Mammoth Music Blog: July 2009

Friday, July 31, 2009

Mariah Carey signs on for four concerts at the Palms

Singer Mariah Carey, the most successful female recording artist in history with more than 175 million albums sold worldwide, will perform four shows at The Pearl in the Palms. Hotel mogul George Maloof pulled off the incredible coup as Beyonce arrives in town for four shows starting tonight, and the official news of Mariah's concert dates was confirmed within the past hour.

Mariah will appear in the up close and personal, once-in-a-lifetime concerts Sept. 11-12 and Oct. 9-10. Tickets are $129 to $254 and will go on sale Aug. 8. Mariah's shows will be the first of its kind and surround the highly anticipated release of her new album Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel, which features the current single "Obsessed" written and produced by Mariah, The Dream and Tricky Stewart, who are responsible for the majority of tracks on the new album.

Memoirs is set for a Sept. 15 release, so we'll get an advance listen here in Las Vegas with her two September shows! Memoirs is the 12th studio album of Mariah's career and is the follow-up to her platinum-selling album E=MC² released in April last year.
Leach Blog Photo

Photo: Bill Boatman

Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon celebrate their first anniversary at Moon in the Palms.

From Mariah's last album, "Touch My Body" made history when it became her 18th #1 Hot 100 hit, surpassing Elvis Presley's record. She is now positioned as the only active recording artist in the 51 years of the Hot 100 with the potential to surpass The Beatles' all-time high of 20 No. 1 hits. source>>>

No Woodstock anniversary concert

A 40th anniversary Woodstock concert proposed for September will not take place, according to Michael Lang, one of four partners to stage the Woodstock Music and Art Fair in 1969, and the public face of Woodstock for 40 years.

A resident of the Town of Woodstock and the driving force behind the 1969 Woodstock concert and two anniversary concerts, in 1994 and 1999, Lang had initially wanted to stage a free concert in Brooklyn's Prospect Park. That event was planned to coincide with the Woodsotck anniversary, Aug. 15-18. Lang, however, ran into difficulty rounding up sponsors to cover the $8-$10 million cost of the show.

As deadlines to coordinate that concert passed, Lang looked toward the end of September, with hopes of staging an anniversary event in conjunction with Climate Week.

Climate Week is set for Sept. 20-26, will target 100 cities worldwide and is part of the Seal the Deal! campaign, according to www.sealthedeal2009.org, a Web site maintained by the United Nations. Seal the Deal! "aims to encourage governments when they meet at COP 15 in Copenhagen this December to agree on a climate change agreement that will protect people and the planet and promote a global green economy," according to www.sealthedeal2009.org.

Lang's push for a concert in conjunction wtih Climate Week would have complemented nicely the "green" push that Woodstock Ventures has undertaken on its new Web site, www.woodstock.com. Lang said any anniversary concert would have incororporated as many green aspects as possible. source>>>

Mid-State Fair concert series is music to the ears of many but headache for some

One of the main attractions at the California Mid-State Fair in Paso Robles every summer is its impressive lineup for its concert series.

This year is no exception, but some neighbors are taking exception with the volume of some of the big name acts.

Thursday it was the very popular group Black Eyed Peas pleasing the crowd of more than 7,000. Although, these concerts have had their critics.

The Black Eyed Peas definitely get their fans started when they opened up their show with their popular hit "Let's get is started".

But not everyone in Paso Robles is a fan. The group also got Al Crume's decibel meter started once again, just like Judas Priest and Kiss the nights before.

"The KISS concert with all the explosions, it was driving us crazy and the dogs were freaking out. And last night we couldn't even watch TV," said Crume, who lives about two miles away from the fairgrounds.

"With KISS Tuesday night, they brought pyrotechnics and fireworks. Fireworks are loud, it's part of the big production that people go buy tickets to go see" Tom Kuffuery a representative with the Mid-State Fair said.

KISS is the only show this year with fireworks that Crume's dogs could do without. But Kuffuery says while the fair does its best to be a good neighbor, the individual bands have the final say on the audio levels.

"There's really only a couple a fairs in the entire nation that bring the lineup that we do, so I would hope that would never go away. We have such a unique thing here in Paso Robles, that we've become known for, that I think that would be a shame," Kuffuery said about not inviting the louder groups back.

Crume doesn't want the big names concerts to go away, he just wants the volume turned down a bit. He says when he tried to contact the Paso Robles Police Department they just told him to call the fair.

"Their attitude is, during the fair anything goes. I know if I went in front of the mayor's house and played my radio until 10:30 p.m. or 11:00 p.m. real loud, the police would sure be there." Crume added.

Fair officials say they have only received two or three complaints this year, which is on par from years past. They also point out almost 70,000 people have come to, and enjoyed, the concerts this year. And they do have an 11:00 p.m. curfew for all shows. The Black Eyed Peas were done playing before 10:15 p.m. on Thursday. source>>>

The Disco Biscuits Announce Big Fall Tour

The Disco Biscuits have announced 30 performances to lay the groundwork for their Fall 2009 tour dates. "The Planet Anthem Tour" will feature nearly non-stop touring this fall, in support of the band's forthcoming release of the same name. In addition to some weekend-based 2-night stands, "The Planet Anthem Tour" will see The Disco Biscuits travel to some fan-favorite venues and locales. Tickets for the fall shows will go on sale through BiscoTix (http://biscotix.musictoday.com) on Monday, August 2 at noon ET, with Ticketmaster on sale dates to be announced.

As The Disco Biscuits hit the road this fall, the band will begin to roll out a series of EPs leading up to the new, full album, Planet Anthem - scheduled for release in January 2010. The highly anticipated roll out of new tracks has already begun, with the introduction of "Konkrete" and "You and I," at recent performances. The Biscuits are set to shake up the industry with a plan to release the album throughout the fall, in clusters, on 3 EPs.

These pristine, studio quality, multi-media releases will include singles, remixes, and music videos. The first, due out in September, will be available on the band's website, on tour, online, and as a limited edition retail package. The subsequent EPs will be released throughout the fall in six week increments as Planet Anthem will, slowly but surely, be unveiled. As a show of appreciation for the band's fans, The Disco Biscuits are now offering free downloads of both "Konkrete" and "You and I" on the band's website, www.DiscoBiscuits.com.

The Disco Biscuits will kick off the band's massive Fall Tour with two nights at the Starland Ballroom in Sayreville, NJ, September 12-13. Starland weekends have long been a fan favorite, and these performances will be the band's first since returning to the States from Japan, a trip made for their performance at Fuji Rock Festival, on the heels of the most successful Camp Bisco to date.

From there, the band will head south to begin fall's busy life on the road. September 17 will mark the band's return to Fayetteville, AR for a performance at George's Majestic leading into a weekend in Texas. The Disco Biscuits will visit Dallas' Palladium Ballroom on September 18 before visiting Austin's Stubbs Bar-B-Q on Saturday, September 19.

The Biscuits will then head to the Southeast for a series of performances in some favorite destinations, returning to Tuscaloosa's Jupiter on September 22 before heading to Oxford, MS on September 23 and Nashville, TN on September 24. The band will round out the week with two exciting performances supported by Infected Mushroom (performing as a live band) at Atlanta's Tabernacle on Friday, September 25 and again at Knoxville's Tennessee Theater on Saturday, September 26. Before heading north, the band will perform in Boone, NC on September 30 and in Richmond, VA on October 1.

The first weekend in October finds The Disco Biscuits spending two nights in the nation's capital, at the legendary 9:30 Club, on October 2-3. The band's summer performance at the 9:30 Club quickly became a fan favorite from 2009, and this weekend is not to be missed. The Biscuits will return to State College, PA to perform at The State Theatre on October 4.

October 7 will feature the kick-off of the band's scheduled New England performances with a show at Burlington, Vermont's Higher Ground. From there, the band heads to Hampton Beach, NH and the historic Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom before returning to Northampton, MA for a reprise of last winter's 2-night weekend extravaganza. The Disco Biscuits will perform at The Calvin Theatre on Friday and Saturday, October 9-10.

The Midwest run kicks off with an October 28 performance at the Kalamazoo State Theatre, the band's first visit to the Michigan city. From there, The Disco Biscuits head to Madison, WI on October 29 and to Minneapolis, MN on October 30 before Halloween's blow out at Chicago's Auditorium Theatre with guests Holy Fuck, Glitch Mob, and local favorites Orchard Lounge. The band will wrap up its Midwest engagements in Urbana, IL on November 1 at The Canopy Club.

The Disco Biscuits are also pleased to confirm a California run anchored by two performances at San Francisco's Fillmore on Friday and Saturday, November 20-21. The two shows will be bookended by scheduled performances in San Diego, Los Angeles, and Santa Cruz. The band is excited to return to California for these shows following previous unavoidable cancelations. The Disco Biscuits will perform in San Diego at Wave House San Diego on November 18, in Los Angeles at the House of Blues on November 19, and in Santa Cruz at The Catalyst on November 22.

The current list of confirmed Disco Biscuits tour dates is as follows:
The Disco Biscuits Fall Tour 2009
September 12 - Starland Ballroom - Sayreville, NJ

September 13 - Starland Ballroom - Sayreville, NJ

September 17 - George's Majestic - Fayetteville, AR

September 18 - Palladium Ballroom - Dallas, TX

September 19 - Stubbs - Austin, TX

September 22 - Jupiter's - Tuscaloosa, AL

September 23 - The Lyric Theatre - Oxford, MS

September 24 - Venue TBA - Nashville, TN

September 25 - The Tabernacle - Atlanta, GA

September 26 - Tennessee Theatre - Knoxville, TN

September 27 - The Fillmore - Charlotte, NC

September 30 - Legend's Music Hall - Boone, NC

October 1 - The National - Richmond, VA

October 2 - 9:30 Club - Washington, DC

October 3 - 9:30 Club - Washington, DC

October 4 - The State Theatre - State College, PA

October 7 - Higher Ground - Burlington, VT

October 8 - Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom - Hampton Beach, NH

October 9 - Calvin Theatre - Northampton, MA

October 10 - Calvin Theatre - Northampton, MA

October 28 - Kalamazoo State Theatre - Kalamazoo, MI

October 29 - Wisconsin Union Theater - Madison, WI

October 30 - First Avenue - Minneapolis, MN

October 31 - Auditorium Theatre - Chicago, IL

November 1 - The Canopy Club - Urbana, IL

November 18 - Wave House San Diego - San Diego, CA

November 19 - House of Blues - Los Angeles, CA

November 20 - The Fillmore - San Francisco, CA

November 21 - The Fillmore - San Francisco, CA

November 22 - The Catalyst - Santa Cruz, CA

Caribbean Holidaze
December 10-14 - Caribbean Holidaze - Runaway Bay, Jamaica

source>>>

Can You Duet Finalists Perform at Country Music Hall of Fame Luncheon

CMT's Can You Duet finalists performed Thursday (July 30) at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville during a luncheon hosted by the Nashville Superspeedway and Toyota Motorsports. Big Machine Records president Scott Borchetta, who is also a Can You Duet judge, introduced the three acts -- Ryan & Avalon, JB Rocket and Steel Magnolia. Prior to the performances, NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Toyota driver David Starr and NASCAR artist Sam Bass spoke to the audience where Bass later unveiled his Gibson Les Paul trophy guitar. The guitar will be awarded to the winner of the Craftsman Truck series' Toyota Tundra 200 on Saturday (Aug. 1). Bass will serve as the grand marshal, and former Tennessee Titan Frank Wycheck will drop the green flag to start the race. The Can You Duet season finale premieres Aug. 8 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on CMT. View photos from the luncheon. source>>>

Cross Canadian Ragweed Among Americana Festival Performers

Cross Canadian Ragweed is among the bands performing at the Americana Music Festival this year in Nashville. The event takes place Sept. 16-19. The band will release a new album, Happiness and All the Other Things, on Sept. 1 on Universal South Records. They're also opening select shows this summer for the Rebels of Rock tour with Kid Rock and Lynyrd Skynyrd, as well as planning their annual Red Dirt Roundup in Fort Worth, Texas, on Sept. 6. The Americana Music Festival will also feature Asleep at the Wheel, the Band of Heathens, Radney Foster, the Greencards, Will Hoge, Jim Lauderdale, Buddy Miller, Reckless Kelly, Charlie Robison, Marty Stuart, J.D. Souther and many more. source>>>

Gloriana Anxious to Release Debut Album

Gloriana's self-titled debut album will be released Tuesday (Aug. 4), and the four members of the group can't wait.

"Our whole lives, we've been imagining this moment where we get the record deal, make the album and then release it. And now it's really happening," vocalist Rachel Reinert tells CMT Insider. "I had one of those 'oh, my gosh' moments the other day when we pre-signed 1,200 of our CD inserts. Looking at it -- the physical copy of it -- was pretty crazy. It was like a 'real' moment."

Gloriana was formed in 2007 after Tom and Mike Gossin -- brothers who sing and play guitar -- moved to Nashville after years of working in clubs in North Carolina. They soon met Reinert and, later, Cheyenne Kimball, who provides vocals, mandolin and guitar to the quartet.

Their album is being released by Emblem Music Group, the new label founded by Matt Serletic, known for his work with Willie Nelson and Matchbox Twenty. The group has gained attention with "Wild at Heart," a song Serletic wrote with Josh Kear and Stephanie Bentley. In addition to the music video's success on CMT Top 20 Countdown, the single is currently at No. 16 on Billboard's country songs chart.

As for the next single, Reinert says the choice will likely be the album's opening track, "How Far Do You Wanna Go?"

"It's similar to 'Wild at Heart' in that it's very energetic, so I think it's going to come out with a bang," she says. "We're really excited about that one." source>>>

Garth Brooks' Musical Progeny: Monster or Misunderstood?

Ten years ago on Sept. 28, a gigantic creature came bursting to life from a Nashville recording studio and was unleashed upon the world. Fully formed at birth, Chris Gaines sprang into being with a complete back story, a brand new greatest hits album and a story to tell -- or hint at. And maybe a future movie and more. What a grand concept.

How to easily explain "Chris Gaines"? Well, the prevailing theory is that Garth (may I call him that?) began to get bored of massive pop-country success and enormous record sales that were, to be sure, beginning to show a decline. Ever the visionary, he imagined an alter ego releasing records into a receptive rock market. And with that would come a revitalized career with a major movie on the horizon. The movie had reached serious talking stages between Garth's production company, Red Strokes Entertainment, and Paramount Pictures.

It was an audacious plan on a grand scale, and it could have worked. No popular music artist has ever even attempted a total reinvention successfully and, in fact, I don't know that it has ever been tried on this scale. So Garth deserves congratulations for thinking large.

The initial step of the campaign was a greatest hits album, to be followed (after a year or so of audience acclimation) by the major motion picture, The Lamb, starring Chris Gaines as a troubled rock singer (with a new concept album of the same name). For the project, Garth lost weight, got a rock 'n' roll wardrobe and hired a movie makeup artist to transform him into Gaines for a music video and album photo shoot.

The album was titled Garth Brooks in ... The Life of Chris Gaines on the front of the CD case, and the back showed only Gaines' name and the Greatest Hits title. It was helmed by top-line producers Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds and Don Was with Garth, and the songs came from top-line songwriters including Wayne Kirkpatrick, Gordon Kennedy and Tommy Sims. The album, billed as a prequel soundtrack for the movie, included hits from through Gaines' career with his group, Crush, and solo albums from throughout his career.

According to his official bio, Christian Gene Gaines was born in 1967 in Brisbane, Australia, and his family moved to L.A. when Chris was 5, perhaps explaining his lack of any Aussie accent. Gaines dropped out of high school and formed the rock band Crush. After the group's lead singer (who was Gaines' best friend) was killed in a plane crash, Gaines secluded himself before returning with a solo album -- which was a smash. Then, Gaines had a tragic car wreck and again went into seclusion.

His albums included Crush's self-titled 1986 debut, 1989's Straight Jacket, 1991's Fornucopia, 1994's Apostle and 1996's Triangle. They purportedly traced his music through an evolution that by turns sounded Beatlesque and a bit like Prince, Fleetwood Mac and so on. The cuts on the hits album are representative of each era.

To promote the greatest hits release, Garth hosted Saturday Night Live as himself, with Gaines performing "Way of the Girl" on the show -- with no explanation from Garth. He also appeared on a VH1 "mockumentary" on its Behind the Music series.

The Garth/Chris hullabaloo only added to the chaos that was Capitol Nashville records in those days. Label head Jimmy Bowen, a forceful executive who did not always see eye to eye with Garth, had retired and was replaced in 1995 by a respected music producer, Scott Hendricks. Garth did not seem to regard Hendricks favorably, and by the end of 1997, Hendricks was forced out and replaced by a marketer, Pat Quigley. So the business side of Capitol Nashville was not always totally focused then.

Brooks' push for Chris Gaines debut in September 1999 consumed much of Capitol Nashville's attention and energy. That all served to incidentally stifle the progress of a new Capitol Nashville release by a fledgling young artist trying to get solo exposure after his group, the Ranch, released a debut album that failed commercially. That was Keith Urban, whose self-titled solo album was released in October of 1999. More than one journalist noticed that both Urban and Gaines were born in Australia in 1967 and raised in Brisbane and that their music was much closer to pop and rock than to Nashville country.

Gaines' album release came and went. Country fans overwhelmingly did not understand it or accept it. The songs "Lost in You" and "It Don't Matter to the Sun" briefly charted country. ("Lost in You" peaked at No. 62 while "Matter" made it to No. 24). "Lost in You" became Garth's only Top 5 pop hit. Once the album more or less fizzled by Garthian sales standards, the impetus for the movie disappeared. Chris Gaines withdrew into Garth's bag of tricks. In 2000, Garth announced he was retiring from recording and performing.

Chris Gaines' video of "Right Now" is still playing on YouTube, where there are also many cover versions of other Gaines songs. The Greatest Hits album is still available at Amazon.com. Nielsen/SoundScan reports that the album is platinum, with total sales just over 1.1 million copies. (In 1999, when it was released, projected sales were expected to be over 2 million). Obviously, Chris Gaines has some fans.

I spent some time tonight with the CD and its elaborate notes and photographs and felt an odd affection for this Icarus-like leap for the sun. It was a grand attempt. Thus do eras end. Not with a bang, but with a whimper. source>>>

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9 to 5: The Musical Closing on Broadway

The Broadway production of 9 to 5: The Musical, with a score written by Dolly Parton, will close on Broadway on Sept. 6 due to disappointing ticket sales. However, a new touring production of the musical will be launched in Nashville on Sept. 21, 2010. The musical won a Drama Desk award earlier this year following a record-setting 15 nominations. "I couldn't have asked for a better experience on my first Broadway show," said Parton. "I've had the privilege of working with an amazing group of people who have become like family to me. I can't wait for this show to hit the road so people across the country can see why I'm so proud of everyone involved. And I'm so pleased that we'll be opening the tour in Nashville. Great things happen in Nashville." source>>>

Reba McEntire Will Perform at Canadian CMA Awards

Reba McEntire will perform at the Canadian Country Music Association (CCMA) Awards in Vancouver, B.C., on Sept. 13. Other performers include George Canyon, Terri Clark, Doc Walker, Jessie Farrell, Martina McBride, Aaron Pritchett and Johnny Reid. McEntire will release a new album, Keep On Loving You, on Aug. 18. Her latest single is "Strange." CCMA nominations were also announced on Wednesday (July 29), with Reid getting six nominations and Canyon receiving five. Actor Jason Priestley will host the award ceremony. source>>>

Lady Antebellum Earns First Gold Digital Single

Lady Antebellum earned its first gold digital single this week for "I Run to You." The certification recognizes 500,000 digital downloads. "When we write, we never know which of our songs will end up connecting with people," says band member Charles Kelley. "The minute we put 'I Run to You' in our show, we knew that people were starting to respond to it because the voices were growing louder every night. I still can't believe that 500,000 people even know who we are ... much less downloaded a song we wrote at the Loveless Café over lunch one day. It's crazy!" source>>>

Kenny Chesney's Music Videos: On the Beach and on the Sidelines

On stage, Kenny Chesney is a prancing dynamo who draws his energy from applause and spotlights. But in most of his 30-plus videos, he's more like a casual observer of life, even when he's the guy with the guitar. Behold a few of the best examples.

"The Tin Man" (1994) -- Kenny in chrysalis. His resonant, reassuring voice is emerging, but at this early stage of image development, the singer is clad in a form-shrouding sport coat and wearing his hair longer in the back. The close-ups show a man who's keenly in touch with the emotions he sings about.

"That's Why I'm Here" (1998) -- Chesney throws himself into this one literally as he sprawls on a grimy restroom floor in a drunken stupor. The song is the cry of a man who's trying to kick his alcohol addiction while simultaneously pleading for understanding from his aggrieved wife or girlfriend. The video is permeated by dark, sickening, institutional colors that offer no ray of mental relief. Here, in the service of authenticity, Chesney exposes his receding hairline. After all, falling-down drunks rarely succeed in keeping their hats on.

"How Forever Feels" (1998) -- Welcome to the tropics. This video introduces us to Chesney's passion for sunny beaches and soothing waves, and it's the first to show his sculpted bare chest. In one scene, he even wears a parrot on his shoulder.

"The Good Stuff" (2002) -- After a dustup with his old lady, Chesney C-clamps himself to a bar and asks for some liquid relief -- the "good stuff." But the wise old bartender (played by Chesney's longtime manager, Dale Morris) knows what the kid really needs is some philosophical perspective on his debilitating self-pity. The drunker you are, the more profound this one will seem.

"There Goes My Life" (2003) -- Country songwriters love nothing better than taking a catchy phrase and working it into different and even contradictory contexts. Here, it's "there goes my life" because my girlfriend's pregnant, followed by "there goes my life" because my little baby girl is what I hold most dear. And, finally, "there goes my life" because my beloved grown-up daughter is leaving home. That's the story this video tells. Chesney relates the action but does not participate in it.

"Anything but Mine" (2005) -- Of all Chesney's beach-themed videos, this is my favorite. The scene is a seaside or lakeside amusement park near the end of summer. While Chesney and his band play off to the side, the two young lovers try to pack as much joy into their final day together as the imagination allows. Wistful and beautifully bittersweet.

"Who You'd Be Today" (2005) -- The poets Robert Frost and John Greenleaf Whittier each spoke of roads not taken and opportunities lost because of fear, caution or arbitrary choice. "For of all sad words of tongue or pen," Whittier wrote, "the saddest are these, 'It might have been.'" This video dwells on the theme of potential cut short by tragedy: the playground friend later killed in a war and the promising young life that's snuffed out in a car wreck. Again, Chesney sings on the periphery as the sad scenes unfold.

"You Save Me" (2006) -- The East Tennessee native does some fine understated acting here. He plays the weary, mysterious stranger who's coming home to his lover, the one person who truly understands and accepts his "gypsy soul." As he stares out the side window of the cab he's riding in, his face is a palette of dark and unexplained emotions. But all his pain is swept away when he's finally frolicking in the arms of his woman. (CMT.com also offers a director's cut of this video that goes a long way toward explaining the cause of Chesney's angst.)

"Don't Blink" (2007) -- After his interview with a 102-year-old man reminds him that life is fleeting, a TV newscaster begins to rethink his own hurried existence. Even if you do blink, you won't miss this didactic story line.

"Out Last Night" (2009) -- The only difference between this poolside panorama and Chesney seaside epics (e.g., "Old Blue Chair" "Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven," "When the Sun Goes Down," "No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problem," "I Lost It," "How Forever Feels") is that it features a lot more babes than drinking buddies. source>>>

Jamey Johnson, Randy Houser Headlining CMT on Tour '09

Jamey Johnson and Randy Houser will headline CMT's eighth annual tour kicking off Oct. 8 in Brooklyn, N.Y. Billed as CMT on Tour '09: Jamey Johnson and Randy Houser, the first leg of the 30-city tour was announced Tuesday (July 28). Johnson and Houser are longtime friends and co-writers. "This tour is about 50 combined years in the making," Houser said. "I've been playing on the road since I was 15. Jamey and I both have been picking these guitars as long as we've been able to hold 'em. This is a chance to show the rest of the world how far we've come." The initial tour dates include appearances at the Bowery Ballroom in New York City, House of Blues in Las Vegas and Club Nokia at L.A. Live in Los Angeles. Tickets in select markets are on sale and available at www.cmtontour.cmt.com and www.ticketmaster.com. source>>>

Vince Gill Subject of First Grammy Salute to Country Music

Vince Gill will be honored by the Recording Academy in the first-ever Grammy Salute to Country Music, an invitation-only event on Sept. 9 at the Loveless Barn in Nashville. Steve Martin, Michael McDonald, Alison Krauss, Brad Paisley and Gill's wife, Amy Grant, are among those scheduled to appear at the event. The Recording Academy has previously hosted similar salutes within the classical, jazz and gospel genres. Neil Portnow, president/CEO of the Recording Academy, said the series "celebrates the work of extraordinary people and organizations that continue to ensure that these genres remain a vital part of our culture." source>>>

Gretchen Wilson, Sony Music Part Ways

Gretchen Wilson and Sony Music Nashville have "mutually decided to part ways," according to a press release issued by the label on Tuesday (July 28). Wilson originally signed with Epic Records, which released the Redneck Woman album in 2004. The title track spent five weeks at No. 1 on Billboard's country singles chart and created national media attention for Wilson. The following year, she reached No. 8 at country radio with "All Jacked Up," but no subsequent singles reached the Top 20. Epic was folded into the RCA Label Group during Sony Music's merger with BMG in 2005 and 2006. The press release announcing Wilson's departure from the label indicates she and Sony Music Nashville will cooperate on future releases from her existing music catalog. Wilson's other Top 10 hits include "Here for the Party," "When I Think About Cheatin'" and "Homewrecker." source>>>

Dolly Parton Reflects on Moving to Nashville, Making Smart Decisions

With so many young people returning to college in a few weeks, CMT.com visited with Dolly Parton -- who accepted an honorary doctorate in May from the University of Tennessee -- about moving to Nashville, meeting husband Carl Dean and making smart business decisions and managing employees.

You moved to Nashville immediately after graduating from high school. What do you remember about your first summer in Nashville?

Parton: Well, I met my husband my first day in Nashville because I was doing dirty laundry at a little place down on Wedgewood Avenue called the Wishy Washy. I was here looking around, thinking of my future and what all it was going to be, and that there were going to be no men in the picture at that time. So I met him and two years later, I married him. But he never held me back on my dream because he knew I had come here to be a singer and a songwriter. I just couldn't believe the day I got here. I thought, "I'm here. I'm really here. I'm really here forever. I'm here to live and to be part of it." I had made different trips back and forth, of course. It was home and has been ever since '64.

What odd jobs did you have when you first arrived?

Actually, I got lucky early on. I got a chance to write for a publishing company and had a little bit of money coming in. But before that, I used to fill up the ketchup and mustard bottles and fill the salt and pepper shakers at a restaurant called Couser's. They're still in business. It's the best country food in Nashville. It was then and it is now. They used to let me eat free if I would do those little things, so it really wasn't about money as much as it was just a swap-off for food.

You scored some cuts as a songwriter before your own performing career took off. What do you remember about that time?

Actually, the first one that was recorded by another artist was a song my uncle Bill Owens and I wrote. It was called "Put It Off Until Tomorrow," and it was the BMI song of the year (in 1966). ... Bill Phillips on Decca Records recorded it. I had sent the demo over. My uncle was singing the lead and I was singing harmony, so when [Phillips] got ready to record that, he said, "I want whoever that girl was to sing the same harmony." So I went to sing with him, which was a big deal because he was a big artist at that time. ... It was because of me singing on it that people started saying, "Who is that girl?" And when they found out, that's how I got my first record deal, as well.

I've seen episodes of The Porter Wagoner Show from the '60s where Porter puts his arm around people and pulls them right up to him. Was that typical of his personality?

Oh, yeah. Porter was a very warm, friendly country boy and was a real down-home person. Country people believe in putting their arm around you or slapping you on the back or whatever.

Being so early in your career, were you nervous about the TV cameras?

I was nervous with Porter! (laughs and lightly kicks the reporter in the shins) Getting back to being serious ... I remember when I was a little kid back in Knoxville, I was singing on a local show and one of the camera men said to me, "Just make friends with that camera and these red lights on the front of the camera." He said, "I know that'll be intimidating, but just look at that camera like you are looking at somebody in your family -- like you're looking at your mama." So from then on, I just looked at the camera like it was someone I knew, like it was my family looking back at me. Or somebody I had a crush on, depending on what song I was singing. If it was a love song, I'd look at that camera and flirt with it like it was a boy. ... I was never afraid of the camera, and I learned how to move back and forth with the red lights. I learned that early on.

When did you realize you had a knack for business?

Well, you don't really realize what you know until you look back later, when other people say, "How'd you know to do that?" To me, it was just natural to be protective of my songs. The second I was able to publish my own songs, I thought, "Why do I need to be letting other people handle my songs?" You have to do business in order to get ahead. ... The second I saw that I had enough going that I could start my own publishing company, not even knowing what I was doing, I started putting that together. That was one of the best moves I ever made.

What advice would you give for entrepreneurs hoping to hire the right people?

It's helpful if you've got that thing inside you to know what to do. If you don't know what to do, at least have a feel for what kind of people to choose. ... Knowing you don't know everything, go find the people that do know and don't begrudge what little dab of money you're going to pay them. A lot of people don't want to pay a percentage to have a manager or somebody to help them. But it's like that old saying: "I'd rather have half of something than all of nothing." You've got to let people do what they do, and you've got to find the people that know what they're doing. Keep your eye on them and make sure they're honest people. If they're not, get away from them as soon as you can. Take your losses and run.
source>>>

Bruce Springsteen Wins A small Victory In Battle Against Ticketmaster

Bruce Springsteen took to the streets - well, his website - in February and threatened that Ticketmaster and LiveNation combining to form one ticketing system would lead to a "near monopoly."

Bruce's cause earned a victory this week when the chairman of the Senate's antitrust committee asked Christine Varney, assistant AG of the Antitrust Division, to investigate the Tickemaster/LiveNation $2.5 billion merger, saying it would "combine two entertainment powerhouses and will transform the concert business" and requires "thorough scrutiny."

Ticketmaster is "the nation's dominant primary ticket seller" and LiveNation is the "nation's largest concert promoter," the letter to Varney said.

An investigation would be another high-profile move by Varney, who made clear there would be increased antitrust scrutiny on her watch. The antitrust division has already made news with investigations into the Google books settlement and phone companies.

Varney does not appear to have free reign, however. As The New York Times reported Sunday, some Democratic lawmakers are concerned aggressive antitrust scrutiny will hurt ties they have tried to forge with the business community. Further, some in the Obama adminstration think a recession is not the time for an antitrust crackdown.

The Ticketmaster/LiveNation investigation, if opened, might be a good one to watch. It is a relatively focused area with very few main players and a not overly-complicated structure. Anyone who buys concert tickets knows that a $50 ticket (to the extent one still exists) ends up being closer to $75 once you pay the ticket company's fees. Being a direct cause of annoyance in millions of concertgoers' lives may make it difficult for Ticketmaster and LiveNation to find a lot of friends in this battle. source>>>

Sony Pictures pays $60 million for 80 hrs. of Michael Jackson "This Is It" tour.rehearsal footage

Sony Pictures has reportedly paid $60 million to concert promoter AEG Live for the rights to 80 hours of Michael Jackson rehearsal footage recorded in preparation for his ill-fated "This Is It" tour. The Hollywood Reporter says 90 percent of that money will go to Jackson's estate. Much of the expected profits from a forthcoming concert film, to be released this fall, will also go to the estate, according to the Los Angeles Times. Given the explosion in Jackson's popularity over the last month, his death seems to have been a lucrative career move. source>>>

Golf star Tiger Woods and rock legend Bob Segerat the pro-am round at the Buick Open today.

Tiger Woods, two-time Buick Open winner, and his pro-am group finished their round shooting a combined 8-under 64. Woods said he shot 5-under with his own ball. For those keen on driving to Grand Blanc to watch him play in Thursday's first round, he tees off at 12:54 p.m.

The Buick is Woods' first tournament back since he missed the cut at the British Open. He called the rumored demise of the Buick Open - the only PGA Tour event in Michigan -- "unfortunate."

"Obviously, this area's been struggling a bit, and, as I said, I think the atmosphere, all the players, have really enjoyed playing in front of the fans here," Woods said. "It is very intimate. You see the same people at the same holes each year, and it is a venue that we don't get to play in front of very often. It's much more personal here."

Woods' group included Detroit rock musician Bob Seger, who actually was supposed to play with Woods at last year's Buick until Woods pulled out because of knee surgery.

On a hole on the back nine, Woods and Seger had a chuckle when one of Seger's hits, "Old Time Rock and Roll," began blaring from a house off the fairway.

"I already had in my mind that if I would have hit the driver off the fairway with a bad (drive), I would have blamed it on him," Woods said with a smile. "So I hit a good one, so he got the credit."

Seger, 64, said he had a blast playing with Woods. And he has a few aches and pains to show for it.

"I haven't walked a golf course in 30 years," Seger said.

Seger made three longs putts on the front nine - on hole Nos. 2, 4 and 6 - and then "age kicked in."

"Boy, my feet hurt; my back hurt," he said. "I was stretching as much as I could." Seger was humbled that he received a bigger cheer than Woods on the first tee.

"Oh, I've been here 40 years, you know," he said. "I've got a few fans around here. He's really special. To stand that close to (Woods) - such a privilege."

In the media room after their pro-am round, Seger was equally as effusive when asked a question by a certain Free Press sports columnist.

"Are you Mike Rosenberg?" Seger asked.

"I am," Rosenberg said.

"I LOVE your stuff. I am your biggest fan. I really am. You've got a great sense of humor." source>>>

Jamey Johnson, Wilco Join Farm Aid Lineup

Jamey Johnson, Wilco, Jason Mraz and Phosphorescent have joined the concert lineup for Farm Aid 2009 on Oct. 4 in Maryland Heights, Mo., near St. Louis. The roster will also feature Farm Aid board members Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp and Dave Matthews. The annual event raises money and awareness for family farmers. Nelson is the subject of Phosphorescent's latest album, To Willie, which features covers like "I Gotta Get Drunk," "The Last Thing I Needed (First Thing This Morning)" and "The Party's Over." source>>>

Taylor Swift Sets Record Attendance at North Dakota State Fair

Taylor Swift helped the North Dakota State Fair set an attendance record on Saturday (July 25), with more than 50,646 people attending the event in Minot, N.D. It's the first time daily attendance surpassed the 40,000 mark, fair organizers said. Swift joins Huey Lewis & the News as the only entertainers to sell out a concert during the event, with more than 16,000 in attendance. Swift's next concert will be Friday (July 31) in Boston. source>>>

35,000 Fans Showed Up for Alan Jackson Concert on Lake Martin in Alabama

"I'm gonna tell you, this has got to be the coolest show I've ever done here tonight," Alan Jackson said Saturday (July 25) to some 35,000 fans who traveled by boat to attend his concert on Lake Martin near Alexander City, Ala.

In addition to the crowd estimate, law enforcement agencies also reported that more than 4,000 boats showed up for the concert that also featured the Carter Twins, Jypsi, Matt Stillwell and Caitlin & Will. Jackson's performance was filmed for a concert special to air Sept. 4 on CMT.

An avid outdoorsman, Jackson told CMT Insider he looked forward to the informal show on Lake Martin.

"This Aquapalooza show has been going on for several years at different lakes," he said. "It was just good timing for me. It worked out that we were available to do this, and they let us come and be part of the show. It's a great event. And it's on a lake that I love."

It's not the first time Jackson has performed in such an isolated setting.

"I've done a few lake shows in Tennessee up on Center Hill [Lake]," he said. "Those are some of the best shows because, you know, you can't charge people to come. It's just kind of fun and laid back. People that love the water and love being on the lake and on their boats, they look for something to do and an event to go to -- whether it's a restaurant or a Fourth of July fireworks or something like this concert. It's a cool thing to be able to go on your boat and sit around and hang out with your family and friends and goof off and have fun and enjoy the music."

The concert attracted fans from as far away as California and Michigan, and many used inner tubes to paddle close to the stage. Jackson arrived in a vintage 1923 Hacker-Craft boat and reminisced about his visits to Lake Martin while growing up in Georgia.

"It's been twenty-something years since I've been here," he said. "It's been really cool to come back and be able to do a concert here on the water."
source>>>

Charlie Robison Bandages the Wounds of Divorce in Beautiful Day

It would be rude to ask Charlie Robison about his divorce from the Dixie Chicks' Emily Erwin if he hadn't made it the centerpiece of his new album, Beautiful Day.

"As I was writing, I just couldn't act like it wasn't there," he tells CMT.com. Six of the 10 songs are Robison's own compositions. Keith Gattis, Bobby Bare Jr., Charles Bracco and Bruce Springsteen provide the other four. Robison also produced the project.

Brave though the album title sounds, it's obviously ironic -- and more than a little hopeful. Robison sings of the amputated limb that still aches. While he's past the first shockwave of the breakup, he's still in the zone where he desperately wishes it weren't happening.

Listening to the songs in sequence is like watching the running of a hooked fish, which, when the line is slack, can revel in the notion that it's actually free.

The title track attempts to be philosophical about the whole separation thing. "Yellow Blues" pulsates with righteous indignation. "Feelin' Good" and "She's So Fine" are exercises in wishful thinking. And so it goes -- light one minute, dark the next (as summarized most eloquently in Gattis' "Down Again").

Although he continued to perform regularly between recordings, Beautiful Day is Robison's first album in five years. He says he didn't approach it as a vehicle to convey the emotional fallout of his divorce.

"It just became that way," he explains. "I'll always go for a good song before worrying about stuff like [an overall concept]. I could tell when the songs were coming out they were some of the favorite songs I'd written, even though they were about that personal stuff."

Robison admits he wrote the songs as though his ex-wife were looking over his shoulder.

"I definitely envisioned her listening to them," he said. "I kind of felt that if the shoe were on the other foot, she'd be writing about the same thing. The record's not a vindictive one or anything like that. It's written more about me than it is her."

The outside songs, Robison says, were ones he was familiar with before he started recording the album. "It wasn't like I went looking for them," he said. "They were just right there whenever I was thinking about the subject matter."

It is perhaps a measure of Robison's own suffering that the songs never allude to his and Erwin's three children and the effect the divorce might have on them. He says he still spends a lot of time with them at his ranch in Texas.

Overlapping the album's theme of lost love is the dawning awareness of lost youth. "Gotta car full of dents/And a face full of lines," Robison sings in "Middle of the Night." And he ends the album with a sensitive cover of Springsteen's "Racing in the Street," which probes, among other things, an aging man's substitution of action for feeling.

Writing about his pain helped him relieve it, Robison says. "Basically, it was cheaper therapy. Once I got it down on paper and started looking at it kind of as an outside person, I was able to gain perspective on a lot of things.'

Now -- a year after his divorce became final -- Robison says he can listen to his Beautiful Day songs and for "99 percent of the time" feel like they're about someone else. source>>>

Billy Currington's "People Are Crazy" Is This Week's Top Country Song

Let's have a hand for Billy Currington, whose "People Are Crazy" pops this week to the top of Billboard's country songs chart. And a jaunty thumbs up as well for Taylor Swift's Fearless as it reasserts itself as the No. 1 country album.

Otherwise, it's a pretty tranquil scene -- just one new album and one new song to report, neither of which makes a big wave. Country Classics, a multi-artist collection of hits, barely cracks the chart at No. 75. Brad Paisley's "Water," a track from his new American Saturday Night album, sneaks in at No. 58 as his current single, "Welcome to the Future," climbs to No. 21 just four weeks after its release.

Albums returning to action include the Lost Trailers' Holler Back (re-emerging at No. 69), Craig Morgan's That's Why (No. 72), the Randy Rogers Band's self-titled release (No. 73) and Elvis Presley's Collector's Edition: Elvis Inspirational Memories (No. 74).

Rebounding into the songs chart are Kate & Kacey's "Dreaming Love" (No. 57), Lady Antebellum's "I Was There" (No. 59) and Mark Chesnutt's "She Never Got Me Over You" (No. 60).

Rounding out this week's Top 5 albums list are Paisley's American Saturday Night (last week's No. 1), the soundtrack to Hannah Montana: The Movie, the Zac Brown Band's The Foundation and Jason Aldean's Wide Open, in that order.

The No. 2 through No. 5 songs are Darius Rucker's "Alright," Lady Antebellum's "I Run to You" (last week's No. 1), Swift's "You Belong With Me" and the Zac Brown Band's "Whatever It Is." source>>>

Garth Brooks/Shania Twain concert Scam cost Texas town $56,000

You can't promise something as big as a Garth Brooks/Shania Twain concert and get away with it. But Hiro Jamal Hariram tried. He's an event promoter from Houston who took $56,000 from the nice folks in Brownsville, Texas, because he told them he could put together the country concert of all country concerts. There were even faked booking contracts. I probably would've handed over $56,000, too. The judge on the case set the bond pretty high, either because this Hariram guy already has other criminal charges (including one for murder) pending against him in another county, or because the judge is a big country music fan and was just as disappointed as the rest of the Texans. source>>>

Taylor Swift's "Picture to Burn" on New Video Game, Band Hero

aylor Swift's "Picture to Burn" is one of 65 songs featured on a new video game, Band Hero, a pop-focused spinoff of the Guitar Hero series. No Doubt's "Just a Girl," Lily Allen's "Take What You Take," the All-American Rejects' "Dirty Little Secret" and the Jackson 5's "ABC" are among the songs revealed in a recent preview of the game. Other artists included in the game, which will be released in the fall, include Maroon 5, Fallout Boy, the Killers and Snow Patrol. source>>>

Kenny Chesney "Sad to See" Negative Response to Sugarland Cancellations

Kenny Chesney has issued a statement about the negative fan response to Sugarland's cancellations during his Sun City Carnival tour. The band dropped out of stadium shows in Dallas and San Francisco and will not perform with Chesney in Salt Lake City on Thursday night (July 23). On fan sites, message boards and blog comments on the Internet, Sugarland's lead singer, Jennifer Nettles, has been criticized for booking studio time in San Francisco on the same day as a concert. In a video message on the duo's Web site, Nettles later apologized for her voice problems and for canceling the shows. She also cited ongoing health issues and noted she was ordered to undergo vocal rest by her doctor. Chesney's statement read: "It was really sad to see the way some people reacted to Jennifer needing to cancel her appearance in San Francisco last weekend -- and it seems to me we should all be concerned about her long-term vocal health more than any single show that she may not be able to do. Naturally, I'm disappointed she's not out here with us -- because she is a friend as well as an act I know the fans enjoy -- but I think it's more important that she have the time to heal properly, rather than forcing herself to try and rush back onstage. I know she'll be back before the summer and can't wait to have her back out there. But it's about doing the right thing and we should all be supporting her in that." source>>>

Josh Turner Kicks Off NSAI's "It All Begins With a Song" Performance Series

Josh Turner performed Wednesday night (July 22) at the Wildhorse Saloon in Nashville during a fundraiser for the Nashville Songwriters Association International. The event was the premiere of the not-for-profit organization's "It All Begins With a Song" performance series. During an acoustic set, Turner invited some of his co-writers to the stage, including John Anderson, Shawn Camp and Pat McLaughlin, and spoke candidly about the songwriting process. Midway through the show he was awarded a lifetime membership with the NSAI before continuing on with his full band, performing hits such as "Firecracker," "Your Man," "Long Black Train," "Me and God" and "Would You Go With Me." The NSAI is a trade association that advocates the intellectual property rights of its songwriters. source>>>

Alison Krauss, Brad Paisley and Charley Pride Charm White House Crowd

Alison Krauss, Brad Paisley and Charley Pride brought country music to the nation's capital and apparently charmed the first family during a Tuesday night (July 21) concert in the East Room of the White House.

The performance, streamed live on the Internet, was the second concert in the White House's music series hosted by President Barack Obama and the first lady. Eddie Stubbs, the disc jockey from WSM-AM/Nashville who served as emcee, complimented the president by pointing out, "It only took you six months to get country music to the White House. God bless you, sir."

Following a brief welcome from the president, the hour-long event opened with Krauss singing "Let Me Touch You for Awhile." Backed by her Union Station band and Dobro player Jerry Douglas, their performance was perfect -- which is the norm for these particular musicians.

For the second song, Krauss put guitarist Dan Tyminski in the spotlight to reprise his vocal performance of "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow," the song he recorded as a member of the Soggy Bottom Boys for the film, O Brother, Where Art Thou? Krauss followed with "Ghost in This House" and closed with "Every Time You Say Goodbye."

Charley Pride, who was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2000, was up next, opening his three-song set with one of his No. 1 singles from 1970, "Is Anybody Goin' to San Antone." With 28 other No. 1's to choose from Pride had plenty of choices, but he settled on "Kiss an Angel Good Morning" and "Mountain of Love."

Paisley emphasized songs from his new album, American Saturday Night. Beginning his part of the show with the title track, he performed his latest No. 1 single, "Then," suggesting it would sound particularly good on Air Force One. Krauss returned to the stage for the duet, "Whiskey Lullaby," before Paisley finished with "Welcome to the Future." With lyrics about the technological, social and political changes America has experienced, the song had an additional resonance Tuesday night because of the Obamas.

Earlier in the day, Krauss and Paisley were featured in a workshop and question-and-answer session for 120 middle and high school students. Some 40 students from Nashville's W.O. Smith Community Music School attended the session conducted by Jay Orr, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum's vice president of museum programs.

The White House music series began in June with a jazz concert featuring Wynton Marsalis, his father Ellis and brothers Branford, Delfeayo and Jason. Also performing was saxophonist Paquito D'Rivera.

In Obama's introductory remarks, he demonstrated his understanding of country music.

"I know folks think I'm a city boy, but I do appreciate listening to country music because like all Americans, I appreciate the broad and indelible impact that country has had on our nation," the president said. "It's touched countless lives. It's influenced all genres of music. It's helped us make the American people more hopeful. It's captured our restlessness and resilience and told so much of our story in the process.

"After all, that's what country music is all about -- storytelling. It's about folks telling their life story the best way they know how -- stories of love and longing, hope and heartbreak, pride and pain. Stories that help us celebrate the good times and get over the bad times. Stories that are quintessentially American. After all, name me any other country that would have produced a Hank Williams or a Willie Nelson."
source>>>

Star Wars Concert' announces world tour, including San Jose shows

The HP Pavilion in San Jose will resemble "a galaxy far, far away" come fall.

The home of the San Jose Sharks will host "Star Wars: In Concert" on Oct. 11. It's the local stop on a worldwide tour, co-presented by San Francisco's Lucasfilm and Berkeley concert promoter Another Planet Entertainment, that will feature a live orchestra performing John Williams' famed "Star Wars" scores, paired with film clips shown on a three-story, high-definition LED screen, and other multimedia elements.

Details about the trek, which kicks off Oct. 1 in Anaheim and plans to hits 50 North American cities before embarking on a global jaunt, were announced Thursday, ending months of speculation that began after "Star Wars: In

Concert" premiered at London's O2 Arena in April.

The production features specially edited footage from all six "Star Wars" films shown on a giant screen, yet the goal is to celebrate composer John Williams' work on the "Star Wars" saga. A full symphony orchestra, under the direction of conductor Dirk Brosse, will perform music from each film as the corresponding scenes unfold onscreen.

"We've taken the key themes from the music and cut together all the images that fit with each theme, so you can really get a sense of how the music played into the images," said "Star Wars" creator George Lucas. "The whole soundtrack is a testament to John Williams' creativity and his extraordinary ability to enhance the emotional aspects of the
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films."

In between the musical moments, Anthony Daniels, the actor who provided the voice of C-3PO in all six "Star Wars" films, will provide live narration and fill in holes in the story line.

Accompanying the concert is an exclusive exhibit of "Star Wars" costumes, props and other rarely scene artifacts, many of which are leaving Lucas' Skywalker Ranch for the first time.

Besides the live music, the stage show differs from the celluloid version in that it unfolds chronologically (the way many "Star Wars" fans now watch it on DVD). The film series kicked off 32 years ago with the release of what was actually the fourth chapter of the saga, followed by the fifth and sixth installments.

Performances at HP Pavilion on Oct. 11 will be 2 and 7 p.m. Tickets run $35-$75 and go on sale at 10 a.m. Aug. 2 at the HP Pavilion box office and Ticketmaster outlets, as well as by phone at 800-745-3000 and through www.ticketmaster.com. More information is available at www.starwarsinconcert.com.

Danielle Madeira, marketing director for Another Planet, says production isn't solely intended for the type of folks that can recite Han Solo's lines from memory.

"It will give you chills, even if you aren't a 'Star Wars' fan," she says. "You are basically overwhelmed by the story. It pretty much gives you the best parts of 'Star Wars.'" source>>>

Star Wars Concert' announces world tour, including San Jose shows

The HP Pavilion in San Jose will resemble "a galaxy far, far away" come fall.

Concert" premiered at London's O2 Arena in April.

In between the musical moments, Anthony Daniels, the actor who provided the voice of C-3PO in all six "Star Wars" films, will provide live narration and fill in holes in the story line.

Accompanying the concert is an exclusive exhibit of "Star Wars" costumes, props and other rarely scene artifacts, many of which are leaving Lucas' Skywalker Ranch for the first time.

Danielle Madeira, marketing director for Another Planet, says production isn't solely intended for the type of folks that can recite Han Solo's lines from memory.

"It will give you chills, even if you aren't a 'Star Wars' fan," she says. "You are basically overwhelmed by the story. It pretty much gives you the best parts of 'Star Wars.'" source>>>

“The Beatles: Rock Band” Announces 15 New Tracks

The debut of The Beatles: Rock Band is still well over a month away, but early glimpses of the video game suggest another wave of Fab Four hysteria can't be far off. On his current tour (and at Coachella), Paul McCartney has already revealed some charming animated footage from the game. And at a recent preview session at MTV in Santa Monica, California, Rolling Stone got an up-close look at the most exciting version of Rock Band yet.

As RS previously reported, the game comes with 45 remastered tracks, and Abbey Road will become available for download at the same time as the title's September 9th release for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii. Fifteen more tracks -- and their venues -- have been announced today, including "Can't Buy Me Love" at the Ed Sullivan Theater, "Paperback Writer" at Budokan and "I've Got A Feeling" at the rooftop concert (full list below).

(Click here to watch the newest trailer for The Beatles: Rock Band, featuring eight of the 15 newly announced tunes.)

A hands-on test of the game suggests it could sometimes be a challenge to keep up with George Harrison's guitar on "Day Tripper" and "Here Comes the Sun." And your luck singing along (and actually hitting the right notes) with John Lennon and McCartney is measured within the game. As previously reported, The Beatles: Rock Band allows for three-part harmony (a vocal training session in the game will help with that) and rocking on the Beatles' signature instruments: a Höfner bass, Rickenbacker and Gretsch guitars and Ludwig drums.

Fans will also find rare bits of Fab ephemera otherwise unavailable on the albums embedded in the game. According to a spokesman for MTV Games/Harmonix, McCartney personally did some unofficial fact-checking for the game, making small adjustments in the chronology. Before now, the Beatles have been totally unavailable to fans of Rock Band (or rival Guitar Hero), but the delay has led to a Beatles version of the game that pushes the technology further, finally offering a digitized magical mystery tour that is a vivid, multi-layered experience for a new era.

Confirmed songs for The Beatles: Rock Band:

"Twist And Shout" / Cavern Club
"Do You Want To Know A Secret" / Cavern Club
"Can't Buy Me Love" / Ed Sullivan Theater
"I Wanna Be Your Man" / Ed Sullivan Theater
"Eight Days A Week" / Shea Stadium
"Paperback Writer" / Budokan
"And Your Bird Can Sing" / Budokan
"Yellow Submarine" / Abbey Road Dreamscape
"Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" / Abbey Road Dreamscape
"With a Little Help from My Friends" / Abbey Road Dreamscape
"Within You Without You" / Tomorrow Never Knows / Abbey Road Dreamscape
"Revolution" / Abbey Road Dreamscape
"Birthday" / Abbey Road Dreamscape
"Dig A Pony" / Rooftop Concert
"I've Got A Feeling" / Rooftop Concert
"I Saw Her Standing There"
"I Want To Hold Your Hand"
"I Feel Fine"
"Taxman"
"Day Tripper"
"Back In The USSR"
"I Am The Walrus"
"Octopus's Garden"
"Here Comes The Sun"
"Get Back" source>>>

Will Apple kill off the iPod Classic?

If you've read the stories on Apple's latest earnings, you may have noticed that Apple Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer took the time to break out the sales of each model in the iPod franchise, which is seeing year-over-year declines for the first time in its history. In her piece, our own Erica Ogg wrote:

"During the third quarter, Apple sold 10.2 million iPods, compared with 11 million a year ago. It turns out that the shifting appeal of the Shuffle, Nano, and Classic model iPods are to blame. But Apple apparently saw this coming." She then goes on to quote Oppenheimer, who says those declining sales are "the reason we developed the iPod Touch. We expect our traditional MP3 players to decline over time as we cannibalize ourselves with iPod Touch and iPhone."

As rumors continue to circulate that Apple will introduce new iPod models this fall (as it traditionally has), the big question is whether the iPod Classic becomes the odd iPod out. In a recent MP3 Insider podcast, CNET editor Donald Bell points out that orders for new Samsung hard drives that would go into an updated Classic appear to be nonexistent, according to Ars Technica and Apple Insider. And shortly after the earnings were posted, TechCrunch writer MG Seigler asked whether the iPod as we know it is dying.

The prevailing bet among iPod followers is that the Classic may stick around for a little while, but it probably won't be upgraded and will be quietly put out to pasture. The fact is that the iPod Touch offers a lot more functionality and, most importantly, it can run iPhone apps, which people find appealing, and they generate revenue for Apple.

Of course, there's a lot of folks out there who need a high-capacity iPod to store all their tunes and videos. The Classic remains a pretty decent value from the standpoint of a storage player, and we're seeing great deals on refurbished fifth-generation video iPods. If indeed Apple comes out with a 64GB iPod Touch this fall--as we expect it to--it will still cost quite a bit more than a 120GB iPod Classic. And that will keep Classic owners clinging to their antique iPods.

Personally, I hope Apple keeps the Classic around until the prices for flash memory drop enough to make a high-capacity Touch affordable. But I have a feeling the Classic will be gone by then. source>>>

Rascal Flatts Offers iTunes Pass for Previously Unreleased Music

Rascal Flatts is the first country act to offer an iTunes pass for fans to receive downloads of previously unreleased music, such as live concert recordings ("I'm Movin' On," "Mayberry," "Bless the Broken Road"), studio rehearsals ("What Hurts the Most," "Take Me There," "Here Comes Goodbye") and unreleased demos. The first songs were made available on Tuesday (July 21), and additional titles will become available every Tuesday through Sept. 1. A total of 28 recordings are scheduled for release on iTunes this summer. source>>>

Radney Foster Celebrates Birthday With Dierks Bentley, Darius Rucker

Radney Foster celebrated his 50th birthday with a concert at the Exit/In on Monday night (July 20) in Nashville. Foster performed for more than two hours, bringing up several friends and admirers. Dierks Bentley joined him for "Until It's Gone" and "Sweet and Wild," while Darius Rucker sang on "Angel Flight" and "Raining on Sunday." Other guest performers included Jessi Alexander, George Ducas, Julien Foster (Radney's 18-year-old son), Vince Gill, Georgia Middleman, Lee Roy Parnell, Jon Randall and the Randy Rogers Band, as well as a 16-piece gospel choir. Foster and his Foster & Lloyd partner, Bill Lloyd, capped the night with their No. 1 hit, "Crazy Over You." Foster will release a new album, Revival, on Sept. 1. source>>>

Nashville-area Woman Found Guilty of Stalking Gary Allan

A permanent restraining order was issued Tuesday afternoon (July 21) against a Nashville-area woman who has been stalking singer-songwriter Gary Allan. Police in Hendersonville, Tenn., arrested Katherine Walker on May 4 on charges of stalking Allan and burglarizing and vandalizing his home. Tuesday's session in chancery court in Gallatin, Tenn., lasted approximately three hours and included testimony from Allan, three of his band members, his tour manager and a representative of his management company. Walker, who represented herself, insisted that Allan had repeatedly called her, sometimes as many as 10 times a day. In court, Allan denied the allegation, telling her, "You scare me. I've never talked to you. I've never read your e-mails." source>>>

Hank Williams Jr. Says New Album Is His Last for Curb Records

If you like humility in your performers, don't go talking to Hank Williams Jr. He knows he's a musical force of nature, and he speaks with all the cockiness and self-assurance his monumental sales and longevity have earned him.

On a recent summer morning, he chatted with CMT.com from his office in western Tennessee about his latest album, 127 Rose Avenue. It is, as he says, "a gem," a collection with all the familiar Hank Jr. touchstones: tributes to his famous father, some high-energy blue-collar blusters and quieter nods here and there to the ladies.

Williams penned five of the 11 songs. The CD's title refers to the senior Williams' boyhood home in Georgiana, Ala., a residence that now serves as a museum. (The actual address is 127 Rose Street.)

While Williams is enormously proud of the album, he boils over at the first mention of his label, Curb Records, and its owner, Mike Curb. "You want to know the bottom line?" he snaps. "This is my last album [for Mike Curb], and he's history."

He charges that the label has failed to give him the artistic and promotional backing he deserves.

"We will move onward and upward," he vows. "You just wait. We'll have a lot to talk about. I've had some recording ideas that they didn't care for. Well, there's a lot of other labels that do care about it. ...

"We're going to get off this old, dead sinking ship. One thing about it: You can say, 'The last one he made was damn sure a gem.' I love 127. We had to do the cover [for the album]. They didn't do anything. We did everything. ...

"They were going to [use] a picture of me from seven years ago when I was 25 pounds heavier. That was going to be the cover. It was 'Ho hum,' basically. Well, we didn't ho-hum this one."

Contacted later by CMT.com, officials at Curb Records chose not to respond to Williams' comments.

Back in the 1980s, when he was touring incessantly, Williams used to send his producer song arrangements from the road. Sometimes, for example, he'd just hum or whistle a fiddle part into a tape recorder and let the producer take it from there.

Now that he's seriously whittled down his touring schedule, he spends more time in the studio working with his current producer, Doug Johnson, and the session musicians.

"Doug says, 'Man, they get so turned on when they play with you. ... They really like a hands-on guy like you that really takes control of the studio.'"

For the most part, Williams relinquished the instrumental tracks to the other musicians. But he plays two guitar parts on his ultra-bluesy version of his dad's 1950 hit, "Long Gone Lonesome Blues."

"I could play on all of them if I wanted to," he says, "but I had to play blues on that one." He introduces the song with a quotation from Lightnin' Hopkins about what that revered bluesman learned from the senior Williams.

One cut on the album that's sure to get a lot attention is "All the Roads," a Hank Jr. composition that features the Grascals. Williams says he "absolutely" wrote it to be performed and recorded as a bluegrass song.

"I've got my Earl Scruggs Mastertone [banjo] right here," he boasts. "People don't realize that part of me. I used to ride my Harley-Davidson Sportster from the 2131 Apartments on Elm Hill Pike [in Nashville] over to Earl Scruggs' house in Madison to get lessons from the master. And Sonny Osborne [of the Osborne Brothers] helped me a lot. I had the best teachers in the world."

In "Last Driftin' Cowboy," Williams pays homage to Don Helms, the celebrated steel guitarist and longest surviving member of his father's band. Helms died last year at the age of 81.

"I did my mile and a quarter [walk] this morning," William muses, "right over here in the hills of West Tennessee. I'm out there with a Labrador and a hickory stick. 'The Last Driftin' Cowboy' came right out of the blue [on one of these walks], the words, the melody, everything."

The song of which Williams seems the proudest is the dreamy and contemplative "Gulf Shore Road." If "All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight" was the snort of a young buck in his prime, "Gulf Shore Road" is the reflection of a wise and contented man in his twilight years.

"'Gulf Shore Road' is one of the greatest songs I've ever written," Williams asserts. Then, with a laugh he adds, "and so is 'All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over to Gulf Shore Road.'"

It was a special moment in the studio when he first introduced the song. "The whole band got quiet," he recalls. "They just kind of stopped. 'Cause I go out, and I sit down and I play it live when we're going to record it.

"Boy, Doug looked at me, and they looked at me. Doug said, 'I'd have never put the marimbas or the horns on it.' You got to realize, I'm kind of a producer myself."

Foragers for lyrical red meat will find it in "Red, White and Pink-Slip Blues," a lament for America's unemployed, and "Sounds Like Justice," a paean to vigilantism, neither of which Williams wrote.

Williams revels in the fact that he's reached the stage in his career at which he can afford to play only as many shows as he wants to. He says he's limited himself to around 20 dates a year for the past 10 years.

"Just ask [talent booker] Greg Oswald," Williams suggests. "He said, 'Do you know you're the envy of every artist in town? They say, 'How in the hell does he pull that s**t off? He makes tons of money, and he does 20 frickin' shows a year!' I'm the most blessed guy out there.

"I mean the bottom line is just like Minnie Pearl [said] about Daddy. It's all around the fishing and hunting. There ain't a damn bit a difference. She said, 'You're a ghost.' That's exactly what she told me. 'You're a ghost. All [your dad] talked about was, 'OK, squirrel season is so-and so' or 'Croppie season's so-and-so.'

"[Talent buyers] say, 'Well, we'll give you a quarter of a million dollars if you'll come to Denver.' I say, 'S**t no! That's dove season. I can't do that.' And they just look at me like I'm nuts."

Recently, Williams shared in an achievement that was precious to a man so immersed in family tradition. In the same week 127 Rose Avenue made its bow on the Billboard country albums chart, so did his father's The Unreleased Recordings: Gospel Keepsakes and his daughter Holly's Here With Me.

If there was ever such a simultaneous three-generation rollout before, no one can recall who or when. "That was pretty exciting," Williams admits. source>>>

MySpace Music President Kicks Off New Music Seminar

Courtney Holt, president of MySpace Music, kicked off the New Music Seminar Tuesday at NYU's Skirball Center for the Performing Arts with a keynote interview conducted by New Music Seminar Founder Tom Silverman. The address focused on the cyclical nature of the music industry, as well as the effects of technological advances on the music industry.

During the address Holt revealed MySpace Music's plan to release data measuring the popularity of music on MySpace, which will be released mid to late August 2009.

Holt, as well as Silverman in his introduction to the keynote address, discussed the increase in popularity of single song downloads since 2004. According to Holt and Silverman, this is an idea that echoes the successful business model of the record industry throughout the 1950s and 1960s. It also remains a business model that both claimed has potential to grow in the coming years as digital music sales increase.

Holt lamented over the problematic nature of commercial radio formats due to their inability to allow new and unique musical artists reach audiences, which he emphasized is a particular area of strength for MySpace Music given its democratic approach to content. "You wouldn't hear Bad Brains and Miles Davis played back to back on radio stations, except maybe college radio, yet this is how people consume music today - very randomly," Holt said.

Holt spoke of the Web's capabilities to serve audiences' alternative listening patterns. Once additional trending and market research is completed, the Web's potential to help musical artists gain popularity and monetary gain will increase, Holt said.

Silverman and Holt, however, also spoke of the negative effects of technology on the music industry. With widespread recording technology making it more cost effective and easier for artists themselves to record and release music, Holt pointed out the overcrowding effect this creates. "The art must rise above the software used to create it," Holt said.

As Silverman pointed out in his introduction, 105,575 albums were released in 2008, with only 110 artists selling more than 250,000 albums the same year. Because of this, the ability to reach audiences in key markets remains more crucial than ever, Holt said. He advised musical artists to think carefully about which Web tools they use to garner attention and, as Silverman phrased it, approach change with a do-it-yourself attitude. source>>>

Trace Adkins Drawn as Luke McBain, Action Hero

Trace Adkins has been drawn as an action hero named Luke McBain for a new comic book. The four-issue comic book series will be launched in November by 12 Gauge Comics. McBain is described in a press release as "a tough Southern hero." Adkins was closely involved with the project. The comic book will sell for $3.99 per issue. The series features artwork by Kody Chamberlain and covers by Batman artist Brian Stelfreeze. source>>>

Sugarland's Jennifer Nettles "Sang Too Much," Leading to Canceled Shows

In a video message to fans, Sugarland's Jennifer Nettles addressed her voice problems that resulted in the cancellation of two shows in California over the weekend. Nettles said she's been having problems since January and that the combination of singing in the studio and being on the road sidetracked her. "I sang too much. And I blew my voice," she said in the message posted Monday (July 20) on Sugarland's official Web site. "It's like a muscle. It's like any other part of your body. If you sprain it or strain it, then you have to heal it, or else you will break it. And I don't want to break it. I want us to come back out there and see you." Sugarland canceled their appearance at Kenny Chesney's stadium show in San Francisco on Saturday (July 18) and Keith Urban's arena show in Los Angeles on Sunday (July 19). Nettles was previously placed on a 10-day vocal rest in May 2009. They also canceled three dates in September 2008 due to Nettles' throat and sinus issues. source>>>

Faith Hill Emphasizes Her Hits at Hollywood Bowl Concert

The year 2009 has looked to be a generally Faith-less one for country fans. With no apparent impending albums or tours to anticipate, Faith Hill devotees have had to make do with her Redbook photo shoots, along with her assurances that she's devoting most of her creative energy right now to being a mom.

But West Coasters were able to get their Faith fix over the weekend via the superstar's two-night stand at the Hollywood Bowl, which came with strings attached in the form of the roughly 100-piece Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. It was a classy and (literally) brassy engagement, even if it left fans with no better clue than before as to what the recently dormant star plans to be getting up to next.

Hill's last No. 1 single, 2005's "Mississippi Girl," was slipped in toward the end of the set, complete with its second-verse assurances that the singer hasn't really gone Tinsel Town. But she was more than Hollywood enough for Friday night's (July 17) crowd, which seemed dominated more by venue regulars than hardcore Hill fans. There was nary an old ball cap in sight as Hill took the stage in a floor-length, left-shoulder-baring gown, a pink-and-yellow mélange that made the singer look like a particularly delicious and glamorous sherbet.

A Hill solo concert is a rare thing, indeed, since virtually all of her tours have been co-headlining jaunts with husband Tim McGraw. So there was some interest in how she might fill out a show focused on just her. But the relative brevity of the 70-minute set didn't leave room for the kinds of interesting album tracks by writers like Lori McKenna that Hill has gravitated toward in recent years. With the exception of one fairly obscure selection, "Paris," a torchy ballad culled from her last all-new album, 2005's Fireflies, Hill clung to her most familiar and upbeat Top 20 hits, with a handful of R&B-oriented cover songs representing the evening's most adventurous choices.

The orchestra provided most of the juice on the opening "If My Heart Had Wings." But even though Hill introduced famed arranger-conductor David Campbell as "one of my favorite people walking this planet," he and his minions took an extended onstage timeout during the following four numbers, which had Hill's six-piece band (and three backup singers) playing greatest hits like "The Secret of Life" unaccompanied by orchestration. After that extended rest, the string players picked up their bows again for an interesting Campbell arrangement of "Cry," Hill's most underrated single, which might have seemed sublime if the loping 6/8 drumming hadn't seemed slightly at odds with the subtle rhythms of the orchestra.

Hill is a well-known sucker for a soul ballad, and what followed was a three-song mini-set of covers that fully indulged her R&B side -- and helped galvanize a mainstream L.A. crowd that hadn't necessarily recognized smashes from early in Hill's career like "Wild One."

"They are not mine, but they are tonight," Hill said, by way of introducing this segment of the show. "Isn't that nice, when you can say you're going to do something just because you want to do it? No other reason?"

Here, Hill's raison d'etre seemed to be following in the footsteps of Aretha Franklin, who played the Bowl for the first time in 35 years last month. In deliberate or inadvertent homage to that, Hill sang Franklin's bluesy 1967 hit, "Dr. Feelgood," followed by the Queen of Soul's gospel-inspired 1971 arrangement of "Bridge Over Troubled Water" before wrapping up the throwback segment with an evergreen that didn't bear Aretha's fingerprints -- Paul McCartney's "Maybe I'm Amazed."

The conductor picked up the baton again for a song that really hasn't remained a fan favorite over the years but was perhaps requisite in this instance anyway -- the Pearl Harbor theme, "There You'll Be." In doing so, Campbell was reviving the original string arrangement he'd written for the recording back in 2001. The collaboration between Hill, her band and the 100 or so extra players came to fuller fruition toward the end of the set in two highlights, "Paris" (which the singer gushed was "honestly one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard") and "Breathe." This latter signature song really did receive the breath of new life in a Campbell arrangement that made good on all of the night's promise, with the Bowl Orchestra adding stirring undercurrents of lusciousness and longing to an already highly sensual classic.

The encoreless show wrapped with a barnburner associated with another Bowl veteran, Janis Joplin, as Hill reprised her 1993 No. 1 hit, "Piece of My Heart," which here prominently featured a horn section that had seemed a bit muted earlier in the proceedings. And with that, Hill's first show since the Obama inaugural balls was done. Her stage patter focused almost exclusively on the "iconic" Bowl itself, with no career or personal-life asides. Is she finally working on a follow-up to 2005's Fireflies? Or is domestic life really suiting her just fine? There was nary a hint either way, but for starved fans, it was enough just to get what pieces of her musical heart they could. source>>>

Rascal Flatts at Wrigley Field Band Attracted 37,000 Fans for Their First Show as Stadium Headliners

The three members of Rascal Flatts were in the zone Saturday (July 18) when they became the first country act to perform a concert at Chicago's historic Wrigley Field. With Vince Gill and Darius Rucker opening the show, it also marked the first time Rascal Flatts have headlined a stadium show.

The concert attracted 37,000 fans -- a fact that was not lost on the trio of Gary LeVox, Joe Don Rooney and Jay DeMarcus. In a preshow interview with CMT Insider, they talked about what the show meant to them.

LeVox: Being the first country act ever [to perform at the stadium], it's something we'll be able to forever have as a feather in our cap and hopefully start something great for the city of Chicago and for country music as a whole.

Rooney: We are baseball fans. We're fans of all sports. We just love them all, but I haven't been to Wrigley Field until this week. The first time ever -- and it's for music, obviously -- but I definitely want to come back for a baseball game at some point. It's pretty special that we're getting to be on this amazing piece of property for music and what we do for a living.

DeMarcus: This has been the first [stadium show] we've headlined, so it's a pretty momentous occasion for us because we have all the responsibility for this. ... All of our crew, all of our set is out there. It's the first time we've shouldered all the responsibility, which is a pretty big deal for us. We look forward to many more to come

LeVox: The history here is amazing. To be able to be a part of it and to stand on that field doing something on your own, it's a phenomenal feeling. source>>>

Paul McCartney Revisists Beatles History At Citi Field

If you grew up in the hysteria and bedlam that was Beatlemania, you no doubt remember their concert at New York's Shea Stadium in 1965. First stadium concert ever. Over 55,000 in attendance. $304, 000 in revenue. Those were all record-breaking stats, yet the actual show could be barely be heard because, well, no one knew how to prepare for projecting sound for 55,000 people in a stadium; the boys played through the PA system and even they could not hear themselves.

44 years after this landmark event, Shea Stadium has been torn down and stadium shows are the norm for top touring artists. How things change. But on July 17, the 67 year old Paul McCartney christened Citi Field, Shea's replacement, with a rollicking, sold-out concert that harkened back to the days of Beatlemania, but with better sound quality.

An appreciative McCartney told the screaming crowd on Friday, "These occasions are so cool. I'm just going to take a sec to soak it all in."

McCartney opened the show with the Beatles' "Drive My Car." He followed this with a few songs off his new Fireman album and some Wings hits. But then, it was back to the Fab Four and their classics; the selection ranged from the lively "Day Tripper" to George Harrison's "Something" to the very emotional "A Day in the Life." A pyrotechnic-backed performance of McCartney's James Bond theme "Live and Let Die" and a very somber solo performance of the John Lennon tribute, "Here Today" were also show highlights.

The last time McCartney performed at Shea Stadium, it was in 2008 as a guest during Billy Joel's concert, which was the final performance at Shea. In a role-reversal of that historic show, Joel appeared at Citi Field to accompany McCartney for "I Saw Her Standing There."

"I'm Down," a single off of "Help!," was the Beatles' typical closer for concerts and was the only song performed at the Beatles' Shea Stadium show and on Friday night. Check them both out here. source>>

Sam Bush will receive the Americana Music Association Lifetime Achievement AWARD

The Americana Music Association proudly announces that Sam Bush will receive the Lifetime Achievement for Instrumentalist award at the 8th Annual Americana Honors & Awards ceremony, presented by the Gibson Foundation, scheduled for Thurs., Sept. 17 at the historic Ryman Auditorium.

Jed Hilly, executive director of the Americana Music Association, praised Bush's standing as one of the greatest mandolin players ever. "Sam has created his own genre and has become such an integral part of the Americana community," Hilly said. "It's such a privilege to honor him this year."

As cofounder and leader of the seminal progressive bluegrass band New Grass Revival for 18 years, Bush was among the first purveyors of newgrass - the wild bluegrass stepchild that features rock 'n' roll grooves and extended virtuosic jams - and he continues to burn as one of the genre's most brilliant lights, both as a sideman and the leader of the Sam Bush Band. Sam's newest album "Circles Around Me" will be released, October 20th on Sugar Hill Records.

The Kentucky-born Bush - also a champion fiddler alongside his mandolin mastery - has influenced several generations of musicians. Nickel Creek, Yonder Mountain String Band and String Cheese Incident are among the bands indebted to Bush for his wide-ranging choice of material, rock-based acoustic grooves and captivating, high-energy live shows. His status as an in-demand headliner and fan favorite can be seen through annual appearances at noted festivals like Telluride and MerleFest.

The past 20 years have also found Bush performing as a sideman with Emmylou Harris; special guest artist with the likes of Lyle Lovett and Bela Fleck & The Flecktones; spearheading boundary-stretching collaborations with Edgar Meyer, Mark O'Connor and David Grisman; and driving nearly every "bluegrass supergroup" imaginable with his mandolin playing. Sam Bush's ability to be continually touched and amazed by new music may be the quality that makes him such an electrifying performer and bandleader.

The Lifetime Achievement Award for Instrumentalist is one of several career honors that will be handed out during the awards ceremony on September 17th, along with six-member voted best of the year-end categories. Hosted by Jim Lauderdale with Buddy Miller leading his all star band, the event has earned a reputation for the coolest and best live music awards show around.

From September 16th-19th, 2009, the 10th Annual Americana Music Festival &Conference will offer seminars, panels and networking opportunities at the Nashville Convention Center by day, and bring a stellar lineup of musical showcases each evening. Conference registrations currently at the early bird discount rate of $350 for members and $450 for non-members are available at the Americana Music Online Store: source>>>

Music industry wants cut of Pirate Bay sale

The music industry will attempt to seize money paid to acquire the Pirate Bay, according to a high-level music industry source and a spokesman for the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), the trade group representing the music industry worldwide.

Pirate Bay co-founder Peter Sunde shows 'I owe you' note to the music industry following a judge's order that the site's founders pay the equivalent of $3.6 million.
(Credit: Mats Lewan/CNET )

Global Gaming Factory, a Swedish software company, made big news two weeks ago by announcing that it would acquire the Pirate Bay, the popular outlaw file-sharing site, for $7.8 million. Since then the company has been touting a new business model and even hiring executives, such as Wayne Rosso, the former Grokster president, to legally obtain content from film and music industries.

What remains to be seen is how that sale might be affected by attempts by the music industry to collect the $3.6 million damages that a court in Sweden awarded it in April. The court found the four operators of the Pirate Bay--Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Peter Sunde Kolmisoppi, and Carl Lundström--guilty of copyright violations and sentenced each to a year in jail. The court also ordered them to pay 30 million Swedish kronor ($3.6 million).

Alex Jacob, a spokesman for the IFPI, said that the group has always intended to collect the damages award, but now, should the sale go through, music execs know that the original Pirate Bay operators have access to the money.

Whether these attempts to seize part of the proceeds could hold up a sale remain unclear. The first thing to remember is that the sale isn't yet done.

According to a press release, Global Gaming's offer is to pay half of the $7.8 million in cash and the other half in the company's stock. To finance the deal, Global Gaming must issue new shares and to do that it needs the blessing of investors and board of directors. Any acquisition isn't expected to be finalized before August, the company said.

On the other side, the Pirate Bay's founders have said that they haven't owned the company for years.

"We never had any interest in earning money from the Pirate Bay," Peter Sunde told Dagens Nyheter, a Swedish newspaper. "We haven't owned TPB since the search and seizure in 2006... Those who will get the money, friends in a foreign company, have agreed as a condition to put the money in a foundation for future internet projects."

The legal adviser for Global Gaming has said that the Pirate Bay is owned by a company in the Seychelles called Reservella.

Jacob, from the IFPI, says it makes no difference who owns the Pirate Bay. He said: "The judge found the four operators guilty and ordered them to pay the damages."

That's who the IFPI will try to get the money from. source>>>

Michael Jackson's Unreleased Music Could Date Back Decades

Michael Jackson's songs and albums went to the top of the charts in the days and weeks following his death --and there may be plenty more hits to come, if his rumored plethora of unreleased songs find their way to the public.
Rumors are swirling that new Michael Jackson material could soon be released

Rumors are swirling that new Michael Jackson material could soon be released

Since his death, rumors have surfaced about a mountain of unpublished material from the King of Pop, including recent collaborations with artists such as will.i.am and Akon, as well as unused tracks from studio sessions dating back to the 1980s.

Jackson was known to have over-recorded during his sessions, former Sony Music CEO Tommy Mottola told Time magazine. (Sony's subsidiary Epic was Jackson's label from the late '70s on, and Sony owns the distribution rights to much of Jackson's music.) He noted Jackson "absolutely" over-recorded while in the studio for his most famous albums, and that "dozens" of new albums in a variety of formats could come to fruition.

"Let's say 12 or 13 songs end up on the album; Michael could have possibly recorded 15, 20 or 30 songs," Mottola told Time. "This would probably go for every album he recorded and probably pre-dating [Sony] to his Motown days."

Mottola also said he thought some of the unreleased material made during the height of Jackson's success could be some of the star's "best work."

In addition to the material recorded years ago, Jackson also had been creating new material.

The King of Pop was working recently with will.i.am, Ne-Yo and Akon -- the Senegalese rapper who collaborated with Jackson on a remix of "Wanna Be Startin' Something," and the new song "Hold My Hand." The latter was leaked on the Internet in 2008.

"We were working on a lot of ideas," Akon told Billboard after Jackson's death. "A lot of the songs that were done were all ideas; they weren't really complete songs. He was the kind of person that wanted to lay all the ideas down [first]."

Brian May, Queen's lead guitarist, wrote on his Web site that Jackson and Freddie Mercury recorded a couple of tracks together at Jackson's house in the mid-'80s. (Mercury died in 1991.)

"Amusingly, after Freddie and Michael had spent some time together recording, Freddie came back and played us the work in progress, and he remarked that Michael had come up with a great album title ... BAD," May wrote. "A little later, Freddie smiled his wicked little conspiratorial smile, and said ... 'I have a perfect idea for our album title -- you may love it or hate it ... but think about it ... we can call it ... wait for it ... GOOD!'"

Those tracks, May said, "have never seen the light of day," though a purported song of the two has made the rounds on YouTube.

May responded to the "music thieves" but never gave a clear-cut answer as to whether the song was indeed a Mercury-Jackson finished collaboration.

"Well, there is much to be said about these 'leaked' tracks, but I'm not going to get into it right now," May wrote.

There are some reports of a secret library of 100 songs meant for his children as a personal legacy, according to Jackson biographer Ian Halperin. There has also been speculation about what could be Jackson's latest video project, called "Dome Project," which is believed to include a cemetery similar to the one in "Thriller."

That unreleased material doesn't even take into account the two albums Jackson is rumored to have been working on before his death, including a classical album with composer David Michael Frank, who told CNN that Jackson had "the tunes pretty much worked out."

So far, no details have emerged about what will become of the unreleased songs. But if his recent sales are any indiciation, music labels will seize the opportunity to release any material they have.

In the past two and a half weeks, since Jackson's death, more than 2.3 million Jackson albums have been sold, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Jackson certainly wouldn't be the first to find posthumous music success.

In 1970, after Jimi Hendrix died, unfinished tracks, demos, outtakes and a partially completed album were left behind. Tracks by Tupac Shakur and his rival Notorious B.I.G. hit the airwaves after their deaths in the form of reimagined songs, verses and freestyles paired with beats.

And, of course, Elvis Presley's music had dramatic success after his death. One song, a remixed version of the 1968 cut "A Little Less Conversation," hit No. 1 in Britain in 2002, 25 years after Presley died in 1977.

But Jackson's legacy may eventually emerge victorious in this battle of music Kings. Mottola told The Associated Press that Jackson could by far have the most extensive collection, with enough music that releases "could go on for years and years, even more than Elvis." source>>>

What's Country and What's Not?

I continue to find it interesting that a number of posters and commenters and e-mailers persist in loudly complaining about country artists fraternizing with the great unwashed -- as many seem to view the non-country world. And many go on to harangue country artists who they perceive as not being country enough or not country at all, which has become a daily complaint on its own. Time to back up and remember a couple of things.

- Country music does not exist in a vacuum.

- Country music does not live in a test tube, as a pure and unsullied single-cell creature.

- Music is an organic being, and it grows and mutates in unpredictable and sometimes uncontrollable ways.

Looking over the wall of country music or peeking out from under its tent is not a crime or a sin. It is natural. It's not really collaborating with the enemy, as many see it. It is natural to want to get off the reservation once in a while and see how the rest of the world lives.

I would hazard a guess that some members of the rabid keep-it-country purist crowd are also angry Yankee-haters and those who are suspicious of anyone who appears to be from somewhere else.

The Taylor Swift/T-Pain duet with "Thug Story" was a very funny and lighthearted mash-up of country and rap. So it seemed. But it hit a nerve with many self-proclaimed country purists who lamented that this was yet another giant step down the road to perdition and indeed to country music's destruction. A lot of that vitriol came from anonymous posters and bloggers who like strewing random poison. Some of these people remind me of cockroaches. It's not so much what cockroaches eat or carry off, it's what they fall into and mess up.

The interesting thing is that this topic did not become such a heated issue before rap and hip-hop entered into the country collaboration equation. That seemed to quickly change the landscape. But that whole resentment of so-called alien music is nothing new. Think back to the "Disco Sucks" campaigns of the 1970s -- and the whole anti-disco fervor of years ago. History again repeats itself. Rock collaborations are one thing to some listeners. But seemingly atonal, alien music is something else again. At any rate, there are some very angry people around today, and perceived impurity in country music is one of their favored targets these days. Modern country itself, with its admitted country-pop bent, is a very large and easy target. And change of any sort in one's favorite music is not always welcomed.

Country duets with non-country partners, though, are nothing new. Ernest Tubb dueted with the pop trio the Andrews Sisters (if you ever get a chance, listen to their delightful "I'm Bitin' My Fingernails and Thinking of You."). George Jones recorded frequently with pop-rocker Gene Pitney, with the great Ray Charles, with Elvis Costello and with Keith Richards. Willie Nelson has sung with, among others, Duane Eddy, Diana Krall, Aerosmith's Steve Tyler, Wyclef Jean, ZZ Top and Julio Iglesias. Merle Haggard has teamed with Clint Eastwood, Orquestra Was, Dean Martin, Ray Charles and Leon Redbone. Loretta Lynn, after many stone country duets with Ernest Tubb and Conway Twitty, moved on to rocker Jack White. Tammy Wynette joined voices with Mr. Las Vegas -- Wayne Newton. Kenny Rogers did very well with both Kim Carnes and Sheena Easton. Jennifer Nettles and Bon Jovi got a No. 1 country hit with the duet "Who Says You Can't Go Home."

And Johnny Cash, on his TV show, sang with so many varied artists as to spin your head. Try Louis Armstrong, Derek & the Dominos, Stevie Wonder and Neil Diamond. Country-rock in its heyday stretched the boundaries again but is embraced by the majority of the audience. The Eagles and Creedence Clearwater Revival and the like are just as familiar to country audiences as are Southern rockers such as the Allman Brothers Band and Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Willie dueted with Snoop Dogg. And then Tim McGraw dipped into the hip-hop pool with Nelly and "Over And Over," a soft, harmless ballad. It was a huge success. But resentment built among the keep-it-country crowd.

Well, if country had always stayed just as it once was and remained frozen in amber, here is what it would sound like now. First, go to church -- a very strict church -- many times a week. Then think: You will hear many, many dirge-like, mournful Anglo-Saxon ballads and sad hymns and laments about murder and dead babies and sinful husbands and fallen women and drunkenness and gambling and heaven and hell. That doleful diet was enlivened now and again by a goodtime rounder like Jimmie Rodgers with his rousing songs about the road and the railroad and pretty girls and enjoying life. He was like the rascally uncle of old who liked to sneak out early from church and enjoy a nip or two out of his flask and savor a cigar and maybe tell a snappy joke or two. That was being adventurous in those days. In those days, country music was pretty well divided up between heaven and hell, between the sin of Saturday night and the sanctity of Sunday morning. Nowadays, nobody can tell what the hell is what.

But, if country music had never changed from its "pure" beginnings, you would have never heard a steel guitar wailing away in a good-time honky-tonk, never heard a Telecaster guitar preaching the country blues and never heard Hank Williams wrenching every possible basic human emotion out of his songs. You would have never heard so many songs about three chords and the truth. Think about it. source>>>

Farm Aid 2009 Coming to St. Louis

This year's Farm Aid concert will take place Oct. 4 at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Maryland Heights, Mo., a suburb of St. Louis. Organizers made the announcement Thursday (July 16) during a press conference at the Soulard Farmers Market in St. Louis. Although special guests have not been announced, the show will feature Farm Aid board members Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Neil Young and Dave Matthews. Farm Aid members will have early access to tickets Friday (July 17) on the organization's Web site. Tickets to the general public go on sale July 25 through Live Nation. Farm Aid has raised almost $35 million to assist family farmers. source>>>

Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Buddy Miller to Play With Nashville Symphony

Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas and Buddy Miller are among the musicians who will perform with the Nashville Symphony on Sept. 12 during the inaugural Classical Americana concert at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center. Alison Brown, Byron House, Karen Parks and Abigail Washburn will also appear with the orchestra to perform a variety of music, including blues, gospel and pieces by Aaron Copland and George Gershwin. The concert is one of the events leading up to 10th annual Americana Music Festival and Conference taking place Sept. 16-19 in Nashville. source>>>

Brad Paisley, Alison Krauss to play White House

Country musicians Brad Paisley and Alison Krauss will play a high-profile gig next week at the White House.

A spokeswoman for Paisley said Wednesday that he and Krauss, who had a hit duet a few years ago with "Whiskey Lullaby," will participate in the White House Music Series hosted by First Lady Michelle Obama.

On Tuesday afternoon, they'll help with an educational workshop for 120 middle and high school students from across the country.

That night, they'll play in the historic East Room for President Obama and his wife, White House staff and members of Congress.

Michelle Obama launched the series to encourage arts and arts education. It featured jazz last month and will continue in the fall with classical music. source>>>

Is Live Nation's "No-Fee Wednesday" promotion really saving people money?

Another week, another one-day sale ... Live Nation is continuing its summer "No-Fee Wednesday" promotion, this time by expanding it to include "select" reserved seats as well as festival lawn seats at a flat, "all-in" price stripped of those much-hated add-ons: The Fees.

On No-Fee Wednesday, July 15, It's $29.99 for unreserved lawn tickets and $49.99 for a limited number of reserved seats. As with last week's sale, the price includes parking, a hot dog and a soda.

The impulse seems like the right one, to make concert tickets more affordable to all. Live Nation also wants to create some fresh excitement around concertgoing at a bad time for the U.S. economy. Maybe it's working: More than 500,000 tickets have been sold on Wednesdays since the promotion debuted June 3, says Live Nation spokesman John Vlautin.

But No-Fee Wednesday has also caused headaches, with Live Nation plugging the weekly deal into a complicated grid of tiered prices and pre-existing promotions.

Some consumers are confused, and wary, and they're approaching the sale skeptically, or not at all. Some entertainment writers, self included, are confused. And not without reason. Live Nation could have come with a lot more clarity and detail when they rolled this program out.

On Day 1, June 3, no-fee ticket buyers discovered they would, in fact, pay a fee -- for parking. An outcry followed. Live Nation responded with the "all-in" price for concert, car and two-piece meal (or is it a snack?).

Ticket buyers also found that some discounts cannot be combined: The bargain 4-packs of lawn tickets, for example, retain their fees on Wednesdays. So it's up to the consumer to do trial buys on Wednesday at livenation.com using both scenarios -- 4-pack with fees versus 4 single tickets without fees -- to figure out which is cheaper. That's a nuisance.

And there's this: A few shows offer regular, non-sale lawn seats that cost less than $29.99 even with fees included. What happens to those tickets on No-Fee Wednesdays?

Their price will not go up, says Live Nation's Vlautin. They'll actually drop a little, he says, in keeping with the intent of the promotion.

Vlautin gave the Aug. 12 Mayhem festival (Slayer, Marilyn Manson, et. al.) at Cruzan Amphitheatre as an example. Thursday through Tuesday, a lawn ticket for Mayhem at Cruzan is $9, plus a $6.25 ticket fee and a $6 parking fee (though no free food), for a total of $21.25, or $8.74 less than the $29.99 promotion.

On Wednesday, says Vlautin, that ticket will be $20 flat - parking, hot dog and soda included.

But these alterations don't address every scenario -- like this one, described by someone who e-mailed me last Wednesday about Crue Fest 2, Aug. 27 at Cruzan:

This is kind of strange because yesterday for Crue Fest 2, I could buy a 5 dollar lawn ticket using this promotional code from Subway. Now, that promotion has suddenly disappeared--so my real question now is, is a soda and a hot dog really worth the other 25 dollars? I don't even eat meat, so this Wednesday deal from Livenation doesn't really do much for me :/

Not even counting the e-mailer's diet, there are a couple of variables here. It's possible the $5 Subway promo expired after last Tuesday. That, or it was superseded and canceled out by No-Fee Wednesday.

I followed up on this question today with Vlautin at Live Nation, who wrote back:

"The Subway [discounts] are based on availability, so it's possible that the inventory for that promotion was exhausted.

"But tomorrow [i.e. Wednesday] all other offers are active, so fans should shop around for the best deal on LiveNation.com."

So to answer the original question: yes, No-Fee Wednesday can actually save people a good deal of money. ]

Consider Crue Fest 2 at Cruzan. If you buy a single lawn ticket Tuesday through Thursday, it'll cost you $47.60: the $29.50 base price plus a $12.10 ticket fee and a $6.00 parking fee, and no free food. Buy it tomorrow, and it's $29.99 even.

Of course, it would have been much cheaper with a working Subway promotion code.

Remember, also, there are conditions attached to No-Fee Wednesday. The footnoted fine print of Live Nation's press release reads:

Subject to availability. Participating shows. Does not include any shipping costs. General admission or reserved seats where applicable. Serving size may vary per venue.

Lastly, I've heard stories of No-Fee Wednesday customers who still wound up paying full freight, fees and all.

So a bit of caution and lowered expectation toward this deal makes sense, until Live Nation decides to simplify the rules -- or just shrink all its prices, period. The country's biggest, most dominant concert promoter -- soon to merge with the biggest dispenser of seats, Ticketmaster -- could start by negotating smaller guarantees for artists, then pass the savings on to fans, if it's not already doing so.

No-Fee Wednesday in South Florida covers all shows currently on sale at Cruzan, Pompano Beach and Bayfront amphitheaters, and runs for 24 hours beginning 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, only at livenation.com.

And next week? Here's the latest from Live Nation:

"Instead of picking a new offer for next Wednesday on its own, Live Nation announced that beginning today the company will ask concert fans across the country to go to LiveNation.com and choose the promotion they want for next week's 'No Service Fee Wednesday.' Fans simply go to LiveNation.com and click on the 'You Pick the Next Promotion' button to vote for one of three offers for next Wednesday, July 22nd. Voting will continue until midnight Eastern tomorrow, July 15th, with results announced on the following Monday."
source>>>

Video game music and symphonies, in concert

The fans of symphonic music and video games have found a harmonic convergence in live orchestral performances of game soundtracks.

Since the initial Video Games Live! concert four years ago at L.A.'s Hollywood Bowl, co-creators Tommy Tallarico and Jack Wall have powered-up the event into an international touring production. After performing three shows in 2005, the duo will conduct more than 60 this year from Seattle to Pittsburgh with stops in Taiwan and Japan.

For each date, host Tallarico and conductor Wall work with the local symphony prepping the two-hour show. "Some (classical musicians) are apprehensive, as well they should be. They have been playing Stravinsky and Mozart all their lives," Tallarico says. "You can see them sit down for the first time and the players and crew are (reading the music and it says) World of Warcraft and Sonic the Hedgehog thinking 'What is this?' But then when they play the music for the first time together you can kind of see them looking around nodding their heads (that) this is legitimate music."

It's not just musicians stretching their comfort zones at Video Games Live! Three generations attended a recent performance with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Wolf Trap Center for the Performing Arts. Many had never seen a symphony live. And some were unfamiliar with the music to classic games such as Super Mario Bros., as well as more recent games such as Halo. "We're trying to bridge the cultural divide between people who understand classical music and people who understand video games," Wall says.

An hour before the performance, all mingled in a celebratory festival atmosphere. Diehard video game fans wore costumes of favorite characters -- a popular favorite among youngsters: the green elven costume of Link, the hero of Nintendo's Legend of Zelda series. Even more wore T-shirts adorned with video game logos including Rock Band, Half-Life and Activision, the popular publisher of classic games such as Pitfall! and the more modern Call of Duty and Guitar Hero games.

Families lined up to get pictures of their children with a man dressed in the black, special ops gear of Solid Snake, the protagonist of the Metal Gear Solid games. "I'm used to it," says Chris Pegues of Richmond, Va., a veteran of video game music concerts and conventions. "It's a meeting of the digital meets the classical."

Another costumed attendee, Jay Newhard, 28, of Silver Spring, Md., agreed, calling the event "a crossing of worlds." He wears the anime-influenced garb of Auron of Final Fantasy X; his wife Ashley is dressed as Yuma from the game. "It's culture to see an orchestra play," he says. "It's nice to have parents come and appreciate all the aspects (of games) and I'm sure parents love to get their children to see an orchestra. And the kids will be doubly interested because it's video games."

Wife Ashley sees "every age" in attendance. Although she doesn't play video games - she observes husband Jay's exploits - she says, "I appreciate the music, the artistry and the story that goes into them."

Videogameslivex-blog200 Just before the orchestra takes the stage, a dozen or so of the best costumes are led onstage and the crowd votes by applause - an old-school character, Pac-Man, takes the prize.

Interactive entertainment is key to the Video Games Live! experience. Early in the show, Tallarico picks a fan from the crowd and has him put on a T-shirt with a trackable Space Invaders game. While the symphony played a Space Invaders-inspired piece, a live game is projected onscreen and the fan runs left and right to move the on-screen base while clicking a handheld joystick to fire at the encroaching invaders.

Later, the winner of a pre-show Guitar Hero contest is brought onstage to play Sweet Emotion, a song in Guitar Hero: Aerosmith. While he racks up a phenomenal score of 300,000-plus, the orchestra plays along and Tallarico, a cousin of Aerosmith's Steven Tyler, plays real guitar.

Video Games Live! as having all the power and emotion of a symphony orchestra combined with the energy and excitement of a rock concert, mixed together with all the cutting-edge visuals, technology, interactivity and fun that video games provide," Tallarico says.

After an opening segment that paid tribute to classic games including Frogger, Joust, Centipede and Tetris, game designers Hideo Kojima and David Jaffe provided video introductions to arrangements devoted to their creations Metal Gear Solid and God of War. A choir of two dozen accompanied the 74-person orchestra.

Internet pianist Martin Leung performed two solos, one re-enacting his YouTube sensation of playing the music from Super Mario Bros. blindfolded. Game pioneer Ralph Baer, who invented the first home video game console game - it became the Magnavox Odyssey - and received the National Medal of Technology in 2006, mades a live appearance via Skype video conference. And local game designing legend Sid Meier made a guest appearance onstage to introduce the music from one his studio's games, Civilization IV.

Listeners hooted as Tallarico introduced each piece of music; the loudest cheer came for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. "It really is a hybrid form of entertainment," says Tallarico, whose own game composing credits include Advent Rising. "What is great about it is it is also helping to usher in a whole new generation to appreciate symphonies and symphonic music."

It took he and Wall, whose game scores include Mass Effect and Myst III and IV, three years to organize that first concert. Symphonies and orchestras weren't the only participants that were hesitant. "Can you imagine me making the phone call to Japanese game company Taito that made Space Invaders saying, 'We would like to play your music from 1977 with the L.A. Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl. What do you say?'" Wall says with a laugh. "Now they are much friendlier. They ask how can they get their music in the show."

The concept has proven so popular that a competing tour, Play! A Video Game Symphony (www.play-symphony.com) in 2006. That tour played Wolf Trap in 2008 after Video Games Live! did two shows in 2007 with the NSO at the Kennedy Center.

As video game production values have risen, it's no challenge to "put together a showcase that the music can be substantial," says Kim Witman, director of Wolf Trap's opera and classical programming. "The bottom line is you realize this is the next generation's symphonic pops."

Upcoming tour dates:

July 18 -- Houston
July 23 -- San Diego
July 27 -- Cincinnati
July 31 -- Lewiston, N.Y.
Aug 29 -- Taipei County, Taiwan
Sept. 21-22 -- Tokyo source>>>

Police arrest 100-plus after Kid Rock concert

More than 100 people were arrested last night at rock concert at the Darien Lake Performing Arts Center in Genesee County.

A majority of those arrested are accused of underage drinking, according to Genesee County sheriff's deputies. Ninety-six young adults from across Western New York were charged with unlawful possession of an alcoholic beverage by a person under 21. Those young adults, who are between ages 16 to 20, were all issued appearance tickets and are expected to answer the charges in Darien Town Court at a later date, said chief deputy G.L. Dibble of the Genesee County Sheriff's Office.

Sheriff's deputies and New York State Police implemented an underage drinking enforcement before and during the 6:30 p.m. Kid Rock and Lynyrd Skynyrd concert. Police focused their efforts on a large private parking lot at 1516 Sumner Road as well as the parking lot at the performing arts center, 9993 Allegheny Road, Darien.

Other arrested at the concert are facing more serious. Locally, the following people are facing charges:
# Daniel D. Dangelantonio, 26, of Rochester was charged with disorderly conduct. He is accused of shoving and punching several security guards as the guards attempted to remove him from the concert venue. He was issued an appearance ticket and is slated to answer the charge in Darien Town Court at 5:30 p.m. on Aug. 12.
# Jamie E. Otto-Trott, 24, of Rochester was charged with two counts of second-degree harassment. She is accused of striking a security guard and kicking a sheriff's deputy in the leg at the concert. She was arraigned in Darien Town Court and was remanded to the Genesee County Jail in lieu of $300 cash bail.
# Anthony F. Pero, 39, of Gates was charged with second-degree harassment. He is accused of fighting with security guards in the venue's VIP area. He was arraigned in Darien Town Court and was remanded to the Genesee County Jail in lieu of $200 cash bail.
# Peter H. Scrooby, 33, of Irondequoit was charged with disorderly conduct. He is accused of fighting with a security guard as he was being escorted from the concert venue. He was arraigned in Darien Town Court and was remanded to the Genesee County Jail in lieu of $200 cash bail.

The effort stemmed from numerous complaints of underage drinking and disorderly behavior at the private lot on Sumner Road, also known as "the hill," Dibble said. Deputies said they intend to continue to patrol this area during future concerts at the performing arts center. source>>>

British conductor Edward Downes,Wife Die In Swiss Suicide Clinic

British conductor Edward Downes, a longtime stalwart at the Royal Opera and maestro of the first-ever performance at Sydney's iconic Opera House, has died with his wife at an assisted suicide clinic in Switzerland. He was 85.

The couple's children said Tuesday (July 14) that Downes and his 74-year-old wife, Joan, died "peacefully and under circumstances of their own choosing" on Friday at a Zurich clinic run by the group Dignitas.

"After 54 happy years together, they decided to end their own lives rather than continue to struggle with serious health problems," said a statement from the couple's son and daughter, Caractacus and Boudicca.

The statement said Downes, who became Sir Edward when he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1991, had become almost blind and increasingly deaf. His wife, a former dancer, choreographer and television producer, had devoted years to working as his assistant. British newspapers reported that she had been diagnosed with cancer.

Dignitas founder Ludwig A. Minelli said he could not confirm the deaths due to confidentiality rules.

Downes' manager, Jonathan Groves, said he was shocked by the couple's deaths, but called their decision "typically brave and courageous."

The deaths are the latest in a series of high-profile cases that have spurred calls for a legal change in Britain, where assisted suicide and euthanasia are banned.

Despite the law, British courts have been reluctant in recent years to convict people who help loved ones travel to clinics abroad to end their lives.

London's Metropolitan Police force said it had been notified of the deaths, and was investigating.

Born in 1924 in Birmingham, central England, Edward Downes studied at Birmingham University, the Royal College of Music and under German conductor Hermann Scherchen.

In 1952 he joined London's Royal Opera House as a junior staffer - his first job was prompting soprano Maria Callas. He made his debut as a conductor with the company the following year and went on to become associate music director. Throughout his life he retained close ties to the Royal Opera, conducting 49 different operas there over more than 50 years.

He also had a decades-long association with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, where he became principal conductor and later conductor emeritus.

Downes was known for his support for British composers and his passion for Prokofiev and Verdi, on whom he was considered an expert.

In the 1970s he became music director of the Australian Opera, conducting the first performance at the Sydney Opera House in 1973. He also worked with the Netherlands Radio Orchestra and ensembles around the world.

The couple is survived by their children, who said their parents "both lived life to the full and considered themselves to be extremely lucky to have lived such rewarding lives, both professionally and personally."

The family said there would be no funeral. source>>>

Whitney Houston Launches Album In London

Whitney Houston appeared at the world premiere of her new album, "I Look to You" (Arista), in London last night (July 14).

A healthy-looking Houston appeared briefly on stage at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Knightsbridge after Sony Music chief creative officer Clive Davis played nine tracks from the album, due to be released Sept. 1 in the U.S. The U.K. release is via RCA on Aug. 31.

Houston thanked Davis for his work on the album, saying: "When Clive called me I was pretty ready to buy my island home [and retire] but he said, 'No, you're going to sing again, people want to hear you.'"

Describing the album as "a labor of love" she said: "I hope that these songs stay with you for a lifetime."

Davis - who worked with Houston for the first time in 10 years on the album - stressed the album is "by no means done," while many of the songs played were still in unfinished form.

"We didn't try to fit Whitney Houston into the market," Davis said. "The copyrights associated with Whitney in the 1980s and '90s are part of the fabric of music today."

Nonetheless, collaborators on the album read like a who's who of contemporary pop/R&B, with songwriters and producers including Alicia Keys, Diane Warren, Stargate, R Kelly and Akon, who duets with Houston on "Like I Never Left."

The tracks played were "Million Dollar Bill," "Nuthin' But Love," "Call You Tonight" (which Davis said was a likely lead single), "I Didn't Know My Own Strength," "Like I Never Left," "For the Lovers," "I Look to You," "Worth It" and a cover of Leon Russell's "A Song for You."

The overall feel of the album was notably contemporary, while retaining Houston's trademark vocal flourishes. The up-tempo songs "Nuthin' But Love" and "A Song for You" received the best reaction from the invited audience of international media, while Davis particularly praised slower songs like the Warren-penned ballad "I Didn't Know My Own Strength" and R Kelly's title track, hailing Houston as "the premium balladeer of our time." source>>>

Phil Vassar, James Denton on the Video Set

"This song is about fun," Phil Vassar says. "That's all it is. It's not meant to be taken seriously. It's just crank it up, roll the windows down and just have fun with it."

The song he's referring to is "Bobbi With an I," a lighthearted ode to a guy who dresses in women's clothing to get free drinks during ladies' night at the neighborhood bar. Vassar recently shot a music video for the song with actor James Denton (star of Desperate Housewives and a native of Nashville) and Brad Hatcher (who had the honor of being cast as Bobbi).

"I wrote this song with Craig Wiseman," Vassar explains. "And if you know Craig, that's all you need to know. We sat in the house and started going back down memory lane. We started talking. One night at a club, one of my buddies showed up dressed as a woman. But he was so smart. I mean, it was ladies' night, right? Free drinks. It was just hilarious, one of the funniest things."

Vassar thought it would be a great subject for a song and music video.

"I've written some serious songs -- 'Just Another Day in Paradise,' 'American Child' and 'Prayer of a Common Man.' It's just time to laugh and have some fun. And that's what this song's about."

In the music video directed by Eric Welch, Denton is cast as a friend of Bobby -- or Bobbi.

"Originally, Phil and I were talking about me being Bobbi, which I thought was going to be hysterical," Denton says. "I really wanted to do it. But in the song, it mentions that he benches 335 [pounds], and I was like, 'Not me!'" So we got a burly guy who's a little more believable."

Vassar and Denton have been friends for several years. They're both actively involved in Share the Beat, an annual event that benefits the James Redford Institute for Transplant Awareness in its work to promote organ donation programs. When Vassar asked him to be in the "Bobbi With an I" video, Denton listened to the song and immediately said yes.

"It gave me a reason to come back to Nashville and visit family," Denton says. "I haven't been here in a year, so it was a good excuse to come home." source>>>

Writers of "Start a Band" Celebrate a No. 1 Single

It took back-to-back parties Monday (July 13) to properly celebrate the three songwriters behind Brad Paisley and Keith Urban's recent No. 1 single, "Start a Band."

ASCAP hosted the opening bash at its Nashville headquarters for writers Ashley Gorley and Kelley Lovelace. BMI followed an hour later to spotlight the song's third writer, Dallas Davidson. (ASCAP and BMI are performance rights organizations that represent different songwriters.)

"Start a Band" is Lovelace's 11th No. 1, Gorley's sixth and Davidson's first.

"There's this huge emotional difference between No. 2 and No. 1," Lovelace told the crowd of celebrants. He noted that a scheduling accident led to all three writers collaborating on the day they wrote "Start a Band."

Neither Paisley nor Urban were able to attend the parties. But Lovelace, who's been Paisley's friend since they were students at Nashville's Belmont University and who's co-written several of the singer's biggest hits, joked that he knew what Paisley would say if he were there.

"Brad would say what a gift it is to live so close to me [and] have access to these songs," Lovelace joked.

Recording artists Luke Bryan, Randy Houser and Rhett Akins dropped by the BMI fest to cheer Davidson on. His parents were in the audience, too.

BMI's Perry Howard pointed out that Davidson had twice come close to having No. 1's as the co-writer of Trace Adkins' "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk" and Brooks & Dunn's "Put a Girl in It."

As is BMI's custom, Howard presented Davidson a guitar for achieving his first chart topper.

"When I met Dallas," said his publisher, Brett Jones, "my office was in the Mojo Grill, and his home was a Tacoma [truck] with the window broken out."

"It's a cool day," Davidson responded. "We finally got a No. 1." source>>>

Taylor Swift Plans New Version of "You Belong With Me" for MTV's VMAs

Taylor Swift will perform a never-before-heard version of "You Belong With Me" at MTV's Video Music Awards on Sept. 13 in New York City. This will be Swift's first time to perform at the VMAs. "I'm so excited that MTV and the VMAs have invited me to perform because I think this year's show will be unlike anything they've ever done," Swift said. "I love incorporating theatrics into my performances, and the VMAs have always allowed artists to run with that. MTV has been so good to me, and I could not be more excited about this year's VMAs." British actor-comedian Russell Brand will return as host. source>>>

Martina McBride should be on Broadway. Her music videos prove that.

Martina McBride should be on Broadway. Her music videos prove that. With her expansive gestures and balcony-shaking voice, she's the Ethel Merman of Music Row -- but a lot more attractive.

Look at her rhapsodizing in such mini-musicals as "Anyway," "Blessed" or "This One's for the Girls," and you can easily imagine her as Nellie Forbush in South Pacific, Marian the Librarian in The Music Man or the title character in The Unsinkable Molly Brown.

In her most memorable videos, however, McBride embraces loftier themes than simply being someone's adorable love interest. Her breakthrough in this arena came in 1994 with the harrowing "Independence Day," the story of an abused wife who finally strikes back in desperation by burning down her house with herself and her tormentor in it.

So powerful was this video statement against domestic violence -- and so firm has been McBride's commitment to the theme -- that she returned to it in "A Broken Wing" and "Concrete Angel." Threaded throughout her other videos is the assertion that women are and must be strong, even as they luxuriate in the comforts of true love.

Viewed in their totality, McBride's videos show her to be one of the most socially conscious artists in country music.

Counting her cameo roles or co-starring appearances with Matraca Berg, Jim Brickman, Jimmy Buffett, Loretta Lynn, Reba McEntire and Bob Seger and her Christmas videos, McBride has at least 35 clips to her credit.

Here are 12 you may want to revisit:

"The Time Has Come" (1992) -- McBride's first video, shot less than a year after she quit her job selling T-shirts at Garth Brooks' concerts. The theme is breaking away, and it's illustrated by scenes of McBride striding purposefully down a long and empty highway, boarding a train and walking beside a horse. No drama, but plenty of attitude. This was the first country video to employ closed captioning.

"Cheap Whiskey" (1992) -- Clad in a long black dress, McBride sings the cautionary tale of a drunk who kills his wife in a car wreck and repents too late. Grimly effective both as a message and as proof that this breezy newcomer can handle hardcore country lyrics.

"My Baby Loves Me" (1993) -- McBride is pretty as a picture in this pastel-colored greeting card. In fact, she sings out of a picture frame as a series of other women similarly revel in the fact that "my baby loves me just the way that I am."

"Independence Day" (1994) -- Shot in stark black and white and sung from the point of view of an 8-year-old daughter of an abused mother, this remains one of the most powerful music videos ever made. It juxtaposes scenes of chilling domestic violence with those of a concurrent Fourth of July parade and brings the two together as the victim burns down her house like a macabre fireworks display. The little girl's life to that point is pretty much summarized by her terrified face as she watches two clowns in the parade playfully hit each other. This was the first video by a woman to win the Country Music Association's video of the year award.

"Safe in the Arms of Love" (1995) -- Presented as a dream sequence, McBride sits and swings happily as members of Cirque du Soleil perform on trapezes and high wires behind her.

"Cry on the Shoulder of the Road" (1997) -- She's had enough of her insensitive lover, so now McBride's in her car, on the road and dealing with mixed feelings of freedom and fear. A newlywed couple crops up in several roadside scenes to serve as her emotional reference point of bad love vs. good. Unlike most of her videos, in which she stands outside and lyrically comments on the action, McBride actually gets to do some acting here. The harmony singer in the chorus is the inimitable Levon Helm of The Band.

"A Broken Wing" (1997) -- Here the domestic abuse is more subtle and less physical than in "Independence Day." But it's just as disabling. Instead of burning down her house, the victim simply "flies" away one Sunday morning. The pretty house in which the abuse scenes are shot -- and in which McBride sings -- is an effective counterpoint to the corrosive ugliness. It's your classic bird-in-a-gilded-cage scenario.

"Love's the Only House" (1999) -- More acting for McBride as she plays a supermarket clerk whose work brings her face to face with the pain caused by poverty and indifference.

"Concrete Angel" (2002) -- Only the hardest heart can watch this video without breaking. Objectively speaking, it is blatantly sentimental. But we also know that the story it tells is true, that there are children like this little girl who are being battered and killed every day -- and often without anyone to interview or grieve for them. To the degree that it stirs our pity and moves us to action, this is a great video.

"Anyway" (2006) -- Positive thinking turned up to 11.

"For These Times" (2007) -- Except for providing the vocal narrative, McBride doesn't appear in this video. Apparently shot on the streets of New York, it asks passersby to write on a large pad the thing they most wish for. At the end, it poses that same question to the viewer. Both the faces and the written responses are fascinating.

"I Just Call You Mine" (2009) -- In black-and-white vignettes, alternating with color scenes of McBride singing, the video shows couples young and old marveling in the wonder of absolute love. source>>>

Iran singer gets 5 yr. jail term for Koran disrespect

An Iranian singer and composer who has been likened to Bob Dylan has received a five-year jail sentence in absentia for disrespecting religious sanctities, according to Iranian television.

An Iranian Koran scholar filed a complaint against Mohsen Namjoo, who also plays a traditional Persian lute, for the way he had performed using verses from Islam's holy book, English-language Press TV said on its website late on Monday.

The scholar, who Press TV did not name, accused Namjoo of "an insulting, sneering performance of Koranic verses with musical instruments."

It quoted the singer's brother and lawyer as dismissing the accusation, saying he "did not mean any disrespect." Press TV said Namjoo, who apologized a few months ago for the incident, was abroad but did not say in which country.
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Iran's Fars News Agency quoted a judge on Monday as confirming that Namjoo was found guilty "subsequent to an investigation of the complaint against him" but he did not give details on the sentence.

In a report posted on its website last week, the semi-official IQNA news agency (Iran's Quran News Agency) named the plaintiff as Abbas Salimi and quoted him as saying Namjoo was accused of "derisive rendering of Koran verses and disrespect toward" the holy book.

IQNA said the sentence against Namjoo, who is in his early 30s, was handed down last month.

In a 2007 profile, New York Times said Namjoo's "playful but subtly cutting lyrics about growing up in an Islamic state" had made him "the most controversial, and certainly the most daring, figure in Persian music today."

It added, "Some call him a genius, a sort of Bob Dylan of Iran, and say his satirical music accurately reflects the frustrations and disillusionment of young Iranians." source>>>

Trace Adkins Films Episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

Trace Adkins filmed an episode of ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition on Friday (July 10) in Lancaster, Texas. Adkins and other volunteers helped rebuild the home of Carlton Marshall, a Dallas police officer who was shot in the neck in 2007 while serving a narcotics search warrant. Marshall now only has partial mobility and has lost his hearing. The design team for this episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition also featured team leader Ty Pennington and designers Paul DiMeo, Tracy Hutson and Ed Sanders. source>>>

Lady Antebellum's Charles Kelley Marries

Lady Antebellum singer Charles Kelley married Nashville publicist Cassie McConnell on July 6, according to his spokesperson. The announcement was made on Friday (July 10) on the band's Twitter account. Lady Antebellum's hits include "Love Don't Live Here," "Lookin' for a Good Time" and "I Run to You." McConnell's clients include Jake Owen and singer-songwriter Josh Kelley. However, her company does not represent Lady Antebellum. source>>>

Big & Rich Reunite for Summer Tour

After taking a break last year, Big & Rich have reunited for a full summer of tour dates. Of course, they're both pursuing solo careers, as well. John Rich released Son of a Preacher Man in March and created national attention with the single, Meanwhile, Big Kenny says he's mastered about 50 new songs in his home studio and recently released a single,

In separate interviews, the duo talked about playing new music, escaping reality and why their partnership works.

CMT: How is making a solo album different compared to making a Big & Rich album?

John Rich: It couldn't be more 180. Big Kenny is such an entity and such a racehorse unto himself. Honestly, it's a 180 for me on a lot of different levels. When we come together, it's a very interesting sweet spot we find when we make those really great Big & Rich songs. This album [Son of a Preacher Man] -- because I'm in there by myself, I produced it on my own, I wrote or co-wrote all the songs on the album -- I really got to dig down as deep as I wanted to and say things exactly how I would say them with no concern as to what Big Kenny might think about it. Everybody knows Kenny's "Love Everybody" [slogan]. Everybody knows that's not necessarily my mantra all the time. I think some people deserve one of these (clenches fist) including me sometimes. The world is a crazy place, and there's some crazy people in it. Songs like "Shutting Detroit Down," I believe, call out some of the nonsense that we all are witnessing on a daily basis. I'm not sure "Shuttin' Detroit Down" would ever have made a Big & Rich album.

Big Kenny: I could focus so much time [on the new music]. What I've been able to do in the past year and a-half is to get me back to what I feel like was the quality of the first B&R record. We had so long to work on that. John and I had both had previous careers. We had both been writing for a long time. We had a monstrous collection of songs. We had spent the previous two or three years together writing songs because both of our [solo] record deals fluttered out around the same time. Then we got signed as Big & Rich, and we had a tremendous amount of time to focus on music. Straight up, man, you just don't get that very often as an artist. I just kind of stole it. That's how I look at it. This past year and a-half, to be able to take a break and get my whole creative world built around me, it's been like a musician's dream come true. I think I'm Peter Pan sometimes when I walk into my studio. My friends are over here working. It's got that vibe again. I'm able to focus again on the music. Greatness of any kind and quality take time. And we've been able to put together some great stuff, and I'm super excited about it.

Are you going to be able to play some of your solo songs on the tour?

Big Kenny: John and I are going to break the set up and play all the B&R classics. Then I'm going to a couple of my new songs and he's going to do a couple of his new songs. Then we're going to end in good ol' Big & Rich fashion -- rockin' it hard and heavy until we drop a hole in the floor. (laughs)

Rich: I plan on playing "Shutting Detroit Down" in the show, and I know Kenny's written a bunch of new songs, too. So you'll get all the Big & Rich songs, and then you'll probably get a couple Big Kenny songs and some John Rich songs. Cowboy Troy will be out there, Two Foot Fred and the whole freak parade will be out there on the road. It should be a very entertaining concert. I know it's tough out there for people to even think about buying a ticket to a show, but if you want to escape reality for a minute, the Big & Rich show is a pretty good way to do it. So if we're coming through your city, come on out and see us.

You two are different on so many levels. Does that help you make it work as a duo?

Big Kenny: It completely pushes us apart, and then we get to go out there! The good thing is, whatever his world is and whatever my world is clash when we hit the stage. It clashes in a really good way. I think with two dudes like us, if we did everything together all the time, we would be doing the world a disservice. We both need to get out and do what we do [separately], and then come back and meet on that stage and do what we do together. ... I just know that I am a better musician and singer today than I was yesterday or a year ago. You keep doing anything and you get better at it. I know he's doing the same thing and growing in his life in the same way. You have to. That's just the law of nature. But it's going to be interesting to get out on the road. We've written apart from each other so much. We still probably have Lord knows how many songs in our catalog, but the road will give us a reason to bring our writing creativity together, too, if we choose to or see fit. Hell, maybe John will buy an island and invite me down for the weekend, and we'll just write a whole record. Me and him, one thing about our writing, when we've got a great idea, it's like bam! It just comes so quickly. It's going to be a very exciting summer.

Rich: The fact that Big Kenny and I are so different on so many personal levels is probably what makes the outrageous dynamic. When we actually do find our center between the two of us, you have songs like nobody else writes. He couldn't write those songs on his own and I couldn't write those songs on my own. It truly is a pretty magical equation.
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Justin Timberlake to open Golf Course in Memphis, Next Week

Justin Timberlake's Mirimichi golf course is set to open July 25 in suburban Memphis after a $16 million renovation aimed at making it environmentally friendly.

The Commercial Appeal reported that Timberlake invested in reconstruction of the former Big Creek Golf Course after buying it late in 2007.

Mirimichi director of golf Greg King said Timberlake played the few holes that were ready in the early spring and King is eager for the celebrity owner to play the completed project.

Timberlake bought the golf course to save it from commercial development and the project was designed to be the first eco-friendly course to be certified by the Audubon Classic Sanctuary Program. source>>>

NY Philharmonic says Cuba tour prospects promising

Prospects for Cuban performances by the New York Philharmonic look promising following a tour of concert halls and meetings with music officials on the island, orchestra president Zarin Mehta said Sunday.

Mehta said a final decision will be made by the Philharmonic's board of directors. Eric Latzky, the orchestra's vice president for communications, said an official announcement could be as much as a month off.

But Mehta said the trip looks promising, with tentative plans for performances on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1 at the 900-seat Teatro Amadeo Roldan, a renovated concert hall a few blocks from the Malecon coastal highway.

"We have to go back now and work on repertoires, budgets. There are practical considerations like: how do you get the instruments in, where do you store them?" Mehta told The Associated Press in Havana. The Philharmonic's incoming music director, Alan Gilbert, would conduct.

The island's Culture Ministry invited the orchestra to perform in Havana, and U.S. officials have agreed to allow the musicians to visit under an exemption to legal restrictions on travel to Cuba, Latzy said.

The Communist Party daily Granma reported on Saturday that authorities were looking forward to such a tour, which would be among the most high-profile American cultural exchanges with communist Cuba since Fidel Castro's rebels came to power a half-century ago.

The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra made a celebrated tour of Cuba a decade ago.

Mehta said the orchestra is concentrating on people rather than politicians: "We just want to come and play music and let others worry about the politics. That's their problem."

He noted that no major change in U.S.-North Korean relations occurred after the orchestra played in the North Korean capital in February 2008, the first performance by a major visiting orchestra in that totalitarian state.

Still, Mehta said, the music did seem to touch many of the North Korean concertgoers, who included government officials and military officers.

"Here you have all these people who have been taught that Americans are the devil," he said. "When we played a Korean piece, you should have seen the change in the stoic, impassive faces of the Koreans. Many of them were weeping."

The New York Philharmonic has a long tradition of musical diplomacy. The late Leonard Bernstein led America's oldest philharmonic orchestra in a watershed tour of the Soviet Union in 1959, and later in communist China and Eastern Bloc countries in the 1980s.

Mehta said some of the visiting musicians might give masters classes to Cuban students and allow them to sit in on dress rehearsals. source>>>

Country Music Reflects Reality in Steve McNair Murder

I can barely remember when I started winding up an old battery Victrola upstairs at Grandpa and Grandma Boone's house and listening to early country records. The story songs have stayed with me all my life. The lyrics of songs such as "Frankie and Johnny" start out describing a romance, but then you realize it's really about a romance that's gone terribly wrong.

They say hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, and the outcome is revealed in these lyrics:

With a rooty, toot, toot,
Three times she shot.
Right through that hardwood door.
She killed her man,
'Cause he done her wrong.

Country music imitates life. It always has, and it did again on July 4 in Nashville.

My thoughts rushed back to my childhood, sitting on the floor listening to those records, after I heard the tragic news that former Tennessee Titans quarterback Steve McNair was dead. Only 36 years old, he was a football hero and a prominent member of the Nashville community.

Also dead was Sahel Kazemi, a 20-year-old waitress who was dating McNair, a married man and father of four sons. Kazemi had some financial and legal problems, but she apparently also suspected McNair was seeing yet another woman.

Police say Kazemi shot McNair four times as he slept on a sofa before shooting herself in the head. She had only recently purchased the gun she used, and when I heard about her body being found at his feet, I could not help but think about these old songs from my childhood -- songs about women who loved men but could not have them.

At the time of the shooting, the world was still reeling and weeping over Michael Jackson, whose life was apparently jerked away by prescription drugs. The Jackson story took up half of the newspaper's front page, and reports of the McNair murder took up the other half. As I got ready to tape another episode of CMT's Southern Fried Flicks, I found myself cooking and humming a tune about a gal named Frankie who killed her man. Once in a while, I'd feel a tear sneaking down my face.

Youngsters like Taylor Swift and Kellie Pickler probably never heard "Frankie and Johnny" and other of those old songs of tragedy, such as "Long Black Veil," "Otto Wood" and "The Wreck of the Old 97," but they are the vehicle that launched country music long before the parents of these girls could carry a tune.

They don't write country songs like they used to, but Jamey Johnson's doing a pretty good job of putting truth on paper these days. source>>>

Life Is Always Changing for Singer-Songwriter Ryan Bingham

Early success and hype have at times overwhelmed a young artist. For each one who makes it through the first few years with their creative compass intact, hundreds more are swallowed up by pressure. With the release of Roadhouse Sun, his second album for Lost Highway Records, Ryan Bingham shows that he's been through enough in his life to deal with just about anything -- but that's not to say that he isn't still growing up.

His story is one of constant motion. Moving from town to town with his family throughout childhood, he became a bull rider in his late teens and traveled on a touring rodeo circuit. On one of those tours, he found music and songwriting and hasn't left the road since. By the time of his major label debut, Mescalito, a firestorm of sorts had started around his life with some claiming him as heir to the throne of certain long-gone troubadours. The critically-acclaimed singer-songwriter recently talked to CMT.com about how people interpret his past, the feeling on his new album and finally finding a place to unwind.

CMT: People make a lot of your past, but how do you feel about the way you are portrayed?

Bingham: A lot of it's truth, but there's definitely some exaggeration in there. I mean, I think a lot of writers may take a simple or basic story, and to make it appealing to people who read magazines and stuff, they kind of put their own twist on it. Sometimes it's cool, and sometimes it's kind of like, "What the hell are y'all talking about?" But you've just kind of got to take it in stride. People can read what they want in magazines, and if they need to clear something up, just give me a call -- and we'll set it straight.

Does it affect the way some people approach you, thinking you're this kind of outlaw guy who's just drifting around?

No, not so much. I think a lot of people can kind of see that up front. Sometimes I think people are skeptical of what they read. You know, like, "Oh, this kid's only 28 years old. There's no way he's lived through that kind of s***." But everybody has the right to their own opinion. And, I don't know, just come out and see a show or come meet us and see what you think for yourself.

The story is really interesting, but how does it relate to your music in the present? If you were writing a song now, would your past still have a big influence?

It used to more than it does now. Maybe it's part of me growing up and putting some things behind me that I used to dwell on when I was younger, but it seems like more, now today, I seem to have a little bit more of an optimistic kind of a view on life. I'm writing more about the stuff that I look forward to than the stuff that I'm looking back on.

Did that lead you to write different kinds of songs like "Endless Ways," which has a political side to it?

Yeah, I think just part of that is just growing up. I just turned 28 this year, and over the past eight years through the Bush administration and all that, a lot of [messed] up stuff has been going on with the country. Who knows where it's going to head from here, hopefully in a better direction, but anybody that lives in this country is aware of what's going on. It's on the news every day. It's in newspapers. People are talking about it everywhere, so it's just kind of another thing that you're exposed to. A lot of that's political and economic and all that, and I think it's important to write about it, as well.

Marc Ford produced both records and is also a former member of the Black Crowes. Is there a certain sound that he brings?

It's definitely kind of an older sound. Kind of like the older rock 'n' roll stuff. I don't think Marc listens to much music that wasn't recorded before 1970. (laughs) And that's kind of the stuff we're into, as well. So I think just as far as his outlook on the whole production part of it -- and I think, sonically, the whole record, the drums, the guitar tones and everything like that -- has kind of an old school approach to it that we really dug.

Elijah Ford, your bass player, is Marc's son. Who did you meet first?

I met Marc first. When we first met Marc, me and [drummer] Matt [Smith] came out to L.A. and were just playing in a small club down in Hollywood. Marc was in the crowd of about five people that was there just hanging out. We just became friends and started jamming together quite a bit, and when we got the opportunity to go in and work on the record, he was the first guy we called up.

I think Elijah was probably 16 or something when we met Marc. He was young, and later it came up that we needed a bass player on the road. Marc mentioned to us that Elijah could play, and we got him on the road. He's been with us ever since.

Was it really important for you to have your touring band, the Dead Horses, playing on the record?

Yeah, it was really important for me to have the guys that I play with on the record because that's how we sound live when we go out on the road. I think it's important for people that come out to the shows to really get what's on the record. And we all really enjoy playing together. I couldn't imagine using anybody else but those guys, anyway.

What's a typical day on the road like for you and the band?

Well, before all the record label stuff started, it was just me and my drummer -- and that was it. We didn't make any money, and we couldn't find anybody who would put up with us to go on the road because we were always just camping out in the truck. You know, we were both kind of homeless, so wherever we would end up -- on somebody's couch or somebody's back yard or camping out somewhere -- that's where we were.

But since we've got the record out and they've got us on kind of a schedule, it's a little different. It's basically wake up, drive in the van and get to the gig, play and drive again to the next town. Just a lot of driving and playing and trying to take in all the sights along the way and experiences and people you meet. Things like that. Maybe get a few songs out of it, as well.

You've been doing it for so long, there must be something about the road that you really love. Do you know what it is?

Well, I don't know. It's kind of a love/hate relationship. Growing up, we always moved a lot. It wasn't because we wanted to, it was because we had to -- living out of a cardboard box and stuff, the family always trying to find work in different towns. And then I started rodeoing when I was young and ended up spending a lot of time on the road doing that. There's definitely a part of it I love. And the traveling, it's kind of a freedom that you have that you're not tied down to a house and bills and stuff, and all that really matters is that you're just out in the wide open and kind of throwing caution to the wind.

But it's also nice to have a place to go to, kind of a home base where you can chill out. This place I'm living at now in California is the first house I've ever had in my whole life with my own name on the mailbox. It's a pretty comforting thing. The first two or three months I was here, I think I slept for two or three weeks at a time just from being on the road for, like, 10 years straight and finally having a place to wind down and kind of come back to reality and catch up with myself. source>>>

Kenny Chesney Plans Central Park Performance for Good Morning America

Kenny Chesney will perform at New York's Central Park on Aug. 14 as part of Good Morning America's summer concert series. His appearance on the ABC show takes place the day before he headlines the sixth annual New England Country Music Festival at Gillette Stadium near Boston. When tickets to the show went on sale in December, the concert sold out in 10 minutes even though Chesney's support acts had not yet been announced. Sugarland, Montgomery Gentry, Miranda Lambert and Lady Antebellum were later announced to appear. This marks Chesney's fifth consecutive time to headline a show at Gillette Stadium. He's playing 12 stadium shows this summer as part of his Sun City Carnival tour. source>>>

Brad Paisley's American Saturday Night Claims Top Album Slot

Brad Paisley is the big news this week as his American Saturday Night catapults into the No. 1 niche on Billboard's country albums chart. The collection racked up first-week sales of nearly 130,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Holding for the second consecutive week as Billboard's top country song is Dierks Bentley's "Sideways."

There are two new CDs to report. Tanya Tucker bows at No. 27 with My Turn, while Cledus T. Judd's checks in at No. 56 with the humorously-titled Polyrically Incorrect.

The returning albums are Taylor Swift's Beautiful Eyes EP (No. 57), Steve Ivey's Ultimate Bluegrass (No. 73), Elvis Presley's Collector's Edition: Elvis Inspirational Memories (No. 74) and Wynonna's Sing: Chapter 1 (No. 75).

Tim McGraw boasts the highest-charting new song. His cunningly titled "It's a Business Doing Pleasure With You" arrives at No. 35 and is trailed by Toby Keith's "American Ride" (No. 38), Keith Urban's "Only You Can Love Me This Way" (No. 52), Jason Michael Carroll's "Hurry Home" (No. 56), Sarah Buxton's "Outside My Window" (No. 57) and Paisley's "American Saturday Night" (No. 59).

Albums No. 2 through 5 this week are Swift's Fearless, the soundtrack to Hannah Montana: The Movie, the Zac Brown Band's The Foundation and Jason Aldean's Wide Open. (This is the first week Fearless has pulled ahead of Hannah Montana since the latter album debuted 11 weeks ago.)

Following "Sideways" within the Top 5 songs cluster are the Zac Brown Band's "Whatever It Is," Lady Antebellum's "I Run to You," Billy Currington's "People Are Crazy" and Paisley's "Then," in that order.

By Nielsen SoundScan's count, fans purchased a total of 497,727 current country albums this past week. (That number does not include catalog sales of older country CDs.)

Keep shopping, folks. Music Row needs you. source>>>

Alan Jackson Updates Cookbook, Offers Signed Copies on Web Site

Alan Jackson has updated his 1994 cookbook, Who Says You Can't Cook It All, with new recipes. Named after his 1994 hit, "(Who Says) You Can't Have It All," the cookbook is available exclusively through his Web site and costs $15. Jackson will autograph every 10th cookbook ordered in July. The second edition of the cookbook includes more than 60 recipes from his family, including his wife Denise and his mother Ruth, as well as more than 35 photos, some never before published. source>>>

CD Sales Down for Country, but Digital Downloads Up

Not surprisingly, CD sales continued to decline in the first half of 2009. Alarmingly for the music industry, growth of sales of digital albums also declined. Billboard and Nielsen SoundScan report that combined sales thus far in 2009 of CD albums and digital albums are down 23 million units from the same period a year ago. (Digital albums include TEA -- track-equivalent albums, wherein 10 digital track sales equal one album.)

Country CD sales continue to slide, but download sales are up, with country leading all music genres in rate of increase in growth. Country album downloads increased to 2.35 million -- still a relatively low number, but the rise amounted to about 55 percent.

As expected, Taylor Swift's Fearless is the biggest-selling album of the year in any music genre, with 1.3 million CD copies sold in 2009. Fearless is currently selling about 5,000 digital downloads a week. Interestingly, Brad Paisley's American Saturday Night sold approximately 129,000 CDs in its debut last week and also notched 26,000 in digital sales.

This has been a comparatively lean year thus far for new country albums, especially by major artists. Albums are expected later this year from George Strait (Twang), Tim McGraw (Southern Voice) and an as-yet untitled album from Carrie Underwood. I'm particularly looking forward to Patty Loveless' Mountain Soul II, Rosanne Cash's The List (both in October) and Radney Foster's new studio album, Revival, coming in September. source>>>

Reba McEntire, Hank Williams Jr. Will Open Alabama Concert Venue

Reba McEntire is the first performer booked for the new Wind Creek Amphitheatre at the Wind Creek Casino in Atmore, Ala. Her sold-out concert is scheduled for July 17. The 2,500-seat venue has also booked Hank Williams Jr. as its second headline performer. His concert is scheduled Aug. 29. McEntire is currently on tour in Canada with dates on Thursday (July 9) in Calgary, Alberta, and Sunday (July 12) in Cavendish, Prince Edward Island. Williams' next concert appearance is July 17 in Greenville, S.C. source>>>

Patty Loveless Plans bluegrass-inspired, Mountain Soul II for September Release

Patty Loveless will release another volume of bluegrass-inspired music, Mountain Soul II, on Sept. 29 on Saguaro Road Records. She released the original Mountain Soul in 2001. Guests on the new project include Vince Gill, Emmylou Harris, Rebecca Lynn Howard, Carl Jackson, Del McCoury, Ronnie McCoury, Jon Randall and steel guitarist Al Perkins. Emory Gordy Jr., her husband, is producing the sessions. "It's Appalachian, bluegrass and country combined," Loveless said. "You should never try to duplicate something like Mountain Soul. What you should do is enhance. So this is like a continuation." Last year, Loveless released an album of country covers, Sleepless Nights, on Saguaro Road. source>>>

Carrie Underwood, Rodney Atkins Schedule Free Shows at Fort Campbell, Ky.

Carrie Underwood, Rodney Atkins, Darius Rucker and John Rich are among those performing at Fort Campbell, Ky., for two Salute to the Troops concerts for soldiers and families of the 101st Airborne Division. The performances are part of an event billed as Week of the Eagles to celebrate the return of the 101st Airborne's Screaming Eagles from service in the Middle East. Underwood, Rich and Jake Owen will perform on Aug. 14. The Aug. 15 show features Atkins, Rucker and Jypsi. Underwood's performance at Fort Campbell is one of only a few concerts she has scheduled this summer. Her new album will be released later this year. The Salute to the Troops activities are free and open to the public, but all visitors to the military installation will be required to present a valid photo ID and show current registration and proof of insurance for any vehicle admitted. source>>>

Darryl Worley's Tough-Love Outlook Imitates Life on New Album

What Darryl Worley seems to lack in luck, he continues to make up for in determination. For nearly a decade, the singer-songwriter has bounced from one record label to another, unwavering in his fight for a career in country music -- even funding his newest album, Sounds Like Life.

"I wanted to do the music myself," he recently explained in an interview with CMT.com. "God's been good to me and my family and my career. Even though we've had to jump from one record label to the next, we've always found a way to get back in the thick of it."

Worley first found his musical home at the Nashville division of DreamWorks Records where he charted his first single, "When You Need My Love," in 2000. He continued throughout the years with a string of hits, including No. 1 hits, "I Miss My Friend," "Have You Forgotten?" and "Awful, Beautiful Life."

Things began changing for Worley after DreamWorks' record division was purchased by the Universal Music Group in 2003. UMG merged the label with Mercury and MCA a year later. In 2005, Worley found himself without a deal. Pushing on, he searched for other outlets for his music. In 2006, he signed with Neal McCoy's newly-started label, 903 Records -- but failed to reach the chart-topping success he had hoped.

"When the deal ended at 903, I made up my mind to wipe my slate completely clean," Worley explained. "I changed everything from the ground up -- the record label, producer, everything."

As a result, Worley used his own money to fund his sixth album and latest project, Sounds Like Life, released on Stroudavarious Records. Ironically, James Stroud, the founder of the new label, previously headed DreamWorks Nashville and signed Worley to his first recording contract almost 10 years ago.

"We made some great music together in the past," he said. "It was right. It is right."

Much like Worley's adamant climb, "Sounds Like Life to Me," his current single from the new album, continues to climb Billboard's country chart. Appropriately, the song carries Worley's same unshakable attitude.

"It's absolutely tough love" he said. "Not only that, it's a true story."

The inspiration for the song came from a friend who was facing a low place in his life, questioning eight years of hard-earned sobriety. When Worley got the call from his friend, who had already made his way to the bar, Worley said to him, "'Look, you can act like this is the end of the world, or you can walk out this door with me. If you don't see somebody that's in worse shape than you, I'll pay your house payment for the rest of the year.'"

Fortunately, Worley was able to talk his friend out of the bar and back home to his wife and children. "I'd been there, and everybody I know back where I come from has been there at one time or another," he said. "I wasn't hard on him. I just told him the truth."

"That's just how it is," he went on, "and I've had to do that myself. Everybody has a tendency to get down in the mouth sometimes."

On the album, Worley lightens the mood with several of his new upbeat songs. Having co-written a majority of the tracks, Worley takes his listeners on an up-beat musical journey through his "Honkytonk Life." He addresses the issues of wealth in tongue-in-cheek "Nothing but Money" and encourages listeners to let loose under the influence of his feel-good tunes like "Tequila on Ice" and "Best of Both Worlds."

"That's what people need," he said. "They need to whoop it up for a little while and forget about all the tough times we're going through.

"You have to be willing to stick it out against all odds. That's what American people do. It's like this economy and the hard times we're going through. It'll only last so long. We don't give up. We'll be fine." source>>>

Jennette McCurdy of Nickelodeon's iCarly Signs With Capitol Nashville

Jennette McCurdy, who stars in the Nickelodeon series, iCarly, has signed a record deal with Capitol Nashville, according to a blog on her MySpace page. "I am honored, ecstatic, elated and overwhelmed with joy! Capitol's expertise in country music will allow me the opportunity to give you guys the best I have to give in songwriting, singing and performing," she wrote. McCurdy turned 17 in June. Capitol Nashville's roster also includes Trace Adkins, Dierks Bentley, Luke Bryan, Lady Antebellum, Darius Rucker, Keith Urban and Emily West. source>>>

Rosanne Cash Announces Track Listing for New Covers Album

Rosanne Cash has announced the track listing of a new covers album, The List, due for release on Oct. 6 on Manhattan Records. The project was inspired by a list of 100 essential country songs her father, Johnny Cash, gave her in 1973. Selections include "Sea of Heartbreak" (with Bruce Springsteen), "Heartaches by the Number" (with Elvis Costello), "Long Black Veil" (with Wilco's Jeff Tweedy), "Silver Wings" (with Rufus Wainwright) "Miss the Mississippi and You," "Motherless Children," "Take These Chains From My Heart," "I'm Movin' On," "500 Miles," "She's Got You," "Girl From the North Country" and "Bury Me Under the Weeping Willow." It's her first album since undergoing surgery in 2007 after being diagnosed with chiari I malformation, a rare but benign congenital malformation of the skull that affects the brain and spinal cord. She has fully recovered. source>>>

Royalty Deal With Music Labels Renews Internet Radio

The great battle between online radio and copyright owners seems to have reached an armistice.

SoundExchange, a non-profit group designated by the U.S. Copyright Office to collect royalties from digital playback of music, today announced a new agreement with Internet radio companies on royalty terms. The decision could enhance the revenue models of venture-backed music-streaming companies like Goom Radio LLC, Pandora Media Inc. and Slacker Inc.
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Webcasters were ordered in March 2007 to comply with a federal Copyright Royalty Board ruling that required a fee for each time a song was streamed. Online radio stations simply couldn't support the enormous royalty fees with advertising revenue. Many online music start-ups struggled to find the right model and several have shut down altogether.

With this new deal, Internet radio broadcasters will have the option of choosing to pay on a revenue-sharing basis, in return for more robust reporting requirements.

"More than two years in the making, this is an agreement we're proud of because it shows that both sides can address the business concerns of the Webcasters while giving artists and copyright holders the potential to share in the revenue growth of Webcasters," John Simson, Executive Director of SoundExchange, said in a statement. "It's a creative, groundbreaking approach that we wanted to try, and we hope it will work well for everyone involved - the artists, labels and eligible Webcasters."

Under the new agreement, which applies to songs streamed between 2006 to 2015, larger services - like Pandora - will pay the greater of either a per performance rate per song or 25% of total revenue, and will agree to provide more comprehensive reporting about the sound recordings used than regulations currently require. The per-song rate for large Webcasters continually increases from $0.00093 this year to $0.0014 in 2015.

Through 2014, small Webcasters with revenue below $1.25 million will pay 12% to 14% of revenue or an increasing per-song fee of $0.0015 this year to $0.0025 in 2015.

All stations will be required to pay an annual minimum fee of $25,000, which they can apply to their royalty payments.

Rob Williams, chief executive for Goom Radio and an industry veteran who most recently was president and market manager for Clear Channel in New York, said the agreement is a "step in a fair direction."

"It's exactly on par with what we expected," Williams said. "We've been hearing about it for a while, so it's nice to see it come together."

The new royalty rates are still far from what Williams experienced working in terrestrial radio, where broadcasters paid about 3.5% of revenues to the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, a royalty agency with more than 11,500 local commercial radio stations and 2000 non-commercial radio broadcasters being licensees.

However, Williams expects the current royalty rates for online stations will continue to decrease as more listeners tune into the Web.

"It shows people are looking at the online radio business," Williams said. "It's just a matter of time before people stop saying terrestrial radio and online radio. It will be considered professionally delivered content. It's the birth of a whole new industry." source>>>

Nas, Damian Marley Preview Album Collaboration On Rock The Bells Tour

Nas and Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley entered the studio early this year with a plan to do "an EP based on Africa," according to Marley. As previously reported, it's turned into a full length album, "Distant Relatives," which the duo has been previewing during their headlining run on this year's Rock The Bells tour though no release date or label has been determined yet.

"Once we started working on the music," Marley tells Billboard.com, "it was Nas who said to me, 'Yo, we should just make this a full album.' He really liked the energy, I guess."

Nas adds that "I just think it was me and Damian finding our way. When you have two different artists working on a record when they're used to doing their own thing their own way, it's not as easy as people may think. We just flowed, and the next thing we looked up and there were so many songs done or so many songs started and worked on...we just decided to keep it going. It's not reggae. It's not rap. It's different shit for each of us."

Nas and Marley -- who previously worked together on "Road to Zion" from the latter's gold-certified 2005 album "Welcome to Jamrock" -- are still putting the finishing touches on the album; Nas estimates it's about 90 percent done, Marley guesses a more conservative 75 percent, with songwriting contributions by Marley's brother Stephen and a guest feature by rapper K'Naan. They've already leaked part of one track, "As We Enter," and posted a trailer for the album online at myspace.com/distantrelatives. They plan to complete the set after their Rock The Bells commitment wraps in early August, but meanwhile they're treating audiences to "As We Enter" and other album tracks such as "Strong Will Continue" and "Africa Must Wake Up."

"I like to come out and tell the people live in person, 'Yo, the album is coming' and give them a little bit of music to start to get excited about it," says Marley, who was in the early stages of his own next album when "Distant Relatives" started. "I think it also will help with the finishing of the album because we're seeing how things work."

Nas, meanwhile, thinks the tour is helping to put the project in perspective for the duo and for the audience. "I know people are kind of like, 'What's happening? What's Nas doing? What's Damian doing? Is this really happening?' " Nas notes. "So just being out here on the road we get a good feel from people about this whole thing."

Nas and Marley say they're planning to tour more once the album is released.

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Living Colour Back With Fifth Studio Album

The cult of personality will continue on this fall, when purveyors of hard funk-rock Living Colour return with "The Chair In The Doorway" - the band's first set of new material in nearly six years. Due September 15 on Megaforce Records, the eleven song set was recorded in numerous locations over the last few years, with a majority of the sessions taking place at Sono Studios outside of Prague in the Czech Republic.

According to lead singer Corey Glover, most of the material started coming to fruition after the band was asked to re-record "Cult of Personality" for "Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock." From there, the group fleshed out songs when on tour and while Glover had time off from touring duties as Judas in "Jesus Christ Superstar." "We recorded everywhere. We even recorded during shows - ideas that came up during shows turned into songs," Glover tells Billboard.com. "A lot of that turned onto [bassist] Doug [Wimbish]. Doug made up a lot of grooves; we took a lot of grooves we had from soundchecks and gigs - and he sort of codified and made a library of that stuff."

In 1988, Living Colour made an immediate mark on the rock world with the multi-platinum debut "Vivid," an album that yielded a Grammy for "Best Hard Rock Performance" for the song "Cult of Personality." In 1990, the follow up album's titular track "Time's Up" also won in the same category. While the group slowed down considerably after 1993's "Stain," all the members have been active with various projects over the years. Guitarist Vernon Reid has worked with Mick Jagger, Tracy Chapman, and recently K'Naan. Drummer Will Calhoun has contributed his talents to albums by Mos Def, Kaki King, Herb Alpert, and Wayne Shorter along with his own jazz oriented releases. Wimbish has also branched out considerably, working in many different genres including sessions with the Rolling Stones, Depeche Mode, Placebo, Talib Kweli, BT, and Annie Lennox.

Glover says the perception over the years has been that Living Colour broke up and have entered a reunion stage of their career, but he's quick to dispel those notions. "Everyone sees the video and thinks we're a band from the eighties or we broke up or we're not together," he says. "But it's not a reunion thing. In some form or another, all of us have been playing with each other. Will and Doug have a band that I would sit in every now and then. Vernon had a band that I'd come in and do some stuff. Even in those times when we weren't together we were still playing together."

Long time fans of the band should be pleased with the new material, as "The Chair In The Doorway" retains Glover's signature, impassioned vocals, rounded out with a mix of hard rock, funk metal and blues-influenced arrangements. For Glover, the record's theme revolves around sentiments of introspection. "Because we are older, we got kids - that's the impetus for the name of the album, "The Chair In The Doorway." Sometimes it's the most ridiculous things are the most obvious. The most obvious thing to me is 'Yeah we are older. Yeah we live in a post-9/11 world.' We do have these things. But we still got to eat. I can't let the world stop me from being me." source>>>

Country Stars Remember Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson never made a country record, but his career transcended musical genres and inspired singers and musicians growing up in rural America and big cities alike. Ever since his death on June 25, members of the country music community have been sharing their feelings about the King of Pop.

Only a handful of country artists ever recorded with Jackson. Among them were Kenny Rogers and Willie Nelson, who were among the all-star cast contributing vocals to the 1986 recording of the charity project, "We Are the World," a song written by Jackson and Lionel Richie.

Nelson has not commented on the death, but Rogers talked about Jackson during a June 28 appearance on CNN's Larry King Live. Asked how he viewed Jackson artistically, Rogers told King, "First of all, you start off envying, and then you're just thankful you don't have to go through what he went through. I mean, that would have been treacherous for anybody. And so I loved his music. ... There are very few people that represent certain eras of music. And he definitely was one of them."

In 2001, Reba McEntire worked with Jackson on another charity recording, "What More Can I Give." Others performing at the all-star session included country artist Billy Gilman, along with Mariah Carey, Beyoncé, Celine Dion, Gloria Estefan, Luther Vandross and 'N Sync.

"After 'We Are the World,' Michael wanted to do another song, and so he got a lot of the artists together," McEntire told CMT Insider. "He asked me to come do a line in it. And so we met at a studio in Los Angeles. ... He produced my part of it there. He wore a shiny red satin shirt and black pants and was very nice."

McEntire first met Jackson in 2000 when she performed at London's Royal Albert Hall during a concert tribute to actress Elizabeth Taylor. As it turned out, Jackson was also staying at the same hotel chosen by McEntire and her husband and manager, Narvel Blackstock.

"There were so many fans outside that hotel, they circled it," she recalled. "And all 24 hours a day, you could hear [people yelling] 'Michael! Michael! Michael!' Really amazing. He's huge. In life and death, huge, and I do hope that everybody remembers the good times. Let's forget the bad."

In an interview with CMT Radio, Craig Morgan said the public's awareness of Jackson knew no boundaries.

"Here's a guy that is probably the most famous singer in the world," Morgan said. "Maybe one of the most famous individuals. I mean, he was truly global. You can go to Iraq and Afghanistan and go to a poppy field, and they're working out there. They have no TV, no radio -- and they know Michael Jackson. I mean, its pretty insane how famous he was."

Among the other country artists commenting on Jackson and his death:

"I am stunned. I remember meeting Michael and walking away thinking that he is one of the most unique artists of all time. I have always felt tenderness for him because of what he has had to endure. ... We have lost another legend. It hits close to home. He is my generation." -- Wynonna

"No matter what kind of music you're into, if you grew up in the '80s, and especially if you had an older sister, you couldn't help but be influenced and awed by Michael Jackson's music and talent." -- Dierks Bentley

"I loved him since I was a kid. We all sang Thriller, the album itself, 'Man in the Mirror.' I can go on and on about the songs that he wrote and produced or whatever. But I do know that I could only wish to be as great musically as that guy." -- Billy Currington

"Thriller was the first album I ever bought with my own money. Michael Jackson was truly a pioneer." -- Joe Nichols

"My parents had Elvis. ... I had Michael Jackson." -- Luke Bryan

"I am a huge Michael Jackson fan. I was just listening to his music two days ago as I was running in the park. I grew up listening to him and, in fact, I used to moonwalk down the hallway in school when I was in the sixth grade. My favorite song of his is 'Billie Jean.' I just can't believe it. We have now experienced a day like my mom explained to me the world experienced when Elvis died." -- Jimmy Wayne

"He was larger than life. He's an artist that has had an impact on every other artist, consciously or subconsciously. Musically, he helped to change the world, and his records will live on forever." -- Miranda Lambert

"I will remember Michael Jackson as the kid that overcame ... as the mesmerizing, moonwalking worldwide artist. He was forced to fill shoes that must have been crippling to walk in, but yet he found a reason and a way to dance in them like no one on earth." -- Rodney Atkins

"I was in Kansas City, getting ready for a show, and I went to take a shower hearing that Michael Jackson was rushed to the hospital. When I got out of the shower, he was pronounced dead. ... The first thing I started to think of was when I tried to moonwalk in my kitchen as a kid. We lost an amazing talent that touched so many lives. He will be missed." -- Chuck Wicks

"Michael was a once-in-a-lifetime artist that not only influenced us, but changed the whole landscape of popular music. We were shocked to hear the news of his passing, and will always remember his creative genius and far-reaching impact on all music genres and the world. He was such an inspiration to us, and his special soul will be greatly missed." -- Little Big Town

Other country artists used Twitter to express their feelings about Jackson:

"Michael Jackson will be missed by so many, and that includes Rascal Flatts. The mark he left on the world with his music is that of legend." -- Jay DeMarcus (Rascal Flatts)

"Michael Jackson was my inspiration. Love and blessings." -- Miley Cyrus source>>>

Carrie Underwood's New Album Scheduled for Nov. 3

Carrie Underwood's third album will be released on Nov. 3 on 19 Recordings/Arista Nashville. She is currently completing the project, which does not yet have a title, and a new single is expected to be released late this summer. Mark Bright returns as a producer. Underwood's previous albums include Some Hearts (2005) and Carnival Ride (2007). She has sold more than 10 million albums since winning American Idol in 2005. source>>>

George Strait Releasing New Album, Twang, on Aug. 11

George Strait will release a new album, Twang, on Aug. 11. The album's first single, "Living for the Night," was co-written by Strait, his son Bubba and veteran songwriter Dean Dillon. The three men also co-wrote "He's Got That Something Special," while the younger Strait wrote "Arkansas Dave." Bubba and George Strait also co-wrote "Out of Sight Out of Mind." Strait co-produced the album with Tony Brown in Key West, Fla. source>>>

Two Members Quit Panic At The Disco

Panic at the Disco guitarist Ryan Ross and bassist Jon Walker are leaving the band "to embark on a musical excursion of their own," they announced today.

"Though the four of us have made music together in the past, we've creatively evolved in different directions which has compromised what each of us want to personally achieve," wrote Ross and Walker in a post on the band's website. "Over the years, we have remained close and honest with each other, which helped us to realize that our goals were different and that parting ways is truly what is best for each of us. We are all excited for the future, you should be too."

The post confirmed that drummer Spencer Smith, who founded the band with Ross in 2004, and frontman Brendon Urie will continue as Panic At The Disco. It also said that all touring and album plans for Panic will continue as previously announced.

Panic at the Disco is currently scheduled to open for No Doubt on August 8 in San Diego, and has U.S. dates with Blink-182 planned throughout August. source>>>

Former Beatles, Stones Manager Allen Klein Dies

Infamous record label owner Allen Klein, who played a key role in the demise of the Beatles and also nabbed control of some of the Rolling Stones' best-known songs, died in New York on Saturday after a battle with Alzheimer's disease, a spokesman said. He was 77.

During a career spanning more than 50 years, the New Jersey-born accountant enjoyed a reputation as a savvy gangster-like figure. His ruthless business practices were reviled by many, but he also earned grudging respect for bullying labels into giving rich deals to his clients.

"Don't talk to me about ethics," he told Playboy magazine in 1971.

"Every man makes his own. It's like a war. You choose your side early and from then on, you're being shot at. The man you beat is likely to call you unethical. So what?"

It did not hurt his reputation when he was sentenced to two months in prison in 1979 for tax evasion.

He once said John Lennon hired him to protect his interest in the Beatles because he and wife Yoko Ono wanted "a real shark -- someone to keep the other sharks away."

His company, ABKCO Music & Records, is one of the biggest independent labels in an industry controlled by multinational corporations. The spokesman said it would remain family-controlled.

Two of Klein's three adult children work at the company, including son Jody who runs ABKCO. (The acronym stands for Allen and Betty Klein Co., Betty being his wife.)

Its assets include recordings by the Rolling Stones, the Animals, Herman's Hermits, Bobby Womack, the Kinks, Chubby Checker, Bobby Rydell and many others.

The publishing arm boasts more than 2,000 copyrights including compositions by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones, Cooke, Womack, Ray Davies of the Kinks and Pete Townshend of the Who.

SAM COOKE TO BEATLES

Klein broke into the music business by auditing record labels on behalf of clients including Bobby Darin and Connie Francis. When he found they were owed royalties, he took half of the difference as a fee.

His first big management client was Sam Cooke, for whom he negotiated a lucrative recording deal in 1963 that gave the soul star unprecedented control over his own catalog.

Klein, who was already representing "British Invasion" artists such as the Animals, Dave Clark Five and Herman's Hermits, set his sights on the Rolling Stones, who were laboring under an onerous deal.

He renegotiated their pact in 1965, and ended up managing the group for about five years -- taking a 20 percent fee.

The Stones eventually tired of Klein. But the only way to break free of him was to give up the rights to their master recordings and rights to such timeless tunes as "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" and "Jumpin' Jack Flash."

"In some ways Allen Klein was very much ahead of his time," Jagger said in the 1989 Stones documentary "25x5." "We lasted about three or four years with him, really, though the ramifications of that still continue to this day."

Richards was more philosophical, describing their experience with Klein as "the price of an education."

By then, Klein was focused on the ultimate prize, the Beatles. He offered his help to Lennon in early 1969, when the Fab Four's idealistic Apple Corps. label was fast draining the fractured group's coffers.

George Harrison and Ringo Starr also warmed to his pitch, but Paul McCartney was fiercely opposed. He preferred the expertise of his father-in-law, high-powered New York attorney Lee Eastman.

Amid a series of complex maneuverings that also have consequences to this day, Klein unsuccessfully tried to secure control of the Beatles' copyrights on behalf of the group. Michael Jackson ended up with the rights 16 years later.

Klein did score a rich recording deal for the Beatles, but relations within the group were past frayed, and it dissolved in 1970.

That year, Harrison "honored" Klein in a rough version of his song "Beware of Darkness" with the line "beware of ABKCO." "It might have ended up being prophetic. But at the time it was just a little joke," Harrison told Reuters in 2000.

Indeed, Harrison and Klein reunited in 1971 to put on the all-star Concert for Bangladesh shows at Madison Square Garden in New York. It took a decade for the funds to reach the refugees because of complex tax problems.

In addition to his children and wife, Klein is survived by his longtime girlfriend Iris Keitel, an ABKCO executive. His funeral will take place in New York on Tuesday. source>>>

Bob Dylan Closes Out Rothbury With Classics-Heavy Set

On the first fully sun-soaked day of this year's Rothbury Festival, Bob Dylan sent fans home "Blowin' in the Wind" with a 90-minute, 17-song show to close out the festival's Odeum main stage.

For the fourth show of his U.S. tour promoting his latest album, "Together Through Life," Dylan and his band -- who are mostly playing minor league baseball stadiums with Willie Nelson (who also played Rothbury) and John Mellencamp -- offered up just one song from the set, "Jolene," instead dipping into his iconic catalog for a wealth of favorites such as "Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat," a slinky treatment of "Tangled Up In Blue," "Highway 61 Revisited," "Ballad of a Thin Man," "Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again," "Like A Rolling Stone" and fierce "All Along The Watchtower."

Playing guitar on the night's first two songs and then switching to keyboards and/or harmonica for the rest, Dylan, sporting a dark suit and hat, also served up less well-known selections such as "Senor (Tales of Yankee Power)," "Rollin' and Tumblin'," "Po' Boy," "Nettie Moore," "'Til I Fell in Love With You" and "Thunder on the Mountain." "Blowin' in the Wind" was added at the end, after the night's set list had already been determined. source>>>

The Browns Celebrate 50th Anniversary of "The Three Bells"

The Browns celebrated the 50th anniversary of the release of their crossover hit, "The Three Bells," with performances Saturday night (July 4) at the Grand Ole Opry and the Ernest Tubb Record Shop's Midnite Jamboree. Cheering the brother and sisters trio on were more than 40 of their children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews who came to Nashville from all over the nation to witness the occasion. Since officially disbanding as a singing group in 1967, Jim Ed Brown and his sisters Maxine and Bonnie have performed together only rarely, although Jim Ed continues his career as a solo member of the Opry. Produced for RCA Records by Chet Atkins, "The Three Bells" was released on July 3, 1959 and went on to top the country chart for 10 weeks and the pop charts for four. It made the Browns international stars. source>>>

Elvis, Hank, Michael: Killed by Fame; Mortality and Tragedy Stalk Musical Stars in All Genres

Hank Williams was lucky. That's a seemingly bizarre but logical argument that posits that his legacy was guaranteed by his early death while he was still at the top of his musical and songwriting powers. He was only 29 when he expired in the back seat of his Cadillac in 1953, and his music was still strong, vibrant and getting better by the year even as his personal life spiraled downward. What country patriarch Roy Acuff cynically termed Williams' "timely death" ensured his enshrinement as a music icon who was still on top of the country music world and would always be remembered that way.

Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson were not so lucky, in terms of their legacies. Both died very untimely deaths, legacy-wise. Both were well over the hill musically and both were striving for comebacks when they died -- Presley at 42, Jackson at 50. Both deaths were shrouded by mysteries and tawdry circumstances. And, indeed, as was Hank's.

Hank, Elvis and Michael were all in poor health, all prisoners of drugs and abetted by compliant, drug-dispensing doctors and dubious associates. None of them was ever comfortable with or fully cognizant of all the costly wages of huge superstardom and all that it demands. None was ever groomed in childhood or in any career development to understand the enormous personal sacrifices they would have to make to become a public star and persona whom millions of fans believed that they personally owned.

All three responded in what can be viewed, in retrospect, in very predictable manner, given their modest upbringings and surroundings. None ever ultimately succeeded in their personal struggles. Hank withdrew into a shadow world of alcohol and drugs. His marriage crumbled, and he entered into a bizarre public wedding (to his second wife, who was named Billie Jean) as two performances for which admission was charged. His career, which in those days relied on personal appearances, declined because of his drug-related problems, and he was trying to mount a comeback when he died. But his music, based as ever on total real life experience, had become almost surreally alive even as he began to step outside of his life.

Jackson's apogee was 1982's spectacular album, Thriller, which dramatically transformed the musical and the video and the video channel landscape. Ten years later, though, the world was changed. His Dangerous album was rudely replaced at No. 1 on the Billboard chart by Nirvana's Nevermind. Jackson's era vanished, and his world would never be the same again. His personal life became a cipher, and he withdrew into a personal wonderland.

Elvis was at his peak just as he entered the Army in 1958. When he returned, his manager pressed him into a lifetime of churning out mostly worthless movies that obviously began to drain his self-confidence. The largely mediocre recordings that followed seemed to drain the life out of him. His personal life suffered badly, his marriage did not survive and he became a bloated walking drugstore.

Why don't music stars know when to retire? Why do they desperately try to cling to stardom when the voice is shot and the music has faded? Unfortunately, there are some easy answers. Many artists, because of poor choices and trust in the wrong people, are in bad financial shape, if not in bad debt. They need to try to work forever. Many are so deluded from years of listening only to "yes" people that they believe that their talents are as sharp and in as much in demand as ever. Many have such strong egos that they cannot imagine ever walking away from fame and stardom and adulation.

Many have involuntary retirement forced upon them. Tragedy strikes in the form of death from drugs or alcohol or from car wrecks or plane crashes or -- in a case such as John Lennon's -- by a deranged stalker who imagines that fame makes him part of the star's world.

I cannot think of many country music stars who have willingly walked away from stardom when they were relatively healthy and when their music was still viable. One that I know who has, and whom I admire, is Carl Smith, who had a long, successful country music career and a happy personal life, then retired to his horse farm and is still doing well. He's a fortunate exception.

I can -- and so can you -- unfortunately come up with the names of many rock and country stars who died young or while trying to stay in the saddle. In country alone, they include Patsy Cline, Keith Whitley, Waylon Jennings, Hawkshaw Hawkins and many more.

In rock the list is long: John Lennon, Buddy Holly, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain, Keith Moon, Brian Jones, Mama Cass Elliot and many others.

The lessons for these would-be Gods? Don't be mortal.

Carrie Underwood Salutes Teachers, Including Her Mom and Sisters

arrie Underwood is the first country artist to take part in a public service campaign saluting teachers. Underwood is featured with three teachers -- her two sisters, Stephanie Shelton and Shanna Means, and their mother, Carole Underwood. The "Behind Every Famous Person Is a Fabulous Teacher" campaign pairs public figures with their favorite teachers. "Teaching was something that ran in my family," the singer said. "I have always admired my mother and sisters for making a difference in the lives of so many." source>>>

Billy Currington Will Join CMA Songwriter Series in New York City

Billy Currington will take part in the CMA Songwriters Series on July 30 at Joe's Pub in New York City. The performance will be hosted by Bob DiPiero and will also feature Keith Follese and Jason Sellers. Tickets are $25. Currington has co-written several of his hit singles, including "I Got a Feeling," "Why, Why, Why" and "Walk a Little Straighter." Currington and Holly Williams perform Wednesday (July 8) in Green Bay, Wis., as part of Sugarland's tour. source>>>

Toby Keith's Golf Classic Raises $550,000 for children with cancer and their families.

Toby Keith & Friends Golf Classic raised $550,000 for children with cancer and their families. Keith hosted the charitable event on behalf of the Ally's House organization on June 12-13 in Norman, Okla. Celebrity guests included comedian Rodney Carrington, gymnast Bart Conner, NASCAR driver Bobby Hillin Jr. and University of Oklahoma football coach Bob Stoops. The organization is named for the late Allison Webb, the two-year-old daughte of Scott Webb, who was one of Keith's original band members. source>>>

Kid Rock's Badass Beer to debut at Comerica Park concerts in July

If you're lucky enough to be holding tickets to one of Kid Rock's shows in Comerica Park on July 17 and 18, consider yourself now doubly blessed.

Drink Americas Holdings, the company that teamed up with Kid Rock last fall to launch his signature beer, just announced that the brew will be finished in time to be put in kegs and sold at kiosks at Kid's Detroit concerts.

It's only fitting that the beer, created by the Romeo-native who calls himself an "American Badass" will be called American Badass Beer.

The beer is so patriotic, it will even share a birthday with the U.S.A.

The Webberville-based Michigan Brewing Company will start production on July 4th. According to Drink Americas' CEO, orders are already coming in.

Yahoo Finance, July 1: J. Patrick Kenny, CEO of Drinks Americas, said, "We are very excited about the launch date, the beer and all the work that has been put into making Kid Rock's AMERICAN BADASS BEER™ a success. Based on orders alone we are off to a very good start. We will let the beer speak for itself as people begin to taste this great product."

According to a report from the Country Music Channel earlier this year, the new beer will create 349 jobs in Michigan. source >>>

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