Music Features

In the 1930s, when Maybelle Carter (left) was touring with her cousin Sara (center) and Sara's husband A.P. Carter as the Carter Family, the members of the group still labored on the family farm in Poor Valley, in southern Virginia.

A Lifetime Of Labor: Maybelle Carter At Work

by Jessica Wilkerson

Her musical career began in childhood. She witnessed the dawn of the recording era and helped create country music as one of the genre's biggest acts. But Maybelle Carter never stopped working.
Sleater-Kinney performs on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on June 19, 2019. On July 1, drummer Janet Weiss announced her departure from the band after more than 20 years.

What It Means To Listen To Sleater-Kinney Now

by Hanif Abdurraqib

What happens when an artist you count on to be one way suddenly isn't? For writer Hanif Abdurraquib, appreciating the left-turn album The Center Won't Hold has meant letting go of years of nostalgia.
Bessie Smith on stage with her band in Philadelphia, Penn. Smith infused her performances with glamour whether she was performing in cities or for rural audiences in settings that evoked minstrelsy.

Empress Of The Stage

by Paige McGinley

How do we understand the music of the early 20th Century if we consider Bessie Smith — seriously — as an actress?
A sign marks an intersection of Highways 61 and 49 near Clarksdale, Miss.

Bessie Smith At The Crossroads

by Alison Fensterstock

Clarksdale, Miss. is home to both the crossroads where Robert Johnson allegedly sold his soul and the site of Bessie Smith's death. But in the legend of the genre, not every tale gets the same care.