Hurryiet Daily News : Punk laureate Patti Smith granted France’s highest honor →

On May 21, the 75-year-old rock legend made good on that promise, as France’s ambassador to the United States Philippe Etienne bestowed her with the Legion d’Honneur, his country’s highest order of merit. “It’s an indescribable honor, I understand the gravity of it,” she told AFP backstage, after delivering a spirited performance alongside her daughter Jesse on piano and her long-time collaborator and guitarist Lenny Kaye.

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Far Out Magazine : U2 in Ukraine: Bono and The Edge play 'freedom' concert in Kyiv metro (by Eoghan Lyng) →

U2 songwriters Bono and The Edge performed a pastoral set in Ukraine, setting up in one of Kyiv’s subway stations, now doubling as a bomb shelter, on the invitation from Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky.

“The people in Ukraine are not just fighting for your own freedom, you are fighting for all of us who love freedom,” U2 vocalist Bono told the audience, veteran soldiers included. “We pray that you will enjoy some of that peace soon.”

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Ultimate Classic Rock : Patti Smith Performs at Night Two of Bob Dylan Center Opening (by Allison Rapp) →

Patti Smith performed last night at Cain's Ballroom in Tulsa, Okla., marking the second evening of festivities related to the opening of the Bob Dylan Center.

The Bob Dylan Center will officially open to the public on May 10, featuring hundreds of items from the singer-songwriter's vast archive, including handwritten lyric sheets, letters from fans, instruments and other various interactive installations.

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A-State News : A-STATE HOLDS SPRING COMMENCEMENT; AWARDS HONORARY DOCTORATE TO ROSANNE CASH →

JONESBORO — Arkansas State University held its 2022 spring graduation ceremony Saturday morning along with conferring an honorary doctoral degree upon one of America’s great singer/songwriters, women of letters, and historic preservationists, Rosanne Cash.

The Board of Trustees voted in March 2020 to award the honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, but the presentation was delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic. “It is with deep gratitude that I accept this honor and the beautiful acknowledgement that goes with it that I am an ancestral daughter of Arkansas,” said Cash as she addressed the graduates and the audience in Centennial Stadium.

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Rolling Stone : Carly Simon on Rock Hall Induction: ‘It Must Be the House of Pancakes I Got Into’ (by Angie Martoccio) →

Carly Simon has faced her fear of flying before. In 1971, she forced herself to board a plane to Los Angeles for her first-ever show at the Troubadour, where she opened for Cat Stevens. In 1989, she made another momentous trip there, this time to attend the Academy Awards, where “Let the River Run,” from Working Girl, won her a Best Original Song trophy. And this fall, she’ll return to L.A. for the 2022 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, where she’s finally being inducted after being eligible since 1996.

“There’s that first thought of, ‘I don’t believe it. It must be the House of Pancakes I just got into,'” says Simon. Simon spoke to RS about getting into the Hall of Fame, the upcoming film adaptation to her 2015 memoir Boys in the Trees, and the 50th anniversary of No Secrets.

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Washington Post : Angélique Kidjo’s new musical theater work comes to the Kennedy Center (by Mark Jenkins) →

Eclectic singer-songwriter Angélique Kidjo was born in 1960 on the cusp of a new era: Her homeland, now called Benin, was just two weeks away from becoming independent from France. But her ancestral village, Ouidah, remained haunted by its past. It was one of the most notorious centers for transport of enslaved people to the Americas.

That history is the inspiration for “Yemandja,” a musical theater piece conceived by Kidjo; Jean Hébrail, her husband; and Naïma Hebrail Kidjo, their daughter. Angélique Kidjo leads a cast of 10 in the central role of a Yoruban orisha (or spirit) in the production, which makes its Washington bow May 6 and 7 at the Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theater.

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France 24 : Belgian rock icon Arno dies aged 72 →

Veteran Belgian singer Arno, a rock icon known for his husky voice and unruly hair, died on Saturday from cancer at the age of 72, his agent announced. Arno, born Arnold Hintjens, was a national icon in Belgium, his gravelly voice compared to that of US singer-songwriter Tom Waits. Arno had announced in February 2020 that he was suffering from pancreatic cancer. "We'll all miss him, but he'll always be here thanks to the music that kept him going until the end," his Belgian agent Filip De Groote said in a statement.

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NME : Lucy Boynton on playing Marianne Faithfull: “She is an extraordinary woman” (by Gary Ryan) →

Don't stop her now! The 'Bohemian Rhapsody' star teases her biggest role yet.

Lucy Boynton is no stranger to musicians. She played Freddie Mercury’s former fiancée and best friend Mary Austin in Bohemian Rhapsody, getting to know Queen rock stars Brian May and Roger Taylor in the process. She holds raucous karaoke sessions with actor-singer Ben Platt, her co-star on Netflix‘s The Politician. And when she was cast as Marianne Faithfull in an upcoming biopic, the ‘60s icon gave Boynton her personal seal of approval.

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Chronogram : Suzanne Vega at Levon Helm Studios (by Peter Aaron) →

With her massive late ’80s hits “Luka” and “Tom’s Diner” and their parent albums, Suzanne Vega (1985) and Solitude Standing (1987), singer-songwriter Suzanne Vega returned folk rock to the mainstream, opening the door for up-and-coming artists like Tracy Chapman, Edie Brickell, and Ani DiFranco. Vega visits Levon Helm Studios on April 23 at 8pm.

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