Caryn Rose

You’re never too many songs into a Low Cut Connie show when bandleader Adam Weiner runs his hands across the piano keys and declares, “I love everybody in this room right now.” He’s also fond of declaring, “I love you so much, boys and girls.” He says it because he genuinely means it, it’s not a line, it’s not even shtick. Weiner says it repeatedly because it’s the vibe he wants to create in the room he’s working in. It’s corny, sure, but it’s also sincere and true.

The sun was just setting behind the GA section at Pine Knob and bouncing off Bob’s disco piano as I glanced up and Bob Dylan and his band were suddenly walking onstage.

It's a great day when your favorite artist releases a new record. But what if they released seven new records at once, recorded across almost three decades, full of music you didn't even know existed? That's exactly what Bruce Springsteen is doing later this month.

Millions of people, no matter where they are in the world, can hum or sing at least one chorus of a Beach Boys song like “Good Vibrations” or “I Get Around,” to name only a couple of their indelible and timeless hits.

“I’m still pretending this is a book tour,” Bono says shortly into "Stories of Surrender," the new film on Apple TV+. He’s just shared the story of his “eccentric heart” and the non-trivial health scare he went through around 2015, and then taken the crowd into a quasi-acoustic rendition of U2’s “Vertigo,” accompanied not by guitar, bass and drums but rather some electronic percussion and a cello.

A handful of songs into Benmont Tench’s recent performance in Chicago, he paused to take inventory before choosing the next number, ticking off the names of the artists on one hand: “Tom, Tom, Jerry, Chuck…” He is legitimately on a first-name basis with most of those people, but it wasn’t bragging, he was talking about those artists in the same the way the fans in the queue outside had been doing while waiting to get inside.

Three nights in Oakland at the old arena, three different opening numbers. Night one it was “My Love Will Not Let You Down,” night two was “The Ties That Bind,” and the last night was for the diehards: “Adam Raised A Cain,” but not just any “Adam,” an “Adam” that’s guaranteed to bring you back to Winterland in 1978 whether you were pressed up against the stage or only experienced it through the magic of FM radio.

About three-quarters through a performance by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds on a Friday night in Columbus, Ohio, in a quiet moment between songs, a gentleman had a song request: “Release the Bats!” he yelled.

The spring edition of Bob Dylan’s "Rough and Rowdy Ways 2025" tour rolled into Kalamazoo, Michigan, on a Wednesday evening in mid-April. Earlier in the month, the tour had visited places like Eau Claire, Wisconsin; Davenport, Iowa; and Omaha, Nebraska.

A new newsletter featuring thoughtful insight, discussion, commentary and analysis on and about the work of Bruce Springsteen.

Last night, Bob Dylan played the fourth-to-last show of the Rough and Rowdy Ways spring tour in Toledo, Ohio. Music journalist and author Caryn Rose was on the scene.

Who gets to be called a genius?
Allee Willis, the subject of the documentary "The World According to Allee Willis," newly released to Hulu, qualifies half a dozen times over, without exaggeration — but few would have known it until now.

Appropriately enough, Wednesday night’s benefit tribute concert at New York’s Carnegie Hall in honor of pioneering musician, author and icon Patti Smith began with a poem.
Not just any poem: It was the first one she set to music, “Piss Factory,” recorded in 1974 at Electric Lady Studios, 50 blocks downtown from Carnegie Hall, and released as the B-side of her first single.

On Friday, six Detroit singer-songwriters will gather inside Rivera Court at the Detroit Institute of Arts for what’s known in Nashville as a “Writer’s Round.” The Friday Night Live! event that evening will feature musicians Isis Damil, Michelle Held, Audra Kubat, Marbrisa, Mayaeni, and Emily Rose.

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