The Life And Times

“Justin Townes Earle may have had a top-notch pedigree, but his music connected with people precisely because he came across as one of them. The son of one alt-country trailblazer (Steve Earle) and the namesake of another (Townes Van Zandt), he imbued his artful narratives with humility and deep empathy. While his well-crafted songs are inseparable from his own story, what mattered most was that his characters’ desolation felt real,” Marc Hogan writes for Pitchfork.
“Ranging freely across country, folk, Americana, Western swing, Memphis soul, and more, he built up a prolific discography as a rootsy, down-to-earth songwriter’s songwriter. He sang with a gentle rasp that made commanding a stage seem as no-big-deal as bumming a cigarette outside the venue. Upon the heartbreaking news of Earle’s passing, here are five songs that can serve as an introduction to his humble gravitas.”
Click through to get started.

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Posted on August 27, 2020

Better Than Lightfoot

“The mother of Carlton Weekly, better known by his stage name FBG Duck, called for peace after her son was shot and killed in the Gold Coast neighborhood,” the Crusader reports.
“The call comes after comments by Mayor Lori Lightfoot that labeled the rapper as a member of a gang who ‘fancies himself a rapper,’ a description the family refutes.”
Well, you fancy yourself a mayor so I suppose anyone can fancy anything they want about themselves, but Weekly was better at his job than you are at yours.

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Posted on August 19, 2020

By Rory Mir/The Electronic Frontier Foundation

In 2012, Ubisoft launched an educational video game called Rocksmith. The idea was simple: why get good at playing a toy guitar, as in games like Guitar Hero, when you can use – and learn to play – the real thing? Their game helps beginner musicians identify the skills they need to work on, and then helps them improve those skills by providing gradually more complex songs and exercises.
These steps will sound familiar to anyone who has tried to learn an instrument. A teacher offers exercises, evaluates your performance, and adjusts the difficulty of the lesson to match your ability – keeping you from being bored or overwhelmed. This cycle of feedback is an example of a well-established teaching technique that many educational programs use to help users hone other skills, from language fluency to typing proficiency. Educational games, like Mario Teaches Typing (1992), have been using many of these techniques for several decades. Is adding a guitar to the picture really that innovative?

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Posted on August 14, 2020

By At Home Chicago Blues

At Home Chicago Blues ‘Trading 4s’ is a new pay-what-you-can Blues concert & conversation series hosted by acclaimed guitarist, Delmark recording artist and bandleader Dave Specter and streaming live on the 1st and 3rd Thursday of every month.
This week’s A-list session will feature sets and behind-the-scenes storytelling by Alligator Records’ electric blues guitarist Toronzo Cannon, plus acoustic slide guitarist Donna Herula, vocalist Katherine Davis and Delmark’s electric bassist Harlan Terson.

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Posted on August 4, 2020