Saturday, March 18, 2017 — Musical Superstars

Introduction

Today's puzzle from Cox & Rathvon proved to be a fairly gentle affair.

I invite you to leave a comment to let us know how you fared with the puzzle.

Solution to Today's Puzzle

Falcon's Experience ┌────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┐ ███████████████████████████████████ └────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┘ Legend: █ - solved without assistance █ - incorrect prior to use of puzzle solving tools █ - solved with assistance from puzzle solving tools █ - solved with aid of checking letters provided by puzzle solving tools █ - solved but without fully parsing the clue █ - yet to be solved

Legend:	"*" anagram; "~" sounds like; "<" letters reversed
	"( )" letters inserted; "_" letters deleted; "†" explicit in the clue
	Primary indications (definitions) are marked with a solid underline in the clue; subsidiary indications (be they wordplay or other) are marked with a dashed underline in all-in-one (& lit.) clues, semi-all-in-one (semi-& lit.) clues and cryptic definitions. Explicit link words and phrases are enclosed in forward slashes (/link/) and implicit links are shown as double forward slashes (//).

Across

1a   Play the part of gold // lover (4)

BE|AU — BE (play the part of) + AU ([symbol for the chemical element] gold)

3a   Ancient as a wandering // Semitic tribe of old (10)

CANAANITES* — anagram (wandering) of ANCIENT AS A

9a   Desires // the first of your wages (9)

Y|EARNINGS — Y (first [letter] of Your) + EARNINGS (wages)

11a   Refusal Theodore // celebrated (5)

NO|TED — NO (refusal) + TED (Theodore; diminutive)

12a   Group of nine /or/ ten, on retreating (5)

{NO|NET}< — reversal (retreating) of TEN ON

13a   Link // South American with employment (7)

SA|USAGE — S (south; abbrev.) + A (American; abbrev.) + (with) USAGE (employment)

15a   Ruling family /that’s/ dry, heartless, and mean (7)

DY|NASTY — DY (dry heartless; D[r]Y with the middle letter [heart] deleted) + (and) NASTY (mean)

17a   Stuck around, // even catching a train (7)

T(A|RR)IED — TIED (even) containing (catching) {A (†) + RR (train; abbrev. for railroad, the US term for railway}

19a   Em and I admit // itinerant worker (7)

M|I|GRANT — M (em) + I (†) + GRANT (admit)

Scratching the Surface
Might "Em and I" be Henry referring to his fellow blogger and himself?

21a   Sick about portion of a flight with a // criminal (7)

IL(LEG|A)L — ILL (sick) containing (about) {LEG (portion of flight) + (with) A (†)}

22a   Container filled with rare new // ground (7)

T(ERRA*)IN — TIN (container) containing (filled with) anagram (new) of RARE

24a   Range // found in Arabian Desert (5)

AN|DES — hidden in (found in) ArabiAN DESert

27a   Inquire rudely about each // polar explorer (5)

P(EA)RY — PRY (inquire rudely) containing (about) EA (each)

28a   Doubt, // as a result, about model article (9)

HE(SIT|A)NCE — HENCE (as a result) containing (about) {SIT (model) + A ([indefinite] article)}

29a   Pop star/’s/ indolence I blasted (6,4)

{CELINE DION}* — anagram (blasted) of INDOLENCE I

30a   Guitar bar // stew (4)

FRET — double definition

Down

1d   Army band’s playing, including a // singer (5,5)

{BRYAN ADAMS}* — anagram (playing) of ARMY BANDS containing (including) A (†)

2d   A profit // once more (5)

A|GAIN — A (†) + GAIN (profit)

4d   General pardon // set many free (7)

AMNESTY* — anagram (free) of SET MANY

5d   Attack // a sailor verbally (7)

ASSAULT~ — sounds like (verbally) A (†) SALT (sailor)

6d   Assassin // of some men in Japan (5)

_N|IN|JA_ — hidden in (of some) meN IN JApan

7d   Fastening // both ends of tie by the loop (9)

TETHERING — TE (both ends of T[i]E) + THE (†) + RING (loop)

8d   Returning troubles /for/ pop (4)

SODA< — reversal (returning) of ADOS (troubles)

10d   DC ballplayer attached to hardwood with a // Russian name (7)

NAT|ASH|A — NAT (DC ballplayer; Washington Nationals) + (attached to) ASH (hardwood) + A (†)

14d   Youth/’s/ hand out in upward movement (10)

A(DOLE)SCENT — DOLE (hand out) contained in (in) ASCENT (upward movement)

16d   Dusk/’s/ strange half-glint (9)

NIGHTFALL* — anagram (strange) of HALF GLINT

18d   Tirade about Samuel’s teacher // counting (7)

R(ELI)ANT — RANT (tirade) containing (about) ELI (Samuel's teacher)

20d   Vandalized // storage building with abstract art on the front (7)

TRA*|SHED — SHED (storage building) preceded by (with ... on the front) anagram (abstract) of ART

21d   Playwright // is maintaining a single company (7)

I(ONE)S|CO —  IS (†) containing (maintaining) ONE (a single) + CO (company; abbrev.)

23d   Something shining on // material (5)

RAY|ON — RAY (something shining) + ON (†)

25d   Crime boss or // benefactor (5)

DON|OR — DON (crime boss) + OR (†)

26d   DeMille’s last movie // (really big show) (4)

E|PIC — E (DeMille's last; last letter of DeMillE) + PIC (movie; [motion] picture)

Epilogue

The title of today's review is inspired by 29a and 1d.

Key to Reference Sources: 

^[1]   - The Chambers Dictionary, 11th Edition
^[2]   - Search Chambers - (Chambers 21st Century Dictionary)
^[3]   - TheFreeDictionary.com (American Heritage Dictionary)
^[4]   - TheFreeDictionary.com (Collins English Dictionary)
^[5]   - Oxford Dictionaries (Oxford Dictionary of English)
^[6]   - Oxford Dictionaries (Oxford American Dictionary)
^[7]   - Wikipedia
^[8]   - Reverso Online Dictionary (Collins French-English Dictionary)
^[9]   - Infoplease (Random House Unabridged Dictionary)
^[10] - CollinsDictionary.com (Collins English Dictionary)
^[11] - TheFreeDictionary.com (Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary)
^[12] - CollinsDictionary.com (Webster’s New World College Dictionary)

Signing off for today — Falcon