The Washington Post
Founded in 1877, The Washington Post is an influential American daily newspaper, published in Washington, D.C.
105 articles
List of articles in the library
AC/DC, Humble Pie: Capital Centre, Landover MD
Live Review by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 4 August 1980
AC/DC, WHO played to 16,000 at the Capital Centre last night, are rock's current shock troops. One doesn't enjoy an AC/DC performance as much as ...
Laurie Anderson: Dizzying, Dazzling Action
Interview by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 7 November 1981
Laurie Anderson: All This and Humor, Too ...
Chet Atkins: Custom Of the Country
Profile and Interview by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 20 September 1980
Chet Atkins' Guitar Enters the Smithsonian ...
Report and Interview by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 30 July 1995
IN THE LATE '70s, Washington's Bad Brains pioneered a style of speedy hard-core punk that is now a commercial juggernaut for young bands such as ...
Bad Religion: No Assumption Safe with Punk Vets
Report and Interview by Geoffrey Himes, The Washington Post, 22 March 2013
THE TITLE OF the first single from Bad Religion's new album, True North, is unprintable in this newspaper, but the two-word expletive advises one to ...
The Beach Boys: The Endless Echo of Pet Sounds
Essay by Geoffrey Himes, The Washington Post, 19 June 1990
COMIC STRIP characters rarely die, but Andy, the wisecracking AIDS patient in Garry Trudeau's Doonesbury strip, endured a long death watch this spring. When he ...
Live Review by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 20 September 1980
IF THE Pretenders proved nothing else at their sold-out concert at Lisner Auditorium last night, they did establish that vocalist/rhythm guitarist/songwriter Chrissie Hynde deserves her ...
Walter Becker: 11 Tracks Of Whack
Review by Geoffrey Himes, The Washington Post, December 1994
AS THE TEAM called Steely Dan, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker wrote, produced and performed some of the smartest, most seductive rock-and-roll of the '70s. ...
Pat Benatar: A Piece Of the Rock: The Pat Benatar Band Has Finally Got It
Interview by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 8 October 1980
"FOR THE past five days I can't go to a restaurant without somebody coming up to me and saying 'Aren't you Pat Benatar?' That's the ...
Live Review by Howard Wuelfing, The Washington Post, 26 September 1983
Punk & Funk ...
Black Rose: Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia MD
Live Review by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 16 August 1980
LAST NIGHT at the Merriweather Post Pavilion all eyes — and, for once, all ears — were on Cher. That is, Black Rose, Cher's brave ...
Black Flag, Minor Threat, Henry Rollins, State of Alert: Slamdancing in the Big City
Report and Interview by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 19 July 1981
THE PIT is ferocious and frightening: Young men's bodies slam into each other, arms and elbows out, fist flailing, like razor-edged Mexican jumping beans popping ...
Profile and Interview by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 21 November 1982
LUTHER VANDROSS is singin' on top of the world nowadays, master of a string of professions: singer, songwriter, arranger, producer. ...
Chuck Brown & the Soul Searchers: Chuck Brown Band, still crankin'
Report and Interview by Geoffrey Himes, The Washington Post, 26 December 2014
CHUCKY THOMPSON had to lie about his age to play with Chuck Brown. It was 1984, and Thompson, 16 years old and already one of the ...
Special Feature by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 19 May 1985
GO-GO MUSIC, the hard-hitting street funk born and bred in Washington's inner city 15 years ago and the heart of a vibrant black subculture for ...
Report and Interview by Geoffrey Himes, The Washington Post, 16 July 2015
LAST SUMMER, when the James Brown biopic Get on Up opened on movie screens, jazz bassist Christian McBride organized an all-star concert at the Hollywood ...
Jimmy Buffett: Oh, The Stories He Can Tell
Profile and Interview by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 17 December 1989
"IF THE NUNS at school saw me signing like this, they'd hit me on the knuckles with a ruler," says Jimmy Buffett, scribbling his name ...
Captain Beefheart: Don Van Vliet (Captain Beefheart)
Essay by Tim Page, The Washington Post, 12 December 1999
BACK IN THE early 1970s, when Captain Beefheart was at the decidedly sub-stratospheric pinnacle of his fame, there was no faster way to clear out ...
Irene Cara: What a Feeling! Irene Cara as Her Famous Self
Profile and Interview by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 12 January 1984
FOR IRENE Cara, the price of Fame is to play… in film and on television… Irene Cara! ...
Jean Carne: Jean Carn: Cellar Door, Washington DC
Live Review by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 26 August 1977
Carn's Stunning Vocals ...
Caitlin Cary & Thad Cockrell: Begonias
Review by Geoffrey Himes, The Washington Post, 24 June 2005
Traditional country music is marriage music, and there's no better way to dissect a troubled marriage than to have a female country singer and a ...
Review by Geoffrey Himes, The Washington Post, 24 July 1986
THE POOR SOUND wasn’t the only problem with Bob Dylan’s recent concert in Washington. A far more fundamental problem was the overbearing preachiness and unrelenting ...
Review by Joe Sasfy, The Washington Post, 22 October 1980
Country to Count On ...
Eva Cassidy: Echoes of a Voice Stilled Too Early
Comment by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 17 November 1996
BRUCE LUNDVALL still shakes his head over Eva Cassidy. Lundvall heads Blue Note Records, a label with a string of distinctive jazz singers. None made ...
Live Review by Joe Sasfy, The Washington Post, 6 November 1979
D.C.'s METROPOLITAN Arts and Music Association has begun to fill an important void in the local music scene by bringing some of the more artistically ...
Don Cherry: Jazz's Exotic Strains
Report and Interview by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 3 October 1981
Don Cherry and His Magic Musical Memory ...
The Clash, Screamin' Jay Hawkins: Ritchie Coliseum, College Park MD
Live Review by Joe Sasfy, The Washington Post, 1 October 1979
ENGLAND'S CLASH brought their version of rock's civil war to Ritchie Coliseum Saturday night. By the time they ended their second encore, a hypersonic invitation ...
Rev. James Cleveland: James Cleveland: The Preacher Teacher of Gospel
Report and Interview by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 24 September 1981
James Cleveland: Bridging the Gap Between the Sacred And the Secular ...
The Commodores: Six Part Harmony: The Commodores' Sweet Sound of Success
Profile and Interview by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 1 August 1980
AT 10 A.M. IN Clyde's Omelette Room, William King, Thomas McClary and Milan Williams — half of the Commodores — were splitting their attention between ...
Live Review by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 17 June 1978
Superb Ballads Of Patti Labelle ...
Report by Geoffrey Himes, The Washington Post, 28 June 2015
FEW POP MUSIC acts have enjoyed a year like Creedence Clearwater Revival had in 1969. That year, the John Fogerty-led quartet released three top-10 albums: ...
Charlie Daniels: Fiddlin' Dixie
Interview by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, August 1980
Charlie Daniels, Up From Tobacco Road ...
Report and Interview by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 18 May 1989
DE LA SOUL'S 3 Feet High and Rising is art-rap, a wild and woolly concept album that takes its title from a Johnny Cash song, ...
De La Soul: Spotlight: De La Soul
Report and Interview by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 21 July 2000
"WE REALLY don't have a fear of that 'out of sight, out of mind' thing," insists De La Soul's Dave (David Joliceur). ...
Bob Dylan: MTV Unplugged (Columbia)
Review by Geoffrey Himes, The Washington Post, 24 May 1995
BOB DYLAN has released 52 songs on five different albums since 1992 but has not included one song of his own written after 1990. This ...
Bob Dylan: Warner Theatre, Washington D.C.
Live Review by Geoffrey Himes, The Washington Post, 31 October 1994
BOB DYLAN'S show at the Warner Theatre last night was rapidly going down the tubes when the singer suddenly focused himself and turned the second ...
The Eagles, Fleetwood Mac: Fleetwood Mac's Tusk and The Eagles' The Long Run
Review by Al Aronowitz, The Washington Post, 14 November 1979
LONG AND EAGERLY AWAITED, Fleetwood Mac's Tusk comes as the most spectacular event in records since Stevie Wonder's Songs in the Key of Life. Less ...
The Eagles, Fleetwood Mac: The Eagles and Fleetwood Mac: Live
Review by Robot A. Hull, The Washington Post, 28 December 1980
LIVE ROCK ALBUMS, especially the pompous two-record variety, generally are an excuse for extended guitar work and prolonged drum solos. A marketing strategy and a ...
Steve Earle's Politics and Prose
Report and Interview by Geoffrey Himes, The Washington Post, 6 February 1998
IT WAS the kind of night that could only take place in Nashville, a town with as many songwriters as Washington has bureaucrats. ...
Elbow: With Maturity, U.K. art-rockers Elbow finally stick the Landing
Profile and Interview by Geoffrey Himes, The Washington Post, 8 May 2014
BIG HANDS, a pub in Manchester, England, that takes its name from a Violent Femmes song, has long been a watering hole for local bands. ...
The Fabulous Thunderbirds: The Bayou, Washington DC
Live Review by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 1 October 1979
THE FABULOUS Thunderbirds, who appeared at the Bayou last night, recall an era when the emphasis of rhythm and blues was definitely on the blues, ...
Review by Geoffrey Himes, The Washington Post, March 1993
DONALD FAGEN'S first album in 11 years, Kamakiriad, can be judged from two different perspectives. On the one hand, it marries tartly ironic lyrics with ...
Review by Geoffrey Himes, The Washington Post, 3 March 2006
HOW DO YOU write a song about homeland security without sounding preachy or trite? On the other hand, how do you make honest music in ...
The Fat Boys: Getting just desserts
Profile and Interview by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 15 August 1987
THE MAITRE D' at Samplings on M Street hovers over a table that looks like it's just had a serious accident. ...
Fleetwood Mac: Capital Centre, Landover MD
Live Review by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 26 November 1979
Fleetwood Mac's Primal Rock Energy ...
Ruthie Foster: The Phenomenal Ruthie Foster
Review by Geoffrey Himes, The Washington Post, 30 March 2007
WHEN RUTHIE FOSTER performed at the South by Southwest Music Conference two weeks ago, the short, dreadlocked singer demanded attention with the sheer power of ...
Review by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 20 May 1981
Rock-Bottom Rock ...
Danny Gatton: The Fastest Guitar in the East
Interview by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 11 August 1991
The fastest guitar in the East. Or the West, or the South — or anywhere on the planet, really. A lot of people think Danny ...
Lowell George: Lisner Auditorium, George Washington University, Washington DC
Live Review by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 29 June 1979
FOR THE last night's standing-room-only concert at Lisner Auditorium, Lowell George chose an antithetical way of celebrating his divorce from Little Feat, a rock band ...
Live Review by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 17 July 1981
The Sounds and the Slamdance ...
Emmylou Harris, back where it all started
Profile by Geoffrey Himes, The Washington Post, 8 January 2015
THERE'S A REASON so many artists have signed on to take part in The Life and Songs of Emmylou Harris: An All-Star Concert Celebration on ...
Emmylou Harris, Gram Parsons: Emmylou Harris: Return of the Electric Cowgirl
Interview by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 6 July 1980
SEVEN YEARS ago, the threads in Emmylou Harris' cowgirl suit were beginning to fray around the edges. ...
Donny Hathaway: The Last Hurrah, Washington DC
Live Review by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 24 November 1977
Pop-Soul Vocalist Donny Hathaway At The Last Hurrah ...
The High Llamas: A Different Breed
Overview by Tim Page, The Washington Post, 10 January 1999
'Crossover' British Rockers Deftly Blend Old and New. The Result Is A Horse of Another Color. ...
Michael Jackson: The Big Thrill
Report by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 15 May 1984
"WELL, ISN'T this a thriller," said President Reagan. "We haven't seen this many people since we left China." ...
Rick James: Punk's Flashy Funkster
Interview by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 5 October 1981
Rick James: Braided and Brassy Superstar Finds All That Glitters Turns to Platinum ...
Janet Jackson: True You: A Journey To Finding And Loving Yourself
Book Review by Michael Gross, The Washington Post, 25 March 2011
JANET JACKSON'S True You boasts alluring packaging: It's printed on the kind of ultra-white paper you rarely see in books anymore, chock-full of photos and ...
Joan Jett, the Runaway Success
Report and Interview by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 9 January 1982
Rockville's Blackheart Comes Home to the Bayou ...
George Jones with Tom Carter: I Lived To Tell It All
Book Review by Tom Graves, The Washington Post, 23 June 1996
I LIVED TO TELL IT ALL, the long-awaited autobiography of country music legend George Jones, has to be one of the bleakest, most disconsolate music ...
George Jones: Back From the Road to Ruin
Interview by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 25 May 1981
George Jones' Singing Rebound From Lost Love and Liquor ...
Grace Jones: Starplex Armory, Washington DC
Live Review by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 26 May 1980
HOW GRACE Jones spent Saturday night at the Starplex Armory building: one entrance, many exits for costume changes and not much show in between. ...
Kendrick Lamar: Sorry, rock fans. Hip hop is the only genre that matters right now.
Comment by Marc Weingarten, The Washington Post, 17 April 2018
NO ONE WHO has heard Kendrick Lamar's stunning album Damn could be at all surprised that it is the first nonclassical or jazz recording to ...
Gladys Knight and the Pips: Gladys Knight, Gladly
Interview by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 19 October 1981
After 30 Years, Things Are Still Pip ...
Kraftwerk: Rock's Mad Scientists
Profile and Interview by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 2 August 1981
Kraftwerk Moves Electronic Music Out of the Lab and Onto the Dance Floor ...
Femi Kuti, Fela Kuti: Femi Kuti's Family Tradition
Report and Interview by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 17 March 2000
A FEW YEARS ago, Femi Kuti's 'Beng Beng Beng' was banned from Nigeria's airwaves by that nation's military regime. When a civilian government took over ...
Fela Kuti & the Chords of Africa
Profile and Interview by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 7 November 1986
TWO YEARS ago, as Fela Anikulapo Kuti headed for America for what would have been his first tour here in 15 years, Nigerian authorities arrested ...
Arthur Lee, Love: The Everlasting Forever Of Arthur Lee
Retrospective by Tim Page, The Washington Post, 5 August 2006
ARTHUR LEE and his off-again-on-again rock group Love made only one great album – a brooding, opulent and improbable dream called Forever Changes, released in ...
Nils Lofgren: A Study in Patience and Power
Profile and Interview by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 22 October 1977
NILS LOFGREN, the diminutive Washington-bred rock figure, is intrigued by the idea of success by elimination. "It's encouraging that a rock 'n' roll artist with ...
Los Lobos: La Pistola y El Corazon
Review by Geoffrey Himes, The Washington Post, 14 October 1988
THE DIFFERENCE between Linda Ronstadt's recent album of Mexican folk standards and Los Lobos' new album of Mexican folk standards, La Pistola y El Corazon, ...
Review by Geoffrey Himes, The Washington Post, 28 April 1991
YOU HEAR Luther Vandross's voice everywhere these days — and not merely on his own recordings. Listen to the recent albums by Freddie Jackson, Will ...
Madonna: The Madonna Pornucopia
Preview by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 21 October 1992
PSSSST! WANNA see some new Madonna product? ...
The Magnetic Fields, Stephin Merritt: Stephin Merritt and the Magnetic Fields
Interview by Tim Page, The Washington Post, 7 May 2000
NEW YORK — There is a distinct whiff of Disney to the Lower East Side these days. Tidied and fattened by the Manhattan real estate ...
Book Review by Miles Marshall Lewis, The Washington Post, 20 August 2006
The early years of a reggae superstar who gained worldwide renown. ...
Review by Joe Sasfy, The Washington Post, 16 July 1982
Milsap Loses Soul; Pride's in a Rut ...
Bill Monroe, The Original Bluegrass Boy: "I Keep The Music Going Near Right as I Can..."
Interview by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 7 June 1981
BILL MONROE is the champagne of the bluegrass world — opening a club or kicking off a new festival without him would almost be unthinkable. ...
Review by Geoffrey Himes, The Washington Post, 25 June 1995
IT'S EASY to understand why so many jazz and pop musicians have gravitated toward the buzzing, grinding and squealing of guitar distortion, even if those ...
The National's Bryce Dessner: A man of many talents
Report by Geoffrey Himes, The Washington Post, 18 November 2016
Show: With the National Symphony Orchestra and conductor Jacomo Bairos on Friday at the Kennedy Center. ...
Graham Parker repeats the Rumour
Report and Interview by Geoffrey Himes, The Washington Post, 23 November 2012
IN THE NEW Judd Apatow movie, This Is 40, Paul Rudd's character runs an indie record label that reunites Graham Parker and the Rumour, the ...
Billy Paul, the Philadelphia Story: Cellar Door, Washington DC
Live Review by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 27 December 1977
Better Never Than Late ...
Book Review by Tom Graves, The Washington Post, 23 June 1996
RECORD PRODUCER Sam Phillips, who owned the tiny Sun record label in Memphis, has been hounded for years by journalists and biographers about his decision ...
The Plasmatics: Rock's Smashing Success: The Plasmatics & Their New Wave of Destruction
Interview by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 22 November 1980
WHEN THE Plasmatics say "Dynamite," they're not talking about their music. ...
Elvis Presley: From Nashville to Memphis: The Essential '60s Masters 1
Review by Geoffrey Himes, The Washington Post, 1 October 1993
IT'S EASY TO DISMISS ELVIS PRESLEY'S post-army career – easy, that is, until one is forced to sit down and listen to a song like ...
Elvis Presley: Walk a Mile in My Shoes: The Essential ‘70s Masters
Review by Geoffrey Himes, The Washington Post, 13 December 1995
ELVIS PRESLEY'S music in the 1970s is often dismissed as the bombastic, half-hearted hack work of an overweight, pill-addicted, badly dressed has-been. In the liner ...
Lisa Marie Presley: To Whom It May Concern (Capitol)
Review by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 9 April 2003
SUSPICIOUS MINDS want to know: How much Presley is there in Lisa Marie? ...
Lisa Marie Presley: The Princess of Rock Makes a Name for Herself
Interview by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 6 May 2005
LET'S FORGET last names for just a moment. ...
Charley Pride: Pride In His Country
Interview by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 6 July 1984
The Black Singer Who Crossed Over ...
Prince: Warner Theater, Washington DC
Live Review by Geoffrey Himes, The Washington Post, 21 November 1981
PRINCE PUT on a dazzling show of screaming guitar solos, irresistible dance rhythms and charismatic showmanship at the Warner Theater Saturday night. Leading a powerful ...
Professor Longhair: Childe Harold, Washington DC
Live Review by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 25 February 1978
LISTENING TO Roy Byrd, also known as Professor Longhair and playing at the Childe Harold through Sunday, it is almost necessary to hear between the ...
The Roches: Revenge Of the Roches
Profile and Interview by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 11 November 1980
Lacerating Lyrics of The New Wave Heroines ...
Review by Charles Bermant, The Washington Post, 9 March 1975
WHEN DAVID BOWIE and the Spiders from Mars barnstormed America almost two years ago they managed to astound anyone who saw them perform. The Spiders ...
Judee Sill: A Brief Life, an Enduring Musical Impression
Retrospective by Tim Page, The Washington Post, 30 December 2006
ON THE DAY after Thanksgiving 1979, Judee Sill, a 35-year-old, deeply depressed and physically broken singer-songwriter, took an overdose of opiates and cocaine in her ...
Frank Sinatra: Sinatra Crooned, World Swooned
Obituary by Tim Page, The Washington Post, 16 May 1998
HE CALLED himself a mere "saloon singer" from Hoboken, New Jersey. But Frank Sinatra, who died late Thursday at the age of 82, was much ...
St. Vincent: Catching St. Vincent at the Anthem? Expect to see two acts, like a play.
Profile and Interview by Geoffrey Himes, The Washington Post, 24 November 2017
THE LAST SONG that Annie Clark wrote for Masseduction, the new St. Vincent album, was the title tune. The track begins with a stuttering percussion ...
Roni Stoneman: One Plucky Lady
Interview by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 13 September 2001
SO, HOW LONG has it been since Roni Stoneman, the First Lady of Banjo, played in the Washington area? ...
Review by Geoffrey Himes, The Washington Post, 29 September 2017
HARRY STYLES has gone back to the future. Sooner or later, this short, wiry singer with the tousled hair and giddy tenor had to leave ...
Danny Thompson, Richard Thompson: Industry: A Tale of Two Thompsons
Review by Geoffrey Himes, The Washington Post, 4 July 1997
DANNY THOMPSON grew up in the world described in the movie Brassed Off--the northern British villages where men scrub off the soot of the ...
U2's Journey Through The Past: Rattle and Hum
Review by Geoffrey Himes, The Washington Post, 12 October 1988
BY THEIR OWN admission, the members of U2 had little sense of history when they started making music. Like so many of their generation, the ...
James "Blood" Ulmer: Blood Sounds
Interview by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 10 January 1982
Funk Guitarist James "Blood" Ulmer: Harmolodic Karma ...
James "Blood" Ulmer: James Blood Ulmer: 9:30 Club, Washington DC
Live Review by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 28 July 1980
WHEN JAMES "Blood" Ulmer and his three fellow musicians climbed onto the 9:30 club's stage Saturday night, the electricity plugged itself into the musicians. Guitarist ...
Randy VanWarmer, Dave Allen: Cellar Door, Washington DC
Live Review by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 25 August 1980
RANDY VANWARMER, who performed at the Cellar Door Saturday night, has an image problem. He is best known for last year's terminally mellow hit ballad ...
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