Charlie “Chubby” Manning Walker learned to play guitar after being hit by a car. He was 15 when the car popped the pavement, slammed into him from behind, and left him with a broken arm and shoulder. Confined to a bed for a couple months, there was little he could …
Read More »Loraine James' Vision Is Too Big for the Club
Artists who found themselves recording music in lockdown last year were often split between two creative paths: those geared towards introspection, and those who anticipated the post-pandemic hedonism to come in summer 2021. Loraine James, meanwhile, found a way to synthesize both states of mind. The London-based producer’s latest album, …
Read More »The Chameleon Soul of Teddy Swims
When Jaten Dimsdale started putting cover performanceson YouTube under the name Teddy Swims in 2019, he tried everything from H.E.R. to George Strait, just to see who was listening. “It turned out that people were liking everything, or they just liked the personality. . . or my voice,” Dimsdale says, …
Read More »Chika: True to Herself, No Matter What
Two years ago, Jane Chika Oranika posted a Twitter video of a freestyle rap verse admonishing Kanye West’s political antics — over West’s own “Jesus Walks” beat, no less. It’s been viewed more than 6 million times. But the 23-year-old from Montgomery, Alabama, says that even if she hadn’t gone …
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