Music

“I feel like you, Joe Biden and Dua Lipa are the only people that had a good 2020,” Jimmy Kimmel joked to John Mulaney last month. Kylie Minogue agreed, tapping her dance-pop peer for a “Studio 2054” remix of “Real Groove,” the third single off her recently release album Disco. The original song was a perfect slice of dancefloor disco-pop, blending a throbbing funk bassline with Minogue’s Europop-inspired vocal melodies. The remix speeds up the original, adds some more layered instrumentation and features Lipa layering her vocals over Minogue’s sultry coo....

So, How Was Your 2020? is a series in which our favorite entertainers answer our questionnaire about the music, culture and memorable moments that shaped their year. We’ll be rolling these pieces out throughout December. 2020 found the Old 97’s making a new album under conditions that encapsulated this disastrous year: Recording in Nashville amid a devastating tornado and on the precipice of a deadly pandemic. The resulting LP was Twelfth, released this summer, but frontman Rhett Miller still found time to do things in quarantine, like hosting his Wheels Off...

Rascal Flatts singer Gary LeVox gave a radio interview on Wednesday morning (Dec. 30) to clarify his position about a controversial post he made to social media after the Nashville bombing on Christmas morning (Dec. 25), explaining that he's simply asking questions about what might have taken place.Investigators say that 63-year-old Anthony Quinn Warner packed his RV with explosives, parked it near Second Avenue North and Commerce Street in downtown Nashville in the early morning hours and blew it up, causing tremendous damage to a historic section of Music City.Bizarre...

Wedding bells are in the air for a Runaway June bandmate for the second time in a month. Jennifer Wayne shared on Wednesday (Dec. 30) that she's engaged to country singer-songwriter Austin Moody.Moody popped the question on Monday afternoon (Dec. 28) outside of Nashville's Ocean Way Recording Studios, according to People, who also shares a series of photos of the special moment.Wayne's happy news comes just a couple of weeks after her fellow trio member Naomi Cooke also got engaged, to Boys Like Girls singer Martin Johnson. Johnson co-wrote "Christmas on the...

When Jan. 1 rolls around, people all over the world make their resolutions for the new year, but Dolly Parton isn't one of them. The country music hitmaker says she learned a long time ago that the motivational tool doesn't work for her."It's always the same thing: I'm gonna exercise more this year, I'm gonna eat better," Parton shared in 2014. "And that lasts for a couple of weeks, and then I'm right back where I started. So I don't make 'em 'cause I always break 'em."That's not to say...

So, How Was Your 2020? is a series in which our favorite entertainers answer our questionnaire about the music, culture and memorable moments that shaped their year. We’ll be rolling these pieces out throughout December. Dierks Bentley and his family were vacationing in Colorado when the pandemic began and Tennessee schools went remote, so they spent several weeks after that getting outdoors on mountain trails and riding their bikes. In the midst of it, Bentley was helping promote the debut album by Hot Country Knights, a faux Nineties country group in...

Carrie Underwood took a step out of her comfort zone earlier in December, when she sang in Spanish for the first time ever on "Tears of Gold," her duet with Spanish star David Bisbal.Not only did the pop collaboration give Underwood a chance to broaden her horizons, but it also reinvigorated her interest in learning a second language. She shared during a recent press event that she had to dust off her high school Spanish skills to record the song."I did, and am continuing to do so," she explains. "I...

In a move that’s sure to reignite thousands of millennials’ scorn for their oblivious, insensitive middle school crushes, Aly and AJ have released an explicit version of their 2007 hit “Potential Breakup Song.” The new version is nearly identical to the previous one, but the infamous “my stupid birthday” line in the song’s first verse has been replaced with “my fucking birthday,” and instead of wanting their stuff back, the two sisters want their “shit back.” The duo is riding their hot hand as “Potential Breakup Song” resurfaced on TikTok...

Fifty-one years ago today, on Dec. 29, 1969, Merle Haggard's Okie From Muskogee album was released. The record, along with the title track, soared to the top of the charts."Okie From Muskogee" -- with lines like, "And I'm proud to be an Okie from Muskogee / A place where even squares can have a ball / We still wave Old Glory down at the courthouse / And white lightnin''s still the biggest thrill of all" -- was considered by many to be a statement against the political condition of the country...

Dave Grohl on Monday expressed a “huge, heartfelt thank you” to supporters of the Save Our Stages Act, which provides approximately $10 billion for independent concert venues amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The funding is part of a long-delayed economic stimulus bill that President Trump signed into law on Sunday. “The preservation of America’s smaller, independent venues is not only crucial to the millions of whose lives are bettered by experiencing their favorite artists in the flesh, but to the future of music itself, as it gives the next generation of...

Keith Urban and his wife, actress Nicole Kidman, are in an unmistakable Christmas groove in a video of themselves singing an adorable original holiday song.The clip emerged on Christmas Eve (Dec. 24), just in time to give fans of both entertainers a love-filled Yuletide greeting. In the video, the country singer behind this year's The Speed of Now Part 1 sits with his partner in front of a festive outdoor backdrop, cradling an acoustic guitar and belting out an intimate version of his 2019 number "I'll Be Your Santa Tonight." Only this time...

Grimes will be releasing a rave edition of her latest album Miss Anthropocene on New Year’s Day, the experimental pop singer announced on Monday. The new version will feature remixes from DJs including REZZ, ANNA, and Richie Hawtin, along with rapper Channel Tres and several others. Except for tracks “4ÆM” and “Before the Fever” every song from the original release will be remixed on the new version. Grimes previously released two of the rave edition’s new remixes, the ANNA-remixed “So Heavy I Fell Through the Earth” and Hawtin-remixed “Darkseid.” Given the album’s...

Fifty years ago today, on Dec. 26, 1970, Lynn Anderson's single "(I Never Promised You a) Rose Garden" became her first No. 1 hit. The song was the title track of her 10th studio album."Rose Garden" was written by Joe South and included on his 1969 album, Instrospect. Freddy Weller, Billy Joe Royal and Dobie Gray each recorded the song as well, but it wasn't until Anderson's version that it became a chart-topping single.“It was popular because it touched on emotions,” Anderson said. “It was perfectly timed. It was out just as...

Tony Rice, the bluegrass guitarist and vocalist known for his elegant, innovative flatpicking, died Friday at his home in Reidsville, North Carolina. He was 69. Rice’s death was confirmed by the International Bluegrass Music Association, which inducted him into its Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2013. Born David Anthony Rice in Virginia on June 8th, 1951, Rice learned about bluegrass from his father, an amateur musician who raised his family in Los Angeles, and Tony’s older brother Larry Rice, who played mandolin. When Tony was 20, he joined his...

Dolly Parton had already been a country star for a number of years by the time she released her 16th studio album, Here You Come Again, but the crossover success of the record launched the second phase of her career, in pop music, and earned the superstar her first gold album on Dec. 27, 1977 -- 43 years ago today.Parton first came to widespread national recognition on The Porter Wagoner Show in 1967, and she scored a string of hit singles as duets with Wagoner, as well as a number of successful solo...

After years on the real estate market — at continually reduced prices — Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch has finally been sold. The Santa Barbara County, California property, which has been owned by a venture between the Michael Jackson estate and a real estate investment firm since the singer’s death in 2009, recently sold for $22 million to businessman Ron Burkle; the billionaire previously served as Jackson’s advisor on business matters in the mid-2000s, when the singer struggled with debt due to his lavish lifestyle, the Wall Street Journal reports. Jackson...

Bluegrass great Tony Rice died on Christmas Day (Dec. 25). The lauded singer, songwriter and guitarist was 69 years old.According to a statement from the International Bluegrass Music Association, released on Saturday (Dec. 26), Rice was at home in Reidsville, N.C., when he died. A cause of death was not given, though a Facebook post from Ricky Skaggs on behalf of Rice's family reports that his death occurred "sometime during Christmas morning while making his coffee.""Not only was Tony a brilliant guitar player but he was also one of the...

A day before Christmas, Phish’s Trey Anastasio and Page McConnell gifted fans with their surprise “December” performance, which the guitarist and keyboardist recently recorded live at the band’s Barn studio in Vermont. The six-song, 45-minute gig featured six Phish tracks: Acoustic renditions of “If I Could,” “Mountains in the Mist,” “Wingsuit,” and “Joy,” a stripped-down electric take on Big Boat’s “Miss You” and — to conclude the surprise performance — a 15-minute rendition of fan favorite “The Squirming Coil.” In addition to streaming services, “December” is available to purchase through...

Vince Gill had just begun a career-making hot streak when he released "Don't Let Our Love Start Slippin' Away" as the second single from his sixth studio album, I Still Believe in You. The song became his second straight No. 1 hit on Dec. 26, 1992 -- 28 years ago today.Several of the songs on I Still Believe in You appear to have been inspired by the marital turbulence that Gill was experiencing with his first wife, Sweethearts of the Rodeo singer Janis Oliver. The album's title song -- with which scored...

Gorillaz have closed out their series of Song Machine Season One: Strange Timez videos with “The Lost Chord,” inspired by the technicolor monster movies of decades past. The latest visual picks up where “The Valley of the Pagans” video left off: With the animated Gorillaz members washed up on the shores of Plastic Beach, a nod to the band’s 2010 album. After coming to, the group encounter a giant, laser-eyed Kraken-like creature played by the song’s featured guest, British singer Leee John, who destroys the island before receding back into...

Fifty-six years ago today (Dec. 24, 1964) was an unforgettable day for Glen Campbell: It was on that date that the country crooner made his debut appearance with the Beach Boys, filling in for an ailing Brian Wilson at the Sam Houston Coliseum in Houston, Texas.Both Campbell and the Beach Boys were in the early days of their success when Campbell hit the road with the band. Campbell had released his third album, The Astounding 12-String Guitar of Glen Campbell, earlier that year, but he was still four years away...

Last Christmas, Kanye West gifted fans with the gospel-inspired Jesus Is Born, his ninth album and first with the Sunday Service Choir. On Friday evening, the rapper-producer turned the holiday into a new tradition, releasing a five-song EP titled Emmanuel “inspired by ancient and Latin music.” Billed in a statement accompanying the surprise release as a “celebration of the miracle of the birth of Jesus Christ,” the 12-minute EP, executive produced and composed by West, include the Christian prayer “Requiem Aeternam” (“Eternal Rest”) and the choral work “O Magnum Mysterium.” The Sunday Service...

Twenty-one years ago today (Dec. 25, 1999) was a Christmas to remember for Faith Hill: It was on that date that the singer landed at the top of the country charts with her hit single, "Breathe;" the song stayed in the No. 1 spot for an astonishing six weeks."Breathe," written by Stephanie Bentley and Holly Lamar, was the lead-off single from and title track of Hill's fourth studio album. With sexy lines such as, "I can feel you breathe / It's washing over me / Suddenly I'm melting into you / There's...

So, How Was Your 2020? is a series in which our favorite entertainers answer our questionnaire about the music, culture and memorable moments that shaped their year. We’ll be rolling these pieces out throughout December. Brent Cobb spent the year making what he calls “country music for grown folks,” which is to say, country songs that are more about full hearts and open minds than empty beer cans and truck beds. In October, he released the album Keep ‘Em on They Toes, recorded with producer Brad Cook in Durham, North Carolina,...