You don’t get much more authentic or important than the Alan Lomax Collection in terms of documenting real music made my real people throughout the world, recorded over a remarkable 70 year span. In March the Collection united with the Library of Congress: The American Folklife Center in the Library …

We’ve been hearing that artists are “intimidated” from speaking out against the war and the Bush administration. Besides just being factually incorrect (it is far easier to count the handful of artists who are in favor of the war and who support Bush, with perhaps the exception of the country …

Wharton looks at the case against former Enron CEO Ken Lay: The Wharton experts stress that Lay must be presumed innocent until proven guilty of the criminal charges. But they agree that even if he is acquitted, his leadership of Enron was nonetheless abysmal in the months preceding the company’s …

Just over a year after it passed the California Senate, Bill 1034 has been signed into law: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday signed a law giving recording artists more flexibility to audit record companies’ finances in search of potentially unpaid royalties. The law, which goes into effect Jan. 1, allows …

I’ll be on BBC 5 radio today at about 4:20pm ET discussing the mood of the nation regarding the war on terror, especially as reflected in popular music. Are artists afraid to express dissent? Why aren’t there any anti-war anthems? Would things be different for the Dixie Chicks had they …

I really love the Brooklyn alt rock/Latino hybrid band Cordero, led by singer Ani Cordero. I reviewed their live show and first record here. If anything, the band’s secod album – Somos Cordero, which delves more deeply still into Latin rhythms and Spanish language songs – is even better than …

West Virginia man lights cigarette in outhouse and blows his ass up: A man was hospitalized for burns after he lit a cigarette in a portable outhouse and the outhouse exploded. MECCA said that at about 9:40 a.m. Tuesday, Monongalia Emergency Medical Services responded to a burn call at the …

Martha gets 5 months: Domestic icon Martha Stewart moved one step closer to a drastically different lifestyle behind bars when the millionaire entrepreneur was sentenced Friday to five months in prison for a stock-trading scandal. “I’ll be back,” she promised afterward, speaking in a strong voice on the courthouse steps. …

American Idol has raised the age limit for competitors from 26 to 28, as auditions for season 4 are set to begin in August in Cleveland, according to the Idol site: REVISED RULES TEXT “AMERICAN IDOL” SEASON 4 MINIMUM ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS You must be a legal U.S. citizen or a …

I know very little about opera because it drives me insane – or vice versa – but this sounds pretty important: A handwritten, original score that may hold the key to Jacques Offenbach’s true intentions for his final and greatest opera, “The Tales of Hoffmann,” has been discovered in the …