The more things change, the more they stay the same. As Al Shipley chronicles in his piece "Might Don't Make It," Baltimore hip-hop persists on its hunt for a mainstream entry, though the chance for bagging that breakout may have already fled. Geoffrey Himes, in "Drinking Songs," takes stock of Rockville's Patuxent Records, one of the state's most successful labels, and its long-standing role in keeping a nearly half-century old tradition of urban/Appalachian boundary land bluegrass alive. Michael Byrne looks at the rapidly evolving functions of record labels in the year 2010, and what it means for how you find new music. Finally, Lee Gardner talks to Landis Expandis (pictured above), of Baltimore party-funk institution the All Mighty Senators, about his compulsively amassed collection of vintage boomboxes. Right on time, this edition of City Paper's annual Big Music Issue shows a city and region, hopefully, growing and changing where it needs to, and doggedly keeping on where it doesn't.
