Lil Wayne, The Low Anthem gave scintillating musical surprises in 2009

Sam McDonald — Sun, 3 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0500

In 2009, Charlottesville saw stadium rockers U2 land a spacecraft on a football field, but our corner of Virginia reeled in plenty of great concert action, too. The Peninsula, in particular, had a good year. Phish awoke from a long slumber and played three celebratory shows in March at Hampton Coliseum, drawing the eyes and ears of the rock world to our area code. Legendary country singer Emmylou Harris was among the great artists who performed at the Ferguson Center for the Arts in Newport News.

There's been good news and bad news in music

Sam McDonald — Sun, 30 Jan 2005 00:00:00 -0400

Winter - especially the post-holiday period - is a relatively quiet time for the music world. Hot new CD releases are few, major concert tours are fewer. For the most part, it's time to recharge those batteries - or recover from the Christmas bacchanal. There were heartening and disturbing events swirling around just underneath the season's blanket of ice and snow, however. Here's a look at a few of both. It's bleak enough these days, so let's start with the sunny stuff.

Daily Press - Sound Check (Sam McDonald)

Lil Wayne, The Low Anthem gave scintillating musical surprises in 2009

There's been good news and bad news in music