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Jon Pareles

Articles written by the author

14 Aug 2024
LOS ANGELES — “Are you afraid of snakes?” asked Brittney Parks, the songwriter and violinist who records as Sudan Archives. In an interview at her home, where her bedroom often doubles as her recording studio, she was introducing me to Goldie, her ball python, as he languorously wrapped his gold-patterned body around her tattooed forearm.
Sudan Archives Is Making R&B Deeper and Stranger
12 Aug 2024
NEW YORK — Self-pity, self-mockery, self-righteousness, self-loathing, self-defense — long before the era of the selfie, Morrissey was writing songs that turned constant self-absorption into a blood sport. “This is my life to destroy my own way,” he proclaimed in “Alma Matters” at the Lunt-Fontanne Theater on Thursday night, beginning a Broadway run that continues through May 11.
Morrissey Brings His Misery, and Melisma, to Broadway
11 Aug 2024
Joseph Henry Burnett, known as T Bone, has spent most of his long career in music behind the scenes. He has won 13 Grammy Awards as a producer, music supervisor and songwriter for albums including “Raising Sand” by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss and soundtracks for “O Brother, Where Are Thou?,” “Walk the Line,” “The Hunger Games” and “Crazy Heart,” which also brought him an Oscar for collaborating on the best original song. Lately his projects have included producing Sara Bareilles’ new album...
11 Aug 2024
One way for a songwriter to invigorate a long career is to keep breaking routines, to change up methods and parameters and solve different puzzles with every album. It’s a modus operandi that has carried Bruce Hornsby from radio hits in the 1980s through bluegrass, jazz, a stint in the Grateful Dead and, lately, collaborations with a younger-generation fan, Justin Vernon of Bon Iver. “Absolute Zero,” his 21st album, is one more daring, rewarding turn in his catalog: 10 knotty, thoughtful yet ...