NASA’s Chandra Sees Eclipsing Planet in X-rays for First Time

For the first time since exoplanets, or planets around stars other than the sun, were discovered almost 20 years ago, X-ray observations have detected an exoplanet passing in front of its parent star.
by David McGee
 

 
 

Artist of the Violin: Chatting Up Brooke Alford

It's not a full-blown trend yet, but the violin is becoming more prevalent in gospel music. One of the leading practitioners of gospel violin, BROOKE ALFORD, has a new album, VIOSOCALIST, that also spotlights her affecting sing...
by David McGee
 

 

 

Bach by Thile (Not Thile Does Bach)

It was inevitable: after flirting with Bach for his entire professional career, CHRIS THILE has released a solo album of the Baroque giant's Sonatas & Partitas. Reviewer CHRSITINE N. LAYTON hails it as a big winner.
by David McGee
 

 
 

Kansas Pacific (1953)

STERLING HAYDEN and EVE MILLER star in KANSAS PACIFIC, a fictionalized account of the struggle to build the Kansas Pacific Railway in the 1860s. Short subject: Little Lulu, 'Bargain Counter Attack.'
by David McGee
 

 

 

He Wrote ‘Two Steps from the Blues’

TEXAS JOHNNY BROWN, who died in Houston on July 1, will always be remembered for writing Bobby Blue Bland's classic "Two Steps from the Blues." But there was more...
by David McGee
 

 
 

Equal Opportunity Vibe

Vintage Calypso is alive and well...in Berlin, where LORD MOUSE AND THE KALYPSO KATZ are packing 'em in with their swaying beats, hot horns and bold lyrics. Go Calypso is the group's new album, explained herein by Lord Mouse hi...
by David McGee
 

 

 

Bully: A Visit with Laura Vaccaro Seeger

Pictured above is an early image from Caldecott Honor medalist Laura Vaccaro Seeger’s Bully, released in July from Neal Porter/Roaring Brook. A little birdie (named Neal Porter, in fact) told me months ago that Laura created ...
by David McGee
 

 
 

Down and Dirty Strings

On his Stringtet's new album, In the Gallery, composer/guitarist JASON SEED, unites classical players, jazz freedom and imaginary folk music. Jason explains it all in our interview.
by David McGee
 

 

 

Inside the Beagle Freedom Project

At some 380 U.S. research institutions and labs, 70,000 dogs are being experimented on--and 96 percent of those dogs are beagles. DUNCAN STRAUSS has the story.
by David McGee