Music

Liz Phair addresses the romance between Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson, pondering how they might’ve felt and interacted privately in her new song “Hey Lou.” Produced by longtime collaborator Brad Wood, it’s Phair’s first new song in two years following the Wood-produced “Good Side.” “Hey Lou/Are you feeling all right?” she sings on the catchy, retro reverb-tipped hook. “What you want to do/Are we staying all night?” The video features Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson and Andy Warhol puppets. The song and video touch on debauchery and character flaws, but the...

Brooks & Dunn's "Neon Moon" is just one of the latest country songs that a Houston softball team has covered from the dugout. Their depth of country knowledge even has major artists making requests.Clay Walker asked to be next, but he may have to get in line. The group's profile on TikTok (under Varo Trujillo) is growing massive, with more than 138,000 followers and 1 million likes. The two videos showing them patiently working through Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn's 1992 hit have tallied close to 3 million views in two days.Other recent covers include "Heaven"...

A few nights ago, Tanya Tucker was listening to Apple Music at her Texas ranch. She heard songs by her favorite singers including Nina Simone, Gordon Lightfoot, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson — and then she heard herself. The song was “Mustang Ridge,” from her 2019 album While I’m Livin’, produced by Brandi Carlile and Shooter Jennings. “I thought, ‘You know what? I’m so much better now,'” says Tucker, who turned 62 in October. “I feel like I sing better, I sound better. I don’t know, I guess the stars lined...

Florida Georgia Line's creative resolve only strengthens when the duo work separately on outside projects, as the group's Tyler Hubbard explains. That's good news for fans who worry that Hubbard and his FGL foil, Brian Kelley, may one day go their separate ways as solo artists.For now, Florida Georgia Line are busy gearing up to release their fifth studio album, Life Rolls On, on Friday (Feb. 12). But in January, listeners got a sample of what Hubbard can do apart from the FGL identity when he appeared on Tim McGraw's Here on Earth bonus song "Undivided."The...

Foo Fighters partnered with Apple Music for their new Medicine at Midnight Radio series. The six-part project, which celebrates the band’s recently issued 10th LP, launched Monday with a debut installment featuring bassist Nate Mendel. In a statement about the show, frontman Dave Grohl noted, “We’re going to listen to some music. I’ll tell you some stories, play you some new songs, play you some songs that inspired me when I was young…kind of take you from the beginning all the way up to today.” Fans can listen each day...

Thomas Rhett has made a habit of teasing unreleased songs on social media, and his current single, "What's Your Country Song," will likely be included on an unannounced album on the horizon.In a new video posted to Instagram, Rhett reveals that he has "some new music coming pretty soon," adding that he's continued to work on new material during the pandemic. He then debuts an acoustic version of one new song called "Your Momma's Front Door," which he'd written just a couple weeks prior.It's a song that looks back at his life...

Morgan Wallen spent his fourth consecutive week at Number One on the Rolling Stone Top 200 Albums chart. Once again, he did not face a serious challenger: His 30-song set Dangerous earned 144,200 album-equivalent units, far more than Lil Durk’s deluxe edition of The Voice, which earned the Number Two spot with 84,400 units. Wallen’s chart success continues even as the singer lost the support of the country music industry after a video surfaced of him using a racial slur. In the following days, various music industry players condemned Wallen’s...

Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani made an unexpected (and very funny) cameo during Super Bowl LV on Sunday night (Feb. 7), during a T-Mobile commercial. The new ad envisions a substandard cell phone network as the reason for the pair's relationship.At the start of the clip, Stefani calls up her The Voice comrade Adam Levine after her divorce from fellow artist Gavin Rossdale and tells him she's ready to start making her way out into the dating world again. Levine responds with a cheerful greeting and asks what she's looking for."I'm...

The Weeknd headlined the Super Bowl LV halftime show with a career-spanning, sequin-bombed medley of his biggest hits — from songs from 2011’s House of Balloons to tracks from 2020’s After Hours. Abel Tesfaye kicked things off in a sleek convertible in front of a Vegas-themed backdrop. A choir with glowing red eyes (a nod to Daft Punk) parted to reveal the man himself — magically — in front of a glowing background in a red, sequined suit before he launched into “Starboy.” The choir shed their masks for a...

Sales and streams of Morgan Wallen's new Dangerous: The Double Album surged last week amid controversy over his use of a racist slur, which was caught on video. His album is No. 1 on the all-genre Billboard 200 chart for a fourth straight week since its release in January.The last country album to spend its first four weeks at No. 1 on this chart was Shania Twain's Up! in 2003. Per Billboard, Garth Brooks' Double Live album is the most recent from a male artist to top the Billboard 200 for four straight weeks, doing...

The Super Bowl is an enormous night for international television. Each year, more than 100 million people are estimated to watch the game, its advertisements and its halftime show. It all begins with the performance of the National Anthem, a tradition that has been carried out by some of the greatest voices in pop music history. The song isn’t easy to deliver — as Christina Aguilera discovered — but there have been some exceptional performances. Click through to see the best star-spangled renditions. Editor’s Note: While we have tried to...

Before her sophomore album debuted on Feb. 7, 1995, few people knew who Shania Twain was. But The Woman in Me, Twain's second record, changed all of that for good.Instead of hitting the "sophomore slump," Twain introduced herself to the world as a bona fide country superstar with The Woman in Me. The project produced eight singles; of those eight, all but one reached the Top 40 (and four turned into No. 1 Billboard hits).Part of Twain's success had to do with the people with whom she aligned herself: She worked with Robert...

In the four days since Morgan Wallen was captured on camera saying a racial slur, blowback from the country music industry has been sweeping. He’s been exiled from country radio, major talent agency WME dropped him as a client, and his record deal — a joint partnership between Big Loud and Republic Records — has been suspended indefinitely.  The label development, which puts Wallen’s most important business contract in limbo, is the most curious — and ambiguous. Several industry attorneys, executives, and insiders, many of whom spoke on condition of...

Forty-five years ago today (Feb. 6, 1976) was a day of celebration for Ronnie Milsap: It was on that date that the singer-songwriter was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry, when he was just 33 years old.Milsap became an Opry member just as he was beginning to dominate the charts. At the time of his induction, he was getting ready to release his eighth studio album and was climbing the charts with his 10th charting single, "(I'm a) Stand By My Woman Man," which became his sixth No. 1 hit. By...