NASHVILLE (AP) – The home of the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville will have its grand reopening today after a $14 million expansion that lasted a year. The upgrades to the Ryman Auditorium will include a wider lobby, more concessions, more bathrooms and a new restaurant called Cafe Lula. The renovations were done to the part of the building added in the 1990s.
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NASHVILLE, Tn. – On June 9th, Cleopatra Records will release Sammy Kershaw’s first album of new country material in five years, I WON’T BACK DOWN.
The Louisiana country crooner was a mainstay on country radio throughout the 90’s with hits like “Cadillac Style,” “She Don’t Know She’s Beautiful” and “Third Rate Romance.” Kershaw has more recently recorded a tribute album to his friend and childhood idol George Jones, a Christmas album and a compilation album with Aaron Tippin and Joe Diffie. With a legacy that stretches across three decades, encompasses gold and platinum sales Kershaw continues to travel coast-to-coast on tour throughout the year.
“The fans have waited for a while. Hell, I’ve waited for a while,” says Kershaw. “At our shows, or wherever we go, people keep asking for new music. I’m glad to have a new record coming their way.”
NASHVILLE (AP) – Tim McGraw will launch a tour today and once again, he’s giving away houses to military veterans. McGraw has teamed with Operation Homefront and Chase to give mortgage-free homes to veterans. In the past three years, he’s awarded 108 homes in 30 states. Thirty-six homes will be given during the upcoming “Shotgun Rider” tour.
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The Rolling Stones warmed up for their current North American tour with a surprise show at the 1,200-capacity Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles on May 20. Now comes word that the intimate gig, during which the British rock legends played their entire 1971 Sticky Fingers album, may be the focus of a new concert movie or home video.
In a Rolling Stone interview last week, frontman Mick Jagger said his band worked hard rehearsing for the show because it was being filmed for a possible future release.
“We had to revisit tunes that we don’t do very often, and we had to make sure they worked really well,” Jagger explained. “We worked quite hard on ‘Sister Morphine’ and ‘I Got the Blues.’ They’re not actually that easy to do — it’s not simple 12-bar stuff.”
Guitarist Keith Richards, meanwhile, revealed he and his band mates have been discussing the possibility of making a new album. “Just last week, the word ‘studio’ popped up while we were rehearsing,” he told Rolling Stone. “I said, ‘Well, let’s find a time. I’m ready!'”
That time likely won’t open up until later in the year, since The Stones are eyeing a fall South American trek after the North American tour winds down in July. “I’m looking at what the options are,” said Jagger about the fall outing. “We haven’t etched it in stone.”
Guitarist Ronnie Wood, meanwhile, told Rolling Stone he and his band mates are getting along great.
“I think it’s the best vibe ever within the band,” maintained Wood. “We’ve never been closer.” Richards agreed, while suggesting that the tragic suicide of Jagger’s longtime girlfriend L’Wren Scott last year has made the singer focus more on the group.
“Mick went through that terrible thing, and the band has become even more important to him because of that,” Keith said.
The Rolling Stones play their next show on their North American Zip Code Tour in Dallas Saturday, June 6.
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NASHVILLE (AP) – Kip Moore is planning to build skateparks in four cities. Moore’s “Comeback Kid Skatepark Project” will oversee the building of skateparks in Nashville; Boston; San Marcos, Texas; and Annapolis, Maryland. Moore says the project is a dream of his to provide kids in inner cities and smaller towns a safe outlet. Moore plans to have the parks opened by the fall. He says he’s starting with these four cities but he plans to expand the project.
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LOS ANGELES (AP) – The Grateful Dead are offering a boxed set for the fan with 73 hours to kill.
The set “30 Trips Around The Sun” includes 80 discs containing an unreleased live show for each year of the band’s 30-year run.
Don’t want to deal with 80 discs? It also comes on a USB drive. A four-CD sampler will also be available.
The boxed set sells for just under $700 and will come out September 18.
Click here for further details.
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Other Voices and Full Circle, the two studio albums The Doors recorded as a trio after frontman Jim Morrison’s death, will be reissued September 4 as separate vinyl LPs and packaged as a two-CD set.
For years, the albums only could be purchased as digital downloads, and they’ve never been released together on CD.
Doors members Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger and John Densmorebegan working on the material for Other Voices in Los Angeles while Morrison was in Paris taking a planned hiatus from the group.
When the singer died in the French capital July 3, 1971, the surviving band members completed the record with Manzarek and Krieger taking over vocal duties.
Other Voices was released October of that year and yielded the singles “Tightrope Ride” and “Ships w/ Sails.”
The Doors continued on as a trio and put out the more funk- and jazz-inspired Full Circle in August of 1972. One single was released from the album, “Get Up and Dance.”
The band decided to break up in 1973, although Manzarek, Krieger and Densmore went on to work together again on a few occasions over the years. Manzarek died in May 2013.
Both records were remastered for release this year by original producer Bruce Botnick. The LP versions will be pressed on 180-gram vinyl and will feature packaging and artwork replicating those of the original release.
The CD set will include a bonus track, “Treetrunk,” which initially was available as the B-side of “Get Up and Dance.”
Here are the track lists for Other Voices and Full Circle:
Other Voices
“In the Eye of the Sun”
“Variety Is the Spice of Life”
“Ships w/Sails”
“Tightrope Ride”
“Down on the Farm”
“I’m Horny, I’m Stoned”
“Wandering Musician”
“Hang On to Your Life”
Full Circle
“Get Up and Dance”
“4 Billion Souls”
“Verdilac”
“Hardwood Floor”
“Good Rockin'”
“The Mosquito”
“The Piano Bird”
“It Slipped My Mind”
“The Peking King and the New York Queen”
“Treetrunk” (appears only on the two-CD set.)
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NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Alligator Records has set a June 2 street date for Meet Me In Bluesland, a previously unreleased album by Grammy-winning Southern blues-rockers The Kentucky Headhunters with pianist Johnnie Johnson, a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee. The performances found Johnson — the manRolling Stone called “the greatest sideman in rock and roll” for his groundbreaking piano work with Chuck Berry — playing some of the deepest and most rocking blues piano of his legendary career. With The Kentucky Headhunters at their down-home best, the record is a country-fried, blues-infused party from start to finish.
On January 25, 2003, Johnson joined his hosts, The Rolling Stones, for a rousing rendition of Honky Tonk Women at Houston, Texas’ Reliant Stadium. After hanging out all night with Keith Richards, Johnson got on a plane and flew to Kentucky. There he reunited with his good friends, brothers Richard and Fred Young, Greg Martin, Doug Phelps and Anthony Kenney, known worldwide as The Kentucky Headhunters. The plan was to have Johnnie lay down some piano for the band’s upcoming release, Soul. But the vibe was too strong and the music too good, so the tape just kept rolling. With songs and arrangements furiously being created on the spot and everything recorded live as it happened over the course of three days, a magical musical event was underway. Because the whole session was spontaneous, there were no immediate plans to release an album. After Johnnie’s death in 2005, the tapes, while never forgotten, remained unissued.
With the release of Meet Me In Bluesland, these timeless and rollicking performances are available for the first time. The album grooves from the raunchy rock of Stumblin’ to the slide-fueledSuperman Blues to the roof-raising version of Little Queenie to the rocking Party In Heaven to the salacious She’s Got To Have It (the last vocal Johnson ever recorded).
Click here to listen to Stumblin’, She’s Got To Have It, and Party In Heaven:
https://soundcloud.com/alligator-recs/sets/kentucky-headhunters-w-johnnie/s-KrTVX
“The minute Johnnie sat down with us, the music was a kind of ecstasy,” says guitarist/vocalist Richard Young. “Johnnie made us play like real men,” adds guitarist/vocalist Greg Martin. “Playing with him, the groove got bigger and much more grown up.” Drummer Fred Young explains, “We all admired Johnnie from the start. The first time we played with him was the first time I ever felt like we were doing it right. The music we made on Meet Me In Bluesland is as good as it gets.”
The relationship between Johnson and The Kentucky Headhunters dated back to 1992. Headed to New York for a Grammy Awards party, Greg picked up the new Johnnie Johnson CD, Johnnie B. Bad, for the ride. The band listened to nothing else all the way to New York. Having no idea he’d be at the party, they were shocked to see Johnnie Johnson sitting alone at a table. After some quick introductions, the musicians talked for hours, becoming fast friends. In 1993 they released their first collaboration, That’ll Work, on Nonesuch. They took the show on the road, playing gigs from the West Coast to New England, from Chicago’s Buddy Guy’s Legends to New York City’s Lone Star Café. They performed at The Jamboree In The Hills in Belmont County, Ohio, where Johnson, with the Headhunters triumphantly jamming behind him, played to over 30,000 fans.
From their very first meeting, Johnson and The Kentucky Headhunters stayed close, getting together whenever possible. In 2003, when the band asked Johnson to record with them again, he couldn’t wait to get back to Kentucky and make music with his friends. “Johnnie’s music was spontaneous, organic, magic energy,” says Greg. “During the recordings, everything was off-the-cuff and easy; a higher power just took over. This album is special, and we’re very happy in 2015 that it’s coming to fruition.” Adds Fred, “Johnnie gave us the gift of letting us know what it was like to do something great.”
The Kentucky Headhunters, declared “the great American rock ‘n’ roll band” by Billboard magazine, began their professional journey in 1968 when brothers Fred and Richard Young and cousins Greg Martin and Anthony Kenney formed the Southern blues-rock band Itchy Brother. The band morphed into The Kentucky Headhunters in 1986. Their first album, 1989’s Pickin’ On Nashville, was released by Mercury Records and surprised the world, becoming a bona fide hit, selling over two million copies. The album won a Grammy Award, three Country Music Awards, an American Music Award and an Academy Of Country Music Award. It spawned four consecutive Top 40 Country hits. Currently, the band is made up of Richard Young, Fred Young, Greg Martin and Doug Phelps.
Growing up on a 1300-acre family farm in Edmonton, Kentucky, the Young brothers, Martin and Kenney heard plenty of raucous R&B and deep, soulful blues courtesy of Fred and Richard’s mother, who listened to powerhouse radio station WLAC late at night. “She was a real hip white girl,” Richard says. “She was a huge influence on us.” Their father loved big band jazz, Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey and Sarah Vaughan. “Music in our home was a mixture, unlike what most farm kids heard.” Part of their musical upbringing included their friendship with three African-American families who lived and worked on nearby farms. The boys heard gospel and blues, both sung by their neighbors in the fields and blasting out of their radios. They were reared on Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy Waters (the name Headhunters was a nickname given to Waters and Jimmy Rogers when they came into a club ready to take on all comers). “All of these things taught us the blues,” says Richard. They loved Chuck Berry, and were especially wowed by Berry’s piano player, Johnnie Johnson. Befriending him and recording with him was a dream come true for the band. According to Fred, “We were fortunate to know him. It was a good marriage.” Richard adds, “Anyone who ever played with him became a better player.”
Johnnie Johnson was born on July 8, 1924 in Fairmont, West Virginia. He began playing piano at age five and never stopped. While serving in the Marines, he joined The Barracudas, a Marines servicemen’s band. He moved to Detroit and then Chicago, eventually playing with Muddy Waters and Little Walter. He landed in St. Louis in 1952 where he formed The Sir John Trio, playing jazz, blues and pop standards. Chuck Berry, an ambitious local guitarist and songwriter, was added to the group the same year and eventually took over leadership of the band. After Berry scored a contract with Chess Records, the hits came fast and furious. Many, including Maybellene, Nadine, Carol and School Days, were fueled by Johnson’s two-fisted piano. He was the high-octane gasoline in Chuck Berry’s rock ‘n’ roll engine. When Chuck wasn’t touring, Johnson played with Albert King, and recorded a number of singles with him for the Bobbin label. Tired of the road, Johnson left Chuck’s band in 1973 and returned to St. Louis to become a bus driver. With the 1987 release of the Chuck Berry documentary, Hail! Hail! Rock ‘n’ Roll, Johnson found himself back in the spotlight, reintroduced to the world by his friend-to-be Keith Richards. After three solo recordings, Johnson joined his musical cohorts The Kentucky Headhunters for 1993’s That’ll Work. In 1996 and 1997 he toured with Ratdog, the band fronted by The Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir. Johnson was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001 and continued to perform and record until his death in 2005. His 2003 sessions with The Kentucky Headhunters, released now for the very first time as Meet Me In Bluesland, are some of the most spirited and organic recordings of his remarkable and still influential career.
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99 KZ Country is celebrating Beef Month by giving you the chance to win a customized $200 Beef Bundle from Ellis Hometown Food Center.
Listen for the herd of cows on KHAZ weekday mornings with Theresa Trapp. That’s the cue to call 785-628-2995 to registered for the drawing. One registration per person per day. No age requirement to register.
Ellis Hometown Food Center is open seven days a week with a meat market offering everything for your family dinner, your barbeque at the lake, your graduation party and your summer backyard get-togethers. See Ellis Hometown Food Center, where they are proud to be the “Beef Month” Sponsor on KHAZ.
Winner will be announced on June 1, 2015.
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As a member of KISS, Paul Stanley has reaped the benefits of the band’s voracious penchant for selling branded items, and now the singer/guitarist is set to launch his own lifestyle brand company.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer has teamed with the Epic Rights marketing company to create the Paul Stanley: Royals & Rebels brand, which will be introduced next month at the Licensing Expo trade event in Las Vegas.
Among the various products expected to be included in the Royals & Rebels brand are men’s clothing and accessories, food, alcoholic beverages, footwear, cookware, home furnishing items and much more.
Branded items are expected to be available at various retail outlets by the fall of 2016.
“Over the years, [Epic Rights CEO] Dell [Furano] and I have worked closely on the strategic developments and partnerships on the KISS brand, as well as more recently with Rock & Brews and my paintings,” says Stanley in a statement.
“I am excited to watch Dell and Epic Rights’ great team of branding professionals seek out and find opportunities and outlets that will reflect a lifestyle and point of view that I am passionate about and do it imaginatively and creatively in the years to come.”
Furano, meanwhile, calls Stanley “the definitive rock Renaissance man with a sense of style in arts, fashion, design and food that is unrivaled in the music industry.”
Stanley and KISS launch a European tour this Saturday, May 30, with a headlining performance at the Rockavaria Festival in Munich. Visit KISSOnline.com to check out the band’s full itinerary.
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Founding Rolling Stone bassist Bill Wyman will turn 79 this October, but despite his advancing age, he’s still making new music. Next month, the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer will release his first solo album in 33 years,Back to Basics.
Wyman admits that he initially wondered if he might be “too old” to put out a new album, but quickly thought the better of it.
“I thought, ‘Every creative artist goes until they drop,'” he tells Rolling Stone. “Whether they’re sculptors, writers, poets or musicians, they just carry on as long as they can. So then I thought, ‘What the hell.'”
Wyman was inspired to make the record after rediscovering some forgotten demos of songs he felt never got their due. He decided to revisit those tunes, as well as some other old songs that hadn’t made it onto his earlier solo albums, and record updated versions of them.
Bill explains to Rolling Stone that he used the stripped-down sounds of a number of acclaimed songwriters as inspiration for the album.
“I wanted it to be inspired a bit like After the Gold Rush by Neil Young, to capture the simplicity of those couple of albums he did around that time,” he points out. “I was also inspired by J.J. Cale, who I had done stuff with inThe Rhythm Kings, and Tom Waits and the way he sings.”
Wyman adds that another influence on the new album was 80-yar-old Canadian singer/songwriter Leonard Cohen, describing his 1984 tune “Dance Me to the End of Love” as “wonderful.”
Back to Basics also features a number of brand-new compositions that Wyman says he wrote “in my house on a little acoustic guitar.” He notes that since he’s not a guitar player, “I usually just mess about on the bottom strings for little guitar licks and riffs.”
Meanwhile, Bill says he has no interest in ever reuniting with The Rolling Stones again.
“You can’t go back and relive something and have it be the same,” he insists, while pointing out that he’s “still great mates” with his former band mates.
“We still send each other Christmas and birthday presents as we always did,” Wyman reveals, “and sometimes I do gigs with Charlie [Watts] and his band or with Ronnie Wood if he’s doing a special.”
Bill says he “loved every minute” of his 31 years in the band, and is “proud of everything we did,” but was very ready to retire from The Stones after the three major tours they mounted in 1989 and ’90.
“I thought, ‘That’s enough for me, there’s nowhere else to go,'” he recalls. “I was happy to move on because there were so many other things that I wanted to do in my life that I had planned to years and years and years before, never expecting as anyone did that the band would last that long.”
Back to Basics will hit stores in the U.K. on June 22. No U.S. release has been announced yet.
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Images courtesy Proper Records
MANHATTAN – The Country Stampede in Manhattan will be on June 25th through June 28th.
Eagle Radio of Hays has four-day general admission tickets for sale. They retail for $160 each — we’ll sell them for $92.20 each.
Call Scarlett at (785) 625-2578 for information or to purchase tickets. First come, first served.
Drop by the Eagle Media Center at 2300 Hall or call (785) 625-2578 to purchase your specially priced Kick Country Stampede tickets TODAY! Supplies are limited!
This year’s attendees will see the biggest names and brightest stars in Country music take the main stage throughout the weekend (June 25-28) in Manhattan, Kansas, including megastar and judge on NBC’s The Voice Blake Shelton, superstar duo Florida Georgia Line, Country music’s sweetheart Sara Evans, Country legend Travis Tritt, Thomas Rhett, Jerrod Niemann, Craig Morgan and many more. See the full line-up here.
Related story: Hays artist advances in competition for main stage gig.
A new DVD/double-CD set documenting a Gregg Allman solo concert that took place in January of last year in Macon, Georgia, will be released on August 7.
Gregg Allman Live: Back to Macon, GA features the foundingAllman Brothers Band singer and his eight-piece backing group playing a 16-song set at historic Grand Opera House in Macon, the Allmans’ adopted hometown.
Among the tunes Gregg performed at the show were Allman Brothers classics like “Statesboro Blues,” “Melissa,” “Midnight Rider,” “Whipping Post” and “One Way Out,” as well as his hit “I’m No Angel” and other selections from his solo catalog.
Allman’s son Devon makes a guest appearance at the concert.
The video portion of the release, which will be Allman’s first solo DVD, includes interview segments interspersed with the performances, as well as two bonus songs — “Stormy Monday” and “Floating Bridge.” The set also contains a feature titled The Gregg Allman Band at the H&H.
The Gregg Allman Live package features liner notes penned by Allman Brothers historian John Lynskey.
The liner notes quote Gregg as saying about the show, “Macon is a wonderful town with wonderful people, and I still have some dear, dear friends there.
Macon holds a special place in my heart; it comes with a lot of different memories, but the good ones are all that matter to me now. I’m so proud of this album; boy, we were smokin’ that night.”
RollingStone.com has premiered a clip from the DVD of Gregg and his band, along with Devon Allman, performing an epic 11-minute version of “One Way Out.”
Meanwhile, Gregg has lined up a variety of solo shows this year, including a late-summer run of joint concerts with The Doobie Brothers. Check out his full itinerary at GreggAllman.com.
Here is the full track list of Gregg Allman Live: Back to Macon, GA:
CD 1
“Statesboro Blues”
“I’m No Angel”
“Queen of Hearts”
“I Can’t Be Satisfied”
“These Days”
“Ain’t Wastin’ Time No More”
“Brightest Smile in Town”
“Hot’Lanta”
“I’ve Found a Love”
CD 2
“Don’t Keep Me Wonderin'”
“Before the Bullets Fly”
“Melissa”
“Midnight Rider”
“Love Like Kerosene”
“Whipping Post”
“One Way Out”
DVD
“Statesboro Blues”
“I’m No Angel”
“Queen of Hearts”
Interview: What Macon Was To Us
“I Can’t Be Satisfied”
“These Days”
“Ain’t Wastin’ Time No More”
Interview: Practicing in Macon
“Brightest Smile in Town”
“Hot’Lanta”
“I’ve Found a Love”
“Don’t Keep Me Wonderin'”
“Before the Bullets Fly”
“Melissa”
Interview: We Worked Hard
“Midnight Rider”
“Love Like Kerosene”
Interview: Songwriting for The Allman Brothers
“Whipping Post”
“One Way Out”
Bonus Tracks:
“Stormy Monday”
“Floating Bridge”
Feature: The Gregg Allman Band at the H&H
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Cover photo: Alberto Cabello
