The last time Beyoncé performed “Daddy Lessons,” the stomping, biting number from her 2016 album, “Lemonade,” was at that year’s C.M.A. Awards, in a blistering rendition alongside the Dixie Chicks (now the Chicks). Not everyone in country music embraced Beyoncé’s experimentation. “I did not feel welcomed,” she wrote in album …
This transcript was created using speech recognition software. While it has been reviewed by human transcribers, it may contain errors. Please review the episode audio before quoting from this transcript and email transcripts@nytimes.com with any questions. archived recording 1 Love now and always. archived recording 2 Did you fall in …
There’s a dressing room backstage at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville called “It Takes Two” that’s filled with photos of some of country music’s most famous duos. It’s Michael Trotter Jr. and Tanya Trotter’s favorite spot to get ready before they perform there as the War and Treaty, which …
The most awards at the 67th annual Grammys went to Kendrick Lamar, who swept the biggest song prizes with his Drake diss “Not Like Us” on his way to five trophies. But the story of the night was Beyoncé, who after losing album of the year four previous times, won …
One morning, when she was about 7 years old, Neko Case stood on her front porch, closed her eyes and wished with all her might to see a horse. It was a tall order. She and her parents lived in the coastal city of Bellingham, Wash., and none of their …
The music producer David Mansfield flew down to Austin in May 2023 to record with Kinky Friedman, the satirical country singer, mystery novelist and twice-failed candidate for Texas governor. “I don’t think he ever said this was going to be his swan song,” said Mansfield, a fiddler and guitarist who …
The megahits of 2024 were inseparable from their back stories. And that was exhausting. Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us,” which racked up hundreds of millions of streams and helped propel him to the 2025 Super Bowl halftime show, was the ferocious culmination of his battle, via quickly released singles, with …