SFIST : Watch: Joan Baez Makes Surprise, Unscheduled Appearance at Glide Holiday Jam, Belts Out John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ →

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.

Read More

Music Raw : The Country Music Hall Of Fame Publishes New Book ‘In-Law Country’ →

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.

Read More

The Irish News : Riverdance to celebrate its 30th anniversary with Belfast shows →

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.

Read More

Miami New Times : Patti Smith Reflects on Life, Art, and the Universe (by Flor Frances) →

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.

Read More

Cult Following : U2 – How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb Review (by Ewan Gleadow) →

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.

Read More

The Guardian : Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas? reissued as all-star mashup – including three generations of Bono →

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.

Read More

Blues Rock Review : Warren Haynes revisits his ‘first love’ on “Million Voices Whisper” (by Meghan Roos) →

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.

Read More

Portland Press Herald : "Africa's premier diva’ Angelique Kidjo brings her international blend of music to Portland (by Ray Routhier) →

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.

Read More

Warren Haynes, Dave Matthews Band to Host Hurricane Relief Concert (by Garret K. Woodward) →

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.

Read More