Madison phenom Raine Stern on The Voice
Stern will be a Team Nick member for Season 20 competition
Nicole Hansen
Raine Stern is a distinctive guitarist, with the ability to play (and fluidly mix) various styles, and a superb vocalist.
Madison-based singer, songwriter and guitarist Raine Stern is the kind of performer who immediately grabs your attention any time she s on stage. The world will now get a chance to learn what regional music audiences already know, as Stern has made it through the first round of the new season of
The Voice.Â
The music competition and pop culture phenomenon kicked off its 20th season on March 1 (and also celebrated its 10th anniversary on NBC) with the Blind Auditions round, in which the four coaches select team members based just on how they sound. Following a fiery vocal and guitar performance by Stern of the MGMT song Electric Feel, coaches Nick Jonas, John Legend and Blake Shelton all wanted to select Stern for their team.Â
A new Broom
Lil Rail and 608 Nikyra Monae
Here we are at the end of February, creeping toward a year since we all started staying home. All that time at home combined with multiple streaming channels has led to possibly even more new music than usual by local artists, so much so that it would be a full-time job just to keep up with it all. And it would be a fun job, thanks to the creativity and range of sounds and experiences you can find out there. Read on for a sampling of what s caught my ear recently.
One reminder: Bandcamp is continuing the practice of waiving its fees on the first Friday each month through at least May, which makes Friday, March 5, a good day to support your local artists.
ONLINE: Art Toast Self Portrait by DarRen Morris, reproduced by Philip Salamone as a mural in downtown Madison. I did not know then that there were actual Black artists, writes DarRen Morris in the artist statement on his website. Morris is currently in a Wisconsin maximum security prison, sentenced to life without parole at age 17. Morris says he was party to the unintentional death of an innocent man. Although I was involved in this death, I am not a murderer. He has no formal artistic training and paints on whatever surfaces he is allowed, sometimes cardboard. Artist Philip Salamone and author Judith Adrian will discuss Morris s art in the context of the exhibit
ONLINE: Art Toast
From Here on Out, an exhibit celebrating Black lives and examining how artists are interpreting current events, on display at IAG s MarƶeŠshowroom (and online) through March 1. Third Thursdays feature Art Toast, a livestream studio talk hosted by exhibit co-curator Margaret LeMay; December s event features artists Jennika Bastian, Megan Bloesch, Thomas Ferrella, Madison Golden, Mark Weller and Christopher Karl Wilde.
RSVP here, or find the stream on
A work by Christopher Karl Wilde from the From Here On Out exhibit.
press release: Join us for an interactive Livestream studio tour, meet the artists, and see recent work!