YouTube is a portal into worlds you might hesitate to visit, but which are irresistible viewing at a safe virtual distance.  In one, a singer works surrounded by stocky,  thuggish-looking men.  They appear to have been sent by `central casting’ for roles as Eastern European mafiosi.  Nothing separates the lady from her audience.  Do the brutes paw the alluring femme …

He was one of those larger-than-life figures of the 1960s who seemed, even then, to belong to an earlier, bolder era.  Among his admirers were Pablo Picasso and Brigitte Bardot.  Salvador Dali reportedly said, “When Manitas plays, the firemen themselves catch fire.” That fire was extinguished on November 6 with the passing, at age 93, of flamenco guitarist Manitas de …

As God is my witness, I saw this at a flea market some years ago: Two record collectors huddle, one holding a shiny 78-rpm disc with no grooves, no label. He hands it to his pal and, in a conspiratorial tone, says: “It’s a virgin Presto!” The collector who’s taken the precious blank disc in hand holds it up to …

Snarling, gun-wielding psycho.  Repentant sinner, eyescast heavenward.  Pensive uniformed Confederate cavalryman.  Those are roles photographer Leigh Weiner cast Johnny Cash in before he forever became`the man in black.’  Cash was one of many singers whose evolving images came to life at the Annenberg Space for Photography in Los Angeles, Country: Portraits of an American Sound, up from May through September.  …

The `nature vs. nurture’ debate rages over all human inclinations, from criminality to artistry.  Are behaviors that lead to gallows or galleries learned or inherited?  Recent recordings by sons and daughters suggest the answer, for musicians anyway, may be `both.’ Larry `Mud’ Morganfield sounds uncannily like his legendary father, Muddy Waters.  Yet he swears he barely knew his Dad, and …