The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum has opened its newest exhibit, putting the spotlight on Rosanne Cash, a second-generation star who’s fleshed out her own identity. (...) The exhibit depicts the dialogue she engaged in with her dad, the songs, letters and tokens they exchanged back and forth. At the same time, it shows how Rosanne continually expanded her world intellectually, and moved from writing songs to short stories, essays and memoir. In her remarks, she spoke of how sifting through the mementos that she’d long stockpiled, now thoughtfully framed by museum curators, gave her new perspective on her lifelong restlessness: “So many of those attempts to break the binds, successful or not, are behind glass now, and in the vaults here.” The exhibit’s title is “Rosanne Cash: Time Is a Mirror,” and it will remain open until March 2026.

As Tibet House’s highly-anticipated 38th annual benefit concert steadily approaches, the host organization has expanded its star-studded lineup with three new additions. On March 3, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee, New York icon and longtime Tibet House advocate Patti Smith will return to perform at Carnegie Hall’s hallowed Stern Auditorium, alongside Grammy-winning Americana trailblazer Allison Russell and Emmy-winning co-star of The Bear Ebon Moss-Bachrach.

Today, JAZZ HOUSE KiDS announces international singer-songwriter, actor, and activist Angélique Kidjo as the special guest for the fundraiser, RALPH PUCCI 9th Annual Jazz Set, The Lowdown: Conversations with Christian, on March 6, 2025. Hosted by nine-time GRAMMY-winning bassist and composer Christian McBride, this intimate evening will benefit JAZZ HOUSE KiDS, the nationally acclaimed nonprofit that uses the power and legacy of jazz to give young people an artistic edge—providing them with access to world-class arts education and live performances regardless of financial constraints.

Rosanne Cash has a new The Essential Collection available today, Jan. 10, commemorating her spot in music history and her role in the development of Americana music. This definitive 40-song set spans Cash’s music catalog from 1979 up through 2021, highlighting her 14 studio albums and 10 No. 1 hits, as well as collaborations with John Leventhal, duets with Johnny Cash, Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello and Jeff Tweedy of Wilco.This release is meant to complement a new exhibit, Rosanne Cash: Time Is a Mirror, which is running now through March 2026 at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville, Tenn. Per its official description, the exhibit will explore Cash’s more than 40-year journey as an artist, songwriter and storyteller, and how she has embodied both tradition and innovation across her musical career.

On Tuesday afternoon, Bob Clearmountain was driving back from Apogee Studios in Santa Monica to his home in Pacific Palisades. The revered producer and mixer has helmed records by such rock legends as Bruce Springsteen, the Rolling Stones, Roxy Music and David Bowie, often out of his home studio, Mix This!, overlooking the Pacific Ocean. He could feel the Santa Ana winds ripping up the coast and through the canyons.

Lupe Fiasco is headed to Johns Hopkins as a professor. On Wednesday, the rapper announced that he’ll be a visiting professor at Johns Hopkins University’s Peabody Institute this year. The rap star will teach a course for their four-year hip-hop program that starts in 2025. “Let’s hit the ground running in 2025… Thrilled to share that I’ll be joining the faculty at the prestigious Johns Hopkins University’s Peabody Institute in Fall 2025 as a Distinguished Visiting Professor,” Fiasco wrote, thanking the degree program leader, musician Wendel Patrick.

Joan Baez received a gold medal for her outstanding contributions in art and public discourse, the highest honour awarded, from the Historical society on Friday, December the 13th. Baez, who rose to fame in the 60s, has become a legend in folk music and has advocated for nonviolence and human rights throughout her long and illustrious career. Baez was first introduced and awarded the medal for her work in activism and art before sitting down for a Q&A session with the Auditor of the Hist, Tom Francis. Francis asked Baez questions about the intersection between music and activism and the particular current state of the world. Of activism and social change, Baez stated, “I wouldn’t be interested in it without the music. I believe that it’s the spirit and it’s really the only thing that crosses borders”.

Her career stretches back to more than four decades ago with her first album in 1979. It was the next record, Seven Year Ache, that led to her first No. 1 first with the title track. Over the next decade, Rosanne Cash lit up the country charts with a string of No.1’s like “Blue Moon with Heartache,” Tennessee Flat Top Box,” “Runaway Train,” and others.

With her distinctive vocal style, talent for songwriting, and extensive catalogue blending country, country rock, pop, and Americana, the four-time GRAMMY winner Rosanne Cash has cemented her own place in music history. To celebrate her many contributions, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum has opened a new exhibit: Rosanne Cash: Time Is A Mirror.

There were stars a plenty at the Lighthouse Cinema in Dublin last night. Yet they were all playing second fiddle (excuse the pun) to a global star who was in Dublin for a screening of a documentary about her life, Joan Baez. Now 83, Ms Baez is as famous for her decades of political activism as she is for her music, and indeed the two became interwoven over the years. "The activism came a teeny bit earlier than the songs and the guitar and the ukulele and all of it," Ms Baez said. "All I can tell you is that when I was eight and my parents joined a quaker church, it was about learning about violence and non-violence and nation-state versus human beings and I found that all through the years I've been the happiest and felt the most reason to be here when I was doing music and activism at the same time," she added.

Rosanne Cash's journey from curiosity-driven teenage rock fandom to a Grammy and Americana Music Association award-winning and 11-time Country Music Association award-nominated musician is highlighted via the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum's newest exhibition, "Rosanne Cash: Time Is a Mirror." It runs through March 2026 and is included with museum admission.

Baez is a legendary folk musician and a lifelong activist who was at the forefront of 1960s counterculture. She marched with Martin Luther King, opposed the war in Vietnam, attended peace marches in 1970s Belfast. A recent documentary about her life, Joan Baez: I Am a Noise, tells the story of her music and activism but also deals with her struggle with anxiety and some upsetting family secrets. It’s all the more affecting given how powerfully Baez has moved through the world. The impression most fans would get from her is that she is someone who’s at peace and knows exactly what she’s doing. She laughs. “That’s true now.”

GLEN Hansard will perform a solo show at Belltable on Thursday December 19. This will be the first Limerick date since 2017 for the The Frames/The Swell Season frontman.This intimate solo show is a pre-Christmas fundraiser for Ukrainian Action in Ireland.

Angélique Kidjo’s influence on the African music scene is immeasurable. Her exceptional artistry and astute showmanship have resulted in a career that stands alongside the greats of this century — and yet, Kidjo isn’t stopping. Forty years in, album after album, the multiple Grammy winner has transformed a dazzling kaleidoscope of influences, keeping in touch with modern sensibilities while reflecting her own long-held standards. OkayAfrica recently met the Beninese French icon at Carnegie Hall in New York City, where we had a conversation that ranged across her glittering career.

In a year marked by global challenges, the United Nations Foundation’s 2024 We the Peoples Global Leadership Awards Gala in New York City illuminated the transformative power of leadership and collaboration. Held in the heart of Manhattan on November 21, the event celebrated extraordinary individuals and organizations addressing some of the world’s most pressing issues—from climate change to gender equality. This year’s honorees included National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman, Grammy-winning singer Angélique Kidjo and former New Zealand Prime Minister the Rt. Hon. Jacinda Ardern.

Wednesday night’s Glide Annual Holiday Jam featured a surprise appearance by folk legend Joan Baez at the fundraiser for Glide’s holiday meals and service programs, and she stunned with a three-song set that featured John Lennon’s “Imagine.” For many in the Bay Area, the holiday season really begins with the Glide Annual Holiday Jam, generally held a week or two before Thanksgiving, and often raising more than $2 million in a single evening for Glide’s charitable efforts.

The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum has published a new book, In-Law Country: How Emmylou Harris, Rosanne Cash and Their Circle Fashioned a New Kind of Country Music, 1968-1985, by Geoffrey Himes. The book shines a light on a musical movement of outsiders who became influential insiders in the genre. Blending biography and musical analysis, Himes explores how a group of artists, musicians and producers helped change the sounds and stories of country, melding traditional stylings with fresh innovations and perspectives. It attempts to define the previously unnamed movement by delving into the lives and seminal works of Harris, Cash, Guy Clark, Rodney Crowell, Gram Parsons, Ricky Skaggs, Clarence White, Townes Van Zandt and others.

It’s 30 years since a troupe of Irish dancers took to the stage during the interval of the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest at Dublin’s Point Theatre, in what was a watershed moment in the cultural history of Ireland.Eversince, Riverdance’s fusion of Irish and international dance and music has captured the hearts of millions worldwide. To celebrate it’s 30 year milestone, Riverdance will embark on a special anniversary world tour, which will include dates at Belfast’s SSE Arena from December17 – 20 2025, with an additional matinee on Saturday December 20. This spectacular production rejuvenates the much-loved original show with new innovative choreography and costumes and state of the art lighting, projection, motion graphics and a cast of dancers who were not even born when the show began.

Smith, often referred to as the "Godmother of Punk," is not only a musical icon but a literary powerhouse. She's a unicorn artist who blends music, poetry, and visual art seamlessly, with her works spanning decades of cultural relevance. Best known for her 1975 debut album Horses, lauded as one of the greatest rock albums, Smith's rebellious spirit and intellectual lyricism have made her a key figure in the punk movement.The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee is set to return to the Miami Book Fair this year to discuss her 2022 book, A Book of Days. It's an event she has been participating in as an author for more than a decade. Her most recent book is an intimate window into her daily life, featuring 366 photographs — one for each day of the year, including a bonus for leap year. [...] Each image is paired with a short reflection, combining the mundane with the profound, offering readers a glimpse into the mind of an artist who, in her own words, has "a permanent ticket down the rabbit hole," triggering the reader's curiosity and imagination.

Long-suffering U2 fans may be waiting for another album as interesting or relevant to the times as How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. You can wait a little longer. How to Reassemble an Atomic Bomb, the so-called shadow album to the studio release from twenty years ago is on the horizon. With the context of those additional songs, it feels almost necessary to head back into How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, to reflect on the rock makings and staggering cultural message it had at a time of wavering peace in places we expected calm from. But no, the world has always been a warzone and the rise of tech to showcase this for us has been a miserable experience – not least because it continues but also due to how frequently we see it. This was not the point U2 made with How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb but it has morphed into something new, something pertinent once again.

For 40 years, Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas? has been praised by some as a triumph of charitable fundraising and festive songwriting – and condemned by others as the most high-profile example of white saviourhood in pop. Now, to mark its latest anniversary, the song is coming back around for a fourth time, in the form of an all-star splicing of the three previous official versions. Announcing the new version, Bob Geldof, who masterminded the 1984 original, says Do They Know It’s Christmas? “tells the story not just of unbelievably great generational British talent, but still stands as a rebuke to that period in which it was first heard. The 80s proclaimed that ‘greed is good’. This song says it isn’t. It says it’s stupid.” Proceeds will benefit the Band Aid Charitable Trust, which supports health and anti-poverty initiatives across Africa.

Warren Haynes is emerging from one of the most prolific times of his life—and he is making the most of that reality. On Nov. 1, Fantasy Records is releasing the Allman Brothers Band alum’s fourth solo album Million Voices Whisper, a project that features guest performances by Derek Trucks, Lukas Nelson and Jamey Johnson. Though the album is Haynes’ first solo project since 2015’s Ashes & Dust, its arrival comes on the heels of two recent albums he released with Gov’t Mule—2021’s Heavy Load Blues and 2023’s Peace… Like a River—which he and his bandmates recorded simultaneously during the coronavirus pandemic lockdowns.

Angelique Kidjo has embraced the moniker “Africa’s premier diva,” bestowed up on her a few years ago by a journalist.But she defines the term diva a little differently than some people would. “I was doing something at a museum in Paris, and this journalist saw me interacting with all these people, hugging and talking to them, taking pictures with them, and he said to me, ‘You really are Africa’s premier diva,’ ” Kidjo said in a phone interview. “But I’m somebody who grew up knowing the value of hard work, who was taught that kindness is bulletproof. To me, being a diva means being available to people all over Africa and all over the world.”

She also fits one of the dictionary descriptions of a diva, which is simply “a famous female singer.” After 40 years of performing and recording all over the world and winning five Grammy awards, she’s certainly that. On Nov. 13, she’ll be accessible to people in Maine when she performs at the State Theatre in Portland. The show is presented by Portland Ovations.

No stranger to charitable causes in his native Asheville, North Carolina, with his annual Christmas Jam concert, Warren Haynes will once again lend a musical hand to help out his hometown following the devastation left behind by Hurricane Helene last month. Haynes will host a Nov. 24 benefit concert at Madison Square Garden in New York City to raise funds for disaster relief in both North Carolina and Florida. “I’ve been talking to everybody and it’s just crazy. It’s heartbreaking. Who could ever imagine that Western North Carolina could be affected like this?” Haynes tells Rolling Stone.