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1 day ago | 
wbur.org | Noah Schaffer
When Ward Hayden & The Outliers were driving across the Midwest on a tour, they decided to kill time in the van by looking into Aaron Lewis, one of their few Massachusetts country music peers.
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1 week ago | 
wbur.org | Noah Schaffer
The firing of a famed Berklee College of Music department leader, who for years repeatedly shared antisemitic social media posts, has ignited conversation over hiring practices at the elite school. Berklee College of Music fired its brass department chair, Nicholas Payton, in April, just months after promoting him into the role last fall. Payton confirmed his termination to WBUR last week. A spokesperson for Berklee confirmed he no longer works for the school.
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2 weeks ago | 
wbur.org | Noah Schaffer
When the MC known as MaceyOMaze was growing up in Fields Corner, his father would play classic hip-hop in the family van. The lyrics typically detailed life in hip-hop capitals like New York and Los Angeles. But one day, a song called “I Got To Have It” came on and MaceyOMaze, then a 12-year-old aspiring rapper, heard something in the lyrics that astonished him. “At first, I was like ‘Oh, this is dope.’ And then I heard them say ‘Roxbury.’ And I was like, ‘Wait a minute — this rapper's from Boston?
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2 weeks ago | 
wbur.org | Amelia Mason |Victoria Wasylak |Noah Schaffer |Solon Kelleher |Lukas Harnisch
Clockwise from top left: The cover art for Ali McGuirk's "Where Does All The $ Come From?" (Courtesy); cover art for Daniel Voltaire and HAAWWS' "Stuck in My Ways Remix" (Courtesy Mellow Z Vier); cover art for Bowling Shoes' "FACTORY POP" (Courtesy of Jeremiah Bermel, Jake Lutter and Dimitri Christo); and cover art for Flying Vipers' "Off World" (courtesy). Maybe it’s the bright green foliage outside my window, but this month’s music roundup feels especially fresh.
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4 weeks ago | 
bostonglobe.com | Noah Schaffer
When the deadly Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico in 2017, members of Boston’s Puerto Rican community gathered at the Villa Victoria in the South End. “Everyone was so sad, and then someone just decided to sing a song by Haciendo Punto en Otro Son,” remembers Elsa Mosquera-Sterenberg, who helped organize the event for Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción, where she worked at the time.
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1 month ago | 
wbur.org | Noah Schaffer
In the 1960s, Jim Kweskin was famous for finding 78 RPM records of early jazz, blues and country. That collection helped fuel the sound and repertoire of the Jim Kweskin Jug Band, his influential combo that was a major attraction at Cambridge’s Club 47 and the Newport Folk Festival. The successor to Club 47, Club Passim, still displays in its tiny lobby a framed album that Kweskin recorded live at Club 47 in 1968.
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1 month ago | 
wbur.org | Maddie Browning |Victoria Wasylak |Noah Schaffer
From left, album art for Ghost Girl's "Fragment" (courtesy); Copilot's "Vroom Vroom, etc" (courtesy Julia Paccone); and Roger Clark Miller's "Curiosity for Solo Electric Guitar Ensemble" (courtesy). As winter fades into spring, our critics share local music to transition us into this new season. An EP capturing a personal turning point full of snapshots of the artist's life. A Boston stalwart's latest transfixing project inspired by NASA's Mars rover, Curiosity.
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1 month ago | 
bostonglobe.com | Noah Schaffer
In the 1960s Motown founder Berry Gordon Jr. had his employees audition future hits on low-fi car radios rather than fancy studio speakers. One of reggaeton’s top hit makers, J Balvin, reveals that he does something similar when crafting the songs that pour out of car windows in much of the world today. “That’s what we always focus on – is it going to feel good blasting in the car or in the club?” he says.
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2 months ago | 
wbur.org | Noah Schaffer
But a few weeks prior to the engagement Wolf cancelled the event, citing the recent upheaval at the Kennedy Center, which has seen the organization’s president and members of its board of supervisors fired. Besides installing his own set of board appointees, President Trump has appointed himself chairman and his special envoy Richard Grenell is now the center’s president. A number of artists have cancelled their appearances and the producers of the musical “Hamilton” pulled a planned 2026 run.
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2 months ago | 
bostonglobe.com | Noah Schaffer
When Sona Jobarteh was a young girl, she dreamed of becoming a soccer player. But at the time, women’s soccer hadn’t become the global sensation it is today, and she didn’t see a path forward in what was a male- dominated sport. Ironically, she ended up making her mark in a world that was even less welcoming for women: as a virtuoso of the kora, the majestic 21-string instrument that her West African griot family has played for generations.
