Music

UB40 saxophonist and founding member Brian Travers died Sunday, August 22nd, after a lengthy battle with cancer, according to a statement from the band. He was 62. “It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our comrade, brother, founding UB40 member and musical legend, Brian David Travers,” the band wrote on social media. “Brian passed away yesterday evening with his family by his side, after a long and heroic battle with cancer. Our thoughts are with Brian’s wife Lesley, his daughter Lisa and son Jamie. We are...

Fifty-two years ago today (Aug. 23, 1969) was an epic day for Johnny Cash: It was on that date that the singer soared to the top of the charts with his live single "A Boy Named Sue," from his At San Quentin album."A Boy Named Sue," written by Shel Silverstein, tells the story of a boy who was abandoned by his father when he was only three years old, leaving him to fight the ridicule of having a traditionally female name. Years later, he finds his father in a bar, and a...

Megan has dropped a new freestyle for her “hotties” on Twitter. The Houston rapper playfully asked if her fans on Twitter were “up” before sharing a video for “Tuned In Freestyle,” a flow that addresses her haters and pays homage to some Pokémon characters. On the track, Megan even spits bars like, “I’m the hot girl, feelin’ like Charizard/And he know he finna win if he get my card.” In its accompanying video, she can be seen dressed head-to-toe in lime green while twerking and holding a wine glass in...

While Kacey Musgraves has yet to officially confirm that she's in a relationship, a series of flirty social media exchanges between the country star and New York City-based writer Cole Schafer have had fans wondering if the two are dating.In a sweet social media post marking Musgraves' birthday on Saturday (Aug. 21), Schafer certainly makes that possibility seem awfully likely. He shared a series of black-and-white photos of himself and Musgraves together on Instagram, also offering up some words in celebration of her birthday and their relationship."...Here's to you writing me back....

Don Everly, half of one of rock’s earliest and most influential harmony groups, the Everly Brothers, died Saturday in his Nashville home at the age of 84. A rep for the singer confirmed his death to the Los Angeles Times. A cause of death was not immediately known. “Don lived by what he felt in his heart,” Everly’s family said in a statement to the Times. “Don expressed his appreciation for the ability to live his dreams … with his soulmate and wife, Adela, and sharing the music that made...

Darius Rucker says his annual Darius & Friends concert is a great night for him: He gets to play live music with his pals, raise money for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and do, in his own words, "nothing.""I do nothing," Rucker said from the Ryman Auditorium stage on Tuesday night (Aug. 17) in Nashville. "My band does everything ..."While Rucker was being a bit too modest, he did have a point: Throughout the two-and-a-half-hour show, his six-piece band — with drummer and bandleader Jeff Marino at the helm — not only...

Kacey Musgraves turned to social media on her 33rd birthday on Saturday (Aug. 21) to tease fans with new, never-before-heard music — and the lyrics appear to be inspired directly by her divorce from Ruston Kelly.Musgraves posted a series of what appear to be snippets of lyrics to a new song to her Instagram on Saturday afternoon, setting off a frenzy among fans who've already been speculating about the possibility of a new musical release from the singer-songwriter in recent days.The first clip features the words, "Let me set the scene...

Standing on a makeshift stage surrounded by shrubbery, the smell of cedar chips lacing the humid summer air, Laura Jane Grace addressed the sold-out crowd that had shambled through the industrial wasteland of the Philadelphia outskirts to see her play a pretty unconventional venue: Four Seasons Total Landscaping. “I’ve performed at big arenas, at Wembley Stadium,” she said Saturday afternoon, holding just an acoustic guitar that would fill in for her band. “I sang onstage with Cyndi Lauper, written songs with Weezer, been onstage with Joan Jett, none of that...

Charlie Daniels' single "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" earned gold status, signifying sales in excess of 500,000 units, 42 years ago today (Aug. 21, 1979). The song was the debut single from Daniels' Million Mile Reflections album.In addition to going gold, "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" also became Daniels' first No. 1 hit. The artist co-wrote the song with five other writers, as a last-minute addition to the record on which it appears."We had gone in and rehearsed, written and recorded the music for our Million Mile Reflections album, and all...

The 100 Greatest Music Videos In the latest episode of our Rolling Stone Music Now podcast, we break down Rolling Stone’s recent ranking of the greatest music videos of all time (topped by Beyoncé’s “Formation”). Our panel also looks back at how the arrival of MTV reshaped the music industry, as well as the look and feel of TV shows and movies, forever. Mankaprr Conteh, David Fear, and Rob Sheffield join host Brian Hiatt for the discussion, which touches on the madness of Guns N’ Roses’ “November Rain,” the seductive...

Kacey Musgraves' songs are some of the best-written in contemporary country music. The singer-songwriter was kicking around the fringes of the music business for years, releasing three independent albums and competing on Nashville Star in 2007, but she rocketed to national prominence with her major-label debut, Same Trailer Different Park, which bowed at No. 1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart when it was released in March of 2013.Since her debut disc, Musgraves has released two more albums: Her sophomore project, Pageant Material, hit No. 1 on the charts, and her 2018 release, Golden Hour,...

James McMurtry wants to make one thing clear: His songs are not about him. “Oh, no, there’s none of that,” the songwriter says, scoffing at the very notion. “I don’t do autobiography. My songs are made up.” McMurtry is talking about The Horses and The Hounds, his stunning new record, and his first in six years, but he may as well be discussing his entire discography. For the past three-plus decades, the Texas singer has been writing songs that, even in the relatively writerly world of Americana, stand unparalleled for...

Maggie Rose's new album, Have a Seat, is a musical outstretching of arms."I think it's a very measured way of saying, 'This is where I am; this is who I am. I occupy this seat like only I can, just the way that you can only occupy your space that way,'" Rose muses of the title of her new album, out Friday (Aug. 20). "And it's the proverbial table that I think we all need to be making more room at, for more variety in music, in our culture."Since signing her first...