It’s hard to imagine
why the genre represented on this CD would once have rankled the
dictator of the Dominican Republic, but art, entertainment and politics
can make uncomfortable partners in the best of circumstances. Bachata
was the guitar-powered music of the Dominican underclass, akin to blues
and tango, but with a gorgeously melodic sound tempered by the
simplicity of the performances and straightforward, expressive vocals. Bachata Roja collects
rare tracks originally released on tiny indie labels from the 1960s
through the ’80s. The language was a slangy local Spanish; as time went
on, electric guitars were added, but did little to alter the overall
sound.
Remember when bands cared about albums as an art form? Instead of
slapping together a dozen tracks because, hey, they'll just end up on
everyone's iPod shuffle anyway, musicians considered how their songs
might congeal as a whole or form some sort of dram
Elvis Costello's frequent collaborator T-Bone Burnett produced Secret, Profane & Sugarcane,
an Americana-inflected album working with country and folk traditions
for images of sawdust floors set to mandolin and fiddle. Costello
intended one s
You wouldn’t expect to find T-bone and sirloin dinners at a place with stool seating and a location next to a shop hawking cell phones and cigarettes. But one of the city’s most evocatively named eateries, ZaZa Steak & Lemonade (4919 W. Capito
The enduring fantasy of older men is that a gorgeous
young woman will fall in love with them, find them sexually arousing
and long to imbibe their wisdom while sitting at their feet. That
fantasy is the spring driving Woody Allen's often-hilarious f
Away We Go, a droll comedy-cum-drama by director Sam Mendes (American Beauty),
perceptively explores the lives of more-or-less ordinary 30-somethings
lost in a world without much meaning. Verona (Maya Rudolph) and Bu
