Nat Tracey-Miller's Profile

It’s a good thing The Woodward Theater’s walls remain unpainted, because shoegaze survivors Swervedriver would peel it right off. The English quartet recorded four LPs (including the classic Mezcal Head) before disbanding in 1998, and in 2008 joined a long list of alt-rock reunions at...

Let’s cut right to the chase: Brooklyn ensemble Sō Percussion owned Saturday’s MusicNOW program. Everything else was stupendous, but this was their night. Check out photos from the performances here. A decent-sized crowd arrived for their pre-concert performance of Bryce...

For years, Memorial Hall has been MusicNOW’s spiritual home. Even last year, the first partnered with the Symphony, the Karl Jensen lightboxes and strands of incandescent bulbs felt a bit as if they’d been uprooted. But walking into Cincinnati Music Hall last night, there could be no...

After Wednesday’s rollicking opener, it was time to quiet things down a bit. The second night of MusicNOW was a joint effort with local chamber ensemble concert:nova, made up primarily of members of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra [View photos here]. The Woodward Theater had a seated...

The tenth edition of the MusicNOW Festival got underway last night at The Woodward Theater. It’s a landmark year for the event, sprawling out to five nights (three more than in 2014) at four venues, and boasting a lineup that’s eclectic even by the festival’s diverse standards....

When Bryce Dessner of The National started MusicNOW in 2006, it was a small two-night event held at the Contemporary Arts Center. Over the past decade, it’s become a landmark annual affair, internationally renowned for commissioning new works by classical music’s most innovative...

When Michael Gira brought his post-punk outfit Swans back from the dead five years ago, it was amidst a bevy of nostalgia-driven cash grabs by ‘80s and ‘90s alt-rock heroes. Gira, though, was explicit about his intentions in the initial announcement: “THIS IS NOT A REUNION.”...

2015 marks the 50th anniversary of the Grateful Dead’s formation. Few bands have cut such a wide path (musical and otherwise) across the American cultural landscape. In July, the “core four” members (Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann, and Mickey Hart) will reunite for a trio of...

Salt Year was probably the best album you never heard in 2011. The culmination of ten years of hard work by Ann Arbor’s Chris Bathgate, the record is full of recurring lyrical phrases and musical motifs, with complex but uncrowded arrangements that suddenly bloom into bursts of guitar noise...

Frontier Ruckus has been putting out wall-of-words folk rock for over a decade now. Their lyrics are to suburban Detroit what The Hold Steady’s have been for the Twin Cities, story songs peppered with place names and proper nouns that give them a lived-in familiarity. Currently touring as a...

Sturgill Simpson arrived in Covington on Saturday night ready for the big time. Like most of the dates on the tour promoting last year's critically acclaimed Metamodern Sounds in Country Music, it sold out a month in advance. It was his second consecutive home state show (Miles Miller’s...

After a decade of hard work, Sturgill Simpson’s ship has come in. A year ago right now, he was working to put out an LP he’d recorded for $4,000; two weeks ago, he signed with Atlantic Records. He’s performed his outside-the-box country songs on stages alongside the likes of Zac...