Ben Miller

In a 1997 interview with the Washington Post, songwriter Jim Steinman discussed the classic story that has inspired his body of work: "Peter Pan is the ultimate rock-and-roll myth -- lost boys who don't grow up." And so it is with Steinman himself ("I still feel the same as I did when I was 20 or 21") but also with his children. He has no physical offspring, but he does have his songs. "I care as deeply about this music as other people care about their children." The music takes place in Neverland, and fittingly the songs themselves do not age. I am too young to have been there when Bat Out Of Hell went platinum or "Total Eclipse of the Heart" topped the charts, but when I heard them for the first time I could still feel the magic. And each time I hear them they still transport me to another world, and I still hear something new. Last ...

In July 2011, I moved from Raleigh to Atlanta to start my first post-college job. I was out on my own in a new city. Those who know me are aware that my passion is music, so of course I spent my free time going to concerts. But at first I only went to see big-name artists at big-name venues. It took a while to stop feeling like a tourist and start feeling like a resident. That transition happened when I began exploring the local folk music scene, and it started with a band from Calhoun called Larkin Poe. It was the third week of January 2012. I was browsing a calendar of Atlanta events for something to do over the weekend. I scrolled, and I scrolled, and then for some reason I stopped on a band I'd never heard of before. Larkin Poe. I searched that name on YouTube and found this video: For the first few seconds of the video, you don't even see their faces, just their hands playing the opening riff. And then a girl who resembles Zooey Deschanel opens her mouth and s...