For Chicago Magazine

Dan Hyman

Caitlyn Smith has a monster songwriting pedigree that includes work for Garth Brooks, Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers, but now she’s on her own

March 12, 2020 at 5:24 p.m.

On paper, Caitlyn Smith is a textbook product of the Nashville system. The singer-songwriter has called Music City home for years now and has written songs for the likes of...

Death, divorce, sobriety have marked a ROUGH last few years for Nathaniel Rateliff, who found a way out of the maze via his quieter solo alter ego

March 5, 2020 at 10:01 p.m.

Time has a funny way of circling back around, and lately Nathaniel Rateliff's present is resembling his past. "Yah, it's definitely somewhat of a return to my earlier years," the...

You might think, ‘Who asked Dashboard Confessional to come back?’ Chris Carrabba has some answers for you

February 28, 2020 at 6:00 a.m.

Nostalgia is a tricky proposition for Chris Carrabba. On one hand, he revels in it: "Let's enjoy this thing we once enjoyed together so well," said the Dashboard Confessional singer,...

Raphael Saadiq performs during the 2018 Pitchfork Music Festival at Union Park on Saturday, July 21, 2018, in Chicago.

Raphael Saadiq uses his songwriting pen as a window into his funky soul to tell the story of Jimmy Lee

February 20, 2020 at 3:10 p.m.

"Everybody knows a Jimmy Lee," said Raphael Saadiq, invoking the name of his late drug-addicted brother who inspired his latest album and died of an overdose around the time Saadiq...

Tove Lo is provocative, and she isn’t shy about it, none of which would matter if her music wasn’t always on point

February 13, 2020 at 3:52 p.m.

Tove Lo has never been one to shy away from provocation. And she isn't stopping now. "I don't want to do things where I always look or seem like my...

Trippie Redd wants to honor his fallen peers by pumping out music like he’s the only one left, and the rapper feels like he is

February 6, 2020 at 3:19 p.m.

"When it comes to this style of music, sometimes I feel like I'm the only one left," said Trippie Redd, the rapper's voice pitching down to an almost hushed tone...

Michael Kiwanuka is finally taking the artistic license that he always had and digging really deep

January 30, 2020 at 3:24 p.m.

Three albums into a slow-building career that lately has produced ever-more fruitful returns, Michael Kiwanuka is all about pushing himself farther. "I realized you can get away with a lot...

Rex Orange County’s success is a surprise, but the singer isn’t surprised to be where he is, headlining a big room like the Aragon

January 23, 2020 at 3:14 p.m.

"The time when I've felt at my most successful is right now," Alex O'Connor, who performs as the experimental pop artist Rex Orange County, said when calling one afternoon as...

Mike Gordon and his music is about a process of ‘letting go,’ a surrender just like when he’s pulling strings for Phish

January 17, 2020 at 8:12 p.m.

Much in the way his best-known and monolithic band Phish has been known to get all dreamlike and downright mesmerizing in the midst of their notoriously epic jams, Mike Gordon...

Singer Yola Carter poses in Nashville, Tenn. on Feb. 21, 2019. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)

Big voice, big sound, big buzz is what the atmosphere around country singer Yola is all about, and she’s loving feeling free to be herself

December 31, 2019 at 3:29 p.m.

You wouldn't know it from her effervescent presence, and certainly not from the way it springs forth via her radiant brand of soul-infected country music, but for much of her...

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