Author – The Durango Herald

Can Iggy Pop hear the future?

We’ve spent the entirety of Iggy Pop’s rock ’n’ roll life poking at his abs, trying to figure out if he’s beyond human. In the public imagination, he’s the maniac Adonis who invented punk wi...

DATE: Sep 11, 2019 | CATEGORY: Music

The 5 stages of listening to Jay-Z’s album ‘4:44’

The five stages of listening to “4:44,” the 13th solo studio album by American rapper Jay-Z: 1. Irritation. There are fans, there are stans and there are those willing to reneg...

DATE: Jul 5, 2017 | CATEGORY: Music

Katy Perry’s half-woke, no good, very bad album

Sometimes, a pop star drops a single so soupy and ill-conceived, it makes you wonder if the artist ever had any understanding of their own appeal to begin with. For Katy Perry, that song is ...

DATE: Jun 20, 2017 | CATEGORY: Music

Gregg Allman’s rock odyssey spanned worlds

If America really is a melting pot, music is what melts first. Gregg Allman lived to prove that. Not long after the Allman Brothers Band first started liquefying rock, blues, coun...

DATE: May 31, 2017 | CATEGORY: Music

Lil Yachty is rap’s brightest optimist. Why does he bum so many people out?

The miracle of rap music is that it metabolizes wild styles faster than any other American art form – which means outsiders can bum-rush the center with a quickness. Remember when Lil Yachty...

DATE: May 27, 2017 | CATEGORY: Music

Harry Styles’ next direction: Self-deprecation in song

Surely, all the young dudes in boy bands believe in reincarnation. It’s part of the deal. You spend your adolescence touring the planet as a well-behaved multimillionaire, driven mad by teen...

DATE: May 22, 2017 | CATEGORY: Music

Review: A Kris Kristofferson concert that felt like a goodbye

The premise – and the promise – of country music is that it tells the truth. That must be why so many country singers tour so doggedly into the twilight, even when their bodies are hurting a...

DATE: May 13, 2017 | CATEGORY: Music

John Mayer’s a stellar guitarist, but his songs are staid

Yeah, but he’s an amazing guitar player. That’s what people say whenever John Mayer is held accountable for his pillow-soft songcraft, the dull sentimentality of his lyrics or that cuckoo-ra...

DATE: Apr 8, 2017 | CATEGORY: Music

Beyonce's 'Lemonade' turns life's lemons into furious pop

However many senses you have, Beyoncé wanted all of them working overtime on Saturday night with the presto-release of her sixth album, “Lemonade.” You could stream it as a dozen songs on Ti...

DATE: Apr 26, 2016 | CATEGORY: Arts and Entertainment

Merle Haggard carried life's burdens to the end of the road

There’s something perverse about watching a man in pain sing some of the most beautiful songs ever written, which is how I spent two nights in November 2010, chasing Merle Haggard’s bus down...

DATE: Apr 7, 2016 | CATEGORY: Arts and Entertainment

Rock 'n' roll can never die, even if its heroes do

It was one of those waves. David Bowie died on a Sunday. Seven days later, it was Dale “Buffin” Griffin from Mott the Hoople and proto-rapper Clarence “Blowfly” Reid. Then Glenn Frey of the ...

DATE: Jan 26, 2016 | CATEGORY: Music

David Bowie taught us the limitless potential of renewal

Mourning David Bowie requires tremendous energy because there are so many David Bowies to mourn. The lost cosmonaut. The alien balladeer. The pansexual glamourpuss. The rake. The maestro. Th...

DATE: Jan 11, 2016 | CATEGORY: Music