Music

Willow Smith surprised her mother Jada Pinkett Smith with a reunion performance from her mom’s former metal band Wicked Wisdom. The early Mother’s Day gift arrived during Wednesday’s Red Table Talk episode. Before the performance, Willow reminisces about the influence the band had on her growing up. “When I was I wanna say about 3 or 4, I went on tour with my mom and her band,” she intimates in the clip, as footage of the band performing rolls. “Wicked Wisdom was lit. This is the music I grew up...

Carrie Underwood and the Swon Brothers are now well-known in the country music scene, but their relationship goes way back to their college days.Underwood and Zach Swon both attended Northeastern State University. They were in a show together, and they also both took a country music theater class.“The class was so small,” Swon tells Taste of Country Nights. “It was a night class, and there was probably only eight people in it.”The classmates had a standing agreement: Every week, since class was held on Tuesday night, a different person had...

This summer, Joni Mitchell will release The Reprise Albums (1968-1971), the second installment of her archive series. It contains reissues of her first four albums to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Blue — her final release on Reprise before she signed to Asylum Records. Mitchell’s Seventies albums on Asylum are so legendary that the expectations are high for the next archival package. Will there be a single box set dedicated to Court and Spark, or will it be grouped in with The Hissing of Summer Lawns? What about the severely...

There are so many factors that go into a musician’s success: hard work, talent, being in the right place in the right time. Sometimes, it’s in you blood.Walker Montgomery has a little bit of all of it: He’s related to those other Montgomerys, and his first four singles have been warmly received. He gotten a little help from his heroes, but at the end of the day, it’s Montgomery's sincere delivery on ballads and barnburners that have caught the ears of country music fans.Read on to learn a little more...

DJ Khaled, Lil Baby and Lil Durk dropped their hard-hitting “Every Chance I Get” video. The track appears on DJ Khaled’s 12th album, Khaled Khaled, which was released last Friday. In the Joseph Kahn-directed visual, the rappers perform flanked by a fiery cityscape set at night, where sparks fly, luxury cars burn and women dance. Lil Baby opens with his two verses and also holds down the hook. “They get hard when they get guns we got a hood full of sticks/Soon as they say we can’t come you know...

Back in mid-April 2021, Brantley Gilbert helmed a trail ride full of fans across Brimstone Recreation, an ATV park that boasts almost 20,000 acres of wilderness in northeast Tennessee. The event celebrated Gilbert's passion for outdoor vehicles and spending time outside, but even more importantly, it supported a good cause: All proceeds benefitted the ACM Lifting Lives COVID-19 Response Fund.Now, Gilbert's seeing the rewards of his hard work. On Tuesday (May 4), he presented a $75,000 check to ACM Lifting Lives. That money will go to supporting entertainment industry professionals who have...

Ed Ward — a respected music critic and scholar, former Rolling Stone editor, and author of several authoritative histories of the history of rock & roll — has died at the age of 72. According to fellow writer and friend Joe Nick Patoski, Ward passed away at his home in Austin on Monday and had been suffering from health issues, including diabetes. An exact cause of death was not given. His agent also confirmed his death to Rolling Stone. Born Edmund Ward on November 2, 1948, Ward was raised in...

As one of country music's biggest stars, Luke Bryan is used to reading all kinds of wild rumors about himself in tabloids — but hearing that he might be the father of Maren Morris' one-year-old son, Hayes, was one story that caught even the seasoned music industry veteran by surprise."So I'm having coffee and my mother calls me," Bryan recounts with a grin during a Tuesday morning (May 4) stop on Ellen. "And she goes, 'I'm sitting here reading some gossip thing ... and it says you fathered Maren Morris' child.'""I'm like, 'Oh my gosh....

With the entire catalogue of The Ed Sullivan Show recently added to streaming platforms, fans can watch performances that were previously only available as low-resolution bootlegs. The series’ YouTube channel has clips that include Ike & Tina Turner, Elvis Presley, the Beatles, and, as of Sunday, the Band. The November 2nd, 1969 video features a full clip of “Up On Cripple Creek” (until now, it was only available as a 30-second preview). The group was promoting the release of their self-titled LP, released two months prior. Levon Helm takes the lead...

The Voice returned with a special anniversary episode on Monday night (May 3), chronicling each contender's journey through the season so far in an episode entitled "The Road to Lives." Monday night's show also marked the 10th anniversary of the series since the premiere aired in late April of 2011, so of course, the newest episode had to revisit some of the special memories and unforgettable moments from previous seasons, too.Over the years, The Voice has delivered some truly hilarious moments of television, including a proposal (with a slapstick twist), an...

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 last week’s best songs.) Johnnyswim, “Best Thing Ever” The husband-and-wife duo of Abner Ramirez and Amanda Sudano-Ramirez deliver unrestrained joy in this hand-clap singalong written for the inspirational film A Week Away. Over finger-picked acoustic guitar and rhythmic touches (like a well-placed “hey!” or...

Midland are the latest country act to resume their tour plans following the year-plus-long COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns. The trio are hitting the road for their 2021 The Last Resort Tour this fall.Beginning on Oct. 7 in Phoenix, Ariz., and wrapping on Dec. 16 in Shreveport, La., the 26-stop run will extend throughout the U.S. Joining them on tour is Hailey Whitters, a rising singer-songwriter whose debut album The Dream -- and the subsequent deluxe version, Living the Dream -- has earned her a growing fanbase and given her the chance to collaborate with the likes...

Coldplay’s catalog will be the focus of the Mother’s Day episode of American Idol, with Chris Martin serving as a mentor to the singing competition’s remaining seven contestants. The May 9th episode also features Coldplay’s debut performance of their new single “Higher Power,” which the band will release on Friday, May 7th. The episode will feature two performances from the remaining seven American Idol hopefuls: First, each will sing something as a Mother’s Day tribute to their moms. Then, Martin will appear as guest-mentor and — after speaking to and...

Just as Luke Combs' major-label opening statement, 2017's This One's for You, launched a new star with a string of hit singles, Clint Black's 1989 debut, KIllin' Time, wasted no time shaking up the country charts.Black's May 2, 1989, release included four consecutive No. 1 singles: "A Better Man," "Killin' Time," "Nobody's Home" and "Walkin' Away." This instant success wasn't a case of catching lightning in a bottle, either. Black's next 20 singles all cracked the Top 10, and he became a genre ambassador at such cultural happenings as the 1994 Super Bowl's...