Johnny Cash and Kris Kristofferson were hard to tame. Both artists were passionate, convicted, admirably idealistic, and would seemingly not bend or break for anyone or anything. That’s simply who they were and why their music was so great. Hence, when Cash debuted Kristofferson’s “Sunday Morning Comedown” in 1970 at the Ryman Auditorium, Cash subverted some executive’s wishes for his good friend.

Larry 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.

Kris 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.

Eric McKinnie, who is known as Ricky, has been a member of the Blind Boys of Alabama since 1989. But the renowned gospel group launched 50 years before that. Clarence Fountain and his friends at the Alabama Institute for the Negro Blind formed the group in 1939. For more than eight decades, the Blind Boys have persevered and thrived in the music industry. They will perform at the Payomet Performing Arts Center in North Truro on Saturday, Aug. 20.

The musician and "songwright" who invites the listener in. “ALLRIGHT Y’ALL, what do we need from music tonight?” she asks. It’s 9:00 P.M. and the studio at Harvard’s ArtLab is lit only by lamps. There’s an oval of students on chairs and floor cushions in the center, and in the corner, a tapestry-covered altar with sage and a black votive candle. Clad in a denim jumpsuit and cross-legged next to a student with a keytar is professor of the practice of music and five-time Grammy-winning musician esperanza spalding.

The new music video, for the track THE FIGHT OF OUR LIVES, is taken from the American political punk band’s upcoming album LIES THEY TELL OUR CHILDREN, which is scheduled to be released in January next year via Spinefarm Records. It features guest appearances from RISE AGAINST‘s Tim McIlrath and BAD RELIGION‘s Brian Baker. Speaking about the new song, the band comment, “To us, this song is a unique demonstration of the power of community.”

The winner of five Grammys with 14 albums to her name, Angélique Kidjo is one of the greatest artists in international music today. Time Magazine has called her “Africa’s premier diva” and she has cross- pollinated the West African traditions of her childhood in Benin with elements of American R&B, funk and jazz, as well as influences from Europe and Latin America. She recently released Queen of Sheba – it’s on Spotify – with Ibrahim Maalouf from Lebanon. In an exclusive interview with FORBES AFRICA from Paris, Kidjo says she is right now, in a moment where “things are blooming in her inspiration zone”. She talks life, work and the road ahead for her – and African music.

Cap sur la culture pop et rock cet été sur la radio publique. Jusqu’à la fin août, France Culture propose, en partenariat avec Rolling Stone, une série hebdomadaire déclinée en épisodes quotidiens. Cette semaine, Lucile Commeaux revient sur l’icône rock par excellence, Marianne Faithfull.

Author Caryn Rose shares Patti Smith’s contribution to the arts in her book, 'Why Patti Smith Matters'. Patti Smith is a poet, writer, musician and visual artist. But, if you ask her, she will say she's a worker.

The Sani music festival in northern Greece is celebrating its 30th anniversary this month. In the balmy night air, big crowds turned out to hear Irish rock star Bob Geldof and his band the Bobkatz strum through some Boomtown Rats classic hits. Geldof is famous for his fundraising activities fighting famine, and he used his appearance to warn about the impact of the war in Ukraine on world food supplies.

Now 40, the Chicago MC has just released his best album in a decade and a half. The Ringer spoke with him about the project, his upcoming MIT course, and subverting the listeners’ expectations.

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”.

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.

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.

“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.

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.

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.”

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.”

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.”

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.

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.

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.”

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.

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.”