New York Times : Jane Birkin, Singer, Actress and Fashion Inspiration, Dies at 76 (by Constant Méheut and Alex Traub) →

Ms. Birkin released “Oh! Pardon tu dormais…,” her first album of her own songs written in English, in 2021. “The results are an emotional tour de force from an artist who has never gotten her musical due outside of France,” the music writer Ben Cardew wrote in a review for Pitchfork. Ms. Birkin also continued to act, including in films by Agnès Varda and plays by Patrice Chéreau. She was also popular in France as an activist for women’s and L.G.B.T.Q. rights as well as for her British accent when speaking French, which the French found endearing. “The most Parisian of the English has left us,” the mayor of Paris wrote.

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Lithub : More Than Just A Pretty Face: On the Multifaceted Marianne Faithfull (by Elizabeth Winder) →

Marianne planned to be known, but a pop princess career was the last thing on her mind. She’d be an artist of some kind—she’d go to Cambridge, or the Royal Academy of Music to continue classical singing. She idolized the young Vanessa Redgrave, who once came to talk to Marianne’s theater group. Perhaps Marianne would also play Rosalind, or Imogen in Cymbeline, or even sing Tosca in Covent Garden. Awake long in the night in her convent room, she bent over her workbook, filling page after page of potential stage names, pen names, fantasy names. In time she would realize her real name was her own.

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CNN / Folk legend Joan Baez helps Ukrainian children displaced by war →

Singer and activist Joan Baez tells CNN's John Vause about her work with the Ukraine Children's Action Project, which helps kids who have been affected by the war.

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Musix : Melanie Wiegmann & Carl Carlton veröffentlichen gemeinsames Album "Glory Of Love" am 01.09.2023 →

The recordings of the altogether 15 songs were made in the course of the last three years, when the music world more or less came to a standstill, in Berlin, Ireland and Malta and are stylistically most likely to be placed in the genre term "Americana". [...] With "Glory Of Love" a warm-hearted musical diary has been created, which convinces with its idiosyncratic song selection, unpretentious arrangements and natural charm. Perhaps the most beautiful surprise: Here not only two souls have found each other, but also two wonderfully harmonizing voices.

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Far Out Magazine : Bono to raise funds for Ukraine with limited-edition merch (by Joe Taysom) →

U2 frontman Bono has created a range of limited-edition merchandise to raise money for Ukraine following the Russian invasion. Earlier this year, the singer created an illustration of President Zelenskyy which he painted on a backdrop of yellow and blue, celebrating Ukraine’s flag. It also features the following quote from Zelenskyy: “The choice is between freedom and fear.” The image and quote are now available to purchase across a set of five items with funds going to UNITED24, who will use the money to buy ambulances.

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Rolling Stone : Christine and the Queens on Expanding His Voice and Making Art Accessible to Everyone (by Kory Grow) →

When Christine and the Queens, the progressive French pop artist who also goes by “Chris,” decided he wanted Madonna to voice the narrator on his ambitious, new three-act pop opera, Paranoïa, Angels, True Love, he had to think fast. Now with the magnum opus finally coming out — the end of his “quest” (a word he uses frequently) — Chris tells Rolling Stone he’s just now learning what Paranoïa, Angels, True Love means to him. He also explains how presenting a large-scale dramatic work has informed his vision of the future.

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American Songwriter : Rosanne Cash, John Leventhal Launch New Label RumbleStrip Records (by Tina Benitez-Eves) →

Rosanne Cash and her husband and producer, John Leventhal, have revealed the launch of their new label RumbleStrip Records. The label will manage archives, forthcoming projects, and reissues, including the first vinyl pressing of Rosanne’s 1993 album, The Wheel, which has been remastered as an expanded edition to commemorate its 30th anniversary. Produced by Leventhal, The Wheel was a landmark album for Cash, marking a new shift in her sound after she moved to New York City.

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Opera Wire.com : Nashville Opera Releases First-Ever Recording of Carly Simon’s ‘Romulus Hunt’ (by David Salazar) →

Nashville Opera has joined forces with Lexicon Classics to release the first-ever recording of Carly Simon‘s sole opera, “Romulus Hunt.” Nashville Opera will present the recording as a birthday gift to its creator, who will celebrate her 80th birthday on Sunday, June 25, 2023. The work was originally commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera Guild and the Kennedy Center in 1993 and is a semi-autobiographical work by renowned pop singer Carly Simon.

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Washington Informer : Angélique Kidjo: A One-Woman Global Music Fest (by Brenda C. Siler) →

Angélique Kidjo’s show at Strathmore offered a bolt of energy from the stage. The set began with percussionist Magatte Sow playing multiple African drums in a several-minute solo session. The other musicians came onto the stage, followed by Kidjo, who entered the stage with high energy. There was no need for Kidjo and her musicians to ramp up as they came in hot. It was up to the rest of us to catch up and hang on.

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Far Out Magazine : Steely Dan's Donald Fagen picks his greatest influences (by Jack Whatley) →

Despite their incessant performance of the hokey cokey with the fashionable side of music, one thing that cannot be denied is Steely Dan‘s impressive command of their instruments. The duo of Donald Fagen and Walter Becker may be constantly fighting a ebb and flow of appreciation from the musical world, with the band arguably one of the most polarising groups in the history of rock and roll, but they know what they’re doing in the studio.

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American Songwriter : Patti Smith Joins Greta Thunberg for Climate Change Protest (by Alex Hopper) →

Thunberg has given speeches, petitioned the Swedish Parliament, protested and more all to raise awareness toward what she believes will be the hazardous effects of climate change on the next generation. Her final strike at the school happened last week, given that Thunberg is graduating. She wasn’t alone on her final day though, legendary artist Patti Smith decided to join her ranks. Smith has long extended her support to climate change activists. “I think the climate movement is the most important thing on the planet right now,” Smith previously told The Guardian.

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The Africa Report : Angélique Kidjo, an encounter beyond space and time (by Patrick Smith) →

Fresh from winning the prestigious Polar Music Prize, the Benin-born singer tells The Africa Report what motivates her to cross cultural divides in her art and advocacy. Angélique’s life, music and art are about as heterodox as it gets. More than three decades as a star song­writer, musician and singer has garnered her the honorific ‘Mama Africa’ across the continent, as well as an attic full of prizes, five Grammys, the Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in France, and top musical awards in more than 20 countries.

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Los Angeles Times : A new book on Steely Dan is for hardcore fans. Luckily, they are legion (by Chris Vognar) →

For us, this book is a gonzo helping of music criticism dessert, a hot fudge sundae with extra sauce. […] “Quantum Criminals” is like a secret handshake between two covers. The best part is that it illuminates details the rest of us may have glossed over for years.

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The New Yorker Interview : Joan Baez Is Still Doing Beautiful, Cool Stuff (by Amanda Petrusich) →

Since 1959, Joan Baez has been electrifying eager crowds with her elegance and ferocity. Baez was central to both the folk revival and the civil-rights movement of the nineteen-sixties; her protest songs, delivered in a vivid, warbly soprano, felt both defiant and gently maternal. Now eighty-two, and with twenty-five studio albums behind her, Baez has mostly retired from music, though she is still making poignant and unpredictable art.

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Pop matters : CARLY SIMON BECAME A POP ROM-COM QUEEN WITH ‘COMING AROUND AGAIN’ (by ​Peter Piatkowski) →

Like Ephron, Simon looked to her fame-laced life when composing her tales of domestic ennui. When Ephron’s roman à clef, Heartburn, was adapted into a film by Mike Nichols, Simon was tapped to write the film’s theme song, “Coming Around Again”. Both projects – the film and the music – are artifacts of the 1980s. Heartburn and “Coming Around Again” are products of a decade that wrestled with rapidly changing gender roles as well as a generation of Baby Boomers who came of age during the counterculture of the 1960s only to become more conservative and embrace the capitalist, consumerist culture of the ‘Me Decade’ of the 1980s. Simon’s song and album is the standard-bearer of 1980s mainstream, upper-class liberal pop.

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Chronogram : Album Review: Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams | Live at Levon's! (by Seth Rogovoy) →

The Hudson Valley's first couple of roots music offer an eclectic celebration of Americana on this collection of a dozen tunes recorded before a live audience at Levon Helm Studios in Woodstock, where multi-instrumentalist Larry Campbell led the Midnight Ramble Band for a decade or so in support of the venue's namesake.

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BBC : Harry Belafonte: Singer and civil rights activist dies aged 96 (by Mark Savage) →

One of the most successful African-American pop stars in history, he scored hits with Island In The Sun, Mary's Boy Child and the UK number one Day-O (The Banana Boat Song). A close friend of Martin Luther King, the artist was a notable and visible supporter of the civil rights movement, who bankrolled several anti-segregation organisations and was known to have bailed Dr King and other activists out of jail. He was one of the organisers of the 1963 March on Washington, and also took part in the Selma to Montgomery marches in 1965. "Belafonte's global popularity and his commitment to our cause is a key ingredient to the global struggle for freedom and a powerful tactical weapon in the Civil Rights movement," Dr King once observed. "We are blessed by his courage and moral integrity." The star also campaigned against poverty, apartheid and Aids in Africa; and became an ambassador for Unicef, the United Nations children's fund.

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Erie Reader : An Exclusive Interview with Angelique Kidjo (by Erin Phillips) →

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.

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Best Classic Bands : The Barnestormers, All-Star Combo, Announce Debut Album →

A 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.

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Irish Examiner : TV review: Bono & the Edge get to Dublin's heart with Dave Letterman (by Pat Fitzpatrick) →

I 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'.

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