Music News Net

Country Music Icon, George Jones, Dead at 81

MUSIC NEWS - Country Music Hall of Famer, Grand Ole Opry member, Kennedy Center Honoree and legend George Glenn Jones died Friday, April 26, 2013 at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. He was 81 and had been hospitalized April 18 with fever and irregular blood pressure.

Born September 12, 1931, Jones is regarded among the most important and influential singers in American popular music history. He was the singer of enduring country music hits including “She Thinks I Still Care,” “The Grand Tour,” “Walk Through This World With Me,” “Tender Years” and “He Stopped Loving Her Today,” the latter of which is often at the top of industry lists of the greatest country music singles of all time.

Glen Campbell's New SEE YOU THERE Album to Release August 6

MUSIC NEWS- Announced today, Glen Campbell will release a new album, See You There, on August 6.  Campbell, who celebrates his 77^th birthday today, offers new takes on his career-defining hits, including "Gentle On My Mind," "By The Time I Get To Phoenix," "Hey Little One," "Wichita Lineman," "Galveston," "True Grit" and "Rhinestone Cowboy."

The new collection, which will be released by Surfdog Records, was produced by Dave Darling (Brian Setzer) and Surfdog founder Dave Kaplan. It also includes "There's No Me...Without You," which Campbell wrote with Julian Raymond for 2011's acclaimed Ghost On The Canvas, "What I Wouldn't Give" and "I Wish You Were Here," which were bonus tracks from Ghost On The Canvas, and the previously unreleased "Waiting on the Comin' of my Lord," a track that was recorded during the Ghost On The Canvas sessions but never completed until now. 

SON VOLT's New "HONKY TONK" Album, Streaming Now!

 

We're quite pleased to offer up Son Volt’s new album, Honky Tonk.  It's the seventh studio release from Jay Farrar and company, the more rootsy offshoot from the Uncle Tupelo split. On Honky Tonk, though, they go further in search of their country roots.  Sort of an old-school Bakersfield record, with songs heaped in pedal steel guitar licks, all of them played by Farrar, who learned the instrument just two years ago.

“Honky tonk music is about heartache, heartbreak, the road,” the frontman says.  Honky Tonk is about those things, too. The result is an album that sounds familiar to us,  like something we wished we heard in our past. 

End of The Civil Wars? Duo Cancels Tour

MUSIC NEWS -  Grammy award-winners The Civil Wars have abruptly cancelled the remainder of their current tour, saying the decision was a result of "internal discord".  The pop-country duo of Joy Williams and John Paul White said there are "irreconcilable differences of ambition", via a statement, and the band were unable to "continue as a touring entity at this time".  Wow!  So much for the "show must go on"??!!

Earlier this year the pair cancelled part of their European tour.  Writing on social networking site Facebook on Tuesday, the duo apologized to fans for the "abrupt" cancellation as "something we deeply regret".  "Our sincere hope is to have new music for you in 2013," they added.

Zooey Deschanel to Appear on Broadway as Country Music Legend, Loretta Lynn

MUSIC NEWS -  Actor/singer/tv pitch-person Zooey Deschanel, has signed on to portray Loretta Lynn in a Broadway stage adaptation of the 1980 film "Coal Miner's Daughter." Ms Lynn announced the casting and musical at a performance at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, TN on Thursday, where she was joined onstage by Deschanel. The two then sang the country music legend's signature song, "Coal Miner's Daughter."

 "It's a long way from Butcher Holler to Broadway in New York City. I never imagined I'd see 'Coal Miner's Daughter' on a movie screen, and now I can't believe it's going to be on a stage for people to see," Lynn said in a statement. "I'm going to be right there in the front row. And I know Zooey is going to be great -- she sings and writes her own songs just like I do, and we even have the same color eyes!"

 

GOLDENVOICE Buys Eldorado Polo Club; Land Near Coachella & Stagecoach Fests Site

MUSIC NEWS- Concert promoters, Goldenvoice, a division of the music mega-corp AEG and the organizers of the annual Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival and Stagecoach Country Music Festival, today announced that the purchased the two hundred and eighty acres of land that comprise the Eldorado Polo Club, Triangle Bar Farms, Fish Creek and Ambassador Glen Holden's property, site near the location of their festivals.  

The terms of transaction were not disclosed and Paul Tollett, president of Goldenvoice, has not said what the property would be used for, but it is land all around the festival site at the Empire Polo Club.  The sale does likely assure the future of Coachella and Stagecoach in the area.

 

 

View Rare JOHNNY CASH Photos to Celebrate His 80th

MUSIC NEWS- Today, Sunday, February 26, would have been Johnny Cash's 80th birthday. A year-long celebration of the Man in Black's birthday begins this Sunday with ground-breaking on the estoration of his Dyess, Arkansas boyhood home - The Johnny Cash Boyhood Home Project.

To celebrate, Time Magazine just posted this beautiful "LightBox" of "rare and unpublished photos of the Country music icon." Enjoy. And Happy Birthday, Johnny.

See photos @ lightbox.time.com

MAVERICKS Announce Stagecoach Reunion Appearance and Tour

MUSIC NEWS - The appropriately named Mavericks, whose trademark genre-busting country won them Grammys as well as Academy of Country and Country Music Association awards in the ’90s, along with critical acclaim and legions of fans, will reunite for the first time since their 2003 break up to appear at the 2012 Stagecoach Festival to be held April 27 thru 29, 2012 in Indio, CA.

After the Stagecoach appearance, original band members Raul Malo (vocals, guitar), Robert Reynolds (bass) and Paul Deakin (drums) will embark on a summer tour of North America and Europe. Lead singer Malo recently said; “I’m excited to get back together with the band. Stagecoach is obviously the perfect way to start a tour — for the band to be reintroduced to us as well as for us to refamiliarize ourselves with the fans. It’s one of the great music festivals of the world. This time out, we’ll get to do things right and finish what we started on our own terms — not subject to the powers that be.”

Emmylou Harris Drives a "Hard Bargain" With New Album

MUSIC NEWS- Hard Bargain, the new album from music icon Emmylou Harris, has been announced for an April 26 release on Nonesuch Records. It's her follow up the 2008 released, All I Intended to Be, which received widespread acclaim. The thriteen track Hard Bargain, (11 new songs by Harris and two covers) was produced by Jay Joyce (Cage the Elephant, Patty Griffin).  A deluxe edition of the album, which has a DVD featuring six performances interspersed with interviews, will also be released. In addition, Hard Bargain can be pre-ordered at nonesuch.com with an exclusive manuscript lyric sheet of the album's opening track, "The Road," a number of which will be autographed by Harris.

New JOHNNY CASH Set Releasing in February 2011

MUSIC NEWS -  Sony's Columbia/Legacy has issued word that more JOHNNY CASH recordings are on the way.  The label will release a two CD package;  Bootlegs 2: From Memphis to Hollywood on February 22, 2011. 

The two-CD set will focus on Cash's early career; disc one covers his time in Memphis, TN and included will be a radio broadcast hosted by the Man in Black, eleven previously unreleased demos and seven outtakes from his Sun Records days.  Disc # 2 offers up his Columbia Records time from 1958 to 1969 and includes non-album singles, B-sides and outtakes.

WILLIE NELSON Busted for Pot Possession In Texas

MUSIC NEWS- Country music legend, WILLIE NELSON was arrested on marijuana possession charges in Texas boder town on Friday, November 26 after police found drugs on his tour bus. 

Six ounces of pot were found on the bus at 9am (MST) in Sierra Blanca, TX, a US Border Patrol spokesperson reported to the El Paso Timesnewspaper. An officer had searched the bus after a vehicle stop and noticed an odor of pot.  The members of the entourage, including Nelson, were arrested.  He was held briefly, then paid a $2,500 bond and released.

No word on court appearance date but he could face up to 180 in jail.  Nelson's on a brief tour break,  with his next scheduled appearance on December 2 in Abilene, TX.

More @ WillieNelson.com

JOHNNY CASH Auction Announced in L.A.

MUSIC NEWS- Beverly Hills, CA auction house, Julien's Auctions has announced an auction of property from the life and career of Johnny Cash.  The auction will include items from Cash's military career, his life and partnership with June Carter Cash, into his time as a part of the Highwaymen with his friends through the end of his career. A portion (tbd) of the sale proceeds will benefit MusiCares.

Highlighted in the upcoming sale are lyrics personally writen by Cash. Lyrics include Cash's take on traditional songs, an alternate version of "Don't Take Your Guns To Town," (Est. $2,000/4,000) and many songs that he never got to record.

Also in the lot are three guitars from different periods in Cash's career;  a vintage 1951 Martin guitar used by Cash in studio that later became the designated tour bus guitar (Est. $20,000/ 30,000). Second guitar is a Grammer Johnny Cash model used extensively by Cash on The Johnny Cash Show and later inscribed by Cash, "To Richard,/ Play It Pretty/Johnny Cash"  ($30,000/40,000). Third up is a guitar, also a Martin, used by Cash in the 1980s and gifted to his friend Bill Miller, featured on the cover of his live album The Survivors. It was inscribed by Cash with the first four lines of "I Walk the Line." (Est. $20,000/30,000).

 

Lady Antebellum Borrowed from Alan Parsons Project ???

MUSIC NEWS - Not one to shy away from controversy, we have to bring this to your attention... It seems that questions have risen about the origins of Lady Antebellum's 'Need You Now' tune and the similarities to a 1982 Alan Parsons Project hit.

The NashvilleScene.com reports that they received a letter from a Lisa Marie Parsons who identified herself as the Executive Personal Assistant to the noted musician, producer, recording star Alan Parsons, saying  that many of Mr Parson's fans have been complaining that Lady Antebellum's country and country pop hit Need You Now sounds quite similar to the Alan Parsons Project's Eye in the Sky tune.

STAGECOACH 2011 Fest Line-up; Ticket News

MUSIC NEWS - 2011’s STAGECOACH music fest, booked for for Saturday, April 30 and Sunday, May 1, 2011 will mark the annual music festival’s fifth consecutive year, it will also feature the return of some of country music’s top charting artists to the beautiful Empire Polo Club in Indio, CA.  Kenny Chesney, Rascal Flatts and Carrie Underwood  head a musical line-up that celebrates more than five decades of country and will include performances from Darius Rucker, Loretta Lynn, Josh Turner, Leon Russell, Easton Corbin, Gatlin Brothers, Jack Ingram, Mel Tillis, Rodney Crowell, Wanda Jackson, Rhonda Vincent and many more (the full line-up is below).

Tickets for STAGECOACH…CALIFORNIA’S COUNTRY MUSIC FESTIVAL  will go on sale Friday, November 5 at 10:00 AM at all Ticketmaster locations and Stagecoachfestival.com.   

STAGECOACH Country Music Festival Announced for 2011

MUSIC NEWS- Organizers of the annual Stagecoach music fest have confirmed Saturday, April 30 and Sunday, May 1, 2011 as the dates for next year’s STAGECOACH: CALIFORNIA'S COUNTRY MUSIC FESTIVAL.  It'll be the fifth annual music event; which has every year featured an impressive array of artists from the genres of mainstream country, bluegrass, folk, roots rock, country rock and alt-country, and will again take place at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, CA.