Written at age 14, Janis Ian’s “Society’s Child” confronted the racial taboos of 1960s America. In this interview, she reflects on the cultural impact of that moment, the evolution of artistic voice, and the enduring energy required to create with integrity—an outlaw artist still chasing the truth in melody, memory, and the spaces between, as she continues to tour nearly six decades later.
Author: Don Wilcock
Don Wilcock
Now into his second half century as the warrior music journalist, Don Wilcock began his career writing “Sounds from The World” in Vietnam, a weekly reader’s digest of pop music news for grunts in the field for the then largest official Army newspaper in the world, The Army Reporter. He’s edited BluesWax, FolkWax, The King Biscuit Times, Elmore Magazine, and also BluesPrint as founder of the Northeast Blues Society. Internationally, he’s written for The Blues Foundation’s Blues Music Awards program, Blues Matters and Blues World. He wrote the definitive Buddy Guy biography 'Damn Right I’ve Got The Blues,' and is currently writing copy for a coffee table book of watercolor paintings of blues artists by Clint Herring.
Alexis P. Suter is one of my favorite artists because she contradicts most of the blues cliches. Suter defies expectations — a powerhouse Black woman fronting an all-white band that’s been playing together, on and off, for over two decades. She mixes and matches originals with titles like “Love Always Wins” and “Big Girl Panties” on her new album, Just Stay High, with covers by artists as disparate as Ron Davies and Leon Russell. One of eight children whose mother was a minister and gospel singer, she mixes the secular with gospel in a repertoire that in 20 years has…
With juré rhythms in his bones and eight generations of heritage at his back, two-time Grammy-winning Creole Zydeco artist Terrance Simien turns every stage into a front porch where the whole world is invited.
The award-winning blues band kicks off a high-energy tour across the U.S., Canada, and Europe with a live show fans are calling their best yet.
Dave Specter has spent over three decades at Delmark, letting his guitar speak volumes before ever stepping to the mic. Now, with ‘Live at Space,’ he’s singing more, owning the room he helped build, and playing alongside musicians who share his feel for groove and spirit.
Longtime Elvin Bishop sideman Terry Hanck puts decades of blues and R&B into’ Grease to Gravy.’ With his seasoned sax and direct vocals, he offers deep roots and a set of songs informed by his own experience.
He had the early heat, the critical raves, the record deal with Clive Davis. The industry buzzed like he was the next big thing—then watched as he took his own road. Now 21 albums in, Willie Nile looks back on a career driven more by passion than spotlight, sharing stages with The Who and Ringo, and holding fast to his instincts.
At 81 years old, Charlie Musselwhite still calls himself “just a working stiff.” With ‘Look Out Highway’ (out now via Forty Below Records), he shows how a lifetime of quiet dedication can still thunder loud in the blues.
Drawn from a 2009 interview, Rick Derringer candidly reckons with how he was perceived, how he saw himself, and how the blues shaped a career that refused to stay in one lane.
With a voice that can shake the rafters and a story spanning seven Grammy nods, what she calls five careers, and one unforgettable life, Bettye LaVette is still singing like it’s the last song she’ll ever sing—wondering why the world’s only just catching up.