Filed under: News , Exclusive , The Hit List SGranitz, WireImage Anyone with " Grammy -winning artist" in their bio is bound to have an edge. The music industry's ultimate award, after all, affords prestige and opens doors. Yet, since the industry began handing out the golden gramophone trophies in 1959, artists have kept them in a variety of places. While Alicia Keys recently told reporters she kept her [...]

from Winterlights: A Season in Poems and Quilts by Anna Grossnickle Hines It's the first day of Hanukkah, aka Chanukah, and though the candles have long since burned down, as in past years, my holiday playlist didn't even last as long as the light it was designed to accompany. Thanks to a small selection of new covers, however, this year was closer than ever, giving me hope that one day soon we'll have more than a single set to offer over these eight nights. [...]

My Morning Jacket, John Hiatt, Gregg Allman, Mavis Staples, John Mayer and a cavalcade of musicians will celebrate the life and times of the late, great Levon Helm at an all-star tribute concert. "Love for Levon" takes place on October 3rd at the Izod Center in East Rutherford, NJ, and will also feature performances from Dierks Bentley, Ray LaMontagne, Patty Griffin, Bruce Hornsby, Joe Walsh, Eric Church, Warren Haynes, Lucinda Williams, Robert Randolph, Marc Cohn, and the Levon Helm Band. More "legendary surprise guests" will be announced in the coming days. "We are deeply moved [...]
Last month we told you about a star-studded tribute to The Rolling Stones which will take place at NYC's Carnegie Hall on March 13. Today, the organizers of the Michael Dorf-produced event have announced another batch of artists who will perform at the Hot Rocks 1964-1971 concert . HT faves Jackie Greene, Taj Mahal and TV on the Radio have been added to the bill as well as Marc Cohn, Peaches and Jovanotti. Each act will perform a Stones cover from the 1964-1971 period. These acts join the list [...]

country vocal quartet little big town has paved a very successful career with their insane four part harmonies and alternating lead vocals. they also have a deep appreciation of popular music and have created a web series of live performances called scattered, smothered and covered featuring some of their favorite current songs. here are a few examples of their wonderfulness! little big town - born this way (lady gaga cover) little big town - price tag (jessie j cover) sugarland [...]
Superbowl Football Americana Oldies After watching this, go ask Annabelle why she doesn’t like pugs. I hope that you all had a glorious day of wings and queso. I think I went in a little too hard after eating all that 6-Layer. In celebration of a team whose city is smaller than South Bend winning the superbowl, here’s a good old fashioned taste of Americana. Gems that basically define what it is to be from Amurica. Note the R. Kelly inclusion. Marc Cohn - Walkin’ In Memphis [...]

It's been a long, busy weekend, and it'll be a long night, too, with end-of-term grading due in the morning and a thick stack of final exams to go through first. I've got a great Covered in Kidfolk post half-drafted, complete with a contest give-away for Putumayo Kids' new acoustic lullaby CD, but it will have to wait; for now, here's a taste of Valentine's past, originally posted in 2008, to remind you to start making plans for next Monday. I spent all [...]

It's the first night of Hanukkah, and though the candles have long since burned down, as in past years, my holiday playlist didn't even last as long as the light it was designed to accompany. This year was closer than ever, though, giving me hope that one day soon we'll have more than a single set to offer over these eight nights. In the meantime, here's a rehashed set: our 2008 post rewritten, some older tunes from years past, and a pair of new delights from the mailbox. May [...]

by teepoo This week's playlist is songs about walking . You're free to submit me concepts for future playlists and I'd love to hear from you! You can be creative or as boring as you like because I love challenges. Here's this week's songs about walking in various places and walks of life. 1. Sam Amidon- Walking On Sunshine 2. Margo- Walking in LA 3. Empire of the Sun- Walking On [...]

Two weeks ago, I stayed overnight in the home of Bob Weiser , an old folkfest friend, community organizer, and long-time community radio mainstay with regular shows in two Massachusetts communities. As both a music publisher / distributer of sorts and an old radiohand myself - see below for more on that - it was inevitable that the conversation turn to radio, and we stayed up late chatting about the changes which digitalization has brought to both radio signal distribution and playlist management, not to mention the potential transformation of form, function, and fandom which the streamable [...]

Got some great albums coming out to rock the rest of the summer ... let's jump right in and take a listen: Street Sweeper Social Club is a rap-rock outfit led by guitarist Tom Morello and vocalist Boots Riley, created in the mold of Morello's angry Rage Against The Machine. SSSC blew us away with a live set at SXSW this spring, and now they have The Ghetto Blaster EP , their second album which is really an EP (but you knew that already). [...]
Download these beauties today... Stevie Ray Vaughan - Bettye LaVette - Ronnie Earl - Music - Arts and Entertainment

The rain finally poured down on the fourth day (July 9th) of Ottawa Bluesfest. At least it wasn't as bad from the past three days where it was stinking hot. The weather made it cooler and easiser to enjoy the music. There was a interesting lineup on the Friday night. The acts that I saw were: The Soirée The Planet Smashers John Butler Trio Gord Downie and the Country of Miracles [...]

Summer is officially here and while there are a few big and/or interesting releases coming in July (Audrey Niffenegger, Chuck Klosterman, Gary Shteyngart and Carl Hiaasen ), there's also a lot of fluff arriving on the bookshelves this month. Here’s a list of July 2010 B&N and Borders events that I thought were interesting for one reason or another: B&N July Events (NYC) 07/06/10 Audrey Niffenegger: Her Fearful Symmetry (82nd & Bwy) 07/06/10 Venus Williams: Come to Win (5th Ave 12:30 PM) 07/06/10 Alex McCord, Caroline Manzo, Teresa [...]

I hadn't intended to review Mountain Stage's July 18th FestivALL concert at The Clay Center here since I covered it for another publication, but Kate Miller-Heidke's performance was too magnificent to keep to myself and I can share more details here since Muruch has no word count. Kate was not only of the more interesting acts to have appeared on Mountain Stage, but she also possessed one of the loveliest voices I've ever had the pleasure to hear at the venue. Considering the avante-pop theatrics of her latest release Curiouser (click for my [...]

Aimee Mann, Ben Gibbard and Annie Clark at the Summerstage 2010 Gala Photo : Jon Klemm On Tuesday of last week ( June 8 ), the 25th Anniversary season of Summerstage officially kicked off with an all-star benefit featuring the music of Simon and Garfunkel . A few performances stood out. Marc Cohn and Jonatha Brooke presided over a “Sound of Silence,” redone as blue-eyed soul with Memphis horns. Dar Williams and Stephen Kellogg sang “We’ve Got a Groovy Thing Goin’ [...]

Just got wind of this new deal* on the SummerStage 25th Anniversary Gala show: When you purchase 4 General Admission tickets to the June 8 SummerStage 25th Anniversary Gala, you get four no-waiting, guaranteed entry admission passes good for any free Central Park SummerStage show, including The xx on August 8, St. Vincent on August 1, The Specials on August 22, Chrisette Michele on August 21 or Public Enemy on August 15 More info (including the artist lineup and song choices) on the SummerStage Gala after after [...]
Marc Cohn was only twelve years old in 1970 but for the Grammy -winning songwriter of the big hit "Walking in Memphis" that particular year has significant meaning. For his new album, Listening Booth: 1970 , the storyteller becomes interpretive singer as he dives back into his childhood musical influences and surfaces with new versions of songs from what Cohn says "was one of the greatest years in music." He adds: "...Not only because it was still the golden age of the single but it was also one of the most pivotal [...]

Welcome to the third installment of Ick's Radio Daze . This time, we have a report from our first remote correspondent, Kathy B., who lives in the great state of Colorado. Kathy will be checking out a few of the local stations in the greater Denver area. If there's anyone else out there who feels like geeking out on their local radio market and writing about it for this series, feel free to to shoot me an email . The more the merrier. It'd be especially cool to go international, and be able to explore radio throughout the [...]
"...Touched down in the land of the Delta Blues, in the middle of the pouring rain. W.C. Handy, won't you look down over me?" - Marc Cohn's 1991 song Walking in Memphis