George Strait and Reba McEntire hit the road
Country music lovers, here's the ticket for 2010: Chart-topping superstars George Strait and Reba McEntire will play to arena crowds around the country from late January through April. (Click here for tour dates and venues.) Strait’s recent release TWANG debuted at No. 1 on Billboard's 200 and the Top Country Albums charts. Reba’s new album, Keep On Loving You, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums Chart – her first solo studio album to do so.
Photo by Donald Lesko
October 30, 2009
'Kiss' drummer Criss had breast cancer
Peter Criss, the Catman of the rock band Kiss, is a breast cancer survivor. He came out, if you will, earlier this month because it seemed right to do so during national Breast Cancer Awareness month, but he didn't do so until, as he puts it: "I prayed on it." I talked with him last week and found him to be a man of faith who really wants to help men who might not otherwise pay attention to their health. "I'm not a holy roller, but I have a whole way of being spiritual and, yes, I do stop by church once a week... Through all the craziness in my life, I would always go and pray," says Criss, bottom left in photo. So he asked God whether he should announce that he's had breast cancer and he got a yes. His aim, Criss says, is to let men know that they can get breast cancer, too, (about 1% of cases) and that early detection is the key to living. "Don't think it will go away." Criss was diagnosed in 2008 after he discovered a lump in his left breast, which was removed surgically. He didn't need chemo or other treatment because it was found early and he's grateful for that. Criss is working on a solo album and a memoir and he says "every day to me is a holiday because I got to go back to my work."
October 16, 2009
Linkin Park's Chester Bennington branches out with Dead By Sunrise
From classic rockers such as Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton to Jack White and Dave Grohl today, musicians have long had side projects in addition to their usual bands. The latest to moonlight with another group is Linkin Park singer Chester Bennington, who teamed with members of Orgy and Julien-K to form Dead By Sunrise. The new band issued its debut album, Out of Ashes, this week, and our Brian Truitt says the songs — some of which deal with Bennington’s own struggles with divorce as well as drug and alcohol addiction — are darker, more dynamic and less hip-hop-influenced than Linkin Park’s. Brian talked with Bennington, 33, right after a sound check on Wednesday, so read below for their conversation and check out a music video for the new single, Crawl Back In.
Photos courtesy of Warner Bros. Records
October 15, 2009
'Twilight: New Moon' soundtrack gets release tomorrow
Not only do Twilight fans love their vampire romances, they also like their tunes. Due to demand, the soundtrack for The Twilight Saga: New Moon will be released tomorrow online and in stores, four days prior to its originally scheduled date. The first single from the album, Death Cab for Cutie’s Meet Me on the Equinox, is already a hit on rock radio (check out the music video below), and the record also features tracks by the Killers, Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, Muse (one of Twilight author Stephenie Meyer’s faves) and Grizzly Bear. For those needing a test run before buying the album, MySpace Music is streaming the soundtrack in its entirety though the end of today.
Photo courtesy of Atlantic Records
October 14, 2009
'NCIS' soundtrack coming
NCIS, the most-watched scripted show on TV, will release a second volume of its official soundtrack on Nov. 3. I'm an NCIS fan but somehow I missed that first soundtrack. Anyway, the new one has new and unreleased tracks from big names like Norah Jones, Sheryl Crow and Bob Dylan. The latter contributes a song, California, from a never-before-released session. (I just heard an NPR segment on Dylan this morning in which they talked about his new Christmas album and played him delivering a raspy carol. But I digress.) Michael Weatherly (left) — who plays Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo on NCIS— also is featured on the coming soundtrack. How did I not know that DiNozzo could sing? If you have an NCIS fan on your holiday list, this could be just the thing.
Photo by Sonja Flemming/CBS
October 13, 2009
No vacation from celebrities
I'm back to work after a trip to the West but no matter how far any of us go anymore we can't escape celebrity news, right? The morning I departed was the morning that David Letterman's sex-with-staffers scandal was the talk of the airport; I returned the day Michael Jackson's new single This Is It — officially released just yesterday — was leaking. (You can listen to it here.) The documentary This Is It will hit theaters on Oct. 28. Check out the trailer on the movie site and I bet you'll want to see it regardless of your opinion of Jackson, who died in June.
Speaking of documentaries, mark your calendars for Nov. 2. That's when Poliwood — Barry Levinson's look at the connection between politics and Hollywood — will air on Showtime. I wrote about it last spring when I interviewed, Tim Daly, and it was in limited release. Tim's not the only celebrity featured in this movie, much of which was shot during the 2008 presidential campaign. Quite an array of others are too, including Annette Bening, Sting, Susan Sarandon, Elvis Costello, Kerry Washington, Angela Bassett, Will.i.am and more.
Because I was in Colorado last week I got caught up in baseball's National League Division playoffs and I was sorry to see the fun of rooting for the Rockies ending last night. It's good to be home
September 21, 2009
The Proclaimers bring their hit Scottish tunes back to the U.S.
Photos by Colin Bell
September 11, 2009
Meat Loaf is in Hallmark Channel movie Saturday
Meat Loaf would probably take over the stage if he ever won an Emmy. He loves acting and I was surprised to learn that he considers himself an actor first, a musician second. He's done a fair amount of acting and will be in an episode of Monk Sept. 25. "I'm so far out on a limb in that; really over the top. I'm scared to see it," he says. And yet, "I want a series so bad," he confesses. Why? "I just do. A series is like theater, the only difference is you aren't doing the same scene every night."
A few more things I learned about Meat:
• He's working on a new album, which he calls his best one yet, though at times the stress of it feels "like a giant tsunami" is coming down on him.
• He's aiming for a spring release and a long tour after the new album is out.
• He's an Adam Lambert groupie and admits that he voted for Lambert 100 times when Lambert was on American Idol. He also goes for Lady Gaga and Katy Perry, saying they are the kind of acts that "are good for music."
• He's a bit of a yo-yo dieter, having lost 100 pounds some 15 years ago. Most recently, he's been using Nutrisystem on and off but when the album is done he wants to get rid of 30 pounds "again."
September 08, 2009
It was a Moody Blues weekend in St. Louis
I was in college when I first fell for The Moody Blues. Saturday night I took my college-age daughter to the band's final summer concert in St. Louis. Overall, the crowd was as middle aged as the band, but that didn't stop everyone, including both of us, from rockin' out. It was the end of a seven-week U.S. tour and the Moody Blues, left, were playing to a sold-out audience in the city's Fox Theatre, a magnificent building that was originally constructed in 1929 and in the early 80s restored down to every art glass panel in its 2,000-pound chandelier. Band members Justin Hayward, John Lodge and Graeme Edge, all still in good voice, gave us a psychedelic video and light show — perhaps to evoke old memories? — as well as a photo show of the band through the years that probably had all of us wishing we could relive youth. There was little band banter but they played all their top hits and I was struck by how many of the lyrics resonated with an audience decidedly 50 and up. Days of Future Passed kind of says it all, doesn't it? But even familiar Moody Blues hits like I Know You're Out There Somewhere is a more poignant poem to lost loves when you've actually lost a few, and Nights in White Satin (which still sends a chill up my spine) contains the prescient phrase "Just what you want to be, You will be in the end." In the end, and many times in between, fans were on their feet applauding great music from a great rock 'n roll band with staying power beyond anybody's wildest dreams.
August 21, 2009
George Benson expects great things from new album
I just got off the phone with musician George Benson, left, who was out in Los Angeles doing some promotion of his latest work. The legendary jazz guitarist is 65, retirement age, but he has a new album, Songs and Stories, coming out Tuesday and he's expecting big things of it. "It was a hit before we even started mixing it," Benson tells me. "All my friends were calling to be on it. They knew it would be something special." What makes it so special, Benson says, is the songwriters whose works are included on it, James Taylor, Christopher Cross, Smokey Robinson and Lamont Dozier to name a few. From concept to creation, the album took several years so it's understandable that Benson, named a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master last fall, is so proud. Besides, he wanted to make a record to be heard. "A great record sitting on the shelf is a crime," he says.
