Music

Twenty-two years ago, no one could avoid “Smooth,” that unlikely combo of Carlos Santana and Rob Thomas that won multiple Grammys, sold millions, and haunted all of us at weddings. But neither man seemed to take the idea of a sequel all too seriously. “We always talked about doing something,” Thomas says. “Usually I’d get a text from Carlos at 3 in the morning with Otis Redding doing ‘Day Tripper’ and Carlos saying, ‘We’re gonna do this song!’ It was always two guys drinking too much wine and having a...

Kelly Clarkson opens up about the origins of her success, her musical influences and more on a new installment of comedian Kevin Hart's talk show, Hart to Heart, which airs on NBC's Peacock. Of course, it's impossible for Clarkson to talk about her musical beginnings without mentioning American Idol.In September 2002, she was the show's very first winner, and although her experience on the show would go on to launch a massive pop career, the singer says that her perspective on the show was much different than the ones today's contestants experience. At...

DJ and producer Squeak, a member of Chicago’s Pivot Gang alongside rapper Saba, was shot and killed in Chicago Monday, according to a representative from the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office. The 26-year-old — born Javunte Wheeler — leaves behind a devastated community of artists, friends, and family, including a daughter. While other Pivot Gang members like Saba, Joseph Chilliams, Squeak’s older brother Frsh Waters, and MFn Melo rap, Squeak served as one of Pivot Gang’s in-house producers, his moody style often characterized by dreamy, mellow soundscapes, even at their...

Luke Bryan is filling out his 2021 Farm Tour bill. On Monday (Aug. 16), the singer announced that Dylan Scott, Whitney Duncan, the Peach Pickers and DJ Rock will serve as special guests for this year's month-long trek across various small-town venues.Kicking off Sept. 9 in Marshall, Wisc., the tour — which is Bryan's 12th Farm Tour to date — will hit six stops over the course of that month.The Peach Pickers and DJ Rock are Farm Tour mainstays: One or both of the acts have opened for Bryan ever since he...

The Specials will release an album of cover songs, Protest Songs – 1924-2012, on September 24th. The release will include 12 new versions of protest songs by artists like Bob Marley, Leonard Cohen and Frank Zappa. The British group has previewed the album with a rendition of “Freedom Highway,” a song by the Staple Singers that was written for the civil rights marches from Selma to Montgomery in 1965. “The beginning of 2020 saw us all together making a reggae record before we each fell ill with COVID 19 and...

Jason Aldean told his concert crowd in New York that the coolest thing was looking out and not seeing one person wearing a mask."I've had just about enough of this s--t," he told them on Aug. 7.The concert took place one day after Live Nation announced it would allow artists the choice to implement COVID-19 safety mandates for fans. One week later, the live music promoter changed that to require that fans show proof of being vaccinated, or a negative COVID-19 test, to enter, effective Oct. 4.Aldean, who was playing the last of three...

Whether it’s coming out of Nashville, New York, L.A., or points in between, there’s no shortage of fresh tunes, especially from artists who have yet to become household names. Rolling Stone Country selects some of the best new music releases from country and Americana artists. (Check out our most recent list.) Caleb Lee Hutchinson, “Slot Machine Syndrome” American Idol season 16 runner-up Caleb Lee Hutchinson recorded his new EP Slot Machine Syndrome with Brent Cobb, and it arrives September 17th. The project’s title track shows a more grown-up, more defined...

Tim McGraw's 19-year-old daughter, Audrey, plays the lead role in the music video for his new song, "7500 OBO," flipping the story line of the song's lyrics to be not about a guy and his truck -- but rather, a girl and her truck.And while the original idea for the video was to follow a female protagonist who finds first love, then heartbreak, from behind the steering wheel of her Ford F-150, McGraw says that there were a couple of hoops to jump through before he could cast Audrey to...

Michelle Branch and her husband, Black Keys drummers Patrick Carney, are expecting their second child together. The singer-songwriter announced her pregnancy on social media on Sunday (Aug. 15), choosing an adorable baking-themed motif to break the news about her "bun in the oven.""You know you're pregnant when..." she wrote in the caption of her post, alongside a slideshow of images and video of a batch of scones she made, complete with some difficult-to-track-down English toppings that were crucial for fulfilling a pregnancy craving."Woke up to a picture my friend Sonya...

The Wu-Tang Clan staged their first concert in over a year Friday at Morrison, Colorado’s scenic Red Rocks Amphitheatre, a gig that featured the rap collective backed by the Colorado Symphony. The Denver orchestra took a break from its usual schedule of Mozart and film scores to form an unlikely pairing with the Wu-Tang Clan, accompanying the RZA, Ghostface Killah, Raekwon and company on tracks like “C.R.E.A.M.” and “Protect Ya Neck” (via Stereogum). The Colorado Symphony also had a front row seat for performances of “Method Man” and “Shimmy Shimmy...

Brandi Carlile reunited with the surviving members of Soundgarden to perform a pair of the band’s classics during her gig Saturday at George, Washington’s the Gorge. Joined by guitarist Kim Thayil, drummer Matt Cameron and bassist Ben Shepherd, an exuberant Carlile and her band delivered renditions of “Black Hole Sun” and “Searching With My Good Eye Closed,” the two songs that featured on her Record Store Day 2020 EP A Rooster Says EP that also featured the Soundgarden trio. The appearance also marked the members’ first performance together in their...

Billy Joel performed the Goo Goo Dolls’ hit “Iris” alongside singer John Rzeznick during Saturday night concert at Highmark Stadium near Buffalo, New York, the birthplace of the Goo Goo Dolls. “Welcome to my hometown,” Rzeznick told Joel before the band launched into the 1998 hit, with Joel accompanying the lengthy rendition on piano. Like Joel’s previous concert at Boston’s Fenway Park earlier this month — his first Covid-era concert — the singer used his “River of Dreams” as a vessel to pay tribute to ZZ Top’s Dusty Hill, once...

Stephen Colbert, Sara Bareilles, Idina Menzel and more band together to sing Billy Joel’s “New York State of Mind” in a new video that serves as a tribute to the Big Apple amid the Covid-19 pandemic. According to the New York Times, Joel gave permission to volunteer organization NYCNext to use his 1976 song, with documentary filmmaker Joshua Seftel crafting a video with the artists involved singing lines from the track at many New York City landmarks. “This was another moment where New York could really use a song that...

Fourteen years ago today, on Aug. 14, 2007, Luke Bryan released his debut album. I'll Stay Me was released on Capitol Records.After working in a grocery store and on his family's farm, Bryan moved to Nashville and focused on his career. By the time I'll Stay Me was released, Bryan had already found success as a songwriter, having co-written Billy Currington's "Good Directions," which shot straight to the top of the charts in 2006.Capitol Nashville"We started writing close to four years ago, and that’s when the magic started happening in my career," Bryan told Songwriter Universe in...