Angelique Kidjo speaks with Erin Phillips about her latest award, the Polar Music Prize, her origins in song, her humanitarian work, and what audiences can expect at her upcoming performance at Mercyhurst.
Read MoreA new all-star combo, the Barnestormers, have recorded a self-titled debut album. The group is led by Australian rock ‘n’ roll and soul singer Jimmy Barnes, former Squeeze member and popular TV host, Jools Holland, and Slim Jim Phantom, the drummer and founding member of the Stray Cats. Those three are joined by Chris Cheney, the frontman and guitarist for Australian punk-rock outfit, The Living End, as well as studio whiz Kevin Cheney. Together, they’re releasing The Barnestormers, coming May 26, 2023, via Rhino.
Read MoreI was coming around to Bono after reading his recent autobiography, but this show makes it clear why people outside of Ireland are inclined to listen to him. He’s an optimist. While the rest of us were wallowing in cynicism and chunky jumpers in the 1980s, he put on a cowboy hat and pissed off to America. The pinnacle of this, as he explained to Letterman in a well-appointed mahogany Georgian library in Dublin, was the U2 song, 'Where The Streets Have No Name'.
Read More"If you judge activism based on results, rather than it being some kind of attempted virtue signalling, then Bono was absolutely right". U2 guitarist The Edge has discussed frontman and fellow bandmate Bono‘s political “superpower” – and how he was right in becoming a high-profile political activist.
Read MoreInterview magazine poured through the Interview archives to recirculate conversations with personalities, entertainers, and icons who personify the brand’s spirit of refinement, grandeur, and artistry. Today, they revisit the June 1996 issue, in which the ethereal Patti Smith sat down with our then-EIC Ingrid Sischy to discuss fame, meeting Mapplethorpe, and New York City.
Read MoreContemporary arts center in partnership with Parnassus Books, will host an intimate conversation with author, dedicated advocate, and Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Joan Baez, alongside her longtime friend, 14-time Grammy winner Emmylou Harris. The April 8 event celebrates the release of Baez's new book of drawings “Am I Pretty When I Fly? An Album of Upside Down Drawings”, and all ticket buyers receive a signed copy of the book.
Read MoreAN ALL-STAR LINEUP of musicians came together at New York’s Carnegie Hall Wednesday night for the Music of Paul McCartney charity concert, which raised money for music education programs. Patti Smith wasn’t part of the official bill, but she came out midway through the night to deliver a stunning rendition of “She’s Leaving Home.” It was her first time performing the 1967 Beatles classic, and she added to the song’s poignancy by tacking on a new verse delivered from the perspective of the young girl that runs away from home, leaving her parents emotionally shattered.
Read MoreChristine and the Queens will follow up their 2022 pop opera Redcar les Adorables Étoile this June with Paranoïa, Angels, True Love, featuring guests like Mike Dean, 070 Shake and Madonna. “This new record is the second part of an operatic gesture that also encompassed 2022’s Redcar les adorables étoiles. Taking inspiration from the glorious dramaturgy of Tony Kushner’s iconic play, Angels in America, Redcar felt colorful and absurd like Prior sent to his insane dream-space,” Chris said in a statement.
Read MoreFrom the shores of Benin to the streets of Morocco, the Motherland echoes with the melody of female African musicians unapologetically using their art to ignite positive change that transcends the music industry. In the soaring vocals of Fatoumata Diawara, to the bold lyrics of Muthoni Drummer Queen, the message is clear: it is time to fight for a world where gender equality is the norm, not the exception, and to amplify the voices of women and girls who have been overlooked for too long.
Read MoreRegardless, I am certain that reading Just Kids at any time in one’s life is no doubt a transformative experience. Smith’s words possess an otherworldly power that pierces deep down into the reader. Whether you’re a fan of Smith’s music or not, Just Kids is essential reading, acting as the ultimate reminder to fill your life with art and like-minded people and to love deeply.
Read MoreNEAR THE END of U2’s new album, Songs of Surrender, the band kicks into the familiar opening chords of their 1980 breakthrough single “I Will Follow.” But there are no drums, bass, or electric guitar, and Bono quickly begins singing new lyrics that better fit his perspective on life at age 62, rather than 22.
Read MoreFolk music icon Joan Baez, who’s now 82, came of age just as musicians’ live gigs were often recorded and thereby preserved for the record, virtues that are used to advantage in Joan Baez I Am A Noise. An up-close, intimate and mostly frank account of a career that arched across more than 60 years of musical and political expression while countless trends came and went, this elaborate documentary navigates adroitly through the professional and the personal aspects of a very full life, one marked by far more good fortune than bad.
Read MoreKeyboardist with Jackson Browne, Jeff Young has passed away. Keyboardist and renowned singer-songwriter Jeff Young was a member of the band. Los Angeles, California. Jeff brings a diverse musical background to the table offering his knowledge and experience to some of the most well-known recording artists in the world.
Jeff has worked closely with Donald Fagen and Steely Dan for a long time. He contributed keyboards and backing vocals to a number of tours where Steely Dan and Donald Fagen appeared on the New York Rock and Soul Revue.
Read MoreOn his debut solo album, Donald Fagen trades cynicism for nostalgia in a song cycle that lands midway between Proust’s madeleine and Mr. Peabody’s Wayback Machine. In tracks set in the late ’50s and early ’60s, when their author was soldiering through adolescence, he revisits the era’s aspirations and fears with the optimism and innocence of his proxy protagonists. The worldview mirrored in his sardonic tone with Steely Dan is softened, if not entirely jettisoned, in favor of songs that retain an affectionate glow.
Read MoreThe Blind Boys of Alabama have been performing gospel for the better part of the 20th century all the way into the 21st. But this group's status as veteran musicians doesn't keep them from new musical explorations. Far from it: the Blind Boys got their start in the 1940s and '50s singing gospel music on the road, and have brought their rich, layered harmonies into a new century with albums and musical collaborations that meld gospel with influences from blues to rock.
Read MoreMeltdown Festival is rushing back to the Southbank Centre this summer for 10 days of acts playing across multiple stages, and its grand curator has been announced: singer, songwriter and all-round superstar Christine And The Queens. The announcement makes the French phenomenon the youngest person to take on this role at Meltdown Festival, and he will follow in the footsteps of artists including Robert Smith, Grace Jones, Patti Smith, David Bowie and more.
Read MoreLevon Helm’s studio in Woodstock, New York is the perfect venue for the married duo of veteran multi-instrumentalist Larry Campbell (Bob Dylan, Jackson Browne, and about a hundred others) and Teresa Williams to record a live album. After all, Campbell led the house band there for over a decade, fronting Helm’s infamous Midnight Ramble shows before he passed in 2012.
Read MoreCarly Simon has revealed a new version of her 1971 hit “That’s The Way I’ve Always Heard It Should Be,” one of 15 tracks off her upcoming CD and Blu-ray release, Live at Grand Central, out Jan. 27. On April 2, 1995, commuters on their way to work were surprised when Carly Simon sat down at the piano in the middle of one of the busiest transportation hubs in New York City, Grand Central Terminal, for an impromptu concert, her first live performance in 14 years.
Read MoreAfter breaking through, Letissier’s second album, Chris, and its follow-up EP, La Vita Nouva, sustained commercial attention while garnering unprecedented acclaim from the critics. Most notably, Letissier was praised for 2020’s La Vita Nouva, a brazen artistic response to the tragic death of his mother. In 2022, Letissier began releasing singles under the new alias Redcar, culminating in his third solo album, Redcar les adorables étoiles (prologue), released in November.
Read MoreDiscussing great challenges facing the world today, singer and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Angelique Kidjo spoke about the integral role that African women must play in facing them. “We cannot achieve anything without the women of Africa being empowered,” said Kidjo, noting that women are “at the center of” major issues such as climate change and food insecurity. “If you’re not making progress there, all the progress we make in developed countries will be wasted because we only have one ecosystem and we all breathe the same air.”
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