While visiting nashville, Tennessee, singer-songwriter Aloe Blacc found something he did not expect. Inside the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, Blacc stood before a large mural depicting the origins of the museum’s central genre. The painting showed a cultural mashup of players with West African banjos, as well as fiddles and other harmonic and melodic elements that originated in Europe.
Read MoreIf you talk to anyone who loves food in Seattle, you’ll hear a lot of lamenting about how the city is bereft of excellent pizza. If you consider New York the source of top-notch slices, then Seattle couldn’t be farther away in proximity. But distance shouldn’t determine everything, right? So, where are Seattle’s best slices?
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Seattle’s Caela Bailey is attracted to the colorful, the unique and the flamboyant. And, as a lifelong resident of the Emerald City, she has seen many manifestations of what she loves go extinct. Whether a favorite bar demolished or an artist friend forced out of the city, Bailey laments these losses. And, as an artist, she attempts to subvert the pain from those disappearances with bouquets of eye-popping performance. Her latest, a beautiful video for her song, “Belltown Crawl,” features a swath of local creators—from Chocolate Drizzle producer Keon Volt, to superstar burlesque producer/performer and all around advocate, Briq House, to rock ‘n’ roll singer Eva Walker. The production is a love letter to Seattle’s creative explosions.
Traditionally, professional athletes aren’t known for speaking their minds, though that’s beginning to change. Their personal opinions often remain private to protect an endorsement—or three. Of course, there’s the apocryphal story of Michael Jordan saying, “Republicans buy sneakers, too,” when asked about a political opinion he did not want to give. But there are professional athletes who speak their minds and stand up in the face of social and political injustice. And they’re often women.
Read MoreWith its latest two Grammy nominations in tow, the Seattle-based electronic duo Odesza has planted its flag firmly in mainstream-music culture. But what that means for the group — and whether or not the consequences are completely welcome — is yet to be seen.
Read MoreWalking into Redhook Ale Brewery’s new experimental brewpub facility, Brewlab, you might experience a moment of cognitive dissonance. On the one hand, you’re in the center of Seattle’s hippest neighborhood, Capitol Hill, inside a bright, shiny new watering hole, surrounded by beer lovers of all kinds—from tech nerds to indie rockers. On the other, you’re in a Redhook facility, a realm no longer associated with recipe excitement and brewing innovation. So your next thought might be, “Wait, what’s going on here?”
Read MoreFried chicken. Everybody loves it and lots of places serve it, but not every breaded bird is created equal, and finding great versions of the soul food staple in Seattle can be quite a challenge. Recently, I set out to survey some of Seattle’s most recommended and reputable places with the help of a few soul food aficionados, Evan Flory-Barnes and Eva Walker. While taste is ultimately an entirely subjective matter, we did our best to make the experiment somewhat scientific.
Read MoreWhen Gabrielle Kadushin (aka Seattle-based rapper Gifted Gab) was 15, she smoked her first blunt. “I was with my older brother,” she recalls. “He took me to a party and we were smoking in the car. And I was trippin’—I remember screaming at the top my lungs that I wanted apple juice and Funyuns!”
Read More“The whole thing with The Voice,” says Seattle songwriter Gabriel Wolfchild, a former contestant on NBC’s popular reality TV singing competition, “is that a lot of people see it as this golden ticket. Like it’s going to do all the work for you. It’s definitely not that by any means—but it can create a pathway to real allies.”
Read MoreIt’s about 10 a.m. on a Monday, and Carla Marie and Anthony have just finished their four-hour morning show on Seattle FM station, POWER 93.3. But the day’s work isn’t over yet. Their producer, Hoody, has a caller on the line for the duo’s regular signature segment, “Dirty Little Secret.” The call patched into the studio is from a truck driver from Washington who has six girlfriends in six different cities around the country on his route. The titillating details might make your average person’s jaw drop, but your average person isn’t tasked with being quick-witted and chatty on a daily basis.
Read MoreSeattle’s Jeff Ramsey has worn many hats throughout his career, his work experience ranging from the bar and restaurant industry, to the music and entertainment biz and the overlap of both. Most recently, Ramsey teamed up with Pike Place Market's beloved burlesque and cabaret theater, Can Can, to help redevelop the venue’s menu, service standards, and overall aesthetic.
Read MoreThe Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio is fast becoming one of the city’s hottest groups. Featuring guitar virtuoso Jimmy James and steady-handed, prolific drummer David McGraw, the band is fronted by Delvon Lamarr, the charming songwriter and fantastic organ player. Capable of getting a whole room to shake while also sparking the collective thought, “Who the eff are these guys???” the trio, which recently signed a record deal with famed soul label Colemine Records, is an instrumental powerhouse. With a release show planned for the end of the month, we wanted to catch up with Lamarr and see what’s up in the world of one of the most exciting bands in Seattle.
Read MoreSeattle’s Unika Noiel, head chef of the Pioneer Square Italian restaurant Che Sara Sara, is also one of the city’s foremost experts on cooking cannabis-infused food. Whereas most retail edibles are sweet, like cookies and gummy worms, Noiel’s infusions are more of the soul food variety, ranging from fried chicken to catfish to watermelon salad.
Read MoreIt’s a few minutes before 11 p.m. on Saturday night and Krist Novoselic is backstage at the Sunset Tavern in Ballard. The 52-year-old former Nirvana bassist is gearing up to play the album release show for his new group, Giants in the Trees, and jokes about texting his fictitious life coach. “He’s telling me things like, ‘You can do it’ and ‘You deserve it,’” Novoselic smiles.
Read MoreMichael Wansley remembers very clearly the day he first got sober—Seafair Weekend 1999—after waking up in bed with a stranger, full of regret. He remembers a night in Paris while on tour with Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, in a small club surrounded by hundreds of people waving bottles of champagne at him from every angle after he’d finished his famous deep-voiced hook on “Thrift Shop.” And he remembers a simple but effective idea his AA sponsor told him one afternoon: “Michael, you never have to take a drink again.”
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