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John Amos’s two kids were at odds towards the end of their father’s life and their family feud seems to be poised to carry on after his death.

The iconic actor, known for his work in projects such as West Wing, Good Times, and Roots, passed away in late August 2024. The news of his passing, along with the cause of his death, was announced by his son over a month later.

It was news that shocked the world, including his sister, who only learned of her father’s death through the media.

So, what exactly is the issue between John Amos’ children? Why are they at war? And why is their father’s passing doing more to push them apart then together?

John Amos attends the Legal Defense Fund Annual Gala to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Brown V. Board of Education. (Photo by Craig Barritt/Getty Images...

Eddie Wilson could tell stories about the Armadillo World Headquarters, the storied Austin music venue he founded in 1970, for hours. He’ll tell you about how “nowhere else in the world” had ever treated Charlie Daniels so good, or the “phonebook thick” contract Zz Top made him sign, or maybe the times that names like Willie Nelson, Ray Charles, and Stevie Ray Vaughan performed there in the Seventies.

“We got one wonderful picture of Frank Zappa bending over a table with a razor blade,” Wilson recounts in his Texas twang.

To mark what would have been David Bowie’s 77th birthday today, Wilco have shared their live rendition of the music icon’s “Space Oddity.”

The cover was recorded during the band’s visit to Mountain Stage, NPR Music, and West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s long-running live radio show and features as the opening track on an upcoming compilation highlighting performances from the series.

“As a gratefully, if not begrudgingly, Earth-bound band, it’s always an honor and a challenge to tackle any of David Bowie’s space-soaring arrangements,” Wilco said in a statement.

Monday, January 8th, would’ve been David Bowie’s 77th birthday. To mark the occasion, Wilco has shared their rendition of Bowie’s 1969 hit, “Space Oddity.”

The release hails from Wilco’s 2023 performance on Mountain Stage (a public radio show distributed by NPR Music), and will be included on an upcoming compilation announced today titled Live On Mountain Stage: Outlaws and Outliers, due on April 19th via Oh Boy Records.

Presenting a wonderfully Wilco-esque take on “Space Oddity” — itself named the 43rd best song of all time by Consequence in 2012 — the band settles into an acoustic arrangement, allowing Jeff Tweedy’s vocals to masterfully convey the tune’s enduring appeal for humanity.

Speaking about the performance in a statement, the band said: “As a gratefully, if not begrudgingly, Earth-bound band, it’s always an honor and a challenge to tackle any of David Bowie’s space-soaring arrangements. Striving to reach...

James McMurtry took the title of his 2002 song “Red Dress” quite literally while playing a string of concerts earlier this month. The songwriter performed the song at gigs in Knoxville and Nashville, Tennessee — and, on Friday night, in New Braunfels, Texas — dressed in drag to protest an increasing slate of anti-lgbtq legislation being introduced across the nation.

In an essay for Rolling Stone, McMurtry explains why he donned his red dress for the encore with opening act BettySoo (herself dressed as a man) and why the right-wing panic over drag...

James McMurtry took the title of his 2002 song “Red Dress” quite literally while playing a string of shows in Tennessee last week. The songwriter — one of America’s greatest living ones, at that — delivered his encore in Knoxville and Nashville dressed in drag to protest the state’s anti-drag legislation.

“When in Tennessee we will do our little bit for humanity,” McMurtry announced onstage at Nashville’s 3rd and Lindsley on Sunday after returning from an encore break wearing a red floral dress, lipstick, pearls, and fishnets. Prior to the quick change,...

After a summer where many music festivals felt anticlimactic and unfulfilling (Was standing on dirt or gravel for hours on end ever fun?), AmericanaFest 2022 delivered one of its most satisfying and diverse weeks in the history of the Nashville event. While the festival suffered a major blow with the loss of its de facto home base, the Cannery Complex, to the city’s aggressive development, artists and bands found new venues at which to play and friendly audiences eager to experience something fresh. Here’s the sounds, parties, and places that moved us.

It is difficult to envision the moment playing out any other way.

Robert Earl Keen, seated onstage at Floore’s Country Store in Helotes, Texas, had been playing for 3,000 people for nearly two-and-a-half hours. Only a single chorus remained between him and retirement after 41 years of playing shows. The Americana icon is 66 and had spent nearly all of his 2022 I’m Coming Home Farewell Tour playing from a chair after a series of health woes made standing for an entire concert all but impossible. But now, a real goodbye was upon him.

Nominations for the 21st Americana Honors and Awards were announced during a special event at the National Museum of African American Music in Nashville on Monday. The annual celebration of roots music will return to the Ryman Auditorium on Sept. 14.

Brandi Carlile, Allison Russell, and Yola all picked up three nominations this time around, thanks to their strong 2021 albums and singles. All three performers are nominated the same categories: Album of the Year, Artist of the Year (which Carlile actually won in 2021), and Song of the Year. Other Artist of...

The Black Opry Revue, Joshua Ray Walker, Miko Marks, Asleep at the Wheel, Town Mountain, Sunny Sweeney, Kaitlin Butts, and James McMurtry are among the first batch of artists announced for AmericanaFest 2022. The annual celebration of roots music returns to venues around Nashville from Sept. 13 through 17.

The 89 artists announced on Wednesday marks just the initial dump of performers ­— hundreds typically play the festival. This year’s lineup also marks the official AmericanaFest debut of the Black Opry, a collective of Black country artists that, since loosely coming together for the...

James McMurtry wants to make one thing clear: His songs are not about him. “Oh, no, there’s none of that,” the songwriter says, scoffing at the very notion. “I don’t do autobiography. My songs are made up.”

McMurtry is talking about The Horses and The Hounds, his stunning new record, and his first in six years, but he may as well be discussing his entire discography. For the past three-plus decades, the Texas singer has been writing songs that, even in the relatively writerly world of Americana, stand...

Nearly seven years since the release of his 2015 album Complicated Game, James McMurtry has announced plans for a new LP: The Horses and the Hounds will be released August 20th via New West Records. The Texas songwriter previews the upcoming record with the cinematic “Canola Fields,” a song that takes stock of where McMurtry is at in life. Like his past work, from “Choctaw Bingo” to “Hurricane Party,” its lyrics are rich in detail.

“I was thinking about you crossing Southern Alberta, canola fields on a July day; about the...

Diana Ossana is flat on her back, wracked with grief. She’s just lost her best friend and writing partner, Larry McMurtry, a man she nursed through open heart surgery in 1991 and a couple of other heart attacks, who after three years of battling congestive heart failure, finally succumbed Thursday in his home in Archer City, Texas. He was 84. “Larry through stubbornness and brilliance kept going,” said Ossana. “He kept going. I feel like one of my limbs is cut off. We’re all pretty crushed.”

Ossana picked up the phone to talk about her writing partner of 28 years, with whom she shared the 2006 Screenplay Oscar for adapting Annie Proulx’s “Brokeback Mountain.” “We were each other’s best friend,” she said. “Larry would tell people to call me in the last 10 years or so: ‘Ask Diana, she knows me better than I do myself.’ From the beginning of our friendship,...

Diana Ossana is flat on her back, wracked with grief. She’s just lost her best friend and writing partner, Larry McMurtry, a man she nursed through open heart surgery in 1991 and a couple of other heart attacks, who after three years of battling congestive heart failure, finally succumbed Thursday in his home in Archer City, Texas. He was 84. “Larry through stubbornness and brilliance kept going,” said Ossana. “He kept going. I feel like one of my limbs is cut off. We’re all pretty crushed.”

Ossana picked up the phone to talk about her writing partner of 28 years, with whom she shared the 2006 Screenplay Oscar for adapting Annie Proulx’s “Brokeback Mountain.” “We were each other’s best friend,” she said. “Larry would tell people to call me in the last 10 years or so: ‘Ask Diana, she knows me better than I do myself.’ From the beginning of our friendship,...

Oscar-winning screenwriter and novelist Larry McMurtry has passed away. Known for penning books like Lonesome Dove and co-writing the hit movie Brokeback Mountain, McMurtry's death was confirmed by his rep, Amanda Lundberg, though a cause hasn't yet been revealed. He was 84 years old.

An acclaimed author, McMurtry has penned 29 novels along with three memoirs, two essay collections, and more than 30 screenplays. Always working on something, McMurtry wrote exactly five pages per day using a manual typewriter. A writer for more than six decades, McMurtry's first published novel, Horseman, Pass By, was adapted into the 1963 movie Hud with Paul Newman and Patricia Neal. Based on the book, the screenplay was written by Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank Jr. with the two earning a Best Screenplay nomination at the Academy Awards.

For his part, McMurtry was personally nominated for an Oscar for the 1971 movie The Last Picture Show. Based on McMurtry's semi-autobiographical book,...

Larry McMurtry, the Texas novelist known for American West epics like Lonesome Dove and the Oscar-winning screenplay for Brokeback Mountain, has died. McMurtry’s death on Thursday was first reported by The New York Times. He was 84.

Born in Wichita Falls, Texas, in 1936, McMurtry was a prolific author with an uncanny gift for making a lengthy opus like Lonesome Dove — all 843 pages — eminently readable. The page-turning tale of two grizzled cowboys on a cattle drive from Texas to Montana in the mid-19th century won a Pulitzer Prize in 1986. First...

Larry McMurtry, who won an Oscar for penning Brokeback Mountain, earned a nomination for The Last Picture Show and authored books that spawned Emmy winner Lonesome Dove and Best Picture Oscar winner Terms of Endearment, died Thursday of heart failure. He was 84. The news was confirmed to media outlets by family spokeswoman and 42West CEO Amanda Lundberg.

McMurtry — whose son is the singer-songwriter James McMurtry — won the Pulitzer Prize for writing Lonesome Done, which became a popular 1989 CBS miniseries and spawned a sequel and a syndicated series, and was awarded the 2014 National Humanities Medal by President Obama.

McMurtry’s 1975 book Terms of Endearment became the 1983 film from writer-director-producer James L. Brooks. Starring MacLaine, Debra Winger, Jack Nicholson, Danny DeVito, Jeff Daniels and John Lithgow, the pic was a commercial smash and led all films with 11 Oscar noms. Along with Best Pictrure, it earned Academy Awards for Shirley MacLaine, Nicholson and...

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.

Don’t remember the supergroup the Buzzin’ Cousins? You’re not alone. Despite featuring five architects of Americana music, the collaboration remains a blind spot for most music fans, even those who may be hardcore devotees of the artists involved.

And what a group of names they were: John Mellencamp, Dwight Yoakam, Joe Ely, James McMurtry, and John Prine made up the Buzzin’ Cousins, Mellencamp’s lark of an answer to the Travelin’ Wilburys. The band’s blink-and-you’ll-miss-them status was by design, Mellencamp said.

”I wouldn’t expect an album or anything,...

“Being a musician in 2020 was already hard,” synth-pop singer-songwriter Caroline Rose says. Then came the coronavirus pandemic, which has shut down all live music and touring for the foreseeable future, thereby drying up the primary source of income for the vast majority of working musicians. For countless touring artists who rely on constant touring income to stay afloat, the next few months will be dire.

To put it plainly, musicians need help. The main concern for artists like Rose, who released a new album this month and had to cancel the accompanying two-month spring tour,...

James McMurtry has never been meek when it comes to sharing his political opinions. During the George W. Bush administration, he was relentless in his criticism of the president and his White House via songs like “Cheney’s Toy” and “We Can’t Make It Here.” On Saturday, the American singer-songwriter (and son of novelist Larry McMurtry) released a statement saying he was postponing his scheduled tour dates because of the coronavirus pandemic. Here he expands on his statement and touches on the finances of touring, U.S. healthcare, and...

A few lines and a guitar lick are all Justin Townes Earle needs on “Ain’t Got No Money,” the shifty roots rocker that will be featured on his just-announced LP The Saint of Lost Causes.

Something of a return to the familiar for Earle, The Saint of Lost Causes sees him reunited with longtime producer Adam Bednarik in Nashville after venturing out to Omaha, Nebraska, to record 2017’s Kids in the Streets with Mike Mogis of Bright Eyes. “Ain’t Got No Money” is lean and wiry, built around...

Produced by Jesuit Refugee Service/USA (Jrs/USA), in partnership with Unhcr, the Un Refugee Agency, Lampedusa: Concerts for Refugees is raising awareness and money to support expanded educational opportunities for displaced people through Jrs’s Global Education Initiative.

Funds raised from the tour help refugees heal, learn, and thrive.

Performing this year are Joan Baez, Brandi Carlile, Lila Downs, Steve Earle, Patty Griffin, Emmylou Harris, Dave Matthews, James McMurtry, Buddy Miller, Alynda Segarra, and Lucinda Williams – all Grammy winners and Grammy nominated artists who are donating their talents this October in eight cities for Lampedusa: Concerts for Refugees.

“I believe that education is the key to everything,” remarked Emmylou Harris following her visit last year to Ethiopia to visit Jrs programs there. Harris visited one of many education programs Jrs provides, including primary, secondary, and vocational livelihoods training, in 42 countries around the world.

The Lampedusa 2017 tour will reach eight markets:

Oct 3:

Seattle,...

Directors: Bob Ray, Spencer Parsons, Rusty Kelley, Berndt Mader, Amy Grappell, Karen Skloss, Duane Graves, Justin Meeks, Paul Gordon, Johnny Stranger, David Zellner, Nathan Zellner, Jay Duplass, John Bryant, Sam Wainwright Douglas, Ben Steinbauer, Elisabeth Sikes, Mike Dolan, Geoff Marslett, Bradley Beesley, Bob Byington, Clay Liford, Carlyn Hudson, Miguel Alvarez, Scott Meyers, Pj Raval, Chris Eska Writers: Bob Ray, Spencer Parsons, Rusty Kelley, Berndt Mader, Amy Grappell, Karen Skloss, Duane Graves, Justin Meeks, Paul Gordon, Johnny Stranger, David Zellner, Nathan Zellner, Jay Duplass, John Bryant, Sam Wainwright Douglas, Ben Steinbauer, Elisabeth Sikes, Mike Dolan, Geoff Marslett, Bradley Beesley, Bob Byington, Clay Liford, Carlyn Hudson, Miguel Alvarez, Scott Meyers, Pj Raval, Chris Eska Starring: Bob Ray, Chris Doubek, Maggie Lea, Hilah Johnson, Robert Lambert, Leslie Naugle, John Wesley Coleman, Kelli Bland, Justin Meeks, Jonny Mars, Ashley Spillers, Jen Tracy Duplass, Jay Duplass, Chris Trew, Sam Wainwright Douglas, Anna Margaret Hollyman, Luke Savisky,...