Author: Amanda Wicks

Colombian-Canadian singer Lido Pimienta‘s powerful song “Eso Que Tu Haces” builds its rhythm on cumbia, the national dance of Colombia. Cumbia first originated in Africa...

I loved one who desired another. It was a punishing thing, but I didn’t quite understand the complexity of that pain until I heard “The...

I’ve written before about attending a concert to hear one particular musician only to discover another. Recently, I experienced a distinctive version of that. In...

Songs resonant in different ways: perhaps it’s a melody that pangs with a particularly resolute truth or a verse that delivers a lightning flash of...

Last year, I wrote about Flock of Dimes’ electro-pop jaunt “Two,” which examined the strained desire of wanting companionship while prizing independence. It’s a tension...

It’s that interminable time of the year when these muted wintry days have gone on too long, the cold refusing to relax its grip. We...

There was a time when I wasn’t so good at being alone. During the start of my PhD program (over a decade ago now), I...

Justin Vernon’s natural singing voice, by which I mean his capacious baritone, not his crooning falsetto, has the most immediate physical effect on me. I...

I used to be embarrassed about my introduction to jazz and soul, for mine was a strange passageway: romantic comedies. Although I don’t remember it...

Rare are the times when a moment is so perfect you recognize it while it’s happening. Usually that kind of appreciation happens after the fact,...