Folk Rock
Bruce Springsteen Teases New Album, Performs Acoustic Set at Woody Guthrie Prize Event: Watch
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-05-14T15:41:23+00:00“>May 14, 2021 | 11:41am ET Bruce Springsteen was this year’s recipient of the Woody Guthrie Prize, an award bestowed upon an artist who represents the “spirit and work” of the folk icon. During the virtual acceptance ceremony on Thursday night, the Boss not only played a four-song acoustic set honoring Guthrie, he teased a new album “coming out soon.” The casual mention came during a Q&A with Guthrie’s daughter, Nora, and Grammy Museum Executive Director Robert Santelli. “California was an enormous influence on some of my most topical writing through my ‘90s, 2000s and even now,” Springsteen said. “We have a record coming out soon that’s set largely in the W...
Bob Dylan Museum Opens in Tulsa, Oklahoma
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-05-12T20:22:52+00:00“>May 12, 2021 | 4:22pm ET For nearly 60 years, Bob Dylan has been churning out albums that have changed the course of folk history — and music at large — in the process. Now, he’s finally getting an in-depth retrospective to honor his work. On May 10th, Tulsa, Oklahoma officially opened The Bob Dylan Center, a permanent three-story museum honoring the Pulitzer Prize-winning artist. According to the The Bob Dylan Center’s website, the museum boasts “more than 100,000 exclusive cultural treasures found in The Bob Dylan Archive.” These include handwritten lyrics for some of his most treasured songs, previously unreleased recordings, never-before-seen film performan...
Dawes Announce Fall 2021 Tour Dates
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-04-13T18:56:38+00:00“>April 13, 2021 | 2:56pm ET Dawes have announced an expansive fall tour in support of their latest album Good Luck with Whatever, which came out last October during the coronavirus pandemic doldrums. The band’s seventh studio album was previewed with singles like “Who Do You Think You’re Talking To?” and “Didn’t Fix Me”, the latter of which was one of our favorite songs of 2020. While the band was able to promote Good Luck with Whatever with performances on Kimmel and Colbert, this 32-date trek is their first opportunity to capitalize on the album’s success. The tour is broadly divided into two legs. The first part kicks o...
Joni Mitchell Announces New Box Set The Reprise Albums (1968-1971)
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-04-09T18:21:48+00:00“>April 9, 2021 | 2:21pm ET Joni Mitchell is celebrating arguably her greatest run as an artist with a new box set. The collection, titled The Reprise Albums (1968-1971), will feature her prolific four-album run for Reprise Records — 1968’s Song to a Seagull, 1969’s Clouds, 1970’s Ladies of the Canyon, and 1971’s Blue — just in time to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the iconic Blue. The box set is due out June 25th via Rhino. The Reprise Albums (1968-1971) will feature newly remastered versions of all four albums, but arguably the most significant is Song to a Seagull. Mitchell and mixer Matt Lee updated the original mix after discovering that it was...
Brandi Carlile Covers Joni Mitchell’s “A Case of You” on Colbert: Watch
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-04-07T17:27:24+00:00“>April 7, 2021 | 1:27pm ET On Tuesday night, Brandi Carlile virtually stopped by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to promote her new memoir, Broken Horses. The musician and the host primarily talked about her “stream of consciousness” writing approach for the book and her “faith journey as a queer person”. Right before the segment’s end, though, Colbert asked Carlile if she would treat him to a cover of Joni Mitchell, and Carlile happily obliged with an acoustic rendition of “A Case of You”. In a way, this cover song was a multiple-year-long dream for Colbert. Back in 2019, Carlile performed the entirety of Mitchell’s iconic 1971 album Blue at the Disney ...
Waxahatchee Releases Anniversary Reissue of Saint Cloud: Stream
One year ago, Waxahatchee exceeded expectations when she released her album Saint Cloud. It wound up being one of our favorite LPs of the year thanks to some truly unforgettable tracks. Now, Katie Crutchfield is celebrating that milestone by releasing a special first anniversary edition of the album with three previously unreleased cover songs. Stream it below via Apple Music and Spotify. In addition to the original 11 tracks that make up Saint Cloud, this new reissue includes three exclusive covers: a slow-burning country take on “Fruits of My Labor” by Lucinda Williams, a sunny cover of Dolly Parton’s “Light of a Clear Blue Morning”, and a gentle rendition of “Streets of Philadelphia” by the one and only Bruce Springsteen. Listening to them back to back, it’s easy to understand...
The Decemberists Announce Three Livestream Concerts to Celebrate 20th Anniversary
Grab your earbuds and climb aboard because The Decemberists are setting sail on the world wide web. Today, the beloved indie folk group have announced a series of livestream concerts to celebrate their 20th anniversary as a band, after their previously announced anniversary tour was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “It was with truly heavy hearts that we announced the cancellation of this summer’s tour,” wrote frontman Colin Meloy in a letter to fans. “We really had hoped that we’d be able to play in front of you sweaty, singing thousands when we postponed the dates initially — and while there is every reason to believe that this pandemic may soon be a strange and bitter memory (yay vaccines! yay science!), it just isn’t wise to gather together in our sweaty, singing multitudes *qui...
Skullcrusher Announces New Storm in Summer EP, Shares Title Track: Stream
Helen Ballentine has announced the next project under her Skullcrusher banner. The Storm in Summer EP drops April 9th via Secretly Canadian, and has released the title track as an early preview. The five-track follow-up to her 2020 Skullcrusher EP finds Ballentine reeling from the spotlight after experiencing some unexpected success. As she explained in a statement, “I wrote ‘Storm in Summer’ after releasing the first Skullcrusher EP. Over that summer I thought a lot about what it means to really put myself out there and share something personal. I felt so vulnerable and overwhelmed by the fact that these songs I had written in private were exposed and likely being misinterpreted or disliked. I think the song really tries to communicate these anxieties in a cathartic way whi...
Skullcrusher Conjures Vintage Folk on New Single “Song For Nick Drake”: Stream
Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter Helen Ballentine records music under the moniker Skullcrusher, but it doesn’t sound like what you might expect it to. She writes dreamy folk songs fit for Secretly Canadian — who fittingly released her debut EP last year — and today she’s back with another slice of such: a standalone single called “Song for Nick Drake”. As the title implies, “Song for Nick Drake” is an ode to the late pastoral legend and the visceral memories his music conjures. “‘Song for Nick Drake’ is about my relationship to the music of Nick Drake,” explained Ballentine in a press release. “It recalls moments in my life that are viscerally intertwined with his music, specifically times spent walking and taking the train. The song is really my homage to music and the times I felt mos...
Neil Young Sells 50% of Rights to His Entire Song Catalog
Neil Young is the latest prominent artist to sign away publishing rights, adding to an ongoing trend in the music industry. The deal sees publishing house Hipgnosis acquire half the worldwide copyright of and any resulting income from Young’s over 1,180 original songs. Exactly how much cash the sale netted the folk rock icon isn’t known, but it’s almost undoubtedly a nine-figure sum. It’s the latest major deal made just this week by Hipgnosis, founded in 2018 by artist manager Merck Mercuriadis (Elton John, Beyoncé). Earlier, the company closed on 100% of Fleetwood Mac member Lindsay Buckingham’s catalog, as well as for producer royalties for 259 songs by Beats founder Jimmy Iovine. Young’s catalog now joins those and others owned by Hipgnosis, including Timbaland, The-Dream, Mark Ronson, ...
Neil Young Returns to His Hometown to Play “Comes a Time” in an Empty Theater: Watch
Coronavirus may be keeping people apart from their relatives this holiday season, but that didn’t stop Neil Young from finding a socially distanced way to tap into his own family nostalgia. Young recently returned to his childhood hometown of Omemee, Ontario to film a special performance of “Come a Time” to an empty Coronation Hall, the venue where he spent numerous evenings with his parents as a boy. The clip, which clocks in just under four minutes, sees Young walking onstage to a completely empty Coronation Hall. The tiny venue looks regal yet worn without people populating the space, especially when Young sits in a chair onstage front and center. With some papers scattered on the floor and a few microphones positioned at his height, Young begins playing his heartfelt 1978 classic with ...
Bob Dylan to Release Archival 1970 Set Featuring Nine Songs with George Harrison
On the heels of selling his entire songwriting catalog, Bob Dylan has announced a special new archival set is on the way. It’s called 1970 and it features 74 previously unreleased tracks, demos, and outtakes, including nine songs that feature George Harrison. It’s due out on February 26th, 2021 via Columbia/Legacy. As the title suggests, 1970 focuses on the music Dylan released during that era. The three-disc set boasts outtakes from the sessions that birthed both Self Portrait and New Morning, the two albums he released that year, as well as alternate versions of select songs, such as “Alligator Man”, and instrumentals. Of course, the most alluring part of this special release is Dylan’s collaborations with the late Beatles guitarist. On May 1st, 1970, the two holed up in a studio to...
