Arts and Entertainment

I was watching the PBS series about Reconstruction recently and heard a bunch of historians lament how that part of American history is so little studied and poorly understood. That's…

A strong final week rescued what otherwise would have been a relatively weak month for new music.  Thanks to that final week, it's weak no more. Not even close: More…

The title track to the Beach Boys' 1964 LP was never released as a single in the U.S., so most people didn't hear it much until George Lucas used it…

Another song for the "Nothing Has Changed" playlist. Folk/country artist Iris DeMent is probably best known for her song "Our Town" and her duets with John Prine, but back in…

This tune, initially recorded during sessions for the band's breakthrough "Out of Time" album, saw release on the band's 1992 "Automatic for the People" LP. Most REM songs started with…

The Rembrandts were just two guitarists, Danny Wilde (lead vocals) and Phil Solem (lead guitar), who hit the Top 20 with this catchy kiss-off in 1990. They are, unfortunately, remembered…

"Trust," released in 1981, is one of Elvis Costello's under-appreciated efforts, mostly remembered only for "Clubland." I always liked this track, with its understated air of menace, Costello's vague but…

Back in the day, the Top 40 included all sorts of music, even gospel, as evidenced by this song hitting No. 4 in the country in 1969. Edwin Hawkins, director…

Another one-hit wonder from the '90s, "Phone Booth" traveled a long road to No. 1 on the modern rock chart in 1996. It started several years earlier, when songwriter Chris…

Fastball is a band out of Austin, Texas, that formed in 1995 and scored a massive modern-rock hit in 1998 with this rockabilly-flavored tale of a road trip with no…

The title song and the conceptual genesis of the album that made Willie Nelson's career. "The Tale of the Red Headed Stranger" was a nearly forgotten country tune that Willie…

I drove the other day past the Boxwood Road plant, still under demolition, and didn't realize I should have rolled up the windows. Most of the buildings are now piles…

It's beach music, it's blue-eyed soul, and while it only reached No. 39 on the Hot 100, it made a national act out of a band that had been playing…