MUSIC NEWS: MONDAY, MAY 4, 2015
LBT, FAITH HILL, VAN HALEN WILL PERFORM AT BILLBOARD MUSIC AWARDS
Little Big Town, Faith Hill and Van Halen have been added to the Billboard Music Awards. Little Big Town and Faith Hill will collaborate on a performance of ``Girl Crush.'' Van Halen have never performed on an award show before. The Billboard Music Awards are May 17th in Las Vegas and they will be shown live on A-B-C.
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JAZZ FEST WRAPS UP IN NEW ORLEANS
There were plenty of big pop music names at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, but jazz still closes the show. Trombone Shorty closed out the main stage for the second weekend of music. Other performers included Lenny Kravitz, Kasey Musgraves, Elton John, Steve Winwood, Ed Sheeran, T.I. and Jerry Lee Lewis.
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VANCE JOY WINS INTERNATIONAL SONGWRITING COMPETITION
Vance Joy has won a prestigious songwriting award. The International Songwriting Competition has given Joy its grand prize for his song ``Riptide.'' Joy got perfect scores across the board, a first in the I-S-C's 14-year history. Judges included Sarah McLachlan, Bastille, Wayne Shorter, Avicii and Sara Evans. Joy wins 25-thousand dollars in cash and 35-thousand dollars in prizes and services.
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JENNIFER LOPEZ PAYS TRIBUTE TO SELENA
Jennifer Lopez's tribute to Selena stole the show at the Billboard Latin Music Awards on Thursday.
Lopez was backed by Los Dinos, Selena's backing band made up of her family members. Lopez hugged the band while the audience gave a standing ovation. Romeo Santos and Enrique Iglesias were the big winners. Santos won 10 awards and Iglesias won nine.
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U2 MAKE UP ``TONIGHT SHOW'' BOOKING
U2 will try to make good on a promise to ``The Tonight Show.'' They will be the guests on Friday's episode. U2 were supposed to do a weeklong residency on ``The Tonight Show'' in November but cancelled after Bono was in a serious bike accident.
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JIMMY BUFFETT WILL SPEAK TO MIAMI GRADUATES
Jimmy Buffett will give his words of wisdom to the graduating class at the University of Miami. Buffett will be the commencement speaker for six of the university's schools on Friday.
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B.B. KING'S MANAGER SAYS HE'S IN HOSPICE
B-B King is in hospice care at his home in Las Vegas. His longtime business manager, Laverne Toney, says he is home after a brief hospitalization. King, who is 89, has posted thanks on his website for fans wishing him well and offering prayers.
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BEN E. KING REMEMBERED
The music world is mourning the loss of Ben E.
King. He died Thursday of natural causes in Hackensack, New Jersey, at the age of 76. Carole King calls Ben E. King ``a wonderful interpreter of songs.'' Adam Levine says the music world ``lost a true great.'' Huey Lewis says King will be missed but ``those great vocal performances will live forever.'' Chuck D calls King ``such a great artist,'' and Bootsy Collins says the world ``lost another brick from our Soulful Legendary Foundation.'' Prince Royce says King was his mentor and his role model and made him feel like a friend.
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RANDY HOUSER GETS ENGAGED
Country singer Randy Houser is planning a wedding. His representative tells People magazine Houser is engaged to Tatiana Starzynski. He's 39, she's 21. Houser was previously married to songwriter Jessica Lee Yantz. They split last year and they have a three-year-old son together. No word on when Houser and Starzynski will marry. Houser is an opening act on Luke Bryan's 2015 ``Kick Up The Dust Tour.''
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BALTIMORE INSPIRES PRINCE SONG
Prince has recorded a song about the unrest in Baltimore. A Prince spokeswoman says the song is also about ``the slew of killings of young black men.'' A release date has not been announced. Prince held a ``Dance Rally 4 Peace'' in Minneapolis on Saturday and asked attendees to wear grey in memory of Freddie Gray.
He died after suffering a severe spinal injury while in police custody.
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DOOBIE BROTHERS EXPLAIN THEIR INSPIRATION
It sounds like an exercise in circular logic:
The Doobie Brothers say music inspires them to make music.
Singer-guitarist Tom Johnston says performing for an audience and writing music inspires him to create. Guitarist Patrick Simmons says listening to other people's music inspires him, because as a fan he'd hear a song and want to play it, which prompted him to practice. Keyboardist Michael McDonald says many a young musician has heard a song and said, ``I want to make a record like that one.'' He says it used to fire his imagination to figure out what a musician was singing about.
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JAMES TAYLOR DEBUTS NEW SONG ABOUT FENWAY, AT FENWAY
James Taylor debuted his new song ``Angels of Fenway'' at the ballpark that gave the tune its name. Taylor's song was played over the P-A system at Fenway Park last night, before the Boston Red Sox hosted the New York Yankees. A video of scenes from the century-old rivalry between the two teams was played as well.
Wearing a Red Sox T-shirt and a baseball cap, the five-time Grammy winner also threw out the ceremonial first pitch.
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LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM PLAYS WITH USC MARCHING BAND
Lindsey Buckingham has paid a visit to some of his most famous collaborators: the U-S-C marching band. Billboard reports Buckingham and the marching band did a surprise performance at the school on Wednesday. Buckingham was on campus to deliver a talk to an entrepreneurship class. Buckingham and the marching band worked together on the 1979 Fleetwood Mac song ``Tusk.''
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RUSH Drummer Neil Peart Has Chronic Tendonitis, Next Tour Is Likely The Last Tour
Nobody is really sure if Rush’s next tour would be the last time the group would ever go out on the road, but certainly it’ll be the final time the band will do a tour this size. Guitarist Alex Lifeson has revealed to Global Newsthat drummer Neil Peart has serious tendonitis and perhaps a new studio album is in their future.
“I have mixed feelings about it. In one way I feel relief – I think 40 years is a long time to be touring the way we tour.
“I still love playing. But in Neil’s case, for example, his job is really tough. Playing the way he does is very, very difficult on his body. He has chronic tendonitis in his arms and he’s had problems with his shoulders.
“It’s getting to the point, no matter how much we love doing it, that it’s much more demanding and much more difficult.
We’re not finished as a band. We still talk about recording.
Who knows, there may be an opportunity in the future to do not a big tour, but a series of concerts … like a week in Massey Hall or Radio City Music Hall.
Ged and I are just itching to get back into writing. He just revamped his studio, and he’s not a tech kind of studio guy. He doesn’t know how probably even one per cent of that stuff works.
But he’s had this renaissance of being a musician and wanting to play and study more — it’s really inspiring to see. When things slow down we’ll start to do some writing, for whatever purpose. We’ve always talked about doing some soundtrack work.”
AMERICANA MUSIC
Blues. Jazz. Country. Rock n' roll. Gospel.
Southern Gospel. Cajun-zydeco. Soul/ R&B. Bluegrass.
Nine of America's most well-known music genres now have their own road map.
A group of preservationists, historians and music lovers have come up with the ``Americana Music Triangle.''
Stretching from Nashville to Memphis to New Orleans _ and encompassing points in between _ the triangle includes locations that contributed to the birth of the musical genres in the U.S. South.
Destinations are connected by the so-called ``Gold Record Road,''
which is made up of Interstate 40 from Nashville to Memphis, Highway
61 from Memphis to New Orleans, and the Natchez Trace Parkway from Nashville to Natchez, Mississippi.
Travellers planning road trips can use a flashy web guide pinpointing and describing the destinations in the triangle.