Rob Weinert-Kendt
@robkendt.bsky.social
Editor of American Theatre magazine, musical omnivore. trainmyear.blogspot.com
The news that Sting’s shipbuilding musical is coming to the Met Opera next June gave me an excuse to revisit its pretty glorious score, which shows solid storytelling craft and has flashes of true inspiration. He really should try his hand at another.
#dailyalbum open.spotify.com/album/1bL0cQ...
#dailyalbum open.spotify.com/album/1bL0cQ...
November 14, 2025 at 10:41 PM
The news that Sting’s shipbuilding musical is coming to the Met Opera next June gave me an excuse to revisit its pretty glorious score, which shows solid storytelling craft and has flashes of true inspiration. He really should try his hand at another.
#dailyalbum open.spotify.com/album/1bL0cQ...
#dailyalbum open.spotify.com/album/1bL0cQ...
The organ and vocal and guitar tone on this catchy, world-weary Caroline Rose bop sounds so much like Beach House, I initially thought it was meant as a parody. After several happy listens I've decided it's a tribute. #dailysong www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqhN...
Caroline Rose - More of the Same
YouTube video by David Dean Burkhart
www.youtube.com
November 14, 2025 at 9:51 PM
The organ and vocal and guitar tone on this catchy, world-weary Caroline Rose bop sounds so much like Beach House, I initially thought it was meant as a parody. After several happy listens I've decided it's a tribute. #dailysong www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqhN...
My new Goes To Show column for American Theatre features Zora Howard's HANG TIME, Richard Thomas in MARK TWAIN TONIGHT, and a list of world premieres this month all across the U.S. www.americantheatre.org/2025/11/14/z...
Zora Howard Wants Art to Shake Us
Plus: Richard Thomas revives Hal Holbrook's 'Mark Twain Tonight,' and a listing of world premieres across the U.S.
www.americantheatre.org
November 14, 2025 at 9:44 PM
My new Goes To Show column for American Theatre features Zora Howard's HANG TIME, Richard Thomas in MARK TWAIN TONIGHT, and a list of world premieres this month all across the U.S. www.americantheatre.org/2025/11/14/z...
I don’t use music primarily as a balm, but there’s no gainsaying how much this willowy Bridget St. John record hits the spot on a stressful day. The tricksy opener “Nice” alone is a perfect, crystalline oasis unto itself. #dailyalbum open.spotify.com/album/2Az9SC...
November 13, 2025 at 11:14 PM
I don’t use music primarily as a balm, but there’s no gainsaying how much this willowy Bridget St. John record hits the spot on a stressful day. The tricksy opener “Nice” alone is a perfect, crystalline oasis unto itself. #dailyalbum open.spotify.com/album/2Az9SC...
On its face, this Replacements classic has a legible form: verse, pre-chorus, chorus, rinse and repeat. But it has always felt delightfully disorienting, even chaotic to me, as if it's made of shards of half-ideas until it gets to its true hook: "Because I just might lose it." #dailysong
Hold My Life
YouTube video by The Replacements - Topic
youtu.be
November 13, 2025 at 8:52 PM
On its face, this Replacements classic has a legible form: verse, pre-chorus, chorus, rinse and repeat. But it has always felt delightfully disorienting, even chaotic to me, as if it's made of shards of half-ideas until it gets to its true hook: "Because I just might lose it." #dailysong
Seldom has a song with such an irresistibly gritty guitar lick as its defining riff given way to such a bouncy, flute-accented chorus, but that's all part of the crafty pop-rock magic of Foxwarren. (And yes, the Joe Cappa video for this tune is delightfully bonkers). #dailysong
Foxwarren - "Deadhead"
YouTube video by ANTI- Records
www.youtube.com
November 12, 2025 at 7:48 PM
Seldom has a song with such an irresistibly gritty guitar lick as its defining riff given way to such a bouncy, flute-accented chorus, but that's all part of the crafty pop-rock magic of Foxwarren. (And yes, the Joe Cappa video for this tune is delightfully bonkers). #dailysong
I first came to Canadian soprano Patricia O'Callaghan for her renditions of Weill, Poulenc, and Satie, and have followed her intermittently since; she's got Dawn Upshaw-worthy chops and eclecticism. Her new song cycle with David Braid is exquisite. #dailyalbum open.spotify.com/album/22bvWd...
November 12, 2025 at 3:14 PM
I first came to Canadian soprano Patricia O'Callaghan for her renditions of Weill, Poulenc, and Satie, and have followed her intermittently since; she's got Dawn Upshaw-worthy chops and eclecticism. Her new song cycle with David Braid is exquisite. #dailyalbum open.spotify.com/album/22bvWd...
I raise a toast to QUEENS, Martyna Majok’s layered and moving, and mostly unflinching, portrait of immigrant women struggling against punishing odds for dignity and self-determination, not to mention warmth and meaning, in my borough. Through Dec. 7 at MTC
November 12, 2025 at 4:51 AM
I raise a toast to QUEENS, Martyna Majok’s layered and moving, and mostly unflinching, portrait of immigrant women struggling against punishing odds for dignity and self-determination, not to mention warmth and meaning, in my borough. Through Dec. 7 at MTC
Happily revisiting one of my favorite records: the North American version of The Style Council's "Café Bleu," a delicious grab bag of jazz-pop and blue-eyed soul, with dollops of rap and ragtime. It already sounded timeless in 1984. This band was my Wham! #dailyalbum open.spotify.com/playlist/0D0...
November 11, 2025 at 6:21 PM
Happily revisiting one of my favorite records: the North American version of The Style Council's "Café Bleu," a delicious grab bag of jazz-pop and blue-eyed soul, with dollops of rap and ragtime. It already sounded timeless in 1984. This band was my Wham! #dailyalbum open.spotify.com/playlist/0D0...
The first thing you notice about this haunting Sibylle Baier tune is the queasy chromaticism of the repeated title word, the major keys shading to minor, the gentle vocal. The next thing you notice: It’s a meditation on time and motherhood and letting go, and it all clicks into place. #dailysong
Softly
YouTube video by Sibylle Baier - Topic
youtu.be
November 11, 2025 at 1:14 PM
The first thing you notice about this haunting Sibylle Baier tune is the queasy chromaticism of the repeated title word, the major keys shading to minor, the gentle vocal. The next thing you notice: It’s a meditation on time and motherhood and letting go, and it all clicks into place. #dailysong
From Lila Downs to Rosalía, from Arooj Aftab to Jeff Buckley, last week's Music Diary is up
Music Diary, Vol. 96
trainmyear.blogspot.com
November 10, 2025 at 8:49 PM
From Lila Downs to Rosalía, from Arooj Aftab to Jeff Buckley, last week's Music Diary is up
The orchestration is spare, the harmonies angular, and the politics almost self-parodically collectivist, but for whatever reason I find Brecht & Weill's 1930 Lehrstücke about a young boy sacrificing himself for the good of his town unutterably moving. #dailyalbum www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWPo...
November 10, 2025 at 8:37 PM
The orchestration is spare, the harmonies angular, and the politics almost self-parodically collectivist, but for whatever reason I find Brecht & Weill's 1930 Lehrstücke about a young boy sacrificing himself for the good of his town unutterably moving. #dailyalbum www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWPo...
Chief among the many things I love about this Cibo Matto classic is the fact that its chorus—the thing you wait for every time—is nothing more than a grinding, vaguely sinister guitar figure and a repeated "Oh" in the vocal. Groove is in the gut, and in the clouds. #dailysong
Apple
YouTube video by Cibo Matto - Topic
www.youtube.com
November 10, 2025 at 6:18 PM
Chief among the many things I love about this Cibo Matto classic is the fact that its chorus—the thing you wait for every time—is nothing more than a grinding, vaguely sinister guitar figure and a repeated "Oh" in the vocal. Groove is in the gut, and in the clouds. #dailysong
The Texas streetcorner preacher/musician Washington Phillips mostly recorded renditions of gospel standards for voice and a homemade zither he called a manzarene, but this original tune about a mother’s blessing for a departing son is almost unbearably sweet and sad. #dailysong youtu.be/tFV_wlhRfn8
Mother's Last Word To Her Son
YouTube video by Washington Phillips - Topic
youtu.be
November 10, 2025 at 12:43 AM
The Texas streetcorner preacher/musician Washington Phillips mostly recorded renditions of gospel standards for voice and a homemade zither he called a manzarene, but this original tune about a mother’s blessing for a departing son is almost unbearably sweet and sad. #dailysong youtu.be/tFV_wlhRfn8
Celestial harmonies, yes, but also whiffs of sulfur—apocalypse as well as rapture—course through this expertly curated and performed collection of scared choral works by Ralph Vaughan Williams. The G-minor Mass is the centerpiece but it’s all compelling. #dailyalbum open.spotify.com/album/3U2OEn...
November 10, 2025 at 12:31 AM
Celestial harmonies, yes, but also whiffs of sulfur—apocalypse as well as rapture—course through this expertly curated and performed collection of scared choral works by Ralph Vaughan Williams. The G-minor Mass is the centerpiece but it’s all compelling. #dailyalbum open.spotify.com/album/3U2OEn...
It’s hard to imagine a better production with a more stacked cast than the one of THE BAKER’S WIFE now onstage at CSC. In lesser hands it might be unbearably twee, but here it is lovingly staged and performed—a joy and a gem.
November 10, 2025 at 12:17 AM
It’s hard to imagine a better production with a more stacked cast than the one of THE BAKER’S WIFE now onstage at CSC. In lesser hands it might be unbearably twee, but here it is lovingly staged and performed—a joy and a gem.
Imagine M.I.A. narrating a Mike Leigh film, and you’re roughly halfway to what Kae Tempest achieves on this riveting concept album about a sex worker and the hapless men who try to save and/or control her. I would not hesitate to call it a masterpiece. #dailyalbum open.spotify.com/album/7D7AbN...
November 9, 2025 at 3:45 AM
Imagine M.I.A. narrating a Mike Leigh film, and you’re roughly halfway to what Kae Tempest achieves on this riveting concept album about a sex worker and the hapless men who try to save and/or control her. I would not hesitate to call it a masterpiece. #dailyalbum open.spotify.com/album/7D7AbN...
The cues in Bill Lee’s great jazz-orchestral score for DO THE RIGHT THING that I especially cherish are the 3 he wrote for Ossie Davis’s character: Like Da Mayor, they have an old-school sweetness, courtliness, and pathos to them. #dailysong youtu.be/xfio9spr878
Da Mayor Loves Mother Sister
YouTube video by Bill Lee - Topic
youtu.be
November 8, 2025 at 2:40 PM
The cues in Bill Lee’s great jazz-orchestral score for DO THE RIGHT THING that I especially cherish are the 3 he wrote for Ossie Davis’s character: Like Da Mayor, they have an old-school sweetness, courtliness, and pathos to them. #dailysong youtu.be/xfio9spr878
Reposted by Rob Weinert-Kendt
sometimes an Oxford comma can make all the difference
November 8, 2025 at 12:36 PM
sometimes an Oxford comma can make all the difference
One of the great privileges of my life is to play regularly with the outlandishly talented singer Catherine Brookman in the Greenpoint Reformed Church band. Her beautifully layered new album, out today, gives you a chance to hear why I’m so fortunate. #dailyalbum open.spotify.com/album/2dd0Zy...
November 7, 2025 at 5:19 PM
One of the great privileges of my life is to play regularly with the outlandishly talented singer Catherine Brookman in the Greenpoint Reformed Church band. Her beautifully layered new album, out today, gives you a chance to hear why I’m so fortunate. #dailyalbum open.spotify.com/album/2dd0Zy...
Still processing the kaleidoscopic genius of Rosalía's new record, but on first listen my ears perked up at this sweetly tuneful, Gaby Moreno-esque waltz (backed by the sierreño trio Yahritza y Su Esencia), which happens to deliver a bitterly sarcastic kiss-off to an ex. #dailysong
La Perla
YouTube video by ROSALÍA - Topic
www.youtube.com
November 7, 2025 at 3:29 PM
Still processing the kaleidoscopic genius of Rosalía's new record, but on first listen my ears perked up at this sweetly tuneful, Gaby Moreno-esque waltz (backed by the sierreño trio Yahritza y Su Esencia), which happens to deliver a bitterly sarcastic kiss-off to an ex. #dailysong
Reposted by Rob Weinert-Kendt
A List of Things Said to Have Been Ruined by Women
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November 6, 2025 at 8:43 PM
A List of Things Said to Have Been Ruined by Women
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Been spinning this lively, boisterous Kodály suite for the past few days. I love its manic high points, of course, but I also key into the lush cimbalom passages in movement III. The wild moments hit even harder by contrast with the lyrical flights. #dailyalbum open.spotify.com/album/46sRi9...
November 6, 2025 at 10:52 PM
Been spinning this lively, boisterous Kodály suite for the past few days. I love its manic high points, of course, but I also key into the lush cimbalom passages in movement III. The wild moments hit even harder by contrast with the lyrical flights. #dailyalbum open.spotify.com/album/46sRi9...
This breathtaking Arooj Aftab piece came up on shuffle this morning, and despite its length I didn't think once about skipping. The interweaving of her delicate voice and Maeve Gilchrist's harp is positively soul-suspending. #dailysong
www.youtube.com/watch?v=udgz...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=udgz...
Inayaat
YouTube video by Arooj Aftab - Topic
www.youtube.com
November 6, 2025 at 5:12 PM
This breathtaking Arooj Aftab piece came up on shuffle this morning, and despite its length I didn't think once about skipping. The interweaving of her delicate voice and Maeve Gilchrist's harp is positively soul-suspending. #dailysong
www.youtube.com/watch?v=udgz...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=udgz...
Love this conversation about criticism between Wesley Morris and Kelefa Sanneh. It’s chiefly about music criticism but so many of its insights resonate for theater criticism as well
When Did Music Critics Get So Nice?
Podcast Episode · Cannonball with Wesley Morris · 11/06/2025 · 59m
podcasts.apple.com
November 6, 2025 at 2:45 PM
Love this conversation about criticism between Wesley Morris and Kelefa Sanneh. It’s chiefly about music criticism but so many of its insights resonate for theater criticism as well