by Kile Smith | May 6, 2014 | Broad Street Review, Composition, Pop Music
[First published in the Broad Street Review, 6 May 2014. Reprinted by permission.] Long ago I got over being embarrassed by growing up on pop music. There’s no moral fiber in this accomplishment; it happened at about the same time the classical world got over the fact...
by Kile Smith | Jun 16, 2013 | Pop Music
[Published in the Broad Street Review, 15 Jun 2013, under the title A horse with no name? Why not?] For 40 years, since the band America came out with the song “A Horse With No Name” (see below), I knew one thing for sure. I was absolutely certain that in the desert...
by Kile Smith | Mar 15, 2013 | American music, Broad Street Review, Pop Music
[First published 3 Mar 2012 in the Broad Street Review and reprinted with permission.]We were a Pat Metheny crowd at the Keswick, middle-and-more-aged fans of alert guitar music played well. We followed every nuanced feint, swoop and sprint in Metheny’s...
by Kile Smith | Jan 21, 2013 | American music, Pop Music
[Remembering the anniversary of her death 20 Jan 2012; first published 31 Dec 2011 in the Broad Street Review and reprinted with permission.] A spotlight pushes like a wave across the room, lifting up glints from highball glasses and lacquered fingernails and cuff...
by Kile Smith | Dec 12, 2012 | American music, Broad Street Review, Classical music, Lutheran, Pop Music
[Reprinted with permission from the Broad Street Review] They’re Germans, I just know it, these four standing on the Ben Franklin Parkway at Cherry Street. That they’re tourists is obvious, scrutinizing a map. But something about their posture, or their sturdily...
by Kile Smith | Sep 12, 2012 | Classical music, Composition, evolution, Pop Music
[This article republished with permission from the Broad Street Review.] And I could say Oo oo oo… Most of my recent case against the evolution of music concerned itself with the mechanics of DarwinTunes, the program touted as making composers unnecessary. (See...
