It gets dimmer with each passing year, but rock ’n’ roll used to be dangerous. Led by the towering, slightly unhinged and indefatigable Danny Grace, there isn’t a band that recalls those antiquated visceral jolts more than Central Arkansas outfit The Frontier Circus.
Werner Trieschmann
Posted inRock Candy
Fox Green score hat trick with excellent third album, ‘Light Over Darkness’
Make no mistake, Fox Green isn’t treading water with this new work. The band, which includes UAMS Chancellor Cam Patterson on guitar, is clearly comfortable being uncomfortable, never settling into one predictable sound.
Posted inRock Candy
TV adaptation of Trenton Lee Stewart’s ‘The Mysterious Benedict Society’ wins at Emmys
Of its nine nominations, “The Mysterious Benedict Society” took home two honors: Outstanding Lead Performance (Tony Hale) and Outstanding Art Direction/Set Decoration/Scenic Design.
Posted inRock Candy
Ashley McBryde concert in El Dorado was all about mutual admiration
Country, rock or what have you, in El Dorado McBryde demonstrated in no uncertain terms why she’s climbed out of obscurity and separated herself from her peers. Her obsessions — small town dreams and delusions, striking out at religious hypocrisy — come to life in such a careful way in her hands. She doesn’t make glorified beer commercials or whatever else the Luke Sheltons and Blake Bryans are passing off as country songs.
Posted inRock Candy
Fox Green is back (and fully-formed) with ‘Holy Souls’
“Holy Souls” is confident, sturdy yet loose and, rarer still, joyful.
Posted inRock Candy
Fred Owens, new CEO of Opera in the Rock, is in search of opera’s ‘untold stories’
Opera has long been the realm of the rich and the white. Fred Owens wants to change that in Arkansas.
Posted inRock Candy
‘In the meantime’: A Q&A with Hayes Carll
“You Get It All” opens with a satirical peek at Planet Earth from the perspective of a disappointed female God and then settles in with relationship songs: the highlight being “In the Meantime,” a duet with Brandy Clark that calls to mind peak George Jones.
Posted inRock Candy
‘The Eyes of Tammy Faye’ not as inspired as is Chastain’s turn in the spotlight
Chastain’s admiration for her character never waivers, even as we see the older Faye making unsuccessful pitches to C-level TV producers and eating TV dinners by herself with her dog.
Posted inEntertainment
Tammy Faye Bakker’s “radical” sincerity: A Q&A with Jessica Chastain
Chastain came to Filmland to promote “The Eyes of Tammy Faye,” which she produced, and which is based on a 2000 documentary of the same name.
Posted inEntertainment
“Like a magpie,” new storytelling project at Hendrix collects vignettes from underexplored Arkansas communities
We talk to Hendrix College professors Maxine Payne and Tyrone Jaeger about their “AV Arkansas” storytelling project and the value of stories in our small, complicated state.