When I rang up Billy Bragg at his home in England recently, the folk-punk singer was in the middle of delivering a full-on scolding to his teenage son over a poor report card: "Don't you ever come home with grades this bad again," he said with some heat, before sending the young man on his way. I was impressed (and as a parent myself, I felt his pain). Then Bragg and I moved on to a wide-ranging discussion of music and politics. I asked about his 2002 song "NPWA," which still seems massively relevant in this age of ongoing economic calamity.

"I've felt for a long time that in this post-ideological world we live in, 'accountability' is still an important word," Bragg said. "I think it's the buzzword of the 21st century. How can we hold accountable those who have economic power over us? It's a big challenge because capitalism is like quicksilver in the way it moves. To watch TV and hear bankers admitting that even they don't understand what's happening is scary. We need to have some direct accountability. And with governments becoming shareholders in banks, that's got to be part of the deal."

Bragg plays twice on Saturday -- at an Obama rally at UNC that morning, and that evening at Duke's Page Auditorium. For more, see the interview.

ADDENDUM  (11/2/08): Review of Bragg's daytime performance at UNC.

So this week's James Taylor tour won't be the only get-out-the-vote shows happening here this election season. Coming to UNC-Chapel Hill's Graham Terrace (adjacent to Morehead Planetarium on campus) is a Nov. 1 lineup that offers up a superb slice of local music:

The dB's
Superchunk acoustic (which might be a first)
Ivan Rosebud
Megafaun
I Was Totally Destroying It
Bowerbirds
Greg Humphreys
Regina Hexaphone
Portastatic

It gets going at the rather non-rock-'n'-roll time of 9 a.m., and it's free -- they're even throwing in coffee and doughnuts.

UPDATE: Billy Bragg, who is playing in Durham that night, has been added to the lineup. 

A fond farewell to Levi Stubbs, gravel-voiced leader of the Four Tops, who died at home in Detroit today. Even when serving as the voice of a bloodthirsty plant, Stubbs was one of Motown's most distinctive voices -- and also the subject of one of my favorite tribute songs of the past quarter-century.

ADDENDUM (10/19/08): Nice remembrance.  

What do you know, the stock market actually went up on Monday for the first time in more than a week. But before anything like irrational exuberance sets in, maybe we should hear from Brother Billy Bragg -- a little song from six years ago that still resonates today.

The 2008-09 schedule for the Duke Performances series is out, and there's a particularly well-timed show set for Nov. 1. Click through for details.