How Going Home Helped Inspire Leon Bridges’s New Album—And Saved His Life
A profile of the singer-songwriter.
Soul
The Soul Man Who Walked Away
A profile of Bill Withers at 76.
The Circus Singer and the Godfather of Soul
Lost in the woods with James Brown’s ghost.
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She Says James Brown Raped Her
She also says someone murdered him. Others share her suspicions.
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Was James Brown's Wife Murdered?
An old notebook holds the clues.
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Fifteen Questions Surrounding James Brown's Death
The Godfather of Soul has been dead for 12 years, but the questions have not been put to rest.
Angel So Fly
An oral history of Aaliyah.
Hammer in Her Hand
At 76, Atlanta’s Beverly “Guitar” Watkins still lives for the blues.
Mirrorball
After a one night stand, a musican unknowingly takes a piece of a woman's soul.
"The girl tried to feel contempt for the boy, too, but it is hard to have contempt for a person who’s made off with part of your soul. She went about her life—her job at a used-clothing store, her once-a-week volunteer stint at the Outreach Center for homeless youth, her evenings out with friends. Outwardly, she did not appear much changed by the misalignment; the first layer of her thoughts was more or less the same, logical and competent enough to get her through the day.
Frank Ocean Can Fly
A profile of Lonny Breaux, post-fame.
Being James Brown
A profile.
When we're introduced, I spend a long moment trying to conjugate the reality of James Brown's face, one I've contemplated as an album-cover totem since I was thirteen or fourteen: that impossible slant of jaw and cheekbone, that Pop Art slash of teeth, the unmistakable rage of impatience lurking in the eyes. It's a face drawn by Jack Kirby or Milton Caniff, that's for sure, a visage engineered for maximum impact at great distances, from back rows of auditoriums.
Eclectic, Reminiscent, Amused, Fickle, Perverse
A profile of Ahmet Ertegun: son of the Turkish ambassador, teenage collector of ‘race’ music, producer and pseudonymous songwriter for records by Ray Charles and Big Joe Turner, founder of Atlantic Records, confidante to Mick Jagger, impeccable dresser.
