Billy Bragg brought a mixture of political activism and heartwarming emotionalism to the Birchmere last night.

Singer-songwriter Dan Bern. (Photo by Todd Adamson.) As Dan Bern explains it, when someone has a story to tell in Nashville, they write a nice little song that manages to tie everything together in two and a half minutes with a melody to boot. But in L.A., where Bern hangs his hat these days, when someone has a story, they write a movie. Movies cost a lot of dough, though — something most singer-songwriters…

Bobby McFerrin, photo by Stewart CohenOver the past 20 years, Bobby McFerrin has conducted some of the world’s finest orchestras, bringing a fresh energy to classical music. His collaborations with the likes of Yo-Yo Ma, Chick Corea, and Herbie Hancock have topped the classical and jazz charts, and he founded the vocal ensembles Voicestra and Circlesongs, earning Grammy nods along the way. Combining formidable musical knowledge and technique with an unbridled enthusiasm and curiosity,…

Allan Holdsworth The fusion era of the 1970s was no doubt among the most controversial periods in jazz history. Analogous to the rise of be-bop during the 1940s and ’50s, instrumentalists broke new ground, taking the technical aspects of jazz music to new heights. But also like pioneers such as Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, explorers of the ’70s often saw their music fall on deaf ears, because listening could not be a passive…

Carolina Chocolate Drops, photo by Julie RobertsThe American folk music tradition runs deep, and is as diverse and eclectic as the country itself. Old-time music, a catch-all term for folk music that pre-dates what we now refer to as bluegrass or country, is part of this fabric. And while this genre is often associated with rural white communities in Appalachia, its true history is more complex. One part of the country that gave rise…

Henry Rollins remembers when this used to be a good neighborhood. Photo by Ben Swinnerton. Black Flag frontman turned globetrotting hilari-phizer Henry Rollins has been captivating audiences with stories of his travels for a quarter-century now. The onetime Henry Garfield first toured the country in his early 20s as the fourth and final singer of iconic punk outfit Black Flag, and has continued to write and perform music with various lineups of his Rollins…

A few commenters yesterday basically said “No Weller? No Way” at the prospect of going to see From The Jam at the Birchmere last night, and rightfully so. Since forming some 30-odd years ago, frontman Paul Weller has been The Jam in most people’s minds, even after he disbanded the group in the early 1980s, formed the universally reviled Style Council and later transitioned into his groundbreaking solo career that laid the groundwork for…