Alabama

Live Review: Allison Moorer @ Jammin’ Java — 11/15/19

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Lincoln Center’s American Songbook presents Shelby Lynne & Allison Moorer
Allison Moorer performs at the Lincoln Center’s American Songbook on Feb. 8, 2018. (Photo by Steven Pisano)

Allison Moorer has written a new book, Blood, and released a new companion album of the same title. The book and album are a meditation on coming terms with her family legacy: In 1986, when she was 14, following a long history of abuse, her father shot her mother, then turned the gun on himself. Her sister, fellow musician Shelby Lynne, was 17.

Melissa Block, special correspondent at NPR, moderated a discussion with Allison about the book and album at Jammin’ Java recently.

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Live Review: Yelawolf @ The Fillmore Silver Spring — 11/5/19

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Yelawolf Yelawolf takes a swig from a bottle of his Creek Water branded Whiskey at The Fillmore Silver Spring on Nov. 5, 2019. (Photo by Shedrick Pelt)

A substantial part of growth is change, but that change doesn’t necessarily have to come with a consequence of losing yourself. Those more fierce qualities about you, sometimes less than agreeable, don’t have to be muted to move forwarded.

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Preview: Allison Moorer @ Jammin’ Java, 11/15/19

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Allison Moorer (Photo by Heidi Ross)

Acclaimed singer-songwriter Allison Moorer released her autobiography Blood: A Memoir last month via Da Capo Press. She’s coming to perform at Jammin’ Java on Friday, Nov. 15, when she holds a conversation about her book with NPR’s Melissa Block and then follows the chat with a solo acoustic performance from the books’ accompanying album of the same name.

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Live Review: The Secret Sisters @ Wolf Trap — 4/19/19

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The Secret Sisters (Photo courtesy Red Light Management)

I can’t think of a much better venue for folk music than The Barns at Wolf Trap. When you enter the 18th century structures, which were relocated from upstate New York, you are transported to a place that is much mental as it physical or geographical. And The Secret Sisters are perhaps the most fitting band to play there, as they did recently.

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Live Review: Blind Boys of Alabama @ City Winery — 3/24/19

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The Blind Boys of Alabama perform at City Winery on March 24, 2019. (Photo by Ari Strauss)

The titans of gospel took everyone to church when The Blind Boys of Alabama performed a show at City Winery in DC on Sunday. The Grammy Award winning group put out a 90-minute set which, by the end, had the crowd on its feet, dancing with hands raised, and giving the occasional, “Amen” to the men on the stage.

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Live Review: St. Paul and the Broken Bones @ Rams Head Live — 2/15/19

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Paul Janeway fronts St. Paul and the Broken Bones at Stubb’s in Austin, Texas, on March 31, 2017. (Photo by David Brendan Hall)

As a ’90s kid, I certainly love much of the music from the decade of my childhood, but I have often wished I could go back to the ’60s and ’70s to see some of the bands we will never see the likes of again. Listening to St. Paul and the Broken Bones makes me feel like I’m listening to something from those eras and yet, they just formed in 2012. I got to experience the eight-piece soul group live recently at Rams Head Live in Baltimore.

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