Welcome to TNB Music!

With the recent upgrades to the site, we are pleased to announce the launch of TNB’s new music section.

The steering committee got together with the planning committee and we broke out a few ad hoc committees before circling back and debriefing the joint committee oversight board on what we should call this brave new section. After an expansive, fiery and briefly violent debate, we settled on:

TNB Music.

Got a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?

Starting next week, TNB Music will follow the model of other sections like Nonfiction, Arts & Culture and Poetry and begin publishing weekly features on artists, albums, biographies and other projects that we think readers will immensely enjoy. Expect interviews with a wide range of musicians, critical essays, and profiles on up-and-comers from all genres of music. You may even see the odd list. After all, what is a music dialogue without lists?

Otherwise, the musical discussions will proceed as they always have in our little community. Hank Cherry will continue to unearth criminally-unheard soul classics of the 60s, while Art Edwards will favor us with his unparalleled insight into the delicate interplay of the rhythm section. With a bit of luck, jazz junkie Sean Beaudoin will deliver another artist appreciation, proving why it is patently wrong to say that any music “sucks.” And we’ll look forward to Gloria Harrison’s next installment of the soundtrack playing in the back of her life. I for one, nervously await Greg Olear’s continued defense of the Guinness Book of World Records’ latest inductee- Lady GaGa.

One thing we’ve learned over the years is that TNB is packed to the gills with music freaks. Some of the liveliest, thorniest and most passionate pieces on the site have concerned music. Authors and contributors consistently reveal themselves to have ridiculously high music IQs and uncanny insight into the tunes that float their boats. Expect that to continue.

As TNB has matured and emerged as a vibrant cultural epicenter, we have been offered access to some jaw droppingly good music projects and the time has come for us to share these with the community. Like the authors featured in other sections, we will focus on artists and topics that will both interest and challenge our readers, whether it be an interview with a grizzled rock icon or a profile of an audacious new artist on the Balearic beat scene.

So here we are.

Welcome aboard.

-Joe Daly