Music

Hours after releasing their new album Delta Kream, the Black Keys appeared virtually on The Late Show to perform a pair of tracks from their covers LP. Guitarist Dan Auerbach, drummer Patrick Carney and their backing band of musicians huddled in a room to play R.L. Burnside’s “Going Down South” as well as their rendition of Junior Kimbrough’s version of the John Lee Hooker classic “Crawling Kingsnake.” Delta Kream, the Black Keys’ follow-up to 2019’s Let’s Rock, features covers of country blues tracks from Mississippi legends like Burnside, Kimbrough and...

Keifer and Shawna Thompson of award-winning country duo Thompson Square are a match made in country music heaven. She hails from Chatom, Ala., and he from Miami, Okla. They met at a singing competition after they separately moved to Nashville, but they didn't instantly become a duo; instead, it was love first, singing second."We came in town to be artists, and we met really quickly, but we didn't realize until a few years into our marriage that the best way for us to coexist was for us to be together all...

Tones And I has released a new single, “Won’t Sleep,” along with a spooky music video that is sure to cure your lingering Hocus Pocus nostalgia. Co-directed by Tones And I, Nick Zozakis and Liam Kelly, the video sees Tones and a friend stumbling upon an old haunted house in the woods. What they find inside is not an abandoned abode, but rather a lively monster mansion filled with frightening ghosts, ghouls, and one eccentric witch queen, played by Tones herself. “I loved writing this song and playing around with...

Twenty-four years ago today (May 15, 1997) was a significant day for the family of Bill Monroe: It was on that date that the bluegrass founder was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, less than one year after his death.Monroe credited his uncle, Pendleton Vandiver, with fostering his love of the fiddle and mandolin; Monroe often accompanied Vandiver when he played the fiddle at dances, showing an early proficiency and deep love of music.By the time Monroe was 18, he had formed a group called the Monroe...

Before “country music outlaw” became just another outfit for would-be badasses to try on, Johnny Cash made it a job description. But among the seven arrests he accrued during his most tumultuous years, from the late 1950s to 1967, none was quite like the time he was arrested in Starkville, Mississippi while picking flowers on May 11th, 1965. The way the Man in Black told the story of his mishap in the song “Starkville City Jail,” from his 1969 live album Johnny Cash at San Quentin, he was innocently picking...

Since May 15, 1988, Martina McBride and sound engineer John McBride have been part of an inspiring love story. And the singer's husband attributes it to divine intervention."I’m not a religious guy, but I always felt God put us together,” John McBride tells The Boot. "It’s crazy. I’d never had that feeling before. This girl, she’s incredible, and I love her more than I ever have. I told her, ‘If we could bottle what we have, we could retire, girl.’ We’re so lucky.”The "Everlasting" singer agrees, giving her own input...

Nicki Minaj’s Beam Me Up Scotty mixtape is now available for the first time on streaming services. Originally released in 2009, the new streaming version is expanded with new tracks, including “Seeing Green” featuring Drake and Lil Wayne, “Fractions,” and her remix of Skillibeng’s “Crocodile Teeth.” “Bitches act like they want action/heard they want action/bitch we ain’t duckin’ no action,” she raps on “Fractions,” her first new solo offering since she released “Yikes” in February 2020. “I’m bout to gih dem dat traction, send a distraction— then I’ma line ’em...

Rising folk singer-songwriter Joy Oladokun co-wrote her new song "Bigger Man" with Maren Morris -- and enlisted the country star to sing with her on it. The pair dropped the track on Friday morning (May 14).Joining Oladokun and Morris as co-writers on "Bigger Man" are Laura Veltz and Jimmy Robbins. Morris, Robbins and Veltz recently won Song of the Year honors at both the CMA Awards and the ACM Awards for Morris' single "The Bones.""I've paddled upstream where the river ran / I've turned sticks and stones to an olive branch...

Dutch DJ Martin Garrix has teamed up with U2’s Bono and the Edge to create the anthemic song “We Are the People,” which will be official song of the upcoming UEFA European Football Championship. “Creating the music for one of the biggest sports events in the world together with Bono and the Edge has been an incredible experience,” Garrix said in a statement. “I’m very proud of what we did together and excited to finally share it with the world!” Garrix began work on the song three years ago. Early...

Chris Stapleton's radio singles are never straight-ahead, mainstream, made-for-radio hits. He'll often blend an extra dose of soul or R&B into his country, and those stylistics are once again on full display in "You Should Probably Leave," his latest submission to country radio.Still, Stapleton wrote the song with two co-writers with serious mainstream radio cred: Chris DuBois and Ashley Gorley, the latter of whom set a record in August 2020 when he became the first songwriter ever to pen fifty No. 1 singles in the history of the Billboard Airplay and Mediabase charts (he's continued...

Trojan Records is set to reissue its legendary 1971 collection The Trojan Story — a three-LP set that helped introduce the world to artists like Jimmy Cliff, the Maytals, Desmond Dekker, and Lee “Scratch” Perry — for its 50th anniversary this June. Long out-of-print, the 50-song anthology — due out June 18th — will be reissued physically and digitally with its original tracklist intact, along with a 50-page illustrated booklet featuring liner notes for every song by Trojan’s label manager Rob Bell — who helped curate the original release —...

A video showing a pre-teen Caleb Kennedy sitting next to someone in a hood similar to those worn by Ku Klux Klan members has surfaced. As a result, the now-16-year-old American Idol contestant has exited the show.The country singer from South Carolina was a favorite heading into the Top 5 episode on Sunday (May 16). Now, only four contestants will compete, with three moving on to the finals.The Spartanburg Herald-Journal spoke with Kennedy's mother, who says the video in question was taken when Kennedy was 12 years old. She further explains that her son had just...

Dave Grohl has had a lot of memorable Rock & Roll Hall of Fame nights during the past decade. In 2013, he donned a kimono and blond wig to induct Rush and rock out with them on “2112.” The next year, Nirvana entered the Hall of Fame in their first year of eligibility and he played their music with Krist Novoselic for the first time since Kurt Cobain died in 1994. The year after that, he jammed with Joan Jett and got stoned out of his mind with her and...

Kane Brown and Kelsea Ballerini will co-host the 2021 CMT Music Awards, the network announced on Wednesday (May 12). The annual country music event is set for June 9.Brown also co-hosted the postponed 2020 CMT Music Awards ceremony in October, with Ashley McBryde and actor Sarah Hyland, but it will be Ballerini's first time helming the awards show. Producers say in a press release that the "dynamic duo reflects the show’s revitalized energy as live music returns to center stage in a night filled with incredible outdoor performances, cross-genre collaborations...