“Living For The Other Side” is one way to stay conscious and alive, and to be reminded of what we are worshipping.
Music
Posted inArts & Culture, Ideas
Bob Marley’s journey to justice, joy and (ultimately) to Christian faith
When I was unmoored from the church, Marley’s music and messianic faith told me: No, God has not forgotten you.
Posted inArts & Culture, Music
Pandemic solitude strengthened Harry Connick Jr.’s Catholic faith — and shaped his new album of hymns
Marooned in his home in Connecticut much of last year, unable to tour or even safely hang out with his band, he sat in his home studio and put together a list of favorite church music, from “Amazing Grace” to 1970s-era Catholic folk Mass tunes to modern gospel songs.
Posted inArts & Culture, Ideas
When America magazine rejected William Faulkner, J.K. Rowling and Taylor Swift from our pages
Going through old files, America’s editors found a few interesting submissions (and rejections).
Posted inArts & Culture, Ideas
Dear Barack and Bruce: I’m a fan. But your new podcast is cringeworthy.
The new podcast by Bruce Springsteen and Barack Obama seemed like it would be a compelling listening experience…but instead “Renegades” is often a squirmy mess.
Posted inPolitics & Society, Short Take
The sacramental pull of ‘Lift Every Voice and Sing,’ the ‘Black National Anthem’
The prospect of a new life for this hymn heard in churches and assemblies across the country at once causes me discomfort and piques my interest. What can this song mean for a nation in peril?
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Review: In the crosshairs of the F.B.I.
Aaron J. Leonard’s new book draws from almost 10,000 pages of F.B.I. files on an array of folk artists. It aims to illustrate the considerable impact that the U.S. government’s campaign against Communism had on folk artists in the 1940s and early ’50s.
Posted inArts & Culture, Music
How the pianist Mary Lou Williams found God (and made it to the Vatican)
Williams came to write “Mary Lou’s Mass” to capture her feeling of suffering—and its apotheosis.
Posted inArts & Culture, Music
Joni Mitchell’s ‘Archives Vol. 1’ show a songwriter navigating art and life before a record deal
Like a master painter’s sketchbooks, “Archives” is uniquely revealing of the roots of Joni Mitchell’s distinctive voice both as a singer and a writer.
Posted inArts & Culture, Film
Amazon Prime’s ‘Sound of Metal’ explores a musician’s journey into deafness—and himself
An austere film about a drummer going deaf finds revelation in the quiet moments.