Classic Hits

It’s the perfect holiday gift for the ZZ Top fan in your life: Billy F Gibbons’ boots.

The Texas guitar legend has teamed up with the Austin, Texas-based Alvies boot company for a signature “BFG” cowboy boot, described as combining “a classic style with a rock ‘n’ roll attitude.” The design of the cowhide boots, which cost $450, was inspired by “Billy’s personal infatuation with cars, guitars and making music.”

The boots come in three different ZZ Top-related colors — Sharp-Dressed, El Hombre and 33 Coupe — and the pull strap of each pair comes with a pocket containing several custom BFG guitar picks.

There are only 3,000 pairs of the limited-edition boots available and a percentage of each sale goes to the National Independent Venue Foundation, which offers financial support to music venues around the country that have been impacted by COVID-19.

If you can’t afford the boots, t-shirts and 10-packs of guitar picks are also available on the Alvies website.

 

 

 

 

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Neil Young and Crazy Horse‘s latest studio album, Barn, got its release today.

As previously reported, the album was recorded this past June in a restored 19th century barn Young owns in the Colorado Rockies. The album is the second Neil has made with Crazy Horse since multi-instrumentalist Nils Lofgren rejoined the band in 2018.

Lofgren, who first played with Crazy Horse during the early 1970s, tells ABC Audio that he hadn’t expected to record a full album when Neil invited the band to Colorado for the sessions.

“[I]n the middle of the pandemic, it was a beautiful surprise,” Nils says, “’cause originally Neil said, ‘Look, I got four songs. Why don’t we at least get together for a week or so and play and be mates, and maybe we can do that two or three times in different locations and get an album.’ So this was extraordinary, ’cause once we got there, he kept writing.”

Lofgren says after “about a week,” Young had penned nine songs.

As Nils recalls, “[T]hen Neil said, ‘Look, I think we’re almost done with an album…so let me write a song tonight…Tomorrow we’re gonna record the 10th song. We’re gonna have an album.'”

Playing with Young on and off for over 50 years, Lofgren says he’s gotten accustomed to how fast Neil records.

“As usual…a lot of the takes were while we were learning the song,” he notes. “And usually, when he gets a great vocal that captures the lyric, that’s it.“

Barn is available on CD, vinyl, cassette and digital formats, and as a deluxe box set featuring a CD, a vinyl LP, and a Blu-ray disc that includes a film capturing the making of the album directed by Neil’s wife, actress Daryl Hannah.

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Bryan Adams has just released a new track from his forthcoming studio album, So Happy It Hurts, and the tune really, um, kicks a**!

The catchy, melodic-rock song is titled “Kick A**,” and it begins with a spoken-word interlude delivered in the form of a Biblical-style sermon by legendary Monty Python member John Cleese about the creation of rock ‘n’ roll music.

The track, which Adams co-wrote with famed producer “Mutt” Lange, is available now as a digital download and via steaming services, and you can check out a companion lyric video at Bryan’s official YouTube channel.

“Kick A**” is the third advance track released from So Happy It Hurts, following the title track and “On the Road.” The album is due out March 11 and can be pre-ordered now.

“On the Road” also was co-written by Adams and Lange and was penned specifically to promote the 2022 edition of the Pirelli Calendar, for which Bryan shot the photos.

As previously reported, the calendar is titled On the Road, and it was photographed in Los Angeles, the Italian isle of Capri and Canada last summer. Among the artists who Bryan shot for the calendar: Cher, Iggy Pop, Jennifer Hudson, rapper Saweetie, pop stars Normani and Rita Ora, alt-pop artist Grimes and alt-rocker St. Vincent.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

John Mellencamp has unveiled the cover art for his forthcoming album, Strictly a One-Eyed Jack, and has announced that a new song from the record called “Chasing Rainbows” will be released this Friday, December 10.

The cover, which was posted on Mellencamp’s Facebook and Instagram pages along with the message “COMING SOON,” is a painting that appears to be a self portrait of the singer/songwriter in which he’s depicted wearing an eyepatch over his right eye and holding up his left hand near his face.

A separate post on John’s social media sites includes an instrumental snippet of “Chasing Rainbows,” along with a note revealing that the song will be “out Friday.”

In September, Mellencamp released a duet with Bruce Springsteen titled “Wasted Days” which was announced as the first single from Strictly a One-Eyed Jack, which is due out in 2022. John also debuted a new acoustic tune from the album titled “I Always Lie to Strangers” during his performance at the 2021 Farm Aid concert in September.

New Song #ChasingRainbows out Friday pic.twitter.com/LOerKev691

— John Mellencamp (@johnmellencamp) December 8, 2021

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Ralph Tavares, the oldest member of the sibling R&B and disco group Tavares, has died, just days shy of his 80th birthday, which would have been this Friday.

Ralph’s passing was reported by Massachusetts newspaper The Standard-Times. No cause of death was given.

Ralph began performing with his brothers during the 1950s. The siblings’ group underwent various name and personnel changes over the years, eventually changing its moniker to Tavares in the early ’70s.

In 1973, Tavares scored its first top-40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Check It Out.” The following year, the group topped the Billboard R&B singles chart with a cover of Hall & Oates‘ “She’s Gone.”

Tavares had its biggest Hot 100 hit in 1975 with “It Only Takes a Minute,” which peaked at #10. In 1976, their single “Heaven Must Be Missing an Angel” reached #15 on the chart.

The group got some high-profile attention when their version of The Bee Gees‘ “More Than a Woman” appeared in the classic 1977 film Saturday Night Fever. The track, which also was featured on the movie’s Grammy-winning soundtrack, peaked at #32 on the Hot 100.

Tavares’ last top-40 hit on the Hot 100 came in 1982 with “A Penny for Your Thoughts,” which also received a Grammy nomination in the Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal category.

Ralph retired from the group in 1984 and, according to The Standard-Times, he spent more than 30 years working as a court officer in Massachusetts cities of New Bedford and Fall River.

Ralph rejoined Tavares for a special reunion show in 2014. That same year, the group was inducted into the Rhode Island Music Hall of Fame.

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Billy Idol is one of the music stars that will help Fox ring in the New Year.

Idol is among several artists who will featured in pre-recorded performances on Fox’s New Year’s Eve Toast & Roast 2022, which airs live Friday, December 31, beginning at 8 p.m. ET.

Ken Jeong and Joel McHale will be hosting the special live from Times Square, while Ozzy Osbourne‘s daughter, Kelly, will also be on hand as a special correspondent.

Other performers set to perform on the show, albeit in pre-recorded footage, include Maroon 5, Pink, Imagine Dragons and more. Country star Trace Adkins will appear live to ring in 2022.

Once the New Year gets underway, Idol will join Journey as the opening act for the first portion of the veteran rockers’ Freedom Tour 2022 of North America, from February 2 through April 5.

This past September, Billy released an EP titled The Roadside, his first collection of new music since his 2014 studio album, Kings & Queens of the Underground.

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Neil Young‘s latest studio album with his frequent backing band Crazy Horse, Barn, gets released this Friday, and Young sat down recently with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe to chat about the project, which was recorded quickly this past June in a restored barn that Young owns in the Colorado Rockies.

During the interview, which was conducted at producer Rick Rubin‘s Shangri-La Studio in Malibu, California, Young explains why he feels Barn is one of his best albums.

“I’m very thankful for having made it,” he declares. “And I think it was a gift and everything in it works [for me], and it’s not often that happens…Everything felt right. So I feel great about it.”

Young says he contacted Crazy Horse’s members 10 months in advance and timed the Barn sessions to happen during the full moon.

“[W]hen we got set up, we started to play and then [the moon] got bigger and bigger and bigger until we recorded everything,” Neil recalls. “So that was cool. It was really cool.”

Regarding the actual  barn, Young notes that it dates back to the 1870s, “and it was falling down and going back into the ground…So we took it and got a real master barn builder…and we rebuilt. Made it just like it was in the old drawings of it and old photographs.”

As previously reported, a film capturing the making of Barn, directed by Young’s wife, actress Daryl Hannah, will be included on a Blu-ray packaged with the deluxe version of the album, and also released as a standalone Blu-ray.

The documentary will get its theatrical premiere tonight at theaters in New York City, Chicago and Santa Monica, California. Visit NeilYoungArchives.com for more details.

Watch Young’s full interview with Lowe at Apple Music’s YouTube channel.

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The first-ever authorized documentary devoted to the life of late Grateful Dead frontman Jerry Garcia is going into production and will be directed by filmmaker and longtime Garcia collaborator Justin Kreutzmann, son of founding Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann.

Garcia’s daughter Trixie is serving as an executive producer of the film on behalf of the Jerry Garcia Family LLC company, and the project will be given full access to Jerry’s personal archives. The movie will seek to tell the definitive story of Garcia’s life, looking at Jerry’s endeavors as a father, husband, musician, artist and friend.

The documentary will feature previously unheard interviews with Jerry and various people who were close to him, as well as never-before-seen footage Justin shot of Garcia throughout the years. The movie also will profile how Garcia inspired a movement of peace-minded followers and had an enduring impact on American culture.

The film is being produced by RadicalMedia, whose previous projects include the award-winning and critically acclaimed 2021 documentary Summer of Soul.

“When people ask what I miss most about him not being around, I think it’s just missing Jerry, the person. People like him don’t come around very often,” Justin says in a statement. “It’s my dream to capture the feeling you got when you hung out with Jerry and listened to him play music. A lot of people have told the world what they thought of Jerry but I want to show what Jerry thought of the world.”

Adds Trixie, “Who better to illuminate the musical journey of Jerry Garcia than someone who grew up right in the middle of the Grateful Dead scene? Jerry loved Justin like one of his own and so do we.”

Garcia died of a heart attack in August 1995. He was 53.

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Founding Survivor member and The Ides of March frontman Jim Peterik has reached a multi-million dollar deal with Primary Wave Music, which has acquired a majority stake in the royalties of his music publishing catalog and rights to many of his compositions.

Among the many songs Peterik has co-written are the Survivor hits “Eye of the Tiger,” “The Search Is Over,” “Burning Heart,” “High on You” and “I Can’t Hold Back,” and he also penned the Ides of March classic “Vehicle.”

In addition, Jim has co-written hits and memorable tunes for a variety of other artists, including 38 Special‘s “Hold On Loosely,” “Caught Up in You” and “Rockin’ into the Night,” Sammy Hagar‘s “Heavy Metal” and The Beach Boys‘ “That’s Why God Made the Radio.”

In conjunction with the deal with Primary Wave, the company will help Peterik with marketing, branding and licensing of his music.

Peterik joins a growing list of well-known artists whose publishing or music catalogues have been at least partly acquired by Primary Wave, among them Stevie Nicks, Chris Isaak, late Toto drummer Jeff Porcaro, Prince and many more.

“I’m thrilled to be with a company who is as passionate about music as I am,” says Peterik, adding, “It seems that many of my musical heroes feel the same way! I’m looking forward to great days ahead creating new music and finding new homes for the many songs in my catalogue!”

Peterik continues to front The Ides of March, whose latest album, Play On, was released in 2019. He also co-wrote many songs for ex-Styx singer/keyboardist Dennis DeYoung‘s two recent solo albums — 2020’s 26 East, Volume 1 and 2021’s 26 East, Volume 2.

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Jethro Tull has premiered a music video for a second advance track from its forthcoming studio album, The Zealot Gene, an English folk-flavored tune titled “Sad City Sisters.”

The clip, which was directed by Iranian filmmaker Sam Chegini, can be viewed at the band’s official YouTube channel. The video shows a female puppet that gets jostled and soiled as it gets passed along from hand to hand through various scenes and backdrops.

Explaining the inspiration for the song, Jethro Tull frontman Ian Anderson says, “‘Sad City Sisters’ throws up memories of a Saturday night in Cardiff, Wales when I was on my way home from our concert…some years ago. It could equally well have been any town in the UK, I suppose, or even most cities of the Western World. What possesses hell-bent and vulnerable young people to slip so easily into that tragic loss of dignity and end up sprawling drunk in a wet and windy street at midnight?”

“Sad City Sisters” is available now as a digital download and via steaming services. Its release was preceded by “Shoshana Sleeping,” which also was accompanied by a music video.

As previously reported, The Zealot Gene will be released on January 28, 2022. The 12-track collection is the first new studio album from the veteran prog-rockers in more than 18 years. Jethro Tull began work on The Zealot Gene in 2017, and the album includes a number of songs that incorporate Biblical imagery while examining religious themes.

The Zealot Gene, which can be pre-ordered now, will be released in multiple formats and configurations, including a CD digipak, a two-LP/CD set, a limited-edition two-CD/Blu-ray artbook, and a limited-edition deluxe three-LP/two-CD/Blu-ray artbook.

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