Classic Hits

Cissy Houston, the mother of Whitney Houston, has died at 91 years old. Cissy’s daughter-in-law Pat Houston confirmed the news, sharing Cissy passed away in her New Jersey home Monday while under hospice care for Alzheimer’s disease.

“Our hearts are filled with pain and sadness. We [lost] the matriarch of our family,” Pat said in a statement. “Mother Cissy has been a strong and towering figure in our lives. A woman of deep faith and conviction, who cared greatly about family, ministry, and community.”

“Her more than seven-decade career in music and entertainment will remain at the forefront of our hearts. Her contributions to popular music and culture are unparalleled,” the statement continued. “We are blessed and grateful that God allowed her to spend so many years with us and we are thankful for all the many valuable life lessons that she taught us. May she rest in peace, alongside her daughter, Whitney and granddaughter Bobbi Kristina and other cherished family members.”

Like Whitney, Cissy had a history in singing. She started the gospel group The Drinkard Four in 1938 alongside her siblings but was most known for being part of the Sweet Inspirations, who sang backup for Otis Redding, Dionne Warwick, The Jimi Hendrix Experience and more.

She eventually went solo and recorded over 600 songs, appearing on tracks with Chaka Khan, Luther Vandross, Beyoncé and others. 

Cissy was a Grammy winner, taking home trophies for her 1997 album, Face to Face, and 1998’s Leadeth Me. 

She also wrote three books — He Leadeth Me, How Sweet The Sound: My Life with God and Gospel and Remembering Whitney: A Mother’s Story of Life, Loss and The Night The Music Stopped — and became minister of sacred music at New Hope Baptist Church.

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Smokey Robinson has booked a trio of dates in Las Vegas.

The legendary R&B singer will bring his Legacy Tour to The Venetian Theatre inside The Venetian Resort Las Vegas, with shows April 2, April 4 and April 5.

A Citi presale for tickets kicks off Tuesday at 10 a.m., with tickets going on sale to the general public Friday at 10 a.m.

This is a return trip to The Venetian Theatre for Smokey. This is also the third straight April he’ll be headlining the venue. 

Smokey also has several dates booked for later this year. His next show is scheduled for Nov. 8 in Red Bank, New Jersey. A complete list of dates can be found at smokeyrobinson.com.

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Classics from The Beatles are being celebrated by Lucinda Williams, who’ll release the new album Lucinda Williams Sings The Beatles From Abbey Road on Dec. 6.

The album has her covering tracks the band recorded at the legendary London recording studio, with the first single released being a cover of George Harrison’s “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.”

Other covers on the album include “Let It Be,” “Don’t Let Me Down,” “Can’t Buy Me Love,” “With a Little Help from My Friends” and “The Long And Winding Road.” 

This album is the seventh volume of Williams’ Lu’s Jukebox series. Previous releases were dedicated to The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and more.

Lucinda Williams Sings The Beatles From Abbey Road is available for preorder now. Here is the track list for the album: 
“Don’t Let Me Down”
“I’m Looking Through You”
“Can’t Buy Me Love”
“Rain”
“While My Guitar Gently Weeps”
“Let It Be”
“Yer Blues”
“I’ve Got a Feeling”
“I’m So Tired”
“Something”
“With a Little Help from My Friends”
“The Long And Winding Road”

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Neil Young and Stephen Stills, who were in Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young together, teamed up Saturday afternoon for a performance at the Harvest Moon benefit concert, which took place at The Painted Turtle camp in Lake Hughes, California.

According to setlist.fm, the duo teamed up to play several classic tunes, including Crosby Stills & Nash’s “Helplessly Hoping,” Stills’ “Love The One You’re With,” CSNY’s “Helpless,” The Stills-Young Band track “Long May You Run,” and Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth” and “Bluebird.”

The pair also broke out the Buffalo Springfield deep track “Hung Upside Down,” with Stills initially joking to the crowd that it was a new song. 

“The worst four words you can hear in a live performance are ‘here’s a new song,’” he told the audience, according to fan-shot footage posted to YouTube. “But this is actually a new version of an old song that took two centuries to write.”

Young also performed his tracks “Heart of Gold” and “Harvest Moon,” and they then ended the set with “Rockin’ In The Free World,” which featured a guest appearance by the show’s other headliner, John Mayer.

Proceeds from the concert will benefit both the Painted Turtle, which offers the camp experience to children with serious medical conditions, and The Bridge School, an educational institution for children with severe speech and physical disabilities.

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James Taylor is set to play an upcoming benefit concert to help those in the Carolinas affected by the devastation of Hurricane Helene.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer, who grew up in North Carolina, will perform at Concert for Carolina, which will also feature country stars Luke Combs and Eric Church and bluegrass artist Billy Strings, with more artists to be announced. 

The concert, hosted by ESPN’s Marty Smith and Barstool Sports’ Caleb Pressley, is taking place Oct. 26 at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina, with proceeds supporting Hurricane Helene relief efforts in the Carolina region.

Tickets for the show go on sale Thursday at 10 a.m. More info can be found at concertforcarolina.com.

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On This Day, Oct. 7, 2016 …

The first-ever Desert Trip festival kicked off at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, the same location where the yearly Coachella Festival is held.

Dubbed “Oldchella” by the public, the six-day event was split over two weekends and included a lineup of superstar classic rock acts like The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, The Who, Bob Dylan, Neil Young and Pink Floyd‘s Roger Waters.

The Stones and Dylan headlined the first night of each weekend, with Young and McCartney playing the Saturdays, and The Who and Waters closing both weekends.

McCartney’s set during the second weekend featured two special guests: Rihanna, who joined him for their collaboration “FourFiveSeconds,” and Young, who joined McCartney for “A Day In The Life,” “Why Don’t We Do It In The Road?” and a cover of John Lennon‘s “Give Peace A Chance.”

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In October 2014, the Allman Brothers Band played their final live show, and now fans will be able to experience it again. 

The concert, which took place Oct. 28, 2014, at New York’s Beacon Theatre, has been remastered and will be released digitally on Oct. 25 and as a three-CD set, with a 16-page booklet, on Nov. 22.

The location of the concert was, of course, very special to the Allman Brothers Band. They’d played the venue annually since 1989, which helped them set a Broadway record of 237 consecutive sold-out shows.

The concert had the band — founders Gregg Allman, Jaimoe and Butch Trucks, along with Warren Haynes, Derek Trucks, Marc Quinones and Oteil Burbridge — playing a set that included such songs as “Mountain Jam,” “Midnight Rider,” “Whipping Post” and “Melissa.” The three-set show was one of the longest in the band’s history, lasting into the wee hours of the morning, which coincided with the 43rd anniversary of Duane Allman’s death.

Final Concert 10-28-14 is available for preorder now.

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Green Day performed on the American Music Awards 50th anniversary special, which aired Sunday on CBS.

The punk rockers played their song “Dilemma,” a single off their latest album, Saviors. You can watch the rendition streaming now on YouTube.

Green Day supported Saviors on a U.S. stadium tour, which wrapped in September. Each night, they also played their albums Dookie and American Idiot in full to celebrate their respective 30th and 20th anniversaries.

A 20th anniversary edition of American Idiot will be released Oct. 25.

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A new short film about Jimi Hendrix’s life in New York has just been released, narrated by E Street Band guitarist Stevie Van Zandt. 

The nine-minute film, Jimi Hendrix’s New York, features archival photos and video, with Stevie walking fans through Jimi’s time in the Big Apple. 

It also features interviews with Jimi’s friend Colette Harron, who owned a clothing store and sold him the jacket he wore at Woodstock. She shares stories of going to local clubs with Hendrix and getting to see him perform, noting, “When you saw him, it was magic … his music was everything.”

Producer/engineer Eddie Kramer is also interviewed for the film, where he talks about working in the studio with the rocker, sharing, “There was this wonderful communication where we understood each other.”

The film is a companion to the recently released Hendrix box set, Electric Lady Studios: A Jimi Hendrix Vision. The set, dedicated to Hendrix’s legendary New York studio, Electric Lady, features a treasure trove of previously unreleased music from the Jimi Hendrix Experience.

The set also includes the full-length documentary of the same name, which debuted in theaters in August.

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Madonna is mourning the death of her brother Christopher Ciccone, who died Oct. 4 after a battle with cancer. According to a family statement, Ciccone died “peacefully … surrounded by his husband and loved ones.” He was 63.

In a lengthy tribute on Instagram, Madonna writes, “My brother Christopher is gone. He was the closest human to me for so long. Its hard to explain our bond. But it grew out of an understanding that we were different and society was going to give us a hard time for not following the status quo. We took each other‘s hands and we danced through the madness of our childhood.”

She continues, “When I finally got the courage to go to New York to become a Dancer. My brother followed … we danced together on stage in the beginning of my career and eventually, he became the Creative Director, of many tours.”

“He was a painter a poet and a visionary,” Madonna writes. “I admired him. He had impeccable taste. And a sharp tongue, Which he sometimes used against me but I always forgave him. We soared the highest heights together And floundered in the lowest lows. Somehow, we always found each other again and We held hands and we kept dancing.”

“We did not speak for sometime but When my brother got sick. We found our way back to each other. I did my best to keep him alive as long as possible,” she concludes, adding, “I’m glad he’s not suffering anymore. There will never be anyone like him. I know he’s dancing somewhere.”

In addition to Madonna, Christopher is survived by their other siblings — Martin, Paula, Melanie, Jennifer and Mario — as well as their father Silvio, 93. Their brother Anthony died last year at age 66. Their stepmother Joan died in September.

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