A half-dozen cool things in music, from two points of view:
Aaron Williams of Minneapolis:
1 Goldings/Bernstein/Stewart Organ Trio, the Dakota. The jazzy Larry Goldings-led trio was in fine form, showing its considerable versatility and deep grooves at a packed club.
2 Samantha Fish coming to the Fine Line. The talented blues-rock guitarist returns for what promises to be an energizing Sunday night set.
3 Pert Near Sandstone's Winter Stringband Gathering. The high-energy bluegrass favorites announced their annual two-night run at the Cedar Cultural Center for March 3-4. Like-minded openers Arkansauce and the Hackensaw Boys will join for what is always an entertaining evening.
Jon Bream, Star Tribune critic:
1 Rosalia, Rolling Stone cover story. Her "Motomami" is one of the best and boldest albums of 2022, and this profile by Cat Cardenas paints the Spanish superstar as a fearless freedom-seeking artist who knows no boundaries. Most formidable quote: "I'm constantly seeing this phenomenon I keep being surprised by, of women and their talent in these predetermined categories: the sexy one, the crazy one, the bossy one, the diva. But those categories don't lead anywhere, they're just limiting." Ditto for musical genres: "I want to escape that categorization because it doesn't help you at all. It doesn't help your creativity. It's just something that restricts you, so it doesn't interest me."
2 SZA, "SOS." In what seemed like an eternity (five years, to be exact) since her debut, this compelling R&B singer-rapper dropped a deep, highly personal, 23-track, sophomore collection last week. It arrived too late to make many critics' already published best-of-2022 lists, but it will land on mine.
