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For Rolling Stone’S Third annual Icons & Influences feature, we asked eight of our favorite artists and entertainers to pay tribute to the women who have inspired them, in life as well as in their careers. Not only is Emmylou Harris one of Miranda Lambert’s major songwriting influences, the country star also views the legendary singer as her primary model for what it means to have a long, meaningful career.

My dad introduced me to Emmylou, John Prine, Guy Clark, David Allan Coe, that whole era. When you hear...

Tony Joe White cooks up a slinky disco-country tune with “Alone at Last,” a previously unreleased song from Light in the Attic’s third installment of its popular Country Funk series. Country Funk Volume III (1975 – 1982) will be available August 6th.

No stranger to creating backwoods funk burners, the late Tony Joe White feels almost dressed up on “Alone at Last” by comparison to “Polk Salad Annie.” A taut bassline, scratchy electric guitar, and rubbery disco groove keep things moving, while a shimmering electric piano creates an atmosphere of late-night desire.

The bright horns and slapping bass of Dolly Parton’s “Sure Thing,” the disco harmonies of Conway Twitty’s “Night Fires,” and the swagger of Ronnie Milsap’s “Get It Up” all get their due on Country Funk Volume III (1975-1982), the latest installment of Light in the Attic Records’ compilation series.

Slated for release on August 6th, the 17-track set is the first in the series to include music from the Eighties. Twitty’s Heart & Soul album, which featured the machismo-heavy “Night Fires,” was released in 1980; Jerry Reed...

Since 1974, Charlie Daniels’ Volunteer Jam concerts have been a regular fixture on the Music City event calendar for country and Southern rock fans. That was until 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic shut down large events and the concert’s namesake died in July at the age of 83, rendering its September 2020 staging impossible.

The concert was initially rescheduled to go on as a tribute to the musical legacy of Daniels on February 22nd, 2021, but has once again been postponed due to ongoing Covid-19 concerns. The 2021 Volunteer Jam: A Musical Salute to Charlie...

An upcoming benefit concert, Food for Love, will feature David Byrne, Jackson Browne, the Chicks, Kurt Vile, and dozens of other artists performing to help raise money to feed New Mexico’s hungry. The stream will be broadcast on February 13th via the Food for Love website and on YouTube.

“February 13th (Valentine’s Day Eve), some musician friends of mine, and many I’ve never met, are doing a virtual concert to raise money for meals for New Mexico’s hardest hit,” Byrne wrote in a statement, mailed to his newsletter subscribers.

At a time when volunteerism has been crucial to millions of residents of Tennessee, following the tornado and flood outbreak earlier this month and the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, country legend Charlie Daniels has revealed that the Volunteer Jam concert will return to Music City’s Bridgestone Arena on Tuesday, September 15th.

Currently set to appear alongside the headlining Charlie Daniels Band are a mix of country legends, southern rock acts and relative newcomers including Trace Adkins, Charley Pride, Big & Rich, Gretchen Wilson, Justin Moore, Chris Janson, the Gatlin Brothers, Travis Denning,...

Recorded in Nashville last September, this week’s episode of Walking the Floor captures a 50-minute conversation between podcast host Chris Shiflett and blues belter Delbert McClinton. Both musicians were in town for AmericanaFest, with Shiflett playing a string of solo shows during the weeklong event and McClinton receiving the Americana Music Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award. It’s appropriate, then, that their conversation focuses on a lifetime of musical memories, from McClinton’s childhood in Texas to the career that’s taken him around the world.

His unique approach...

Sunday night's Grammy Awards had some of the fiercest competition in years, and music's biggest night saw more than a few deserving artists take home a trophy (or two). Not only were artists like Ariana Grande, Lizzo, and Billie Eilish all set to hit the stage, but they were also nominated for some of the top awards of the night.

In the end, Eilish took home a trophy for all four of the major awards, with artists like Lizzo, Tyler the Creator, Nipsey Hussle, and Lil Nas X nabbing their own awards. See which artists took home a gramaphone ahead!

Related: Hold On to Your Headphones: Here Are the 2020 Grammy Nominees

Record Of The Year

"Bad Guy," Billie Eilish

Album Of The Year

When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?, Billie Eilish

Song Of The Year

"Bad Guy," Billie Eilish

Best New Artist

Billie Eilish

Best Pop Solo Performance

"Truth Hurts,...

Album of the year

?When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?,? Billie Eilish

Record of the year

?Bad Guy,? Billie Eilish

Song of the year

?Bad Guy,? Billie Eilish

Best new artist

Billie Eilish

Best rap album

?Igor,? Tyler, the Creator

Best rap performance

?Racks in the Middle,? Nipsey Hussle featuring Roddy Ricch and Hit-Boy

Best rap song

?A Lot,? 21 Savage featuring J. Cole

Best rap/sung performance

?Higher,? DJ Khaled featuring Nipsey Hussle and John Legend

Best RandB album

?Ventura,? Anderson .Paak

Best RandB song

?Say So,? Pj Morton featuring JoJo

Best RandB performance

?Come Home,? Anderson .Paak featuring Andr??3000

Best urban contemporary album

?Cuz I Love You,? Lizzo

Best pop vocal album

?When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?,? Billie Eilish

Best pop solo performance

?Truth Hurts,? Lizzo

Best pop duo/group performance

?Old Town Road,? Lil Nas X featuring Billy Ray Cyrus...

Fifty years ago this week, the Beatles released Abbey Road, the result of the group’s final recording sessions together after nearly a decade of revolutionizing the music industry and popular culture throughout the world. Taking its name from the London thoroughfare running past the Emi Recording Studios (officially renamed Abbey Road Studios in 1970), the album celebrates its half-century mark with the release of deluxe and super-deluxe versions boasting new mixes and bonus tracks.

As influential as the Beatles’ music has been for generations of pop and rock artists, country...

“We gotta change around here,” Mavis Staples sang toward the very end of Wednesday night’s 18th annual Americana Honors & Awards Ceremony at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium. Having been presented the evening’s Inspiration Award by pioneering Civil Rights activist and Freedom Rider Ernest Patton earlier in the evening, Staples’ song was a powerful reminder that change-inspiring music-makers are, like Staples put it herself during her acceptance speech, “still carrying on.”

But during a show that at once gestured at the future of the Americana genre while still firmly upholding its rigid past,...

Brandi Carlile and John Prine hauled in a few of the top prizes at the 2019 Americana Honors & Awards, held Wednesday night in Nashville. Carlile was named Artist of the Year, a victory lap for the success she had with 2018’s By the Way, I Forgive You as well as an acknowledgement of the inspired work she’s put out in 2019, including the Highwomen and co-producing Tanya Tucker’s While I’m Livin’.

Prine, who was named Artist of the Year at the 2018 Americana Honors, picked up the Album of the...

John Hiatt was honored as the third recipient of the Bmi Troubadour Award during a dinner Monday night in Nashville. The songwriting mainstay, who moved to Nashville when he was just 18, follows John Prine and inaugural Troubadour recipient Robert Earl Keen in the honor.

An intimate affair at the performing rights organization’s Music Row headquarters, the evening featured an eclectic lineup of artists playing Hiatt’s songs. Elvis Costello sang “Take Off Your Uniform,” off 1979’s Slug Line; Lyle Lovett offered 2011’s “Train to Birmingham”; and Delbert McClinton delivered...

The 18th annual Americana Honors & Awards have announced the performing lineup for the September 11th ceremony. A pool of veterans and up-and-coming artists, it’s a particularly mixed group that mirrors the diversity of this year’s nominees.

John Prine, Elvis Costello, Brandi Carlile, Delbert McClinton, and Mavis Staples are all set to perform, along with new names like Jade Bird, Erin Rae, the War and Treaty, and Yola. Other performers include Rhiannon Giddens, Our Native Daughters, I’m With Her, Mark Erelli, Ruston Kelly, Lori McKenna, Maria Muldaur, J.S. Ondara,...

English singer-songwriter Elvis Costello and blues-rocker Delbert McClinton are among the diverse group of artists who will receive Lifetime Achievement Awards at the 18th annual Americana Honors and Awards. The show will be held at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium on September 11th.

Costello will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award for Songwriting, with a wide-ranging catalog of lyrically rich songs that span everything from punk and new wave to country and soul. The 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award winner for Performance is McClinton, whose more than 50 years of experience in music includes playing...

Delbert McClinton describes his latest album Tall, Dark & Handsome, out July 26th, as “kind of a salute to Texas blues, the music I grew up on.” With respect to the always-succinct McClinton, it’s much more than that. As with his 2017 effort Prick of the Litter, the singer/songwriter/harmonica wizard shifts deftly between styles, smoothly segueing from straight-up blues to swing, country and jazz with the confidence of a master. It’s not a stretch to say that McClinton, at age 78, is making the best music of his career.

Tanya Tucker, Jade Bird and Dylan LeBlanc are among the initial wave of artists confirmed to perform in Nashville during the 2019 AmericanaFest. The annual celebration of roots and roots-related music takes place September 10th to 15th and includes the Americana Honors and Awards on September 11th.

In its 20th year, AmericanaFest will spread out across Music City venues like 3rd & Lindsley, Mercy Lounge and the Station Inn with performances from a diverse group of artists both established and emerging. Among those are Americana Awards nominee Yola, blues rockers Marcus King...

Tyler Childers offers the first taste of his upcoming album with “House Fire,” Lady Antebellum are haunted by memories in “What If I Never Get Over You” and Ashton Shepherd stays strong in “This Heart Won’t Break,” plus more must-hear songs for this week.

Ashton Shepherd, “This Heart Won’t Break”

The title track from Shepherd’s new album is a mid-tempo salute to resilience and resolve. “You’ve gotta keep your faith and stay strong, even when everything else in your life is going wrong,” she sings over power chords and mandolin,...

The rascally charm of nomadic country-blues singer Boo Ray is on full display in the rollicking “20 Questions,” the standout track off his latest album Tennessee Alabama Fireworks. A strutting blast of Muscle Shoals R&B, the song teems with bright horns and slinky organ, as Boo Ray tries in vain to fend off the incessant grilling by his rightfully suspicious — and pissed-off — lover.

“Why’d you leave your car downtown last night?/Who’d you ride with, where did you stay?” he sings, playing the part of his inquisitor, before...

Blake Shelton‘s blues singer Chris Kroeze from Barron, Wisconsin had three final chances to influence America during Monday’s “The Voice” Season 15 finale, but which one of his performances was the best? As a refresher, he sang Lynyrd Skynyrd‘s “Sweet Home Alabama” as his cover song, “Human” as his original single and “Two More Bottles of Wine” as his duet with coach Blake. Our live-blogger Denton Davidson recapped each of Chris’ final three performances, so scroll down to see his snappy reactions.

SEEWhat was Kennedy Holmes’ best performance on ‘The Voice’ finale: ‘Love Is Free,’ ‘Home’ or ‘Confident’? [Poll]

“Sweet Home Alabama” — watch above

Denton’s take: Chris Kroeze is getting this party started for Team Blake with “Sweet Home Alabama” by Lynyrd Skynyrd. I find this to be so cliche and I’m disappointed in this song choice. How many times have we heard this in singing competitions at this point?...

With “Over the Hill,” the latest track to be released from John Hiatt’s upcoming LP, The Eclipse Sessions, the 66-year-old songwriting legend offers craggy bits of wisdom and wit on aging, singing, “I’m long in the tooth, what can I say / I take huge bites of life and I eat the bone.” Yet in the chorus of the gently rolling blues tune, which is punctuated with stellar electric guitar licks, he sings, “If you want me, baby, I’m over the hill,” which, rather than state of mind,...

Last April, Steven Tyler took a brief respite from his solo tour to cut a track at the historic Florence Alabama Music Enterprises (Fame) Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. For a new compilation called Muscle Shoals…Small Town, Big Sound, Tyler put his own bedraggled spin on one of the studio’s most famous exports: “Brown Sugar.”

The Rolling Stones originally recorded the song at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio at the end of 1969, the height of the prolific town’s golden age, for the 1971 album Sticky Fingers. Tyler replaced Mick Jagger’s taut,...

Women rarely make it into the main rock categories at the Grammys, but this year, the two solo female and women-led groups that managed to squeeze in to two categories took home the honors. St. Vincent's self-titled album scored the Best Alternative Album win, and Hayley Williams-led Paramore earned Best Rock Song for "Ain't It Fun." "St. Vincent" was up against Alt-j, Arcade Fire, Cage the Elephant and Jack White; and Paramore was up against songs from Ryan Adams, The Black Keys, Beck and White. Sinéad O'Connor' "I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got" won Best Alternative Album the year the category was launched, in 1991, and since then, no other solo female or female-led artists have won. Acts like the B-52s, Arcade Fire, Belly, Pj Harvey, Fiona Apple, Bjork, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Neko Case are shuffled into this category, but as history shows,...

 

Over the next week, your only real duty as a film lover is to see Richard Linklater's Boyhood. Yes, it's almost three hours long. Yes, the reviews are mindblowingly great. Yes, it's the real deal. I attended last weekend's Austin Film Society Q&A screening with Linklater, Patricia Arquette and Ellar Coltrane in attendance and I'm definitely ready to see it again. It's that good. 

Speaking of special screenings, Afs is bringing the SXSW hit Road To Austin (Mike's review) to the Marchesa tonight. The documentary examines how Austin became the "Live Music Capital Of The World" and features live performance footage from Kris Kristofferson, Bonnie Raitt, Delbert McClinton, Joe Ely and over 40 other artists. If that sounds up your alley, so will the Sunday afternoon screening of Tommy Hancock: West Texas Muse. Following the leader of West Texas's premiere western swing band, the film features many Texas musicians including Jimmie Dale Gilmore,...

Austin is called the "Live Music Capital of the World," and a very large influence on it was singer/songwriter Stephen Bruton. In 2007, only a week after completing his treatment for throat cancer and in his final appearance on stage, Bruton led his band through a four-hour, 38-song "Road to Austin" performance in front of 20,000 fans. Director Gary Fortin covers the concert and history of the Austin music scene from 1835 to today in Road to Austin, which premiered at SXSW 2014.

Beginning with Kris Kristofferson and John Paul DeJoria relating their experiences, Fortin weaves photos and film footage from the earliest days of Austin into a vivid tapestry. Artists recount tales of legendary venues, some now gone, including Threadgill's, Antone's, the Armadillo World Headquarters, Broken Spoke, Continental Club and Saxon Pub.

Road to Austin explores how the city became, like a microcosm of the United States, a musical melting pot where country,...

One of the reasons I started my website is that I wanted a place for women to come together and dream. We women need to know that we don't have to hang on to an old dream that has stopped nurturing us -- that there is always time to start a new dream. This story is about a woman who sacrificed the spotlight to help her family survive, and has been given the chance to take center stage with her very own record deal more than 20 years later! -– Marlo, MarloThomas.com

By Lori Weiss

From the time Etta Britt was a young girl, she was singing back-up for Diana Ross. It’s just that Diana didn’t know it. Because Etta was in front of her bedroom mirror in Louisville, Kentucky -- hair brush in hand, as a microphone, of course -- pretending she was one of the Supremes.

Following his Paste-sponsored tour throughout the fall, Marc Broussard has added Nov. and Dec. dates to his line-up (schedule below). The tour is in support of his debut Atlantic full-length, Keep Coming Back. Rolling Stone christened Broussard "the heir to Texas white-soul icon Delbert McClinton," but this album encompasses a number of styles, including funk, disco, pop, country and soul.