The Blind Boys of Alabama, a five-time Grammy Award-winning group originally formed in the Jim Crow era, will put on a one-night-only concert filled with gospel soul and holiday spirit at Jones Hall on Sunday, December 4. Expect the best of traditional music and some Christmas classics performed in new arrangements, courtesy of Performing Arts Houston.
Read MoreAt 75, the punk poet, singer, artist and author talks candidly about life, loss, loneliness and her acclaimed new photography project.
Read MoreFifty years ago this month, WAR’s classic album The World Is a Ghetto was released, hitting number one on the Billboard chart and going on to become the bestselling album of 1973. Now there’s a whole new way to listen to it. Avenue/Rhino has released a new Dolby Atmos mix of the album, which features the top-10 title track and the number-two hit “Cisco Kid.” The World Is a Ghetto was WAR’s fifth album. The band was first formed in the late ’60s by ex-Animals frontman Eric Burdon and producer/songwriter Jerry Goldstein.
Read MoreAn ethereal voice booms from above, echoing down over Paris’s Cirque d’Hiver: “Redcar, come to me baby.” Stationed in the middle of a ring-shaped stage, Christine and the Queens – real name Héloïse Letissier – is performing in a 19th-century circus lined with gilded horses and plush velvet curtains, on a stage originally designed for acrobats and clowns.
Read MoreCHRISTINE AND THE Queens’ frontperson, Chris, has spent most of his life yearning for simplicity — to understand his own sexuality and gender but longing mostly for the simplest emotion: love. Unfortunately for Chris, yearning is what he does best. That anxious feeling is what makes his music so invigorating.
Read MoreBorn Paul David Hewson in Dublin, Ireland, Bono is a global rock star, an activist and an entrepreneur who is currently touring the US to promote his memoir. All those facets are covered in an entertaining and occasionally hilarious 500-page book that vividly recounts passages from Bono’s life that he only hints at in his songs. Bono’s book, though, is more than a rock star’s memoir. It’s a refreshing contrast to the way many Americans today view faith and politics.
Read MoreThe French pop star has endured the death of his mother, record industry resistance and a backlash after adopting male pronouns. In an emotional interview, he talks about the struggle to understand himself and the music he makes.
Read MoreAfter artists reach a certain level of fame and commercial success in their careers, they tend to have more of an influence on the up-and-coming artists in the industry. Also, they acquire the power to change the trajectory of other musicians’ lives by introducing them to the music scene. If the wanna-be artists get the opportunity to interact with more prominent names and are good enough to impress them, they might get a chance to have a completely different life.
Read MoreDuring her July 27 “Red Tour” stop in Foxborough, Mass., megastar Taylor Swift surprised her audience by bringing Simon on stage to duet the latter’s iconic hit “You’re So Vain.” “You had the No. 1 artist in the world invite Carly to come up and sing ‘You’re So Vain’ on stage with her,” says Simon’s longtime friend and guitarist Jimmy Ryan. “It doesn’t get bigger than that when you’re trying to examine Carly’s influence on younger artists. It was right there.”
Read MoreThere are resumes and then there are resumes. Guitar legend Warren Haynes sports the latter. For a while now, Haynes has focused his energy on Gov’t Mule, a seasoned foursome that plays a mix of blues and Southern-tinged hard rock. His soulful vocals and fleet-fingered guitar solos have wowed festivalgoers nationwide, and that band’s knack for extended improvisations has made it a fave with the jam band crowd.
Read MoreLarry Campbell & Teresa Williams have announced their long-awaited new album, Live At Levon's!, will be released February 3, 2023 via Royal Potato Family. The jubilant 12-track collection was recorded at Levon Helm Studios in Woodstock, NY on September 20 and 21, 2019 in front of an adoring hometown crowd and features a selection of previously unreleased new songs, old favorites that allow the band to stretch out plus a handful of unexpected covers. Today, the celebrated husband and wife duo share the album's first single "Angel Of Darkness" (listen/share) a song co-written by Campbell and Hot Tuna's Jorma Kaukonen.
Read MoreKris Kristofferson is a retired singer, songwriter, and actor. He is one of the most legendary people in Hollywood, who has had success in both singing and acting in his stellar career, up to the day he retired. He has also received a lot of huge songwriting hits for writing songs like “Help Me Make It Through The Night”, “Me and Bobby McGee”, and “For The Good Times.” His rugged looks, gravelly voice, and love for country music made him an instant fan favorite and hotshot crush of his generation.
Read MoreBlind Boys of Alabama have teamed with Black Violin for “The Message”, an electrifying call-to-action rallying listeners to stay positive and rise above fear mongering, divisiveness and injustice. Over a spirited drum beat, anthemic string arrangement from Black Violin and blistering electric guitar (performed by Marcus King), “The Message” finds the GRAMMY Lifetime Achievement Award recipients dipping into contemporary instrumentation while reminding us of a classic and timeless truth: “we’re all in this together.”
Read MorePresented by Citi and Cisco, the Global Citizen Festival is calling on world leaders, major corporations and philanthropic foundations to take to the Global Citizen Festival stages and announce new commitments to End Extreme Poverty NOW. “The future of the continent of Africa, and indeed the planet, depends on the empowerment of women and girls,” said Kidjo. “I am proud to collaborate with Global Citizen to send a clear message to governments and leaders: it’s time to listen to the next generation. The young women and girls of Africa are not silent – they deserve to be heard. It’s time for the world to take notice.”
Read MoreWe continue our weeklong series of great music interviews from the archive with singer and songwriter Rosanne Cash. When she was 18, her father, Johnny Cash, gave her a list of 100 essential country songs he thought she should know. After recording many great songs of her own, in 2009 she made an album in which she performed a dozen songs from that list. She spoke with Terry Gross about that record.
Read MoreAt age 86, Kristofferson is getting up in years now and he’s no longer the young insurgent he once was. Yet his resolve remains intact—in the music he’s shared and the spirit that he brings to bear here. One can almost feel the electricity that was evident in the room that night, and it’s to the credit of New West Records that they chose to preserve it for posterity. Clearly, this was—and remains—a particularly inspiring encounter.
Read MoreThe Steely Dan co-founder has long been wary of the press and gave relatively few interviews during the band’s prime. And when he did deem to do so, sometimes answered in riddles (albeit pretty humorous ones). Even his own memoir, Eminent Hipsters, is less revealing than even Bob Dylan’s Chronicles Vol. 1, with much of it is carping in his trademark curmudgeonly voice. But despite not having the participation of his subject, Jones' Nightfly: The Life of Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen (368 pp., $30, Chicago Review Press) is an insightful, detailed, heavily researched and wonderfully well-written tome.
Read MoreOur top 10 Jimmy Barnes songs list digs deep into the music of an Australian rock and soul artist famed for his successful music career both a solo artist and a member of Cold Chisel. The 1956-born artist has a broad catalog of rock and soul classics, with his career spanning almost five decades.
Read MoreThe anecdote illustrates why the Phantom Blues Band — who got their start backing Taj Mahal and continue to play with the septuagenarian on occasion — was missing more than a keyboard player when they began work on what would become their new CD on Little Village records, “Blues for Breakfast,” which bears the words “In Memory of MF” on its cover.
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