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    Beyond Beyoncé: Black Women of Country, Past and Present

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    Listen to songs from Rhiannon Giddens, Rissi Palmer, Linda Martell and more.Rhiannon GiddensSerena Brown for The New York TimesDear listeners,Today marks the release of Beyoncé’s eighth solo album, “Cowboy Carter,” a sprawling celebration of country music and a saucy rebuttal to its most close-minded gatekeepers. Its previously released singles, the haunting “16 Carriages” and the rowdy No. 1 hit “Texas Hold ’Em,” reignited conversations about the erasure of Black voices in country music history and the industry-enforced barriers that still make it difficult for nonwhite artists to break through.Although “Cowboy Carter” is quite collaborative, Beyoncé is such a marquee star that all eyes and ears tend to focus on her. So for today’s playlist, I wanted to widen that focus and spotlight some other Black women who have made great country music in their own varied styles.This playlist features early pioneers like the guitarist Elizabeth Cotten and the groundbreaking country star Linda Martell (who makes two appearances on “Cowboy Carter”). It also features Tina Turner and the Pointer Sisters, artists better known for their work in other genres who made impassioned country crossovers that deserve revisiting. Plus, I’ve included younger upstarts like Reyna Roberts, Brittney Spencer and Mickey Guyton, who represent the sonic diversity and genre hybridity of this current generation.This playlist is a sampler rather than a comprehensive tour of Black women’s many contributions to country past and present, and I’m sure it’s missing some names (including Tanner Adell, who appears on “Cowboy Carter” and who Jon Caramanica already recommended to Amplifier readers earlier this month). But I hope it’s a start in expanding your view of country music beyond even the vast scope of “Cowboy Carter.”Let this be a reminder that Beyoncé is not a Lone Ranger. Other Black cowgirls have done the hard work of clearing the path, and there are plenty more riding alongside her, too.Show the world you’re a country girl,LindsayWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      10 Essential Joni Mitchell Songs

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      Celebrate the artist’s return to Spotify with tracks from last summer’s “Joni Jam.”Joni Mitchell performing at the 66th Grammy Awards, where she won best folk album.Kevin Winter/Getty ImagesDear listeners,Last week, most of Joni Mitchell’s music returned to Spotify, the platform she had boycotted for more than two years. In January 2022, Mitchell followed in the footsteps of fellow Canadian and polio survivor Neil Young in pulling her catalog from the streaming giant, accusing Spotify of platforming people who were “spreading lies that are costing people their lives.” On March 12, though, Young announced his return to Spotify: “Apple and Amazon have started serving the same disinformation podcast features I had opposed at Spotify,” he wrote in an announcement on his website. Shortly after, without an official statement explaining her decision, many of Mitchell’s albums returned, too.I saw plenty of people reacting to this news online with all-caps enthusiasm, but I had mixed feelings. On one hand, I’m elated: Joni Mitchell is probably my favorite musician ever, and over the past year I’ve wanted to put her songs on Amplifier playlists more times than I can count. Since we want our playlists to be accessible to the greatest possible number of listeners, I’ve mostly limited my selections to songs available on Spotify. Now, or at least for the time being, I’ll be able to share Mitchell’s music with you.But I also admired Mitchell and Young for going against the grain, standing up for what they believed and drawing attention to the darker side of the streaming economy, which often privileges clicks and controversy over art. As Young said in his somewhat resigned statement, he’s not returning because things have suddenly gotten better — it’s just that they’re bad everywhere else, too.So for that reason, I’m reluctant to greet Mitchell’s return to Spotify with confetti or caps-lock. I will, however, greet it the best way I know how: with a playlist.The task of creating any kind of “Best of Joni” compilation is way too daunting — an attempt could easily top 400 songs — so I decided to make a playlist comprising songs she played at last summer’s “Joni Jam,” the absolutely spellbinding concert I had the great joy of attending at the Gorge Amphitheater in Washington. What impressed me so much about that set list was its balance, toggling between Mitchell’s classics and deep cuts, and also between her early, middle and later eras. You can hear that breadth in this playlist, which stretches from her 1970 breakthrough “Ladies of the Canyon” through her mature 1994 release “Turbulent Indigo” and a recording of her 2022 set at the Newport Folk Festival.If you’re already a Mitchell fan, I hope this playlist reconnects you with at least one track you haven’t heard in ages. And if you’re a newcomer to Mitchell’s oeuvre, well, I’m almost jealous of all the discoveries and revelations in store for you.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      7 Songs From My L.A. Record Haul

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      Hear tracks from Cass Elliot, the Pretenders, Sam Cooke and more from the Record Parlour in Hollywood.Lindsay ZoladzDear listeners,Anytime I’m in Los Angeles — as I was last week, reporting a story I can’t tell you about just yet, but that you will get to read soon — I try to swing by the Record Parlour, a small but stuffed-to-the-gills shop off Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. I almost always spend more time there than I intend to, and I invariably leave ready to test the limits of how many records I can fit in my luggage.A good used record store will always make me grateful that I took my allergy pill that morning, and by that metric, the Record Parlour is a very good used record store. Dusty crates of kitschy bargain-bin finds line the floors, while robust sections organized by genre snake around the store. (According to the shop’s Instagram, their inventory includes “200,000+ Records,” and I’d believe it.) The prices have certainly gone up in the eight or so years since I’ve been stopping by, but there are still deals to be had. Just when I thought I’d perused all the pricier “New Releases” — record store lingo for used records recently stocked — I saw an entire section of “$7.98 New Releases” and let out an audible groan, because of course I was going to have to leaf through every single one of those, too.I picked up a fun, eclectic mix of rock, pop, gospel and one coveted original soundtrack you will read about below. My finds included records by Bryan Ferry, the Pretenders, Sam Cooke and more — most of which were in that $7.98 bin, and all of which made it safely back to New York in my carry-on bag. Another successful transcontinental record haul!Also, one last bit of news: Yesterday marked one year since the Amplifier launched! What a year it’s been. Thanks to each and every one of you who has read, subscribed, listened, forwarded an installment to a friend, recommended a song for a playlist, sent me an email (I try to respond personally to as many as I possibly can, but please forgive me when I fall behind!), shaken a fist at the sky because I forgot to include a song you love, or taken a chance on an artist that we’ve featured and discovered a new favorite in the process.It truly feels like we’ve built a robust community of music lovers here, and I can’t wait to see where Year 2 takes us. Again: Thank you, thank you, thank you.Burnin’ down the interbelt, from Jacuzzi to Jacuzzi,LindsayWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Karl Wallinger, Who Sang With World Party and the Waterboys, Dies at 66

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      As a songwriter and instrumentalist as well, he blended pop and folk influences into music that helped define college radio in the 1980s and ’90s.Karl Wallinger, a Welsh singer-songwriter who helped define college radio in the 1980s and ’90s as a member of the Waterboys and the founder of World Party, died on Sunday at his home in Hastings, England. He was 66.His daughter, Nancy Zamit, confirmed the death but did not provide a cause. Mr. Wallinger suffered a brain aneurysm in 2001 that forced him to stop performing for several years.Following on the heels of the post-punk, new wave and new romantic movements of the early 1980s, Mr. Wallinger embodied something of a throwback to the classical pop and folk styles of an earlier era, with music and lyrics influenced by the Beatles and Bob Dylan.Though he rejected the label “retro,” onstage he looked like a stylish hippie, with long stringy hair and tinted round glasses that would have fit in at Woodstock.Mr. Wallinger was widely admired for his instrumental skills. He primarily played keyboards for the Waterboys, an influential folk-rock band founded by the Scottish musician Mike Scott, but on his own he usually played a guitar — which, though he was right-handed, he played upside down, with his left hand.After two albums with the Waterboys, Mr. Wallinger left in 1985 to form World Party, which was at first a one-man act: He wrote all the music and recorded all the parts in the studio. Only when he began to tour did he add members and make it a true band.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Kamasi Washington’s Ecstatic Return, and 9 More New Songs

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      Hear tracks by 4batz featuring Drake, Salt Cathedral, Swamp Dogg and others.Every Friday, pop critics for The New York Times weigh in on the week’s most notable new tracks. Listen to the Playlist on Spotify here (or find our profile: nytimes) and at Apple Music here, and sign up for The Amplifier, a twice-weekly guide to new and old songs.Kamasi Washington, ‘Prologue’“Prologue” is actually the final track on Kamasi Washington’s coming album, “Fearless Movement,” and it’s dense and bustling. Double time drumming, frenetic percussion and hyperactive keyboard counterpoint roil around a melody that rises resolutely over descending chords, while breakneck solos from Dontae Winslow on trumpet and Washington on saxophone exult in sheer agility and emotional peaks. JON PARELESShabazz Palaces and Lavarr the Starr, ‘Take Me to Your Leader’Shabazz Palaces — Ishmael Butler from Digable Planets — sets up a sci-fi scenario in “Take Me to Your Leader” from his album due March 29, “Exotic Birds of Prey.” He and a guest rapper, Lavarr the Starr, have to convince a powerful, mysterious queen that “our race deserves to survive.” Amid blipping electronics and slow-pulsing bass, with voices warped by echoes and effects, they set out a strategy of gifts, philosophizing, seduction and “a steady-bumping beat she can freak with.” PARELESSalt Cathedral, ‘Off the Walls’We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      10 Great Oscar Winners for Best Original Song

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      Hear tracks by Billie Eilish, Keith Carradine, Isaac Hayes and more.Billie Eilish, a potential two-time Oscar winner. (We’ll find out Sunday night!)Valerie Macon/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesDear listeners,Happy Oscar week! The 96th Academy Awards are this Sunday, and you know which competition we’re most excited about here at The Amplifier: best original song. Today’s playlist is a brief but star-studded tour through the category’s history.First awarded at the seventh annual ceremony, best original song has long been a reflection of popular music’s evolving style — the rare honor that’s been won by both Irving Berlin and Eminem. As the two-time winner Elton John can attest, it can be a sure path to an EGOT. As the veteran songwriter Diane Warren, who has been nominated 15 times but never won, might tell you, it can also be maddening.Warren is nominated again this year for Becky G’s “The Fire Inside,” written for Eva Longoria’s directorial feature debut, “Flamin’ Hot,” but she’s got stiff competition from the year’s most commercially successful movie, “Barbie.” (Heard of it?) That film boasts the highest-profile contenders: Ryan Gosling’s theatrical showstopper “I’m Just Ken” (penned by Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt) and Billie Eilish’s wispy, haunting ballad “What Was I Made For?,” which last month won the Grammy for song of the year.Jon Batiste’s “It Never Went Away” or Scott George’s “Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People)” could always upset if the “Barbie” songs split the vote, but my money’s on Eilish. “I’m Just Ken” is fun, sure, but in my humble, grouchy opinion, it overstays its welcome and contributes to an overall flaw of the film, which is that the supposed villain is far and away the most charismatic character. (I’m going to go hide now.)Eilish’s song is arresting and finely crafted; with all due respect to Warren, I think it’s the most worthy winner. And if you need another reason to root for the 22-year-old musician, a victory would make Eilish the youngest person ever to win two best original song Oscars, since she already won for her 2021 Bond theme, “No Time to Die.” (Her 26-year-old brother, Finneas, with whom she co-wrote both songs, would become the second-youngest two-time winner.)Today’s playlist is a reminder of some past best original song winners and a testament to the category’s stylistic diversity. Is it the first mix to contain both Barbra Streisand’s “The Way We Were” and Three 6 Mafia’s “Hard Out Here for a Pimp”? It’s certainly the first Amplifier playlist to do so.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Founder of the New Christy Minstrels Randy Sparks Dies at 90

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      With a keen eye for young talent, he helped boost the careers of Steve Martin, John Denver, Kenny Rogers and many other performers.Randy Sparks, a creative impresario whose musical ensemble, the New Christy Minstrels, helped to jump-start the folk revival of the early 1960s and launched the careers of performers like John Denver, Steve Martin and Kenny Rogers, died on Sunday at an assisted-living facility in San Diego. He was 90.His son Kevin confirmed the death. Mr. Sparks had been living on his 168-acre ranch in Jenny Lind, Calif., northeast of San Francisco, until a few days before his death.Mr. Sparks in Los Angeles in 2006. He was well known as a singer, songwriter and actor in Southern California when he formed the New Christy Minstrels.Sherry Rayn Barnett/ Michael Ochs Archives, via Getty ImagesBefore Beatlemania and the British invasion revolutionized American popular music, folk music dominated the airwaves — and perhaps no group was more ubiquitous than the New Christy Minstrels. They were a nearly constant presence on television and sold an estimated two million albums in their first three years.Mr. Sparks was already well known as a singer, songwriter and actor in Southern California when he drew together nine other musicians in 1961 to form the group, which took its name from a popular stage show in the 1840s led by Edwin P. Christy. Mr. Sparks was quick to note that his group otherwise shared nothing with its namesake, a white group that had promoted the music of Stephen Foster in blackface.His group was a hit from the start; its debut album, “Presenting the New Christy Minstrels” (1962), won the Grammy Award for best performance by a chorus and stayed on the Billboard chart for two years.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Hurray for the Riff Raff’s Alynda Segarra on ‘The Past Is Still Alive’

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      Almost a year after the sudden death of Alynda Segarra’s father, the sight of a Bronx-bound subway entrance made the musician cry.“I walked by the 1 train yesterday, and the color of the red and the ‘1’ and the ‘Van Cortlandt Park’ and the ‘Uptown’ — I just burst into tears,” Segarra, who uses they/them pronouns, said. “I was just like, this is so crazy that I don’t really have a reason to go up there.”Segarra, who is 36 and makes folk music with a punky defiance as Hurray for the Riff Raff, wore a distressed white tee under a fitted leather vest, and silver jewelry that matched their painted nails. Sipping a coffee on a zebra-print couch in a quiet nook of Manhattan’s Hotel Chelsea, they compared the storied hotel’s décor to the sets of the Yorgos Lanthimos movie “Poor Things.” Staying at the Chelsea was an uncharacteristic extravagance, but since their father’s passing, they have been allowing for treats like these, in his honor.“My dad loved enjoying,” Segarra said. “He just didn’t deny himself pleasure. So now I’m really starting to be like, ‘Why not?’”Segarra, who is of Puerto Rican descent, was raised in the Bronx and left home at 17, first living in a Philadelphia squat and eventually relocating to New Orleans, where they busked in a motley hobo band called the Dead Man Street Orchestra. (“I couldn’t believe that it was real,” they recalled with lingering delight. “I just get to sing Tom Waits songs and people give me money?”) When Louisiana got too hot or Segarra just got too restless, they would ride the rails, getting to know America through blurred glimpses of its vast landscape.Hurray for the Riff Raff’s “The Past Is Still Alive,” Alynda Segarra’s arresting, artfully autobiographical ninth album, is due Feb. 23.Luisa Opalesky for The New York TimesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Dick Waterman, Promoter and Photographer of the Blues, Dies at 88

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      A “crackpot eccentric Yankee” from Massachusetts, he revived the careers of long-forgotten Southern artists during the blues boom of the 1960s.Dick Waterman, a beacon in the world of blues who as a promoter, talent manager and photographer helped revive the careers of a generation of storied purveyors of that bedrock American art form while lyrically documenting their journeys with his camera, died on Jan. 26 in Oxford, Miss. He was 88.His niece Theodora Saal said the cause was heart failure. A native of Massachusetts, he had lived in Oxford for nearly four decades.Through his company, Avalon Productions, which was considered the first management and booking agency devoted primarily to Black blues artists, Mr. Waterman provided overdue exposure — and income — to early blues luminaries like Mississippi John Hurt, Son House and Skip James.He also shepherded the careers of a younger blues cohort, including Buddy Guy and Otis Rush, as well as one young white artist, the singer-songwriter and future Grammy Award winner Bonnie Raitt.Mr. Waterman in 2003 in Oxford, Miss. A native of Massachusetts, he lived in Oxford for nearly four decades.Bruce Newman“Dick Waterman just may be the most knowledgeable man on the history of blues,” the music writer Don Wilcock wrote in 2019 on the website American Blues Scene. Mr. Waterman, he added, “sought out the originators of the genre, pulled them out of ‘retirement’ and presented them to a folk audience that to that point considered blues to be a footnote in the American musical history.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More