the Golden Globe, is inexplicable. Simple and raw, emotive and powerful, Springsteen managed to capture the spirit and essence of the film in a way none of the nominated songs do. Not only is “The Wrestler” the best song written for a movie in 2008, but it is arguably the best song of the year.

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Supporters of the arts received good news late Friday when the Senate voted 60 to 38 in favor of a $787 billion economic stimulus bill following a 246-183 House vote earlier in the day. The bill included $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts, which seemed to be in serious jeopardy mid-week. Read more…

Critics of the economic stimulus plan (read: impotent Republicans in Congress) have, throughout the debate over the size and scope of the package, cherry-picked various programs—ones, of course, that they don’t like or that run counter to their ideology—as evidence of “pork.” And in some cases, both in the House and especially in the Senate, Democrats have caved, stripping billions of dollars from the package in the name of bipartisanship, despite the obvious ways in which these programs would have played important roles in moving this country forward during tough economic times. Read more…

It’s official. The Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival—an annual four-day, multi-stage musical “experience” held on a 700-acre farm in Manchester, Tenn., since 2002—is the place to be this summer.

The festival, set for June 11-14, unveiled its 2009 lineup this week—and, somewhat miraculously, it doesn’t disappoint, despite all the pre-announcement anticipation and expectations that has been building since last year’s event. Some are already calling it the best Roo lineup ever. It’s hard to disagree with that assessment, especially with a reunited Phish (two shows) and Bruce Springsteen—the best two live bands, arguably, of all time (in my experience, at least, and the reason I’ve seen both multiple times)—headlining the megafestival. Here’s what else has me buying Bonnaroo tickets, for the first time, this Saturday at noon: Rodrigo y Gabriela, MGMT, Ben Harper, TV on the Radio, David Byrne, Beastie Boys, Wilco—just to name a few.

And then there’s that “many more acts to be announced” teaser. Here’s my wishlist (even though some performed at Roo last year, I wasn’t there!): Pearl Jam, Vampire Weekend, Coldplay, The Killers, Modest Mouse, The Dead, Damien Rice, Kings of Leon…

Who would you like to see added to the lineup?

Despite the increasingly unambiguous value of arts education in American schools, thanks to scores of studies and surveys in recent years, government funding of arts education, and the arts in general, seems to ignore those established, consequential benefits—not only for students that are directly impacted, but all of society. Read more…

You’re sitting in front of your computer on just another average day. For reasons not fully realized, a song pops into you head—one that you haven’t heard, or even thought of, in a very long time. Before long, your mind’s shuffling through the tracks of the entire album.

For the love of music

It’s one you had on a cassette tape as a teenager (you played it so much, eventually the audio was no longer audible), or on CD as a college student (which disappeared after a party, which you replaced, only to disappear a few weeks later after the next party). Now here you are, in the middle of the night/morning, as part of your brain reminds you that the memory of sound and song is no match for sound and song, wishing it were part of your 12,000-song digital music library. Read more…