Even with her growing success as this year’s ACM New Female Vocalist of the Year, Lauren Alaina admits that her rise to fame as a teenager took an emotional toll that she’s still working through today, with the support of family, friends and fans. Years ago, the criticism she received …
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In 2005, Mariah Carey released the biggest hit of that decade, an indelible piano ballad titled “We Belong Together.” At the time, a young Ray Romulus was serving as personal assistant to the writer-producer Jermaine Dupri, who had a hand in four songs on Carey’s best-sellerThe Emancipation of Mimi, including“We …
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About two decades ago, Dead Can Dance‘s Brendan Perry had one of the most transcendent experiences of his life. He and his brother traveled to Calanda, Spain where they picked up drums and joined in on some local festivities, Rompida de la Hora, that date back to the Inquisition. From …
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On their last day at Los Angeles’ Sound City Studios this past June, Phoebe Bridgers brought a half-finished song to her new bandmates, Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus. She had an acoustic guitar riff, a verse and half a chorus, but not much more, and she was hesitant to share …
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Did it really happen? Was that actually Kanye West in the Oval Office, telling the president of the United States about his success with Adidas and advising him to ditch Air Force One for an “iPlane”? And did West really go on to explain that Hillary Clinton’s campaign slogan made …
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The first car Margo Price ever owned was a Nineties-something silver Saturn that she bought with money she saved from lifeguarding — and promptly wrecked in her parents’ driveway. Rushing home from her boyfriend’s to make midnight curfew, she put it in park and dashed inside. Or thought she did. …
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Bob Dylan is one of the most reclusive music legends in history, so it was a major surprise to fans when he appeared on a 2010 episode of the History Channel’s Pawn Stars (which kicks off a new season Monday). The full story of Dylan’s supposedly-impromptu appearance remains a mystery. …
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Sia Furler is looking for love. This being 2018, that means using apps like Tinder and Bumble. She doesn’t use her real name, but she does post real photos of herself on the apps. Not that anyone recognizes her; although she’s scored hits like “Chandelier” (1.9 billion YouTube views and …
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Jerry Cantrell never stopped playing air guitar. It happens anytime a riff comes along that grabs his attention, sending the Grammy-nominated, multi-platinum guitarist for Alice in Chains into spasms of hard-rock ecstasy, as his fingers mime the sounds hammering his eardrums. Right now, he’s listening to something of his own …
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Big Von, a longtime Bay Area DJ, was nearing the peak of a six-hour club set at New Karibbean City in Oakland on December 15th when a regular named Fredy made a perplexing request: “Yo, you got ‘Boo’d Up’?” Big Von didn’t know the record, and he doesn’t like being …
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