Leah Pickett

The last time the Dallas Observer profiled Madison King was in 2014, just before King released her second country record, Onward & Upward. In March, King released her third record, the EP Livin’ Right. In the intervening years, King says, she has drifted further from music and closer to another...

At 3 p.m. on a Monday, singer-songwriter Silas Nello is sitting at his kitchen table, listening to records and sipping a glass of red wine. He’s jet-lagged after returning from a vacation in Spain but also excited to get back to work. Nello, 28, is a full-time musician (“for now,”...

Unlike most musicians, Sealion bassist Sam Villavert wakes up at 4:30 a.m. “It’s a ridiculous hour,” Villavert says, “but it helps jumpstart my morning and puts me in a healthier mental state.” For Villavert, 26, exercise is indispensable. Usually, she works out before her 8 a.m. arrival at Nature’s Plate,...

For almost 20 years, local musicians have flocked to producer and artist Salim Nourallah’s Pleasantry Lane Recording Studio, tucked inside a converted one-car garage on a residential street in Vickery Park. On Dec. 22, an unusually frigid day in Dallas, singer-songwriter Nicholas Altobelli approaches the pale blue door. A fluffy...

This list, arranged in no particular order, is limited to books that were published in 2017 and written by authors who live in Dallas-Fort Worth. The Sandcastle Empire by Kayla Olson This dystopian thriller, published in June, focuses on a formerly privileged girl named Eden who escapes a labor camp...