From the category archives:

Gospel/Country/Blues

Interview: Jason Kutchma Talks Five Fifths & Music in the Gardens

May 23, 2013
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When we spoke with rock Americana singer/songwriter Jason Kutchma on Tuesday, he discussed getting started in music, stopping, and getting started again with Durham band Red Collar.
Now we learn how Red Collar haltingly flowed into JKutchma’s acoustic solo work and then the band the Five Fifths, which opens Duke Performances 2013 Music in the Gardens

Interview: Jason Kutchma Considers the Past, Present & Future of Red Collar

May 21, 2013
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On June 5, Duke Performances’ 2013 Music in the Gardens summer series begins with a performance by JKutchma & the Five Fifths, a Durham-based Americana and rock combo led by Jason Kutchma of Red Collar—a band that conjures an alternate universe where Springsteen and Dischord Records-style punk blend seamlessly.
In Part 1 of our interview with

Interview: Tift Merritt on Simone Dinnerstein and Recording “Night”

April 2, 2013
Tift Merrit

On March 19, Sony Classical released a new album, Night, featuring the unlikely pairing of NC-bred Americana singer/songwriter Tift Merritt and Brooklyn-based classical pianist Simone Dinnerstein. The duo performs music from both worlds, with Merritt’s own songs, Patty Griffin, and Billie Holiday on one side; Schubert, Purcell, and Bach on the other; and original commissions

Interview: The Gospel Vision of Richard Smallwood

March 28, 2013
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Since the early 1980’s, the classically trained pianist, singer, and composer Richard Smallwood has been one of our most commercially successful and creatively robust contemporary gospel artists, first with the Richard Smallwood Singers and now with Vision, the powerful large choir he brings to the Carolina Theatre on March 30. We recently called the creator

Interview: Gospel Scholar Braxton Shelley on Richard Smallwood

March 26, 2013
Richard Smallwood

Rounding out a trio of stunning gospel music presentations from Duke Performances this year, pianist and singer Richard Smallwood brings his choir, Vision, to the Carolina Theatre on March 30. A Gospel Music Hall of Famer and multiple Grammy nominee, Smallwood’s distinct compositional style resonates through the industry and the church in equal measure. To

Interview: Following Up With Ari Picker

December 11, 2012

When we last spoke with Ari Picker, his band Lost in the Trees was getting ready to perform A Church That Fits Our Needs with a chamber orchestra for the first time. The album, an encomium to Picker’s late mother, took a long time to make, as did the orchestral notation, and in our last

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