Caryn Rose

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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On Wednesday night, Bruce Springsteen took the stage at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena over an hour late with profuse apologies — there was plane trouble, apparently. He then declared, “This is a fighting prayer for my country,” and roared into an emphatic version of his 2007 song, “Long Walk Home,” following immediately with an enormous, majestic rendition of “Land of Hope and Dreams.”

“What up, doe?!”
With that traditional, very Detroit greeting, Michigan native Little Stevie Wonder brought his “Sing Your Song! As We Fix Our Nation’s Broken Heart” tour to Little Caesar’s Arena in the Motor City on Tuesday night.

The first time music journalist Ben Edmonds heard about the MC5, it was from musician friends in a band called Magic Terry and the Universe. He liked what his friends had to say about the band, so Edmonds made sure to go to the MC5’s first New York City show at the Fillmore East. The verdict? “I thought they were hands down the best rock and roll band I had ever seen in my life. It’s an opinion I hold to this day,”

This is the Outlaw tour, but the stage setting is entirely still Rough and Rowdy Ways, down to a red curtain along the back.

When your all-star Detroit concert opens with none other than Miss Diana Ross gliding down the stage catwalk in an enormous cloud of orange chiffon singing “I’m Coming Out,” you are setting the bar high from the jump — especially if you’re kicking off an event with Eminem, Jack White, Jelly Roll, Common and many others.
She is Diana Ross, daughter of the Brewster Projects, queen of Motown, representing some of the city’s glorious past on two levels: She is here in front Michigan Central train...