Music

Turnpike Troubadours, Whiskey Myers and Wilco have been tapped to headline this year's Rebels & Renegades Music Festival.Set for Oct. 6-8, the annual event will return to the Monterey County Fairgrounds in Monterey, Calif., for three days of performances from acts on the fringes of country music, Americana, folk, bluegrass and beyond.The festival's first day will include appearances from Old Crow Medicine Show, Jaime Wyatt, Morgan Wade, the War and Treaty, Flatland Cavalry, Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway and more. On Saturday, fans can enjoy sets by Charley Crockett, Paul...

Zango also marks frontman and co-founder Emmanuel "Jagari" Chanda’s first with the group since 1976 Zambian psych-rock group Witch, who helped establish the genre known as Zamrock, are returning with their first new album in 39 years. Zango will arrive on June 2 via Desert Daze Sound. It also marks frontman and co-founder Emmanuel “Jagari” Chanda’s first LP with the group since 1976. To accompany the announcement, they shared the new song “Avalanche of Love,” which features fellow Zambian artist Sampa the Great. In 2012, their music was reissued, and...

Team Clarkson contender Holly Brand went up against her teammate Katie Beth during the latest edition of Season 23’s Battle Rounds on The Voice.On Monday night (April 3), Brand, a country songstress, and Beth, a pop singer, dueled it out on a cover of Ingrid Andress’ “Lady Like,” the title track from her 2020 album of the same name.Both artists brought separate strengths to the table during their performance of the tune after Kelly Clarkson prepped them for their duet debut in rehearsals. Beth’s light and airy vocals complemented Brand’s authentic...

Christine McVie died of a stroke and cancer, a death certificate obtained by The Blast revealed Monday. McVie suffered an ischemic stroke, meaning that the blood supply to part of the brain was interrupted or reduced, preventing brain tissue from getting oxygen and nutrients, according to the Mayo Clinic. The new information about the Fleetwood Mac member’s cause of death arrives more than three months after she died at age 79 on Nov. 30. Per the death certificate, McVie had also been diagnosed with “metastatic malignancy of unknown primary origin,”...

Tanya Tucker, Patty Loveless and Bob McDill have been chosen as the Country Music Hall of Fame's class of 2023. This year's roster of inductees was unveiled during a live-streamed press event on Monday (April 3) hosted by Vince Gill.Tucker, who has been enjoying a recent career renaissance following the release of her critically acclaimed 2019 record While I'm Livin', was selected as this year's honoree in the Veterans Era category.During her acceptance speech, Tucker reflected on her first journey to Nashville as a 9-year-old, and her father telling her that she would never become a member...

Jon Anderson started Yes in 1968 with bassist Chris Squire, and the prog rock band was at the center of his life for the next four decades through numerous permutations. But when illness forced him off the road after the group’s 2004 tour, Yes decided to hire a replacement vocalist and carry on without him. Anderson has been healthy and active for well over a decade, but the band — which now features Seventies guitarist Steve Howe, Drama-era keyboardist Geoff Downes, and hired guns — refuses to take him back....

On April 3, 1948 -- 75 years ago today -- the influential radio program Louisiana Hayride premiered. The weekly Saturday night country music show was recorded live in front of an audience.Louisiana Hayride broadcast from Shreveport’s Municipal Auditorium and aired on the 50,000-watt AM radio powerhouse KWKH — meaning it could be heard in faraway places such as Chicago, Ill., and Los Angeles, Calif. The show was founded (and named) by Horace Lee Logan, who had been a DJ on the station since 1932."I wanted something that would promote country music — and then localize...

All-star tribute to southern rock greats closes out the annual awards show An all-star group of rock and country artists closed out the 2023 CMT Music Awards with a rousing tribute to the band Lynyrd Skynyrd. The Southern rock outfit’s founding guitarist Gary Rossington, who was its last original member, died in March. The CMT Awards performance was introduced by guitar hero Peter Frampton, who called Rossington a “southern rock icon” and said “he has now joined his Skynyrd bandmates in rock & roll heaven, but we will all enjoy...

The 2023 CMT Music Awards began with co-host Kelsea Ballerini offering an emotional and intensely personal acknowledgement of the March 27 school shooting in Nashville.While looking directly into the camera, Ballerini read the names of each of the three children and three adult staff members killed at the Covenant School, a private Christian school in the Green Hills area of Nashville, Tenn."Tonight's broadcast is dedicated to the ever-growing list of families, friends, survivors, witnesses and responders, whose lives continue to forever be changed by gun violence," she stated.Ballerini's voice began...

Fifty years ago, The Beatles released the Red and Blue Albums, officially titled 1962-1966 and 1967-1970. The anthologies came out on April 2, 1973, and became the foundation of the Beatles legend for the next few decades. Arguably the most influential greatest-hits albums in history. The gateway drug into the Beatles songbook for generations of fans. Their most crucial post-break-up albums, even if the Fab Four wanted nothing to do with them. But these weren’t cheesy samplers—they were double-vinyl shrines with iconic artwork, celebrating the mystique of John Lennon, Paul...

Sixty-seven years ago today (April 2, 1956) was a career-changing day for Johnny Cash: It was on that date that he recorded "I Walk the Line," for his freshman album, With His Hot and Blue Guitar."I Walk the Line," which became the third single from Cash's debut record, shot straight to No. 1 when it was released on May 1, 1956. Written by Cash and recorded at Sun Studio in Memphis, Tenn., the song's title was suggested by fellow country artist Carl Perkins. Cash wrote the lines, including "As sure as night is dark...

Proceeds from sales on Bandcamp will aid the two non-profits Clairo released a new demo called “For Now” on Bandcamp. Proceeds from the song will benefit For the Gworls, which raises funds to help Black transgender people with financial aid for rent, medical and travel financial assistance; and Everytown for Gun Safety, which seeks to prevent gun violence by advocating for evidence-based solutions. On the nimble, keys-led ballad, Claire Cottrill quietly professes her devotion to a person. The lyrics find her eschewing diving too deeply into the thoughts behind what’s...

The Cadillac Three tap into the searing, lingering pain of missing a loved one in their powerful new track "This Town Is a Ghost."In the song, frontman Jaren Johnston reflects on the loss of his father, former Grand Ole Opry drummer Jerry Ray Johnston, who died on Jan. 9, 2022, at the age of 65. As he opens up about the grief he can't outrun, Jaren's emotionally charged vocals are backed by a wave of rich, layered instrumentation that builds up to the track's stirring chorus."This town is a ghost...

One person was killed and dozens more injured when a sudden storm cell caused the roof to collapse on a venue hosting a heavy metal show headlined by Morbid Angel in Belvidere, Illinois. The incident occurred roughly 30 minutes into the 7 p.m. concert at Belvidere’s historic, century-old Apollo Theatre; while Friday night’s concert — featuring a bill of Morbid Angel, Revocation, and Skeletal Remains — at the 1,500-capacity venue was sold out, only 260 people were inside the venue at the time of the roof’s collapse. “Tonights show is...