by Jessie Bullock & Ross Trudeau
[.puz][PDF][Solution] Difficulty: 3.5/5
No crossworld updates or cruciverbal musings this week! I’ve got a couple of new puzzle projects coming down the pike that I’m looking forward to sharing with everyone, so watch this space. But today? Just more hot fresh puzz. If you’re liking what you see around Rosswords, which turned 3 years old this week (!!!) or if you’ve got puzzle/user feedback, don’t hesitate to drop a comment below.
My thanks to Mike, Brandon, Ross, and Gaby for test solving this week’s puzzle! A few thoughts and spoilers on “High Notes” below.
As I recall, Jessie did almost all of the fill on this puzzle, and I really like how it came out, especially considering the grid is pretty theme dense. There were a bunch of longer non-proper nouns that happened to lend themselves to some fun word play options (LOVE NOTES, MAIN SAIL GROCER), and for that I salute my collaborator in chief!
Okay, so, it’s a trivia puzzle. But this stuff is rich, if you ask me. I had a grand old time reading up on Honorific Nicknames in Pop Music to build out this theme set. I was not familiar with KING OF CALYPSO as a “title” for Mssr. Belafonte, and of course solvers of a certain age will presumably launch of war of succession on behalf of Justin Timberlake as the One True PRINCE OF POP.
Of course, part of the trick here was finding four different Unimpeachably Great artists with four different __ of __ honorifics across four different genres. And, because I went with MUSIC ROYALTIES as a revealer, I had to pass on answers like “Godmother/Godfather of Soul” (Erykah Badu/James Brown) which used titles that weren’t “royalty” per se.
Happy solving, friends!
-Ross