25 essential concerts, festivals and albums for fall

Who knows what the Delta variant or some other gestating mutation holds for artists and concertgoers alike this fall, but we’re confident in saying that live music — Kendrick Lamar’s only show in 2021! Phoebe Bridgers at the Greek! Al Green sharing a stage with Snoop Dogg! — will forge ahead regardless, masked but undaunted.

Meanwhile, a slew of artists, many of whom have been biding their time during the pandemic, will release new albums that run the gamut from expansive reggaeton (Jhay Cortez) to all-eyes-on-Nashville country (Mickey Guyton) to songs about love, history and pestilence from aggressively handsome pop star Sting. Plus, we’ll see two massive rock docs (Todd Haynes’ “Velvet Underground” and Peter Jackson’s “The Beatles: Get Back”) and a surprisingly tender memoir from hair-metal wastrel Nikki Sixx.

Vax up and rock on.

Aug. 25
‘Black Girl Songbook’ podcast
Danyel Smith has a rule — or at least she used to — about her bedroom: “No work shall take place in here,” she says. “This is the serene area.”

Yet when Smith, a veteran music journalist who’s served as editor-in-chief of Vibe and Billboard, began recording her podcast “Black Girl Songbook” at home in the early days of the pandemic, her producers quickly decided that the acoustics at her dining table weren’t cutting it. “So then I tried the bedroom and they were like, ‘Oh my God, it sounds so good!’ Now I have a mike and all the engineering doodads in here.” She laughs. “We