A modest grant from AARP opened Bynum Front Porch to the world during COVID — “You can’t hear the bass.” Emily, a headphone-wearing tween whose expression reads, “I can fix this,” glares at an iPad screen displaying several Zoom-like windows and toolbars. A few feet away, the bluegrass band Swift Creek is playing on an outdoor stage before about 160 people on a pleasant but…

YouTube and Facebook kept ‘live’ music going during the pandemic; will Twitch shuffle the entire industry? Jorma Kaukonen, co-founder of Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna and member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, will hit the road in a couple of weeks — his first extensive touring since March 2020. You know, when COVID shut down live performances. But the 80-year-old fingerpicking legend served…

Tuesday, June 29, eight or 12 or 20 or so people will head to the Oakwood neighborhood near downtown Raleigh. Each will take a chair and a music stand and an instrument to a spot outside Pelagic Beer and Wine Company, a bottle shop off the main drag. …

From intimate gatherings to mega events, live music is back. North Carolina may be the center of one dimension of the universe (pardon the inept metaphor). The International Bluegrass Music Association recently announced its annual business meeting and music festival, renamed IBMA Bluegrass Live!, will go on as normally as…

Hi, I’m Rick. I’m a recovering political journalist. I’ve spent more than three decades writing and editing for newspapers and magazines. I’ve worked in five states, three time zones. I’ve won awards. I’ve managed and mentored. I started a Substack: Deregulator.net. Its focus was politics and policy, too narrow, and…