The Mercury News : Esperanza Spalding brings her healing music to Stanford Live (by Andrew Gilbert) →

Step by step, note by note, and spell by spell, Esperanza Spalding seeks to break down the walls that keep music contained in clubs and concert halls. The bassist, composer and vocalist won her fifth Grammy Award in March for her Concord album “Songwrights Apothecary Lab,” a set of tunes, or as spalding and her lab-mates call them, “formwelas,” that evolved out of her ongoing research into “the study healing strategies drawn from a diverse range of music-based creative and therapeutic practices”.

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NPR : New Music Friday: The best releases out on July 8 →

WBEZ and Vocalo Radio's Ayana Contreras joins contributors Christina Lee and Cyrena Touros, along with Radio Milwaukee's Tarik Moody and host Robin Hilton to share their picks for the best albums out on July 8.

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Far Out Magazine : Christine and the Queens announces ‘Redcar les adorables étoiles’ (by Jordan Potter) →

Christine and the Queens has announced their third studio album, Redcar les adorables étoiles, alongside details for an upcoming live show. The French singer-songwriter hasn’t released an album since 2018’s highly acclaimed Chris. With the announcement of the new album, Christine and the Queens (real name Héloïse Letissier), has already stirred up much anticipation and excitement.

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Rolling Stone : ‘You’re a Mean Old Mama’: Hear Steely Dan’s Rare Cover of Joni Mitchell’s ‘Carey’ (by Angie Martoccio) →

“Carey” cover was rumored to be cut from 2007 Mitchell tribute compilation. A Steely Dan cover of Joni Mitchell’s “Carey” has been unearthed, and it’s the kind of soft rock summer treat you’d expect.

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Los Angeles Times : Harry Belafonte: Singer, activist and first Black Emmy winner (by Daron James) →

Harry Belafonte became the first Black person to win an Emmy at the 1960 awards ceremony, for his performance in “The Revlon Revue: Tonight With Belafonte.” Now 95 years old, he is an icon in the industry and has been honored with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, Kennedy Center Honors, a National Medal of Arts and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.

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Houston Press : Steely Dan Still Shining, Still Reelin' in the Years (by Tom Richards) →

Donald Fagen led a crack band through Steely Dan's greatest hits Friday night at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion. Always keeping a low profile, never appearing in gossip columns, and definitely not wrecking any hotel rooms, Becker and Fagen minded their own business, cranking out songs that merged rock and pop with a heavy dose of jazz, coupled with lyrics that might be called subversive. They were, as Rolling Stone termed them, “the thinking fan’s top 40 band.”

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Inews Culture : Jane Birkin: ‘Identity is far more complicated if you have a daughter than if you have a son' (by Laura Barton) →

The Anglo-French singer’s new album is her most personal to date. She talks about her complicated relationship with her mother – and the echoes in her bonds with her own children. On her recent album, Oh! Pardon tu dormais… it is at its finest. Collaborating with Étienne Daho and Jean-Louis Pierot, she found a way to write and sing some of the most personal songs of her career, filling them with wit and pain and beauty. “Funnily enough singing in English, one’s so at ease,” she says. “It’s so lovely when it’s your own words.”

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Hollywood Reporter : How Hollywood Is Still Helping Ukraine (BY Kirsten Chuba) →

Checking in on the industry's aid efforts, with hands-on support from Bethenny Frankel, Hayden Panettiere, Liev Schreiber and José Andrés, four months after Russia’s invasion.

The Entertainment Industry Foundation has partnered with Dr. Irwin Redlener and Karen Redlener for the Ukraine Children’s Action Project to address the needs of more than 150,000 Ukrainian young people displaced in their own country. Michael Keaton and Joan Baez are among those on the UCAP’s advisory committee, as Irwin Redlener promises: “We will stick with this work for as long as it takes. Right now we need everyone’s support.”

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Newswires EIN : Iconic Actor Michael Keaton and Singer Joan Baez Join New Initiative to Support Children Impacted by War in Ukraine →

The Ukraine Children’s Action Project will provide urgently needed mental-health and school support for children who have fled combat zones in Ukraine. UCAP was founded by Dr. Irwin Redlener and Karen Redlener, leading public health advocates for children. Its advisory committee includes well-known professionals in education, media, government and entertainment, including actor Michael Keaton and singer-songwriter and human-rights advocate Joan Baez.

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Best Classic Bands : Kris Kristofferson, Now 86, Has Retired →

Kris Kristofferson, a truly legendary singer-songwriter as well as actor, has officially retired. The news, announced January 27, 2021, was revealed in an “oh, by the way” manner in a press release from Morris Higham Management (MHM), which will represent Kristofferson’s estate.

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Rolling Stone : Hear Christine and the Queens’ French Pop Perfection on Reunion Song ‘Je Te Vois Enfin’ (by Kory Grow) →

Christine and the Queens have released the spiritual sequel to their 2020-defining “People, I’ve Been Sad”: “Je Te Vois Enfin” whose title translates to “I Finally See You.” The track, which Chris sings entirely in French, is more upbeat than “People” with jittery synths soundtracking her layered vocals. Some of the lyrics translate to “My love rhymes with always” and “Oh, my love, here you are/I finally see you.”

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NPR : Eats and Beats: Gov’t Mule moves forward by stepping back into the blues (by Ryan Heinsius) →

Acclaimed rockers Gov't Mule released "Heavy Load Blues" in November 2021. It's their first album devoted solely to the blues and emerged from downtime during the pandemic. They recorded it simultaneously with another album that'll be released in the next year. According to frontman Warren Haynes (far right), the band spent afternoons working on their regular Gov't Mule album and then at night transitioned to a small adjacent room to record blues songs using small amplifiers in very close proximity to each other in order to get a grittier, more vintage sound.

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Houston Press : Steely Dan Still Shining, Still Reelin' in the Years (by Tom Richards) →

Always keeping a low profile, never appearing in gossip columns, and definitely not wrecking any hotel rooms, Becker and Fagen minded their own business, cranking out songs that merged rock and pop with a heavy dose of jazz, coupled with lyrics that might be called subversive. They were, as Rolling Stone termed them, “the thinking fan’s top 40 band.”

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Shorefire : Ibrahim Maalouf & Angélique Kidjo Fuse Middle Eastern and African Cultures On Soaring, All-Original New Album Inspired By The Myth Of Queen of Sheba →

May 31, 2022 – Ibrahim Maalouf and Angélique Kidjo have announced that their new album Queen Of Sheba will be released June 24. While these two superstars of international music have collaborated before, this is their very first album together.

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Hurryiet Daily News : Punk laureate Patti Smith granted France’s highest honor →

On May 21, the 75-year-old rock legend made good on that promise, as France’s ambassador to the United States Philippe Etienne bestowed her with the Legion d’Honneur, his country’s highest order of merit. “It’s an indescribable honor, I understand the gravity of it,” she told AFP backstage, after delivering a spirited performance alongside her daughter Jesse on piano and her long-time collaborator and guitarist Lenny Kaye.

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Punch : 2022 Headies: Angelique Kidjo receives Hall of Fame recognition →

Grammy-winning Beninese singer, Angelique Kidjo, is the recipient of the Headies Hall of Fame in its 2022 edition. This was announced on the Headies official Instagram page, alongside the full list of the nominations for the music award.

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Far Out Magazine : U2 in Ukraine: Bono and The Edge play 'freedom' concert in Kyiv metro (by Eoghan Lyng) →

U2 songwriters Bono and The Edge performed a pastoral set in Ukraine, setting up in one of Kyiv’s subway stations, now doubling as a bomb shelter, on the invitation from Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky.

“The people in Ukraine are not just fighting for your own freedom, you are fighting for all of us who love freedom,” U2 vocalist Bono told the audience, veteran soldiers included. “We pray that you will enjoy some of that peace soon.”

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Ultimate Classic Rock : Patti Smith Performs at Night Two of Bob Dylan Center Opening (by Allison Rapp) →

Patti Smith performed last night at Cain's Ballroom in Tulsa, Okla., marking the second evening of festivities related to the opening of the Bob Dylan Center.

The Bob Dylan Center will officially open to the public on May 10, featuring hundreds of items from the singer-songwriter's vast archive, including handwritten lyric sheets, letters from fans, instruments and other various interactive installations.

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A-State News : A-STATE HOLDS SPRING COMMENCEMENT; AWARDS HONORARY DOCTORATE TO ROSANNE CASH →

JONESBORO — Arkansas State University held its 2022 spring graduation ceremony Saturday morning along with conferring an honorary doctoral degree upon one of America’s great singer/songwriters, women of letters, and historic preservationists, Rosanne Cash.

The Board of Trustees voted in March 2020 to award the honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, but the presentation was delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic. “It is with deep gratitude that I accept this honor and the beautiful acknowledgement that goes with it that I am an ancestral daughter of Arkansas,” said Cash as she addressed the graduates and the audience in Centennial Stadium.

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Rolling Stone : Carly Simon on Rock Hall Induction: ‘It Must Be the House of Pancakes I Got Into’ (by Angie Martoccio) →

Carly Simon has faced her fear of flying before. In 1971, she forced herself to board a plane to Los Angeles for her first-ever show at the Troubadour, where she opened for Cat Stevens. In 1989, she made another momentous trip there, this time to attend the Academy Awards, where “Let the River Run,” from Working Girl, won her a Best Original Song trophy. And this fall, she’ll return to L.A. for the 2022 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, where she’s finally being inducted after being eligible since 1996.

“There’s that first thought of, ‘I don’t believe it. It must be the House of Pancakes I just got into,'” says Simon. Simon spoke to RS about getting into the Hall of Fame, the upcoming film adaptation to her 2015 memoir Boys in the Trees, and the 50th anniversary of No Secrets.

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