Jason Aldean is speaking out about the 13 soldiers who were recently killed in Afghanistan. The Georgia native posted a touching tribute on his Instagram, sharing the soldiers’ photos and names, backed by a performance of his song “Drink One for Me.”
“Coming from a Military family, it’s been tough to find the words to express how I feel for what’s happened in Afghanistan,” Jason said. “It’s heartbreaking and unforgivable. We appreciate your service and thank you all for your sacrifice.”
“Drink One for Me” is from Jason’s fifth studio album, Night Train. The record was released in 2012.
Jason is back at radio with “If I Didn’t Love You,” his duet with Carrie Underwood. A video for the song will be released on September 8.
David Crosby‘s debut 1971 solo album, If I Could Only Remember My Name, will be reissued in expanded form on October 15 in honor of its 50th anniversary.
The reissue will be available as a two-CD set featuring a newly remastered version of the album, plus a bonus disc offering demos, alternate takes and previously unreleased songs.
Crosby recorded If I Could Only Remember My Name with an impressive list of guest artists, including Graham Nash, Neil Young and Joni Mitchell; Grateful Dead members Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart; Jefferson Airplane‘s Grace Slick, Paul Kantner, Jorma Kaukonen, Jack Casady and David Freiberg; and Santana‘s Gregg Rolie and Michael Shrieve.
The haunting, atmospheric collection of songs came together as Crosby was grieving the death of his girlfriend, Christine Hinton, who was killed in a 1969 car crash. Crosby recalls that Garcia played an integral role in inspiring him to work on the material.
“There’d be that grin, and then that look in the eyes, and this fascination with the music,” Crosby remembers. “Easy, not forced, graceful, fun, ever-present. It was a kindness, I’m pretty sure. Jerry never said that, never even implied it. Just, ‘Hey, I heard you were doing something. What are you doing? Let’s do something.'”
If I Could Only Remember My Name was released in February 1971 and peaked at #12 on the Billboard 200.
One of the unreleased bonus demos, “Riff 1,” has been made available as an advance digital track. Another bonus tune is an alternate version of “Cowboy Movie,” featuring a guitar solo by Young rather than by Garcia.
Digital and streaming versions of the deluxe reissue also will be available, as will a 180-gram vinyl LP featuring the remastered original album. You can pre-order the reissue now.
Here’s the If I Could Only Remember My Name deluxe reissue’s track list:
Disc One: Original Album
“Music Is Love”
“Cowboy Movie”
“Tamalpais High (At About 3)”
“Laughing”
“What Are Their Names”
“Traction in the Rain”
“Song with No Words (Tree with No Leaves)”
“Orleans”
“I’d Swear There Was Somebody Here”
Bonus Track
“Kids and Dogs”
Disc Two: Bonus Tracks
Demos
“Riff 1” (Demo)*
“Tamalpais High (At About 3)” (Demo)*
“Kids and Dogs” (Demo)*
“The Wall Song” (Demo)*
“Games” (Demo)*
“Laughing” (Demo)*
“Song with No Words (Tree with No Leaves)” (Demo)
“Where Will I Be” (Demo)*
If you’re not a “Believer” in Imagine Dragons, then it might be time to check the scoreboard.
Dan Reynolds and company have now earned a historic third RIAA Diamond-certified single, which is awarded to songs with more than 10 million certified units. The group’s Night Visions single “Demons” is the latest ID song to join the club, following the previously Diamond-plated “Radioactive” and “Believer.”
According to the Twitter account @ChartData, which keeps tabs on these kinds of things, Imagine Dragons is the first group in the history of the RIAA to notch three Diamond-certified singles.
By the way, that record might be growing soon, as ID’s 2017 single “Thunder” is currently at nine-times platinum.
Meanwhile, Imagine Dragons is set to release a new album called Mercury — Act 1 this Friday. It includes the previously released singles “Follow You,” “Wrecked” and “Cutthroat.”
Lady Gaga is bringing her new duets album with Tony Bennett, Love for Sale, directly to shoppers, thanks to a partnership with Westfield.
Physical “Fan Zones” will be set up in 21 Westfield shopping centers across the U.S. and Europe — including Westfield Century City in Los Angeles and Westfield Garden State Plaza in New Jersey — where fans can watch an exclusive streamed performance of Gaga doing songs from the album on September 30. You can sign up for tickets to the Fan Zones starting September 20 via EventBrite.com.
You can also sign up to watch the stream at home via Live.Westfield.com. Another option will allow you to meet up with friends online in groups of six in your own private virtual “room” to watch.
“I love singing jazz music, and am very excited for everyone to hear my new album with Tony Bennett, Love for Sale,” says Gaga in a statement. “I am grateful to Westfield for helping bring me and my performance to my fans across the world even when I can’t travel to them.”
If you take part in the Love for Sale album pre-sale via Live.Westfield.com before the album drops on October 1, you can also enter for a chance to win a personalized message from Lady Gaga.
Scotty McCreery can sing and write songs, and apparently moonwalk as well. In a new video posted on social media, the American Idol alum reveals he can easily channel Michael Jackson, especially at a wedding.
“I am the world’s best wedding dancer,” Scotty boasts. “Yes, when they play ‘Billie Jean,’ my moonwalk comes out, and it’s amazing. It’s just a bring the house down type of moonwalk.”
Perhaps Scotty will show off his dance moves in the video for one of the songs on his upcoming Same Truck album. He just dropped a new track, “Carolina to Me,” which celebrates his love of his home state of North Carolina.
“To me, North Carolina is just a little piece of Heaven on Earth, and I hope when I get to Heaven, there’s a little bit of North Carolina in it,” Scotty says.
Marilyn Manson has pleaded not guilty to charges of simple assault stemming from an incident at a New Hampshire music venue.
ABC affiliate WMUR reports that the musician’s lawyer entered the plea Wednesday to Laconia District Court.
This past May, the Gilford Police Department in New Hampshire announced that it had issued an arrest warrant for Manson, born Brian Warner, on two counts of Class A misdemeanor Simple Assault. Warner had been accused of purposefully spitting on a videographer who was filming him during a 2019 Marylin Manson concert at the Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion.
While Warner’s lawyer told Pitchfork that the claim was “ludicrous,” the rocker agreed to turn himself in over the charges to the Los Angeles Police Department, as part of an agreement with the Gilford PD. Warner posted bail in July.
News of the New Hampshire charges came as Warner’s been embroiled in accusations of abuse and sexual assault, which began in February after his ex-fiancée, Evan Rachel Wood, alleged that he “horrifically abused [her] for years.” Warner denied those claims as “horrible distortions of reality.”
Numerous women have since followed with their own allegations, including actor Esmé Bianco, model Ashley Morgan Smithline and Warner’s former assistant, Ashley Walters, all of whom filed lawsuits against him.
Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello‘s relationship is just too sweet for words.
Shawn posted a photo of himself kissing Camila on a hotel balcony ahead of Wednesday’s Miami red carpet premiere of Camila’s first movie, Cinderella, which hits Amazon Prime Video Friday. She’s wearing a huge Christian Siriano yellow tulle skirt and a sleeveless white crop top, while he’s sporting a sheer black top with a deep V-neck.
Shawn captioned the pic, “Congratulations my love, I’m so proud of you. I’ve never seen anybody work as hard as you did to show up everyday and be truly professional, kind and authentic. I admire you so much. Such a beautiful movie with a beautiful message…te amo mi vida.”
It was Camila’s second premiere in a week. After the first one, in LA Camila wrote on Instagram, “love this film so much. And I love this cast so much….Wait till you see what [director] @kaykaycannon did when you see this movie: she’s a bada** woman who wrote and directed a movie about a bada** woman!”
Camila continued, “Spoiler alert! This is not a princess story like you’ve seen before. She’s a dreamer, honey.” Camila also thanked her co-stars Idina Menzel and Billy Porter, as well as her Prince Charming, Nicholas Galitzine.
“thank you for being the best person to make this movie with and making me laugh with your anchorman voice,” Camila wrote to Nicholas. “Mates 4 lyf and I love u!!!!!”
The CMT Artists of the Year special will return once again to Nashville, taking place at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center in the heart of Music City. The event is returning to its original format, after honoring American heroes in 2020 who were serving on the front lines of the pandemic.
The CMT Artists of the Year ceremony will honor the top five country artists who had had massive success in country music over the past 12 months. While this year’s honorees have yet to be announced, previous artists honored include Kane Brown, Miranda Lambert, Loretta Lynn, Lady A, Carrie Underwood, Reba McEntire, Thomas Rhett and more.
Special musical performances and collaborations will occur during the live broadcast as well. CMT Artists of the Year will take place on Wednesday, October 13, at 9 p.m. ET on CMT.
ABBA in 2021, in motion-capture suits/Credit: Baillie Walsh
All you dancing queens — and kings — get ready to feel the beat, because ABBA is officially back.
The group will release their first new album in 40 years, Voyage, November 5. Two songs from the record — “I Still Have Faith In You” and “Don’t Shut Me Down” — are available now.
The new music was created in tandem with a concert experience which will see digital avatars of Agnetha, Björn, Benny and Anni-Frid performing digitally with a live 10-piece band, in a purpose-built, 3,000-person capacity arena in London. The video for “I Still Have Faith In You” gives you your first look at those avatars, which perform the song.
The digital avatars were created by months of motion capture of the four band members by an 850-person team at top special effects company Industrial Light & Magic.
The Voyage shows premiere May 27, 2022, with pre-registration for tickets starting at 6 p.m. tonight at ABBAVoyage.com. If you pre-register, you can get tickets starting at 10 a.m. September 6; the general public on sale date is 10 a.m. September 7.
ABBA’s Benny says of the concert experience, “We’re truly sailing in uncharted waters. With the help of our younger selves, we travel into the future. It’s not easy to explain but then it hasn’t been done before.” Of the new music, he says, “I think hearing Frida and Agnetha singing again is hard to beat.”
Anni-Frid, aka Frida, adds, “Such joy it was to work with the group again. I am so happy with what we have made, and I dearly hope our fans feel the same.”
Agnetha says, “I can hardly believe that finally, the moment has come to share this with the world!”
Björn declares, “The Voyage project has injected new life into us in more ways than one. So, again, thanks for waiting!…It’s not an exaggeration to say that we’re back.”
Thanks to his Dua Lipa collabo, “Cold Heart,” any barriers keeping Elton John from returning to the pop charts have melted away.
As Billboard notes, the mash-up of three past Elton songs created by dance duo Pnau has entered Billboard’s Pop Airplay chart at number 39. This is the first time Elton’s appeared on that chart since January of 1998, with his song “Something About the Way You Look Tonight.”
If you’re having a hard time imagining how long ago that was, Billboard has put it into perspective: Two artists who are currently on top of the Pop Airplay chart weren’t even born in 1998. The Kid LAROI and Olivia Rodrigo were both born in 2003.
In addition, 74-year-old Elton has now set a record for having the longest span of songs on the Pop Airplay chart. He appeared on the very first one, back in October of 1992, so now his span is a month shy of 29 years.
As previously reported, “Cold Heart” will be part of The Lockdown Sessions, an upcoming album by Elton featuring collaborations he recorded during the pandemic. It features him working with everyone from Lil Nas X to Stevie Nicks to Charlie Puth.
