News

The Keeping The Blues Alive Foundation’s 3rd annual Stream-a-Thon, hosted by Joe Bonamassa, was a spectacular display of musicianship that helped raise an additional 60,000 for musicians in need and featured nearly 3 hours of music performances from over 25 talented artists including some of Joe’s legendary friends and rising stars.

Last week, fans from more than 40 countries tuned in to watch the line up which included Dion, Peter Frampton, George Thorogood, Eric Gales, Bill Payne (Little Feat), Tommy Emmanuel, Larry McCray, Joanne Shaw Taylor, and many more.

The Stream-a-Thon event benefits the Fueling Musicians Program which provides assistance to musicians in need. This year, our gracious industry partners include Gibson Brands/ Gibson Gives, Seymour Duncun, Ernie Ball, Broken Arrow, Sixthman, Truefire, OceanWay Studio, Herbsman Hafer Weber and Frisch Llp, Grand Brulot, Sweetwater, Dunlop, and Driven Communication.

“I am so thankful for the incredible support from our industry partners and for...

Whether it’s coming out of Nashville, New York, L.A., or points in between, there’s no shortage of fresh tunes, especially from artists who have yet to become household names. Rolling Stone Country selects some of the best new music releases from country and Americana artists. (Check out our most recent list.)

Kelsey Waldon, “Fixin’ It Up”

Kelsey Waldon goes way back into her archives for this song written for her 2014 debut The Goldmine. In the end, “Fixin’ It Up” didn’t make the cut, but the Kentucky...

Chris and Rich Robinson are gearing up for the upcoming Black Crowes reunion tour by playing a series of under-the-radar acoustic shows under the moniker Brothers of a Feather.

They began the tour on Wednesday night at the London club Omera with a set that included Black Crowes classics like “Thorn in My Pride,” “She Talks to Angels,” and “Remedy,” along with covers of Little Feat’s “Willin’ ” and Manassas’ “So Many Times.”

The Robinson brothers head over to the Netherlands on Saturday evening before traveling to America on February...

Fans of Linda Ronstadt have swooned over her voice, a powerful instrument that can blast the dust off an Everly Brothers classic and breathe new life into jazz and mariachi standards. Yet what comes through most strongly in a recent documentary about the singer is the way she used her vocal abilities to call attention to the work of others.

“I can always do a harmony part,” Ronstadt says in a recent interview.

The film, “Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice,” airs on CNN at 9 p.m. on New Year’s Day after a recent theater run, and tells the story via a time-capsule of clips, video moments and Ronstadt’s own words of how the singer captured public fascination with her carefully chosen covers of tunes by Roy Orbison, Clint Ballard Jr. and Warren Zevon, among others. But it also depicts her knack for helping those whose efforts...

Little Feat’s Paul Barrere, who served as guitarist and vocalist in the boogie rock band for nearly 50 years, died Saturday at the age of 71.

The band confirmed Barrere’s death in a statement. While no cause of death was provided, the guitarist was undergoing treatment in his long battle with liver disease; in 1994, Barrere contracted hepatitis C, and in 2015 was diagnosed with liver cancer.

“It is with great sorrow that Little Feat must announce the passing of our brother guitarist, Paul Barrere, this morning at UCLA Hospital,” Little Feat said in a statement.

Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real took the stage at the Late Show to perform their recent track “Bad Case.” The song, which comes off the singer’s album Turn Off The News (Build a Garden), got some impassioned accompaniment from the musician’s brother Micah Nelson, as well as his band Promise of the Real.

In the clip, a top hat-clad Nelson leads the charge on guitar and vocals, giving the bluesy rock tune a lot of vigor. The song, which Nelson has said was inspired by the Traveling Wilburys,...

Since releasing 2017’s Something Real, Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real have played 200-plus shows — both on their own and with Neil Young, inspiring some of the legend’s fieriest shows in years. “They have no fear,” Young told Rs. “They’re much better players than I am. Lukas is like a gunslinger.”

The band took that fire and experience into the studio for their new album, Turn Off the News (Build a Garden), out June 14th, where they double down on their psychedelic cowboy anthems, with help from friends including Sheryl Crow,...

Stevie Wonder wanted to meet Tonto. He had just turned 21, was flush with cash and had all these songs and sounds in his head that he couldn’t get onto tape. A friend had loaned him a copy of an album called Zero Time that had been recorded using the world’s largest, most advanced music synthesizer: Tonto, an acronym for “The Original New Timbral Orchestra.”

The mastermind behind Tonto was an Afro’d, English bassist-turned–studio tech named Malcolm Cecil who lived above a midtown-Manhattan advertising recording studio. ““I...

The Pavilion at Montage Mountain in Scranton, Pennsylvania, has hosted a deep and diverse lineup for the Peach Music Festival since the event was launched by the Allman Brothers Band in 2012, but the seventh annual rendition provided the most colorful bill yet. From Allman Brothers co-founder Dickey Betts and South Carolina soul rockers the Marcus King Band to Nashville songwriter Nicki Bluhm and jam titans Moe., the Peach served up four freewheeling days of inspired music. Here are the 10 best things we saw. (Photos courtesy of the Peach Music Festival...

On Sunday October 29th, Topa Mountain Winery hosted the 10th Annual Concert Fundraiser for local nonprofit, Safety Harbor Kids (Shk) to support music education programs for orphans, foster and homeless children.

The event, sponsored by Ventura Land Rover Jaguar and Maserati of Bakersfield, was emceed by actor/comedian Hal Sparks and featured music by Chicago co-founder and drummer Danny Seraphine, Kiss guitarist Tommy Thayer, Jeff Beck bassist, Phil Chen, singer Tony Grant of Az Yet and Shk Music Director and band leader, Edward Roth.

The evening began with a special performance by Italian actress/singer, Maria Elena Infantino whose infectious personality and song got people out of their seats to dance. Then, as the sun set creating an Ojai “pink moment”, American Idol top four finalist Jessica Meuse took to the stage to keep the crowd going for the All Star Band to follow.

Enter The All Star Band with Danny,...

This year’s New York Film Festival has just unveiled a slew of Special Events to round out its already full-to-bursting lineup, and it includes some late-breaking entries to previously announced sections and a selection of brand new events that are very special indeed. Highlights include a trio of documentary premieres, including Susan Lacy’s “Spielberg” (focused on the eponymous director, with both Lacy and her subject set to appear at the festival), along with Jennifer Lebeau’s Bob Dylan concert film “Trouble No More,” and Susan Froemke’s “The Opera House,” a history of the Metropolitan Opera and a love letter to the art form that will (appropriately enough) screen at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center.

Other standouts include four brand-new films from Claude Lanzmann, a sparkling new restoration of G.W. Pabst’s “Pandora’s Box.” Elsewhere, Kate Winslet will be on hand for a career-spanning chat...

Playing For Change, the multimedia company responsible for the popular ‘Songs Around The World’ video series, has announced it will host We Are One, a concert benefitting the Playing For Change Foundation and celebrating 10 years of positive change through music.

Official partners for the event include Los Angeles’ premier rock radio station 95.5 Klos, La Weekly, and Japan-based music app Nana. The concert will take place on Tuesday, October 3, at the historic Mayan Theater in downtown Los Angeles and feature performances from The Doobie Brothers members Tom Johnston, Patrick Simmons, and John McFee; as well as Paul Barrere and Fred Tackett from Little Feat; The Playing For Change Band, that features 10 respected musicians from 10 different countries; world-renowned drummer James Gadson; The Ambassador of Soul, Ellis Hall; legendary harmonica player Lee Oskar; and more. Ticketing options include an exclusive VIP experience with a pre-show meet and greet reception with The Doobie Brothers and musicians,...

You could argue that most folks – or at least those who'd care enough to nab tickets to a documentary about the Grateful Dead – already know the band's story backwards and forwards. They can tell you that Jerry Garcia started out as a boho banjo player in a jug band, and that he enlisted avant-composer Phil Lesh, fresh-faced folkie Bob Weir, blues aficionado Ron "Pigpen" McKernan and drummer Bill Kreutzmann to form a band. They'll tell you about the acid tests and becoming the San Francisco scene's poster boys. They'll chart...

J.D. Souther John David Souther Black Rose Home by Dawn (Omnivore)   J.D. Souther's songs are better known as sung by other people, which is good for his bank account but puzzling if you've heard his fine LPs. I wouldn't be surprised if more people nowadays know of him from his acting on the TV series Nashville than from his career in music. If there's any justice, these three reissues will redress that imbalance.

After this Texan moved to L.A., he teamed with Glenn Frey in the band Longbranch/Pennywhistle (they kept co-writing songs after Frey founded the Eagles, notably "New Kid in Town"), lived upstairs from Jackson Browne, and dated Linda Ronstadt.

Browne told him to audition for David Geffen, who'd just started the Asylum label, and that led directly to 1972's John David Souther. Its original ten-song program, which kicks off with "The Fast One," one of...

Chicago – With the 2014 Major League All-Star game coming up next week on July 15th, that break is a time to reflect on the current season and your favorite team. At the “Hot Stove Cool Music” event in Chicago on June 20th, HollywoodChicago.com got in the All-Star spirit by talking with the President of Baseball Operations for the Chicago Cubs, Theo Epstein, plus baseball writer and former Espn commentator, Peter Gammons.

Hot Stove Cool Music was co-founded by Peter Gammons in 2000, and began in Boston. Theo Epstein and his family charity organization, “Foundation to Be Named Later” partnered with the event shortly thereafter, and in total it has raised more than $5.5 million dollars, creating positive opportunities for disadvantaged children and families. Cub Charities was also a co-sponsor of the night, which featured Gammons, Epstein and other Chicago talents rocking on the Cabaret Metro stage in Wrigleyville, about one block from the Chicago Cubs home base,...

Pickpockets to highwaymen, bank heists to drug smuggling, the readers' collective Robin Hood act has made a treasure chest

Under the cover of darkness they came. Precious time was snatched to deliver. One reader endured terrible pain and went to hospital, another is set to move house, but this did not stop them. And another, more delightfully, saw the delivery of a beautiful baby (I dedicate this blog to you, prolific Rr regular BeltwayBandit - congratulations!), and despite all of this, during this crazy pre-Christmas period, you still brought riches. Thank you, me hearties, for your bountiful song booty! From rampant robbery to surreptitious smuggling your treasures cascaded through the cellar door of the Readers Recommend and I spent many hours admiring, examining, analysing and enjoying. I am a man poor in time, but rich in song.

And now my turn again to stand and deliver. And indeed, among all the thieves,...

Special From Next Avenue

By Suzanne Gerber

You don’t have to throw out Little Feat to make room for Fleet Foxes

Google “ways to discover new music” and no less than 89,800,000 results pop up. Tons of websites, blogs, radio stations broadcasting the old-fashioned way and streamlining online, not to mention music sites like Spotify and Radio Paradise are dedicated to the proposition that all people deserve to discover new tunes.

So why are so many of our needles stuck in the “classic rock” groove, playing the same albums since 1992 -- or 1968? Not that there’s anything wrong with continuing to cherish the music we grew up with. For our generation, it would be hard not to: Some of the most enduring music (at least rock, soul, jazz and blues) was made when we were coming of age. But what I find frustrating is the misbegotten mindset that nothing new is worth listening to.

Happy Thanksgiving. It's been a terrific month for mining new music. I caught an advance screening of Led Zeppelin's new concert movie at MoMA (and their press conference), discovered what may be my favorite album of the year, and found inspiring young musicians sharing their chops and muses with the world. With the holidays around the corner, here are some early suggestions for music very much worth sharing with friends, lovers, bosses, and family.

"You're So Great / It's All Right, Ma" Wendy James You're So Great E.P. (Cobraside)

If Brit-born/NYC-based Ms. James's claim-to-fame-band Transvision Vamp was a tad too sugar-pop coated for your New Yawk punk rawk palette, not to worry. Thanks to guitarist James Williamson (Iggy Pop Stooge) and drummer James Sclavunos (Nick Cave alumnus), she's found some downtown 'tude. The A-side is a fun retro Ramones-style punk ditty, but it's the flip-side Grinderman-grind Dylan cover where it all comes together.

While our managing editor Steve Holtje has done a bang-up job sharing phenomenal Jazz and Classical reviews, I thought I'd share some of my favorite new rock, pop, and soul picks for Summer 2012. It's time for BBQs and beach blanket bingo parties. Time to get your swag on, peoples.

"Radiator Sister" - The Mynabirds Generals (Saddle Creek) - Infectious, bubble-gum snappin' tunes abound on this sophomore long player from singer-songwriter Laura Burhenn. All aptly produced by Richard Swift, but for my limited ducats this iPod-friendly ditty is the bees-ness. Equal parts Bow Wow Wow and T.Rex, with its two-note piano hook. 

"Among the Leaves" Sun Kil Moon Among the Leaves (Caldo Verde) - Mark Kozelek remains steadfast in his musical offerings; familiar turf, but still so damn compelling. Alt tunings, heartfelt ballads, and lyrical dexterity all remain firmly in place.The gentle tug of his band behind him keep...

It feels great when bands are excited enough by their A.V. Undercover performances to give them an official release. You may have seen the Wye Oak 7" in the past, or the They Might Be Giants compilation that included "Tubthumping." Iron & Wine is the latest outfit to join that illustrious club: Available for pre-order today is the "Two Sides Of George" single, which includes I&W's cover of George Michael's "One More Try" (from their Undercover session) as well as a cover of Little Feat's "Trouble" (by Lowell George, hence the title of the single). The ...

A host of comedians and performers will come together for The Bill Of Rights Comedy Concert benefitting the creation of America’s first monument honoring the Bill of Rights on Sunday, May 13th at Phoenix Symphony Hall in Phoenix, Arizona.

Among those scheduled to perform are Lewis Black, Chris Bliss, Bill Engvall, Bobcat Goldthwait, Dick Gregory, Kathleen Madigan, Tommy Smothers, Steven Wright, along with Little Feat musicians Paul Barrere and Fred Tackett.

“I am doing this because from what I have seen in the news from time to time, it seems that some of the folks in Arizona, and the rest of America, need a little bit of a reminder of what our founding fathers really said. Because those words in The Bill of Rights are important,” Lewis Black said. “And it’s going to be nice to see the cornerstone of our democracy on real stone. It also seems...

SisterSparrow.com Sister Sparrow & the Dirty Birds

Dependable transportation is no trifling matter for a nine-member band that makes its living on the road. Sister Sparrow & the Dirty Birds, a Brooklyn-based nonet with a driving rock and soul sound, has managed to tour the country in a 2006 Dodge Sprinter, a former Ramada Inn shuttle van the band bought last June. But last week, the chronically limping Sprinter landed back in the shop, just as the group prepared to release a new album Tuesday,...

From acoustic guitarists, James Lee Stanley and Cliff Eberhardt comes "All Wood And Doors", available on DVD, July 12, 2011, featuring original "Doors" band members, John Densmore (percussion) and Robby Krieger (lead guitar) with Peter Tork ("Monkees"), Timothy B Schmit ("Eagles"), Laurence Juber ("Paul McCartney & Wings"), Paul Barrere ("Little Feat"), Scott Breadman ("Lindsay Buckingham") and a whole lot more :

"...can you imagine what 'The Doors' songs would have sounded like if they had been created with acoustic guitars? Would 'Light My Fire', 'Riders On the Storm' or 'Touch Me' been as powerful played on acoustic guitars and filled with vocal harmonies? James Lee Stanley and Cliff Eberhardt, have been purveyors of acoustic rock music for decades. They took 12 'Doors' classics and turned them into something totally unthought of...an amazing collection of 'Doors' tunes laden with soulful vocals and joyous harmonies..."

Tracks include "Break On Through", "Love Me Two Times", "Take...

Little Feat co-founder Richie Hayward has passed away after contracting pneumonia as he battled liver cancer. The jam band drummer, who has played with Eric Clapton and Robert Plant, died on Thursday, August 12 at a hospital near Vancouver, Canada. He was 64. His publicist, Bridget Nolan, tells the Associated Press, "He was waiting for a liver transplant."

Hayward formed Little Feat in 1969 with frontman Lowell George, Bill Payne and Roy Estrada and the band became known for songs such as "Willin". They split in 1979 following the death of George, but the surviving members staged a successful reunion in 1987 and have been touring ever since.

Hayward's last performance with the group took place on July 11. "He's really been a beacon to a whole generation of younger drummers," singer-songwriter Jackson Browne, who performed with other musicians at one of the benefit concerts held to help pay for Hayward's medical bills, said as quoted by The Vancouver Sun.

New York (AP) — Richie Hayward, co-founder of the Little Feat, an eclectic jamband that maintained a strong cult following throughout the decades, has died. He was 64. The drummer had been suffering from liver cancer and died Thursday at a hospital near Vancouver, Canada, after complications of pneumonia, his publicist, Bridget Nolan, confirmed Friday. "He was waiting for a liver transplant," Nolan said. Over the past year, benefits had been staged on Hayward's behalf; he had no health insurance. In a letter to fans last August, Hayward wrote about his predicament, but sounded hopeful: "My intent is to come back...

Duo join Further, Jimmy Cliff, Sharon Jones and more at the festival beginning Thursday in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

By James Dinh

Nas and Damian Marley

Photo: Redferns

Bridgeport, Connecticut's Seaside Park is about to be transformed into the annual celebration of art, camping and jamming known as the Gathering of the Vibes festival. From Thursday (July 29) to Sunday, fans will be treated to the sounds of Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley and Nas, Further (a.k.a. the surviving members of the Grateful Dead), Jimmy Cliff, Primus, Robert Randolph and the Family Band, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, and many more.

"This is an event that was put together 15 years ago," event publicist Jonathan Lobdell told MTV News. "And it sort of morphed into this great big family reunion with people who come back every single year and grow these tremendous bonds that last lifetimes."

The Gathering is also literally a family affair,...

An iconoclast kicks back with the sounds of his ‘50s adolescence Ever contrary, Frank Zappa released Cruising with Ruben & the Jets, a vigorous ode to the doo-wop and R&B of his youth, in 1968, when the boundaries of rock were being stretched by the likes of the Beatles, Hendrix and Zappa’s own Mothers of Invention. Greasy Love Songs unearths that highly entertaining album, presented here in the “original 1968 vinyl stereo mix,” along with alternate versions and related ephemera. Leading a cast that includes crooning lead singer Ray Collins and bassist Roy Estrada (pre-Little Feat), Zappa celebrates “cretin simplicity,”...

Little River Band was the first Australian band to successfully conquer foreign markets from an Australian base.

Within eight months of their birth, Lrb had already scored three Australian Top 20 singles and two Top Ten albums. In 1976, after their self-titled debut album was released in the USA, the long grind of 13 Us tours in eight years had begun.

By 1982 they became the only act - from anywhere - to have a top ten Us single for six consecutive years.

Headlining their own major shows in America, and touring internationally with the likes of the Doobie Brothers, Supertramp, America, and the Eagles was a huge learning curve that honed Lrb into one of the finest live bands in the world.

Record success ran alongside - total record sales around the world have eclipsed the 25 million mark. 16 hit singles by 1985, as well as gold, platinum, and multi-platinum album sales awards. All-told Lrb...

It's rare that you see five films in a day at a film festival and hit all good ones. But as I settled in to Tim Blake Nelson's Leaves of Grass Monday night in Toronto - my fifth and final film of the day - I thought I might have a shot at it. No such luck. After an amusing and promising first half, Nelson's philosophical stoner comedy suddenly took a wrong turn and never recovered. You hate to see that happen, particularly when you're enjoying the film - and then it just kind of collapses in a heap, like a jalopy under Laurel and Hardy. Leaves of Grass certainly starts with audacious energy, referencing everything from Plato and Walt Whitman to John Prine and Little Feat. It's constructed like a farce, built around a pair of estranged twin brothers - both...