Amadou & Mariam, who will be at the Birchmere Wednesday, have been performing together since 1980. However, only in recent years has this blind Malian couple started reaching a sizable audience on this side of the Atlantic. Their wonderful latest cd, Welcome to Mali, is catchy, creative Afropop, not purist traditional Malian folkloric music or [...]
On Sunday night I intended to head over to the Velvet Lounge to catch Dysrhythmia's dizzyingly complicated brand of technical metal. Instead, feeling a little overdosed on aggressive live music, I opted for a less fatiguing option: sitting at the Birchmere with a couple friends, listening to Karin Bergquist sing gently depressing words with her [...]
Plenty of Terrence Howard’s standout film roles have showcased his love of music—he rapped in Hustle & Flow, played guitar in The Best Man, and acted alongside OutKast (Idlewild) and 50 Cent (Get Rich or Die Tryin’). That speaks to his deep musical background: His grandmother, Broadway great Minnie Gentry, taught him to play piano, [...]
If you were planning on checking out Nico Muhly's show on Thursday, you'll need to head a little farther north than planned. The show has been moved from its original spot at the Birchmere to the Silver Spring's Episcopal Church of the Ascension, 634 Silver Spring Ave. For more on Muhly, check out our review [...]
