Music – Page 251 – 105.7 WDNY

Stephen Sanchez says new tour will be ‘a celebration of love, for sure’

April 24, 2026 by WDNY Radio

Stephen Sanchez, best known for his hit “Until I Found You,” will release his sophomore album, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, on May 8, and he says that’s the theme of his tour, launching in Paris on Saturday.

Stephen’s first album, Angel Face, was a retro-sounding concept album, while LOVE, LOVE, LOVE is more of a straight-ahead pop album with some retro flavors. On tour, he says there will be no problem mixing those two sounds. “Overall, like when we play our live show, it’s not something that feels terribly similar to the record,” he explains.

“You know, we usually try and make it feel a bit bigger. Like … this is the record sound and this is the show sound. And so I think it’s easy for us to be able to kind of put these worlds together, you know album one and album two. It’s gonna be exciting and lots of lights and colors, and just a celebration of love for sure.”

While all of Stephen’s music has been well received, his retro sound, which you can hear in his latest single “Sweet Love,” may be the reason for his global audience.

“I hear a lot that it just feels accessible to anybody. It doesn’t feel like it leaves anybody out,” he tells ABC Audio.

“People will come up and be like, ‘Oh, yeah, I’m in high school and I listen to it, or my brother who’s in college listens to it or our grandma loves it,'” he adds. “Hearing stuff like that makes me feel really good because, it feels like we’re actually getting to be a part of the world as a whole, and not just like a piece of it.”

In March, Stephen told a fan on Instagram that U.S. tour dates would be coming “soon.”

Ringo Starr takes a journey on the ‘Long Long Road’ with new album

April 24, 2026 by WDNY Radio

Ringo Starr’s new album, Long Long Road, which has roots in country and Americana, is out today.

It’s the second straight album he’s done with producer T Bone Burnett. At a recent listening party in Los Angeles, Ringo said Burnett made making the album easy, noting, “There’s a lot of great players in Nashville, and he knows most of them.”

Ringo said Burnett would send him “tracks with some meat on” them, and he would send back his drum and singing parts. Then Burnett would “complete the deal,” which Ringo describes as “a great way of working.”

And it was just as easy for Burnett, who said he’s been listening to Ringo play drums for so long that “his feel is in my DNA at this point. It’s in my cells, you know.”

“I’ve always thought of him as a Texas musician because he played so Texas,” he added. “He’s the swinginest drummer in the history of the United Kingdom. I can tell you that.”

Ringo said the title of the album represents “the road I’ve taken,” adding, “You know all of those stop marks on your walk of life, it’s so far out.”

He said that the title track “is me going through my things about my life.” And while he said some of it may have been bad, most of it wasn’t.

“I’ve been a lucky human being,” he said. “I got to do what I love to do.”

Long Long Road is the follow-up to Ringo’s 2025 country-inspired album, Look Up. It features guest appearances by Sheryl Crow, St. Vincent, Billy Strings, Molly Tuttle and Sarah Jarosz.

More like Cyn City: Cyndi Lauper starts Las Vegas residency

April 24, 2026 by WDNY Radio

Cyndi Lauper’s Girls Just Want to Have Fun Farewell Tour ended in August 2025, but on Friday she’ll be back onstage — in Las Vegas.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer is kicking off her first Las Vegas residency at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace. So far, it consists of five dates: April 24, 25 and 29, and May 1 and 2.

Cyndi initially described the show as “an opportunity for fans who missed my Farewell Tour to celebrate one last time.” However, at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in November, she told KABC-TV that she’s hoping to do some things that she wasn’t able to do when she was appearing in a different city every night.

“It’s an opportunity, because in Vegas they have all this new technology, and you can do art and music together,” she explained. “And I have this wonderful creative director that I’ve been working with, and we’re kind of like scientists sometimes, and I’m so excited about that.”

In addition to Vegas, Cyndi has one other performance on her schedule. She’s performing at the Rock In Rio – Lisbon festival in Portugal June 27, where she’ll share a bill with her former tour mate Rod Stewart, as well as Guns N’ Roses, 4 Non Blondes and more.

It’s a ‘Beautiful Day’ for Akon, who has just dropped his brand-new album

April 24, 2026 by WDNY Radio

Cover art for Akon’s ‘Beautiful Day’ album (Konvict Kulture)

It’s a Beautiful Day, as Akon has just released his new studio album. It marks his first full-length project since 2008, though he’s continued to drop music over the years.

“Before I was just doing it to feed the passion,” he tells ABC Audio. “I had so much other stuff going on.” But he says music was something he “couldn’t let go of.”

Now, with more time on his hands, Akon felt ready to fully return to music.

He says, “Things are freed up and on cruise control to the point where now I can go back to the passion and have fun back doing music again.”

The result is Beautiful Day, a genre- and culture-blending project that dives deeper into international sounds than he’s ever done before.

“I was sneakin’ it in there. The labels, I had to fight them to put it on,” he says of past music. “Now, I’m like my own label, own distribution, my own mind, own decisions, and I can freely do what I wanna do and how I wanna to do it.”

Like its lead single, the album reflects gratitude and a new outlook on life.

“I think there’s so much that’s going on in your life that we discount,” Akon says. “We’re so always focused on all the negative things because … they hit you a little harder. … So you find yourself spending more time and attention dealing with those things than you do about all the beautiful things around you that you should be grateful for.”

With age and experience, Akon’s mindset has shifted. He describes the album as a reflection of his growth, and understanding “how everything that happens in your life is supposed to happen.”

“The moment you embrace it all, all your worries, stress … goes away and every day becomes a beautiful day,” Akon says.

Greta Van Fleet’s Jake Kiszka announces new signature guitar with Gibson

April 23, 2026 by WDNY Radio

Greta Van Fleet’s Jake Kiszka has announced a new signature guitar with Gibson.

The Jake Kiszka SG Standard is inspired by Kiszka’s own beloved 1961 SG.

“The ’61, this particular model, has defined me as a player, and I think I’ve defined it in return,” Kiszka says in a statement.

You can watch Kiszka rock his signature guitar in a video for Gibson, now on YouTube. He’ll also be celebrating the launch with a Q&A event Thursday at the Gibson Garage in Nashville.

The Jake Kiszka SG Standard is on sale for $2,499. For more info, visit Gibson.com.

Greta Van Fleet’s most recent album is 2023’s Starcatcher. Kiszka has since launched a side project called Mirador, which released their debut album in 2025.

Final season of ‘The Chi’ to premiere in May

April 23, 2026 by WDNY Radio

Lena Waithe has announced the release date for the eighth and final season of The Chi. She shared the news with a video teasing what’s to come.

The clip features flashback moments of characters like Tiffany, Victor and Jake, blending scenes from earlier seasons with that of season 8. “Life comes at you fast whether you’re ready for it or not,” says a voice-over. “Everything has to come to an end.”

According to the official logline, season 8 will see The Chi enter its “coldest winter ever,” where “life or death choices must be made.” It adds, “The question becomes, who is willing to make them? Legacy, conflict, joy, and pain. It all collides in the biggest, most emotionally riveting way ever seen this season.”

The series, which premiered in 2018, stars Jacob Latimore, Birgundi Baker, Luke James, Shamon Brown Jr., Michael V. Epps, Hannaha Hall and Jason Weaver. It centers on a group of residents from Chicago’s South Side whose lives become linked through coincidences, tragedy, and a desire for community and redemption.

Lena previously told Deadline that creating the show was “about owning our narratives and telling our stories with truth, care, nuance and complexity. It was about showing the soul of the South Side — the beauty, the pain, the grit, and the magic that lives in every block, and in every family.”

She said the decision to wrap things up came “after much reflection.”

“I know, for the sake of our story and our characters, it’s the right thing,” she told Deadline. “I am committed to delivering a final season that our Chi Family deserves.”

Season 8 of The Chi will premiere May 22 on Paramount+ with the Premium Plan.

Jerry Garcia’s custom-made acoustic guitar among the top sellers at Grateful Dead auction

April 23, 2026 by WDNY Radio

More than 300 Grateful Dead-related instruments and memorabilia went up for auction Thursday in San Francisco, with a custom acoustic guitar one of the tops sellers.

Treasures From The Golden Road Featuring Property From “Big Steve,” “Ram Rod” & Trixie Garcia featured instruments, keepsakes and more from the personal archives of members of the Grateful Dead’s inner circle, including crew chief and Jerry Garcia Band manager “Big Steve” Parish, Jerry Garcia’s daughter Trixie Garcia and Grateful Dead head roadie Lawrence “Ram Rod” Shurtliff.

The top seller was an Alvarez Yairi acoustic guitar, custom made for Jerry Garcia in 1988, which brought in $256,000, three-times more than the estimated price. Another guitar, Garcia’s 1939 Gibson Super 400 N Archtop, also sold for $256,000, two-times more than the estimate.

Other sale highlights include a Grateful Dead signed 1993 New Year’s Eve concert poster, which sold for $35,200; a Jerry Garcia handwritten set list from a 1989 Jerry Garcia Band show, which sold for $22,400; and a Winterland Grateful Dead dressing room plaque, which sold for $19,200.

Kat Graham’s Diana Ross portrayal cut from ‘Michael’ biopic

April 23, 2026 by WDNY Radio

The new Michael Jackson biopic Micheal opens in theaters Friday, and while Diana Ross was good friend of the singer, she won’t be represented in the film.

Vampire Diaries star Kat Graham was cast to play Ross in the movie, but she revealed on social media that her part of the film has been cut.

“Ahead of the April 24 release of the Michael Jackson film, I want to share that certain legal considerations affected a few scenes, including the ones I filmed with an incredible cast,” she wrote on X. “Unfortunately, those moments are no longer part of the final cut, though the team worked hard to preserve as much of the story as possible.”

Graham didn’t go into detail about the scenes. Variety reported in early April that the film went through $15 million worth of reshoots and cut out scenes pertaining to Jackson’s child molestation accusations because a settlement with one of the singer’s accusers, Jordan Chandler, prevented his portrayal in the film.

Michael stars Michael’s nephew Jaafar Jackson in the title role, with Colman Domingo playing the star’s father, Joe Jackson.

Music notes: Niall Horan, Charli XCX and more

April 23, 2026 by WDNY Radio

Niall Horan has released another song from his upcoming album, Dinner Party: “Little More Time.” Niall says it’s his favorite song on the album, adding that it’s about “wanting time to stand still. If you could just press pause and the world would stop yet you could still live within the world like no one was watching.” He explains, “I spend a lot of time away from home. So having found roots and wanting to be at home more, I felt compelled to write a song about the smaller moments and wishing that you could just stay in them.” Dinner Party is out June 5.

If you missed it in theaters, Charlie XCX’s movie The Moment will stream on HBO Max starting on May 29, and on regular HBO at 8 p.m. ET on May 30. Deadline describes it as a fictionalized version of her experiences during brat summer.

VIVA LALISA, the upcoming Las Vegas residency by LISA from BLACKPINK, sold out in under 10 minutes on Thursday. The residency, the first one by a K-pop artist, will take over The Colosseum at Caesars Palace on Nov. 13 and 14, and Nov. 27 and 28.

Travis Barker documentary ’Louder than Fear’ to premiere on Hulu

April 23, 2026 by WDNY Radio

A new documentary about blink-182 drummer Travis Barker is set to premiere on Hulu.

The film is called Travis Barker: Louder than Fear and is due out in the summer.

“Travis personally called about this doc to say, ‘I want to tell this story … I was in this plane crash that I walked away from, and it fundamentally changed me,'” Disney executive Rob Mills tells TheWrap.

Barker was a passenger on a plane that crashed in 2008, killing four people. He and his friend Adam “DJ AM” Goldstein were the only survivors. Goldstein later died in 2009.

Barker suffered burns and underwent multiple surgeries. He also developed PTSD from the crash, and dealt with survivor’s guilt.

For a long time after the crash Barker refused to fly and would even take boats to international gigs. Barker’s since started flying again and has credited his wife, Kourtney Kardashian, for the encouragement.

Disney is the parent company of ABC News and Hulu.

+ More