Music

Culture North Carolina-trained opera singer Diana Thompson-Brewer, here performing "Lucia di Lammermoor" in 2019, talked to us about her rise in the state's opera scene and watching that scene become more diverse. (Photo by Camille Hayes)
Culture A North Carolina Opera Star on Making Her Art Form More Diverse 

Since starring in the classic opera “Porgy and Bess,” Dr. Diana Thompson-Brewer has become a mainstay in North Carolina opera. She talks to us about breaking barriers in a conservative, white-dominated art form.

Emily Jaeger Emily Jaeger December 12, 2022 1:26 pm EST
Culture Unspoken Tradition, a western NC bluegrass band, credits the Blue Ridge Music Trail with incubating their careers as well as other traditional bands in the area. (Image via Unspoken Tradition)
Culture The Unbroken Chain: Rediscovering North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Music Trail

“Western NC has really punched above its weight in terms of influencing American music,” says one expert. There’s no better way to explore that influence than the Blue Ridge Music Trail.

Emily Jaeger Emily Jaeger December 8, 2022 4:24 pm EST
Culture Clemmie Lee "Fig" Jones near his home in Pink Hill. An R&B and rock-and-roll drummer, Jones is holding the drumsticks that the early Kinston drummer Willie Moore gave him. (Photograph by Titus Brooks Heagins)
Culture The Rise and Rebirth of North Carolina’s African American Music Trail

An eight-county trail in eastern NC doesn’t just revisit our dark history of segregation. It lifts up Black joy by celebrating the musicians who broke barriers and made remarkable music. 

Emily Jaeger Emily Jaeger November 30, 2022 11:45 am EST
Music The Durham artist is a leader in the local music scene. (Image via Sonicbids.com)
Music Being Shirlette Ammons: The Durham Musician on Embracing Life as a Queer, Black Woman in the South 

"Spectacles," the forthcoming album from the Durham artist, delves into a lifetime navigating a hybrid identity: QPOC, artist, and rural Southerner.

Emily Jaeger Emily Jaeger September 27, 2022 4:58 pm EDT
Culture For just the second time, Willie Nelson's Farm Aid benefit is coming to North Carolina. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
Culture Why Now, More Than Ever, North Carolina Needs Farm Aid

Willie Nelson’s farm-boosting benefit show is coming to North Carolina. The timing couldn’t be better for N.C.’s biggest industry.

Jeremy Borden Jeremy Borden August 2, 2022 1:12 pm EDT

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Bicyclists in the Tour De Fat bicycle parade in Idaho in 2016. New Belgium Brewing has moved operations into North Carolina. It's one of our picks for best trail-adjacent breweries to hit up in NC. (Shutterstock) Culture 7 North Carolina Towns That Are Perfect for Biking to a Brewery
Chef and TV personality Gordon Ramsay has a Durham chef featured on the latest season of "Gordon Ramsay's Food Stars." (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File) Culture Good News Friday: Gordon Ramsay Taps Durham Chef, and a NC Rescue Dog Lands Big Stage Role
Graphic by Francesca Daly, Photograph courtesy of Crystina Halcyon Abortion ‘More Women Are Going to Die’: NC Women Speak Out Against 12-Week Abortion Ban
FILE - President Joe Biden signs into law S. 2938, the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act gun safety bill, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, June 25, 2022. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File) Health Here’s How the Biden Administration Has Tackled The Mental Health Crisis
Culture North Carolina singer-songwriter Fantasia Barrino performs in 2018. (Photo by Gilbert Carrasquillo/WireImage)
Culture NC Women Rockers Who Shook Up the Music World

It's Women Rock Day, and we're paying tribute to these North Carolina visionaries who broke barriers and blazed new trails in popular music.

Emiene Wright Emiene Wright January 3, 2022 8:58 pm EST
Culture Native North Carolinian Nina Simone is among the musicians featured on our list of songs to hear from NC. (Shutterstock)
Culture NC Music Is Deep and Diverse: Here Are 10 Songs by North Carolinians to Add to Your Playlist

C&P takes you on a tour of North Carolina musicians, with overlooked gems from J. Cole to Roberta Flack to Nina Simone.

Billy Ball Billy Ball November 3, 2021 2:29 pm EDT