Eric Johnson - rescheduled
Due to the doctor’s orders she has had to postpone her upcoming August concerts (Knoxville, Chattanooga, Johnson City, Wilmington). The concerts have been rescheduled for April and June, 2023. All tickets will be honored at the new performance dates. There are no other changes to her touring schedule at this time. Go to Amy’s website for the latest concert schedule and details.
From Lincoln Center Theater that brought you The King & I and South Pacific, comes “a sumptuous new production of the most perfect musical of all time” (Entertainment Weekly), Lerner & Loewe’s MY FAIR LADY. Director Bartlett Sher’s glowing production is “thrilling, glorious and better than it ever was” (New York Times). “Every so often a revival comes along that reminds you how indispensable great theater can be” (NY1).
Boasting such classic songs as “I Could Have Danced All Night,” “The Rain in Spain,” “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly” and “On the Street Where You Live,” MY FAIR LADY tells the story of Eliza Doolittle, a young Cockney flower seller, and Henry Higgins, a linguistics professor who is determined to transform her into his idea of a “proper lady.” But who is really being transformed?
From Lincoln Center Theater that brought you The King & I and South Pacific, comes “a sumptuous new production of the most perfect musical of all time” (Entertainment Weekly), Lerner & Loewe’s MY FAIR LADY. Director Bartlett Sher’s glowing production is “thrilling, glorious and better than it ever was” (New York Times). “Every so often a revival comes along that reminds you how indispensable great theater can be” (NY1).
Boasting such classic songs as “I Could Have Danced All Night,” “The Rain in Spain,” “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly” and “On the Street Where You Live,” MY FAIR LADY tells the story of Eliza Doolittle, a young Cockney flower seller, and Henry Higgins, a linguistics professor who is determined to transform her into his idea of a “proper lady.” But who is really being transformed?
From Lincoln Center Theater that brought you The King & I and South Pacific, comes “a sumptuous new production of the most perfect musical of all time” (Entertainment Weekly), Lerner & Loewe’s MY FAIR LADY. Director Bartlett Sher’s glowing production is “thrilling, glorious and better than it ever was” (New York Times). “Every so often a revival comes along that reminds you how indispensable great theater can be” (NY1).
Boasting such classic songs as “I Could Have Danced All Night,” “The Rain in Spain,” “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly” and “On the Street Where You Live,” MY FAIR LADY tells the story of Eliza Doolittle, a young Cockney flower seller, and Henry Higgins, a linguistics professor who is determined to transform her into his idea of a “proper lady.” But who is really being transformed?
After 25 years, CHICAGO is still the one musical with everything that makes Broadway shimmy-shake: a universal tale of fame, fortune, and all that jazz, with one show stopping song after another and the most astonishing dancing you’ve ever seen. No wonder CHICAGO has been honored with 6 Tony Awards®, 2 Olivier Awards, a Grammy®, and thousands of standing ovations. As we celebrate our 25th anniversary — you’ve got to come see why the name on everyone’s lips is still…CHICAGO.
After 25 years, CHICAGO is still the one musical with everything that makes Broadway shimmy-shake: a universal tale of fame, fortune, and all that jazz, with one show stopping song after another and the most astonishing dancing you’ve ever seen. No wonder CHICAGO has been honored with 6 Tony Awards®, 2 Olivier Awards, a Grammy®, and thousands of standing ovations. As we celebrate our 25th anniversary — you’ve got to come see why the name on everyone’s lips is still…CHICAGO.
After 25 years, CHICAGO is still the one musical with everything that makes Broadway shimmy-shake: a universal tale of fame, fortune, and all that jazz, with one show stopping song after another and the most astonishing dancing you’ve ever seen. No wonder CHICAGO has been honored with 6 Tony Awards®, 2 Olivier Awards, a Grammy®, and thousands of standing ovations. As we celebrate our 25th anniversary — you’ve got to come see why the name on everyone’s lips is still…CHICAGO.
Celebrating its 50th Anniversary, a new mesmerizing production of the iconic musical phenomenon returns to the stage. Originally staged by London’s Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre and helmed by the acclaimed director Timothy Sheader (Crazy for You, Into the Woods) and cutting-edge choreographer Drew McOnie (King Kong, Strictly Ballroom), this production won the 2017 Olivier Award for Best Musical Revival garnering unprecedented reviews and accolades. Appealing to both theater audiences and concert music fans, this production pays tribute to the historic 1971 Billboard Album of the Year while creating a modern, theatrical world that is uniquely fresh and inspiring.
With lyrics and music by Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony winners Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber, Jesus Christ Superstar is set against the backdrop of an extraordinary series of events during the final weeks in the life of Jesus Christ as seen through the eyes of Judas. Reflecting the rock roots that defined a generation, the legendary score includes ‘I Don’t Know How to Love Him’, ‘Gethsemane’ and ‘Superstar’.
Celebrating its 50th Anniversary, a new mesmerizing production of the iconic musical phenomenon returns to the stage. Originally staged by London’s Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre and helmed by the acclaimed director Timothy Sheader (Crazy for You, Into the Woods) and cutting-edge choreographer Drew McOnie (King Kong, Strictly Ballroom), this production won the 2017 Olivier Award for Best Musical Revival garnering unprecedented reviews and accolades. Appealing to both theater audiences and concert music fans, this production pays tribute to the historic 1971 Billboard Album of the Year while creating a modern, theatrical world that is uniquely fresh and inspiring.
With lyrics and music by Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony winners Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber, Jesus Christ Superstar is set against the backdrop of an extraordinary series of events during the final weeks in the life of Jesus Christ as seen through the eyes of Judas. Reflecting the rock roots that defined a generation, the legendary score includes ‘I Don’t Know How to Love Him’, ‘Gethsemane’ and ‘Superstar’.
Celebrating its 50th Anniversary, a new mesmerizing production of the iconic musical phenomenon returns to the stage. Originally staged by London’s Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre and helmed by the acclaimed director Timothy Sheader (Crazy for You, Into the Woods) and cutting-edge choreographer Drew McOnie (King Kong, Strictly Ballroom), this production won the 2017 Olivier Award for Best Musical Revival garnering unprecedented reviews and accolades. Appealing to both theater audiences and concert music fans, this production pays tribute to the historic 1971 Billboard Album of the Year while creating a modern, theatrical world that is uniquely fresh and inspiring.
With lyrics and music by Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony winners Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber, Jesus Christ Superstar is set against the backdrop of an extraordinary series of events during the final weeks in the life of Jesus Christ as seen through the eyes of Judas. Reflecting the rock roots that defined a generation, the legendary score includes ‘I Don’t Know How to Love Him’, ‘Gethsemane’ and ‘Superstar’.
Winner of 6 Tony Awards® including Best Musical and the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theatre Album, DEAR EVAN HANSEN is the deeply personal and profoundly contemporary musical about life and the way we live it. The Washington Post calls DEAR EVAN HANSEN “Theatrical magic. One of the most remarkable shows in musical theater history.”
Winner of 6 Tony Awards® including Best Musical and the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theatre Album, DEAR EVAN HANSEN is the deeply personal and profoundly contemporary musical about life and the way we live it. The Washington Postcalls DEAR EVAN HANSEN “Theatrical magic. One of the most remarkable shows in musical theater history.”
Winner of 6 Tony Awards® including Best Musical and the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theatre Album, DEAR EVAN HANSEN is the deeply personal and profoundly contemporary musical about life and the way we live it. The Washington Post calls DEAR EVAN HANSEN “Theatrical magic. One of the most remarkable shows in musical theater history.”
Winner of 6 Tony Awards® including Best Musical and the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theatre Album, DEAR EVAN HANSEN is the deeply personal and profoundly contemporary musical about life and the way we live it. The Washington Post calls DEAR EVAN HANSEN “Theatrical magic. One of the most remarkable shows in musical theater history.”
Winner of 6 Tony Awards® including Best Musical and the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theatre Album, DEAR EVAN HANSEN is the deeply personal and profoundly contemporary musical about life and the way we live it. The Washington Post calls DEAR EVAN HANSEN “Theatrical magic. One of the most remarkable shows in musical theater history.”
Winner of 6 Tony Awards® including Best Musical and the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theatre Album, DEAR EVAN HANSEN is the deeply personal and profoundly contemporary musical about life and the way we live it. The Washington Post calls DEAR EVAN HANSEN “Theatrical magic. One of the most remarkable shows in musical theater history.”
Winner of 6 Tony Awards® including Best Musical and the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theatre Album, DEAR EVAN HANSEN is the deeply personal and profoundly contemporary musical about life and the way we live it. The Washington Post calls DEAR EVAN HANSEN “Theatrical magic. One of the most remarkable shows in musical theater history.”
Winner of 6 Tony Awards® including Best Musical and the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theatre Album, DEAR EVAN HANSEN is the deeply personal and profoundly contemporary musical about life and the way we live it. The Washington Post calls DEAR EVAN HANSEN “Theatrical magic. One of the most remarkable shows in musical theater history.”
Joe Bonamassa is one of today’s top live performers. His enthusiastic shows are one of the biggest parts of his career, and a favorite for music lovers worldwide. Hailed internationally as one of the greatest guitar players of his generation and cited by Guitar World Magazine as “the world’s biggest blues guitarist,” Bonamassa has almost single-handedly redefined the blues-rock genre and brought it into the mainstream.
Backed by a stellar band of legendary musicians, the set list for this show which will feature new songs alongside career[1]spanning favorites. By exceeding his own vertiginously high artistic goals, Bonamassa has shattered all expectations with 25 #1 Billboard Blues Albums (more than any other artist in history). Bonamassa’s career in the music industry has built steadily over the years and is only gaining more momentum.
Watch the music video for Bonamassa’s latest single, “Mind’s Eye” from his most recent album “Time Clocks”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIFsP5N769w
Download a free album from Joe Bonamassa at www.jbonamassa.com/freemp3
(Ticket prices listed above are subject to additional fees)
At age 86, Buddy Guy is a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee, a major influence on rock titans like Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, and Stevie Ray Vaughan, a pioneer of Chicago’s fabled West Side sound, and a living link to the city’s halcyon days of electric blues. Buddy Guy has received 8 GRAMMY Awards, a 2015 Lifetime Achievement GRAMMY Award, 38 Blues Music Awards (the most any artist has received), the Billboard Magazine Century Award for distinguished artistic achievement, a Kennedy Center Honor, and the Presidential National Medal of Arts. Rolling Stone Magazine ranked him #23 in its “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.”
In 2019, Buddy Guy won his 8th and most recent GRAMMY Award for his 18th solo LP, “The Blues Is Alive And Well”. In July of 2021, in honor of Buddy Guy’s 85th birthday, PBS American Masters released “Buddy Guy: The Blues Chase The Blues Away”, a new documentary following his rise from a childhood spent picking cotton in Louisiana to becoming one of the most influential guitar players of all time. The documentary features new interviews with Buddy Guy, Carlos Santana, Eric Clapton, John Mayer, Gary Clark Jr, and
more. Watch the full documentary at PBS Online here. Though Buddy Guy will forever be associated with Chicago, his story actually begins in Louisiana. One of five children, he was born in 1936 to a sharecropper’s family and raised on a plantation near the small town of Lettsworth, located some 140 miles northwest of New Orleans. Buddy was just seven years old when he fashioned his first makeshift “guitar”—a two-string contraption attached to a piece of wood and secured with his mother’s hairpins.
In 1957, he took his guitar to Chicago, where he would permanently alter the direction of the instrument, first on numerous sessions for Chess Records playing alongside Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, and the rest of the label’s legendary roster, and then on recordings of his own. His incendiary style left its mark on guitarists from Jimmy Page to John Mayer. “He was for me what Elvis was probably like for other people,” said Eric Clapton at Guy’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in 2005. “My course was set, and he was my pilot.”
Seven years later, July 2012 proved to be one of Buddy Guy’s most remarkable years ever. He was awarded the 2012 Kennedy Center Honor for his lifetime contribution to American culture; earlier in the year, at a performance at the White House, he even persuaded President Obama to join him on a chorus of “Sweet Home Chicago.” Also in 2012, he published his long-awaited memoir, When I Left Home.
These many years later, Buddy Guy remains a genuine American treasure and one of the final surviving connections to an historic era in the country’s musical evolution.
With legends like George Jones, Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard all passed on, country music purists often echo the question Jones himself asked: “Who’s going to fill their shoes?” The answer, in part, is Marty Stuart.
While he’s too gracious to admit it himself, the Grammy-winning singer, songwriter and musician is living, breathing country-music history. He’s played alongside the masters, from Cash to Lester Flatt, who discovered him; been a worldwide ambassador for Nashville, Bakersfield and points in between; and safeguarded country’s most valuable traditions and physical artifacts. Including its literal shoes: Stuart counts the brogan of Carter Family patriarch A.P. Carter and an assortment of Cash’s black boots among his vast collection of memorabilia.
But most importantly, Stuart continues to record and release keenly relevant music, records that honor country’s rich legacy while advancing it into the future. Way Out West, his 18th studio album, hits both of those marks. Produced by Mike Campbell (of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers), the album is a cinematic tour-de-force, an exhilarating musical journey through the California desert that solidifies Stuart as a truly visionary artist.
Opening with a Native American prayer, a nod to Stuart’s affinity for the indigenous people, particularly the Lakota, Way Out West transports the listener to the lonely but magical American West. It is, in its own way, musical peyote.
“If you go and sit by yourself in the middle of the Mojave Desert at sundown and you’re still the same person the next morning when the sun comes up, I’d be greatly surprised,” says Stuart. “It is that spirit world of the West that enchants me.”
Specifically the promised land of California. Growing up in Philadelphia, Mississippi, Stuart was taken by the mystique of the Golden State: the culture, the movies and especially the music. “Everything that came out of California captivated my kid mind in Mississippi,” he says. “It seemed like a fantasy land. Way Out West is a love letter to that.”
As such, the album could only be recorded there, and Stuart, with his longtime backing band the Fabulous Superlatives, decamped for California. They recorded half of the album at Capitol Records and the rest at Campbell’s M.C. Studio, a gritty space with a vibe all its own. Much of the early Heartbreakers music was recorded at Campbell’s and that primal rock & roll energy is palpable throughout Way Out West, reinforced by Capitol’s own rock history: the Hollywood studio birthed iconic records like the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds and the country-rock of Glen Campbell’s Wichita Lineman. Way Out West, with its atmospheric production, evokes those classics, as well as cowboy records like Marty Robbins’ Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs and Cash’s The Fabulous Johnny Cash, one of the first albums Stuart ever owned.
“This is a California record, and I knew that when I emerged from the studio at night, I wanted to see palm trees and breathe that desert air,” says Stuart.
Listeners too can feel the warmth of those Santa Ana winds over the album’s 15 tracks, a collection of newly written originals, instrumentals and rare covers like the Benny Goodman-penned “Air Mail Special,” and “Lost on the Desert,” once recorded by Johnny Cash.
“I asked Johnny about that song when I was in his band, and he said the only thing he remembered about it was changing some words,” laughs Stuart. “But Way Out West just as easily could have been titled Lost on the Desert.”
The idea of losing oneself runs through Way Out West, with the title track both a spiritual adventure and a cautionary tale – Stuart wraps up the travel ballad with a spoken aside about his own bad trips with pills.
“I researched that for 30 years,” he jokes, self-deprecatingly. “There’s a lot of truth in that song.”
The rollicking standout “Time Don’t Wait” also offers a warning: to not let life race by. “As the dirt fell through my fingers / the wind it seemed to say / don’t put off until tomorrow, what you can today,” sings Stuart. “That’s just country wisdom. I can’t claim that. But I like when you can talk about the simple things that are around us. That makes country music come to life for me,” he says.
When it comes to transforming country songs into tangible experience, Stuart has a secret weapon: the Fabulous Superlatives. Made up of guitarist Kenny Vaughan, drummer Harry Stinson and new member, bassist Chris Scruggs, the Superlatives are an extension of Stuart himself.
“The Superlatives are missionaries, they’re fighting partners. They’re my Buckaroos, my Tennessee Three, my Strangers. They’re my legacy band and have been since Day One,” says Stuart.
Along with the playing of Mike Campbell, who contributed guitar, B-3 organ and piano, the Fabulous Superlatives are all over Way Out West and ensure that the mystical detours Stuart explores always remain of the moment.
As Stuart himself will tell you, he often ventures off the reservation – in a way, his entire career has been “way out west.” While other artists chased popular trends in the name of radio play, he formed complete bodies of work, not unlike the greats he idolized. Way Out West is just the latest embodiment of that creative mission.
“I would play this record for Hank Williams, Merle Haggard or Ernest Hemingway and never bat an eye,” says Stuart. “There’s something in there that would entertain each of them.”
But Stuart also made Way Out West for those who come after. As he sees it, there is no greater responsibility in music than to share what you’ve learned.
“Lester Flatt saw something in me and gave me his wisdom, wit and music. Johnny Cash was my best friend. But all of that doesn’t come for free. The job is to pass it along,” says Stuart, stretching out his arms. “That’s the way it’s supposed to be in country music.”
With Way Out West, Stuart holds up his end of the deal.
With multiple sold-out U.S. tours under its belt and hundreds of thousands of fans around the world, Leonid & Friends continues to astound its global audience with its unique ability in capturing the spirit, musicality, and fire of American supergroup Chicago.
And what is even more stunning is that Leonid & Friends, comprised of 11 of the finest musicians in Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, and Belarus, haven’t seen Chicago perform live, yet replicates the band’s complex arrangements amazingly note for note.
Chicago has never been in Russia, and none of us have attended their concerts,” said Leonid Vorobyev, a multi-instrumentalist who is the band’s leader. “We have only recordings and videos (to help us learn Chicago songs).”
Ironically, Vorobyev wasn’t always a fan of horn bands, and as a teenager gravitated to the hard-driving guitar-based sounds of the Beatles, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Deep Purple, and Grand Funk Railroad.
“In the early 1970s in the USSR, electric guitars, amplifiers, and drums were rare to find so at school we were playing self-made instruments,” Vorobyev explained. “We were allowed to rehearse in the same room with a horns band. Those musicians almost always were drunk and quite often tried to play with us our rock songs. It was a nightmare, and I hated them all!”
But that all changed when Vorobyev heard Chicago. He became an instant fan. “I loved so much the brilliant mixture of rock guitars, drums, and jazz horns with bright vocal harmonies,” he said.
In 2014, Vorobyev decided to indulge his love for the band by gathering a few fellow musicians in a studio to record a video of them playing his favorite Chicago tune, Brand New Love Affair.
No charts or scores of the song existed so Vorobyev transcribed the tune by ear. The result was a YouTube video that quickly went viral. Since then Leonid & Friends has recorded videos of other Chicago hits including Make Me Smile, 25 or 6 to 4, and Saturday In The Park.
All total the videos have received more than 50 million views. Also, Leonid & Friends has recorded two albums showcasing its tribute to Chicago.
The process of getting each tune just right is a painstaking labor of love. In addition to scoring and arranging, Vorobyev oversees mixing and mastering of each song. However, he credits his highly skilled bandmates for making each tune sing. “All of my musician friends are highly professional,” he said.
However, Leonid & Friends hasn’t been satisfied with merely connecting with fans through videos and recordings. In early 2019, the band embarked on its first tour outside of Russia that had fans dancing in the aisles at sold-out shows in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Florida. Two other scorching coast-to-coast U.S. tours followed that same year.
“The fans were so eager to see us that some traveled from as far as Hawaii and the Philippines not mentioning flying across the U.S .and driving for hours to attend our shows,” Vorobyev said. “I was expecting a warm greeting but I didn’t expect such a warm reception and with so much love and gratitude for us.”
In Los Angeles, the band met its musical heroes, founding members of Chicago, keyboardist Robert Lamm, and drummer Danny Seraphine as well as Michelle Kath Sinclair, daughter of late, great Chicago guitarist Terry Kath.
“We were so thrilled that Robert, Danny, and Michelle took the time to visit with us,” Vorobyev said. “It was an experience that we will cherish and remember forever.”
When Leonid & Friends isn’t touring, band members are in the studio in Moscow immersing themselves in Chicago’s storied catalog of hits and deep tracks while preparing for the next tour.
In September of 2018, the band recorded its first song from legendary supergroup Earth, Wind, & Fire and also paid tribute to the band Blood, Sweat & Tears as well.
Borrowing a line from one of Chicago’s biggest hits, “it’s only the beginning” of great things from Leonid & Friends.
David Sedaris is one of America’s pre-eminent humor writers. He is a master of satire and one of today’s most observant writers.
Beloved for his personal essays and short stories, David Sedaris is the author of Barrel Fever, Holidays on Ice, Naked, Me Talk Pretty One Day, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, When You Are Engulfed in Flames, Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls, and Calypso, which was a Washington Post Best Book of the Year. He is the author of Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary, a collection of fables with illustrations by Ian Falconer. He is also the author of an essay length ebook titled Themes and Variations. Each of these books was an immediate bestseller. He was also the editor of Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules: An Anthology of Outstanding Stories. His pieces regularly appear in The New Yorker and have twice been included in “The Best American Essays.” The first volume of his diaries Theft By Finding: Diaries (1977-2002) was a New York Times best-selling book. As a companion piece to the book, Jeffrey Jenkins published and edited an art book of Sedaris’s diary covers, entitled David Sedaris Diaries: A Visual Compendium. His book, The Best of Me, is a collection of 42 previously published stories and essays, about which novelist Andrew Sean Greer wrote in the New York Times: “You must read “The Best of Me.” It will be a new experience, knowing that enough time has passed to find humor in the hardest parts of life. More than ever — we’re allowed to laugh.” The second volume of his diaries, A Carnival of Snackery, Diaries (2003-2020) was also a New York Times bestseller and the audiobook was selected as part of Apple’s Best Audiobooks of the Year for 2021. His new book, Happy-Go-Lucky, debuted at number one on the New York Times best-seller list. Sedaris and his sister, Amy Sedaris, have collaborated under the name “The Talent Family” and have written half-a-dozen plays which have been produced at La Mama, Lincoln Center, and The Drama Department in New York City. These plays include Stump the Host, Stitches, One Woman Shoe, which received an Obie Award, Incident at Cobbler’s Knob, and The Book of Liz, which was published in book form by Dramatists Play Service.
Sedaris has been nominated for five Grammy Awards for Best Spoken Word and Best Comedy Album. His audio recordings include “David Sedaris: Live for Your Listening Pleasure” and “David Sedaris Live at Carnegie Hall.” A feature film adaptation of his story C.O.G. was released after a premiere at the Sundance Film Festival (2013). Since 2011, he can be heard annually on a series of live recordings on BBC Radio 4 entitled “Meet David Sedaris.” In 2019 David Sedaris became a regular contributor to CBS Sunday Morning, and his Masterclass, David Sedaris Teaches Storytelling and Humor, was released.
There are over 16 million copies of his books in print and they have been translated into 32 languages. He has been awarded the Terry Southern Prize for Humor, Thurber Prize for American Humor, Jonathan Swift International Literature Prize for Satire and Humor, Time 2001 Humorist of the Year Award, as well as the Medal for Spoken Language from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In March 2019 he was elected as a member into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2020 the New York Public Library voted Me Talk Pretty One Day one of the 125 most important books of the last 125 years.
A singer, composer and actor, Lyle Lovett has broadened the definition of American music in a career that spans 14 albums. Coupled with his gift for storytelling, the Texas-based musician fuses elements of country, swing, jazz, folk, gospel and blues in a convention-defying manner that breaks down barriers. Whether touring as a ‘Duo’ or with his ‘Acoustic Group’ or his ‘Large Band,’ Lovett’s live performances show not only the breadth of this Texas legend’s deep talents, but also the diversity of his influences, making him one of the most compelling and captivating musicians in popular music. Since his self-titled debut in 1986, Lyle Lovett has evolved into one of music’s most vibrant and iconic performers. Among his many accolades, besides the four Grammy Awards, he was given the Americana Music Association’s inaugural Trailblazer Award, and was named Texas State Musician. His works, rich and eclectic, are some of the most beloved of any artist working today.
The Wood Brothers didn’t know they were making a record. Looking back, they’re grateful for that.
“If we had known, we probably would have been too self-conscious to play what we played,” reflects bassist/vocalist Chris Wood. “At the time, we just thought we were jamming to break in our new studio, so we felt free to explore all these different ways of performing together without worrying about form or structure. It was liberating.”
Recorded live to tape, those freewheeling, improvised sessions became a vast pool of source material from which The Wood Brothers would go on to draw ‘Kingdom In My Mind,’ their seventh studio release and most spontaneous and experimental collection yet. While on past records, the band—Chris, guitarist/vocalist Oliver Wood, and drummer/keyboardist Jano Rix—would write a large batch of songs and then record them all at once, ‘Kingdom’ found them retroactively carving tunes out of sprawling instrumental jam sessions like sculptors chipping away at blocks of marble. A testament to the limitless creativity of the unharnessed mind, the record explores the power of our external surroundings to shape our internal worlds (and vice versa), reckoning with time, mortality, and human nature. The songs here find strength in accepting what lies beyond our control, thoughtfully honing in on the bittersweet beauty that underlies doubt and pain and sadness with vivid character studies and unflinching self-examination. Deep as the lyrics dig, the arrangements always manage to remain buoyant and light, though, drawing from across a broad sonic spectrum to create a transportive, effervescent blend that reflects the trio’s unique place in the modern musical landscape.
“My brother came to this band from the blues and gospel world, and my history was all over the map with jazz and R&B,” says Chris, who first rose to fame with the pioneering trio Medeski Martin & Wood. “The idea for this group has always been to marry our backgrounds, to imagine what might happen if Robert Johnson and Charles Mingus had started a band together.”
‘Kingdom In My Mind’ follows The Wood Brothers’ most recent studio release, 2018’s ‘One Drop Of Truth,’ which hit #1 on the Billboard Heatseekers Chart and garnered the band their first GRAMMY nomination for Best Americana Album. NPR praised the record’s “unexpected changes and kaleidoscopic array of influences,” while Uncut hailed its “virtuosic performances and subtly evocative lyrics,” and Blurt proclaimed it “a career-defining album.” Tracks from the record racked up roughly 8 million streams on Spotify alone, and the band took the album on the road for extensive tour dates in the US and Europe, including their first-ever headline performance at Red Rocks, two nights at San Francisco’s legendary Fillmore (captured on their 2019 release, ‘Live At The Fillmore’), and festival appearances everywhere from Bonnaroo to XPoNential.
Named one of Variety’s 10 Comics to Watch in 2021, Kountry Wayne (a.k.a. Wayne Colley) has garnered a loyal following from his widely popular digital sketches and hilarious standup, generating an extraordinary amount of buzz among his peers within the entertainment industry as one of comedy’s most notable rising stars.
Since his first Facebook post in October 2014 went viral, the charismatic comic has amassed millions of followers across Facebook and Instagram, where fans tune in daily to his viral sketches featuring original characters such as Drip and Buddy, with cameos from notable celebrities including Ludacris, Mike Epps, Charlamagne tha God and Lamar Odom, to name a few.
Keeping it real, mining comic gold from the everyday and applying his genius for freestyling, Wayne is a master comic storyteller. In 2017 Wayne embarked on the 150-date national “Child Support Tour,” selling out clubs and theaters across America. That wasn’t just a clever moniker – he’s the dad of ten kids and even as he builds his own entertainment legacy, he’s all about securing the future for them.
“My hashtag, my mantra, is ‘Help is On The Way!’ – that’s my slogan, I own it, because I believe God’s got my back and your back and whatever is stressing you out today, it won’t last because help is truly on the way,” says Wayne, whose endearingly funny way with English comes from growing up “Kountry” in Millen, GA (pop. 3500), between Statesboro and Augusta. He was given what became his stage name during a stint living and going to school in Savannah in the mid-2000s.
In January 2020, Wayne began his “The People’s Champ” North American tour, travelling to cities across the U.S. and Canada including Miami, Pittsburgh, West Palm Beach, Phoenix and more. In the spring of 2021, Wayne performed in arenas alongside comedy heavyweight, Mike Epps, on the “In Real Life Comedy Tour,” ranked #1 on Pollstar’s Top Global Concert Tour list. Wayne was featured on MTV’s “Wild ‘N Out” with Nick Cannon, starred in the BET original Christmas rom-com film, “Holiday Heartbreak,” and debut at #10 of The Hollywood Reporter’s Top Comedians List, which includes Ricky Gervais, D.L Hughley, and Kevin Hart. Most recently, Wayne wrapped his “Straight Out The Mud” tour presented by Live Nation.
Wayne, along with Kym Whitley, currently co-hosts “I Love Us,” a new comedy clip show on BET+. Additionally, Wayne is set to release his first book “Help Is On The Way” in April 2023 – a memoir covering everything from his childhood, past struggles and path to success. Up next, he will be starring alongside Chloe Bailey, Quavo, Mack Wilds, Druski, and more, in Universal Pictures’ “Praise This,” produced by Will Packer and directed by Tina Gordon.
With his humble roots and unbridled energy, Wayne continues to build his audience with cutting edge yet clean, curse free material whose appeal transcends all cultural lines and is fit for (and often draws) the whole family. All while still posting content online daily.
Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros formed in 2018 by Weir along with Don Was and Jay Lane. The band set out performing the expansive catalogue of Grateful Dead, Bobby’s solo albums and more and has toured extensively throughout the US.
In 2020, Jeff Chimenti joined the Wolf Bros around the same time the band started featuring The Wolfpack, a string and brass quintet which bring an orchestral, symphonic element to the music of Grateful Dead and features Alex Kelly, Brian Switzer, Adam Theis, Mads Tolling and Sheldon Brown. The band is also now joined by Barry Sless on pedal steel.
Click HERE for more information about the Gala!
Jill Scott is a three-time Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter, New York Times best-selling poet, critically acclaimed actor and multimedia entrepreneur. She released her much anticipated debut record, “Who is Jill Scott? Words & Sounds, Vol. 1,” in July 2000, which became a double platinum album that earned Scott several Grammy nominations, including Best New Artist. Later she went on to have the #1 album in the country with “The Light of The Sun.” Never limited to music, Scott is a true multimedia brand across audio, books, TV and film. She has recently starred in and executive produced Lifetime’s Highway to Heaven reboot, currently plays the role of “Hazel” in BET+’s The First Wives Club and is the host of J.ill The Podcast. A consummate writer at heart, she penned The Moments, The Minutes, The Hours, a compilation of poems that instantly became a New York Times bestseller. She is the founder of Blues Babe, a registered 501(c)3 foundation that supports minority students pursuing college degrees. Follow her on social media at @MissJillScott.
Rather than lean on destiny for direction, Blue October invents and inhabits a future all their own. The platinum-certified alternative quartet from San Marcos, TX—Justin Furstenfeld [vocals, guitar, songwriter], Jeremy Furstenfeld [drums], Ryan Delahoussaye [violin, mandolin, piano], and Matt Noveskey [bass]—consistently evolves with an outlier perspective. For their eleventh studio album and first double-LP, Spinning The Truth Around: Part I & II, Blue October unlocks another creative renaissance.
“We feel like we’re at the height of our craft,” states frontman Justin Furstenfeld. “The lyrics are universal and poignant, but we’re showing the songs can stand alone instrumentally. We know the sound we want.”
The original creative core of Blue October found some new inspiration, as Justin immersed himself in the work of J Dilla. He wrote at a feverish pace at his own Up / Down Studios in San Marcos. Similar to the early days, the record is a band collaboration.
“Ryan is such a great string arranger,” Justin notes. “I’d sample strings and detune them on the Akai. If you have a great drummer like Jeremy, Matt on bass, two overhead mics and a SM57 in the kick drums, add strings, some romantic piano and profound lyrics, you can find yourself some magic.” Such magic courses through the first single “Spinning the Truth Around.” Keyboards glimmer beneath a glitchy beat as his voice echoes with longing on the hook, “I don’t want change, we both want more.”
“The feeling of the song is bittersweet like a sunset,” he observes. “It’s beautiful when it’s shining and sad when it’s gone. You’re grateful that you got to be a part of it.” A lifelong theater student, Justin began studying at the “Fame” high school of Houston, HSPVA, where he met bandmate Ryan Delahoussaye. In September 2023, Furstenfeld will make his feature film debut in the action movie, Section 8 (in theaters and AMC+), alongside Dolph Lundgren, Mickey Rourke, Dermot Mulroney, and Ryan Kwanten. He recently wrapped his second film Lights Out, featuring Frank Grillo, Mekhi Phifer, Scott Adkins and Dermot Mulroney. Elsewhere on Spinning the Truth Around Part 1, warm strings wrap around a piano-laden groove on “How Can You Love Me If You Don’t Even Like Me.” The cinematic soundscape offsets Justin’s biting lyrics with oddly sweet whimsy. Alternating tempos in a hip-hop cadence, his delivery barely cracks a whisper, preserving the mood. On the other end of the spectrum, “Where Did You Go I’m Less Of A Mess These Days” recalls a flurry of memories starring an old friend over an upbeat bounce with candid lyrics.
Then, there’s “The Girl Who Stole My Heart.” Sparse orchestration sets the tone for a heavenly catharsis punctuated by a swooning refrain. The album culminates on “Big Love.” It holds a special place in Justin and Jeremy’s heart, as their father listened to it during his chemo treatments. The song’s crescendo unfolds with a lush and luminous last word, “Just keep your face turned to the sun. We’re proud of all that you have done.” “Love, for me, has been set on high standards,” he admits. “When my father passed away during the pandemic, we were allowed in the room for twenty minutes. I watched my mom comfort him. In his final moments, I could see him relax. For three years, she took him to chemo. He listened to ‘Big Love’. The only thing my brother Jeremy and I could do was write a song for him and send him messages. A love like what my parents had is what I hope for everyone. They could communicate openly. They showed me how easy it should be.
There’s a loss, but there’s a spirit that says, ‘Hey, hey, you’re good’.” In the end, Blue October might just remind you of the same thing. “This album is about boundaries and love—selfless love,” Justin leaves off. “You know that even if you did love someone it’s okay if you both fall out of love. It’s the story about a loving relationship that changed, when the world was falling apart. Nobody had a rule book. You don’t have to end a relationship and hate each other. Life is so short. There is love out there.” Blue October History Since 1998’s The Answers, Blue October has been touring the world with a boundless approach, generating north of 1 billion total streams and charting 16 hits. In 2006, Foiled earned a platinum certification and yielded signature anthems “Hate Me” and “Into The Ocean,” kicking off a prolific streak.
In addition to six consecutive Top 30 album debuts on the Billboard Top 200, they scored three straight #1 entries on the Top Alternative Albums Chart with Any Man In America [2011], Sway [2013], and Home [2016]. Speaking to their sustained influence, 2018’s I Hope You’re Happy has become one of Blue October’s seminal albums. The title song “I Hope You’re Happy” vaulted all the way to #14 on the Alternative Chart, and is still one of their most popular streaming songs. 2020’s This Is What I Live For bowed in the Top 20 of the Top Rock Albums Chart and spawned a radio hit with “Oh My My,” garnering a Top 10 single at Alternative Rock Radio their first Top 10 since 2009 with over 10 million-plus streams.
Mountain Goats frontman passed the time trapped at home in North Carolina watching pulpy action movies, finding comfort in familiar tropes and sofabound escapism. But you are not really like John Darnielle, unless the action movies you found comfort in included French thrillers like 2008’s Mesrine, vintage Italian poliziotteschi, or the 1974 Donald Pleasence mad-scientist vehicle The Freakmaker. Or unless watching them brought you back to your formative days as an artist, when watching films fueled and soundtracked your songwriting jags and bare-bones home recordings and in turn inspired your 20th album to be a song cycle about the allure—and futility—of vengeance. But there’s no shame in not being like John Darnielle; few people are.
“On earlier tapes you’ll find these sound samples,” Darnielle says. “‘Oh, where’s this sample from?’ It’s from whatever movie I was watching while I was sitting around on the couch with a guitar. I watch a movie, somebody’d say something that I like the sound of and I’ll write that phrase down. And then I would pause the VHS, write the song, record the song on a boombox, and go back to watching my movie. I got into doing that again; I just kept watching action movies and taking notes on what they’re about and on what the governing plots and tropes and styles are. It was very much like an immersion method acting technique.”
The resulting performance is Bleed Out, a cinematic experience unto itself. One song about preparing to exact bloody revenge begat another song about the act of exacting bloody revenge and then more songs about and the causes and the aftermath of being driven to exact bloody revenge, each delivered with the urgency and desperation deserving of their narrators and circumstances.
Just as Getting Into Knives and Dark in Here—recorded in Memphis and Muscle Shoals, respectively, in the first two weeks of March 2020, just before such a thing would become impossible—were heavily informed and influenced by their historic settings, Bleed Out is all pent-up energy and explosion, executed by a bunch of friends who were mainly happy to be in a room together making loud noises. In January 2021, just weeks after Darnielle had started writing, his bandmates Peter Hughes, Matt Douglas, and Jon Wurster joined him at a studio in the woods near his home in Chapel Hill. Everything was finished inside a week.
“We often make a record and then bring in some guests who flesh out the textures,” Darnielle says. “And for this one, it was very much like a pack mentality. That sort of seemed to proceed from the songs.” One new face was that of Bully’s Alicia Bognanno, recommended to Darnielle by his manager as a producer who could help nurture the rougher-edged sound these songs requested. “We met up and hit it off. She’s a great guitarist. It was kind of just a lark, to see what would happen, and it was totally great.”
That abandon is on full display from the opening track, “Training Montage,” which lovingly documents the getting-ready-for-battle scene in any action movie regardless of provenance and loudly declares its intentions: “I’m doing this for revenge.” This and the next song, “Mark on You,” were the first two Darnielle wrote, and they set the tone for everything that follows on Bleed Out.
Running narrative themes are not new to Mountain Goats projects, especially in recent years, be it the pro wrestlers of 2015’s Beat the Champ or the goths of 2017’s Goths. Darnielle was drawn to the antiheroes of the hard-boiled action flicks he was bingeing, particularly the ways in which their quests for justice were almost all inevitably doomed.
“In these movies and elsewhere, it’s such a dearly held trope, when in fact, I don’t think anybody really exacts much revenge in this life at all,” he says. “Because we all know that revenge is bullshit, right? The Greeks knew this. It’s never a zero-sum game. And yet the idea is so delicious, you can’t get enough of it. It’s more of a grail—because you can’t have it, it starts to seem really appealing. That’s why you want to get revenge, because you know you’re never going to get revenge.”
Bleed Out could be all one movie, from the opening training montage to the demise in the elegiac closing title track. Songs like “Make You Suffer,” “First Blood,” “Hostages,” and “Need More Bandages” do what they say on the tin, telling typically vivid, deliberately recognizable vignettes of desperate characters in no-win situations who plan on taking as many people down with them as they have to. But Darnielle sees these as unconnected stories that feel universal in their desire for justice, if not in their wanton bloodshed. Anthems don’t get more straightforward or anthem-y than “Wage Wars Get Rich Die Handsome,” tapping into an anger that’s easy to reach in 2022, even if the solutions aren’t.
Few people think as much, or as well, about violence and its portrayal as John Darnielle. His recent bestselling novel Devil House(his third) is all about the relationship between tragedy and entertainment, though he is careful to downplay any parallels to Bleed Out beyond a natural attraction to terrible things as a coping mechanism.
“That’s what catharsis is,” he says. “When you are able to experience something that is frightening to you but you don’t have to be harmed by it—that experience is really valuable. I think we’re reflecting on the nature of what we consume and of what it says about us.”
US101’s Heart Strings for Hope benefitting St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is the most anticipated live concert in Chattanooga! Four of Nashville’s finest country artists join the Heart Strings veteran and renowned Nashville songwriter, Kelley Lovelace in an intimate, acoustic concert where every penny raised benefits the Children at St. Jude. Given the intimate setting, artists often share behind the scenes stories of their songs or experiences in the industry and of course a few friendly jabs with the other artists on stage. It’s a light hearted, family friendly, one of a kind concert that proves little old Chattanooga makes a big contribution to help save the lives of children fighting cancer at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
The British Invasion brought us the two most popular rock groups of all time, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, as well as the liveliest debate in rock history - which band is the greatest? These two legendary bands will engage in an on-stage, mash-up duel featuring internationally renowned tribute bands, Abbey Road and Satisfaction - The International Rolling Stones Show.
“Electrifying show!” said the O.C. Register.
“The most unique tribute show in decades,” said the L.A. Times.
“The crowd was on their feet screaming the entire time!” said the Idaho Statesman.
“If you missed The Beatles and The Rolling Stones live, here is your second chance,” said the San Clemente Times.
Alternating power sets with the two bands coming together on stage for an amazing encore makes this show a once-in-a-lifetime event.
Small-town sibling trio Girl Named Tom seeks to create harmony in a world divided. With their distinctive harmonies and heartfelt performances, Bekah, Joshua and Caleb Liechty won the hearts of America while becoming the only group to ever win NBC’s “The Voice.” In addition to their chart-topping covers (“River,” “The Chain,” & “Dust in the Wind” among others), GNT writes original music that will almost certainly project them to becoming the best-known harmony trio of their generation.
With their debut EP, “Another World,” Girl Named Tom sweeps the listener into reflective space, exploring fond memories, global issues, and intimate conversations. Audiences have been “...blown away by the musicality and harmonies, creativity, honesty, beauty. This sibling trio is stardust.” Crazy World exhibits “crystal clear lead vocals, driving (and unique) percussion, and after 3 minutes build up an amazing section of their 3 voices intermeshing together.”
Based in the Midwest, Girl Named Tom performed all over the country during the band’s first year before the pandemic struck. Now, after winning The Voice, they cannot wait to hit the road and visit new fans!
Chelsea Handler is a comedian, television host, New York Times best-selling author and advocate whose humor and candor have established her as one of the most celebrated voices in entertainment and pop culture. After a strong seven-year run as the host of E!’s top-rated Chelsea Lately, a tenure in which she was the only female late-night talk show host on-air, she launched her documentary series Chelsea Does followed by her talk show Chelsea on Netflix in 2016. She has penned six best-selling books, five of which have reached #1 on the New York Times Bestseller list, including 2019’s Life Will Be the Death of Me. She will executive produce and star in a TV adaptation of the book under her production banner, Chelsea Handler Productions.
In 2022, Handler made her return to Netflix with her critically acclaimed comedy special Revolution. It follows the success of her 2020 HBO Max comedy special Evolution, which earned Chelsea a Grammy nomination for Best Comedy Album. In 2021, she launched her iHeart Radio advice podcast, Dear Chelsea, and embarked on the Vaccinated and Horny Tour, bringing her sensational stand-up set to 90+ cities with 115 shows across North America and winning “The Comedy Act of 2021” at the People’s Choice Awards.
Rock ‘n’ roll is often hard to define, or even to find, in these fractured musical times. But to paraphrase an old saying, you know it when you hear it.
And you always hear it with the Wallflowers. For the past 30 years, the Jakob Dylan-led act has stood as one of rock’s most dynamic and purposeful bands – a unit dedicated to and continually honing a sound that meshes timeless songwriting and storytelling with a hard-hitting and decidedly modern musical attack. That signature style has been present through the decades, baked into the grooves of smash hits like 1996’s Bringing Down the Horse as well as more recent and exploratory fare like 2012’s Glad All Over.
Even so, in recent years, Dylan – the Wallflowers’ founding singer, songwriter and guitarist – has repeatedly stepped outside of his band, first with a pair of more acoustic and rootsy records, 2008’s Seeing Things and 2010’s Women + Country, and then with the 2018 film Echo in the Canyon and the accompanying soundtrack, which saw him collaborate with a host of artists classic and contemporary, from Neil Young and Eric Clapton to Beck and Fiona Apple.
But while it’s been nine long years since we’ve heard from the group with whom he first made his mark, the Wallflowers are silent no more. And Dylan always knew they’d return. “The Wallflowers is much of my life’s work,” he says simply.
Plus, he adds with a laugh, “It’s pretty hard to get a good band name, so if you have one, keep it.”
Good band name aside, that life’s work continues with Exit Wounds, the brand-new Wallflowers studio offering. The collection marks the first new Wallflowers material since Glad All Over. And while the wait has been long, the much-anticipated record finds the band’s signature sound – lean, potent and eminently entrancing – intact, even as Dylan surrounds himself with a fresh cast of musicians.
Which, the front man is quick to point out, is not all that unusual. “The Wallflowers has always been a vehicle for me to make great rock ‘n’ roll records,” he says. “And sometimes the lineup that makes the record transfers over into touring, and sometimes it doesn’t. But my intention is always to make the Wallflowers record I want to make, using the musicians I have beside me.”
Dylan’s vision has always been the core of the Wallflower’s music. How he chooses to express that vision, however, is what makes a song a Wallflowers song. “I usually just let the songs tell me what kind of arrangements they need,” he says. “And if they’re asking for full-band electric
arrangements, then that’s what the Wallflowers provide. And I knew I wanted to make a full-band electric record this time out.”
And made one he has, with one special guest on board – Shelby Lynne, who lends her voice to three of the album’s tracks. “I hadn’t met Shelby before, but like most people, I’ve been a fan of hers for quite some time,” Dylan says. “She has one of those voices that’s very uncommon, very unique, very rare.”
But there was more to their duet than just a mutual appreciation. “You can have your favorite singer come in, but it doesn’t mean you’ll have any connection – there has to be more than that,” Dylan continues. “And as soon as I heard Shelby sing, I knew we had something.”
That “something” is present throughout Exit Wounds, which, true to its title, is an ode to people – individual and collective – that have, to put it mildly, been through some stuff.
“I think everybody – no matter what side of the aisle you’re on – wherever we’re going to next, we’re all taking a lot of exit wounds with us,” Dylan says. “Nobody is the same as they were four years ago. That, to me, is what Exit Wounds signifies. And it’s not meant to be negative at all. It just means that wherever you’re headed, even if it’s to a better place, you leave people and things behind, and you think about those people and those things and you carry them with you. Those are your exit wounds. And right now, we’re all swimming in them.”
To be sure, Exit Wounds is populated by scarred souls that “used to rumble, used to roar,” of “nobodies drinking flat beer,” and those who’ve been “abandoned and locked out and pressed to the fire.” Throughout, Dylan’s lyrics are specked with images of spears and swords and battle-worn flags being raised, of wayward buses and battered ships, riderless horses and lost planes.
Of course, ask Dylan what these songs are about, and, well, like most practiced songwriters, he’s not going to tell you. “I’m always a little cautious when people ask that,” he says. “Not because it demystifies the songs, but more because I think it’s belittling to the listener to have to be ‘told.’ I usually find that if you have to do that for someone, you probably didn’t hit your mark.”
That said, Dylan will at least acknowledge that the tracks on Exit Wounds reflect the tumultuous times in which they were written. “The climate affects how you feel, which affects how you’re writing songs, even if you’re not writing specifically about current events.” He turns to the late John Prine to illustrate his point. “If we still had John Prine, I don’t think he’d be writing songs specifically about current affairs, but he’d probably be writing songs about characters affected by current affairs. I think that’s mostly what I do.”
As far as Exit Wounds, Dylan continues, “I’m the same writer I’ve always been – I was just also writing during a time when the world felt like it was falling apart. That changes the way you address even the simplest things, because you have panic in your mind all the time. You have anxiety. And you also have hope. And it’s all in there.”
When it came to realizing these new songs on record, Dylan assembled a backing band of musical associates – “people that I’ve wanted to play with or that I have played with through the years” – and headed into the studio under the watchful eye of producer Butch Walker.
As for what Butch brought to the sessions? Beyond his pedigree as an in-demand producer and first-rate singer-songwriter and musician, he’s also, Dylan says, “someone I’ve known a long time, and that was important to me. Because you go through a lot when you make records, to be honest. When you’re young, you’re taught that if you don’t have conflict in the studio, then you’re probably not doing anything good. But I don’t believe that. And so it was more of a joyful experience making this record.”
That joyful experience extended to Dylan’s interplay with his fellow musicians. “This was not the type of thing where it’s a rotating cast and you call a different drummer for each song, or you pull out the Rolodex and ring the local sessions guys,” Dylan says. “The record was made as a band – the five Wallflowers.”
And to Dylan, a band, even one with a constantly shifting lineup, is a sacred thing. “I’ve always been a believer in collaboration,” he says, “and no matter who I’m playing with I’ve always tried to include them very heavily. Otherwise, why would they be around? Because I do think bands, whether it’s a long standing group or just five people who are working together for that one stretch of time, make better rock ‘n’ roll records than solo artists.”
He laughs. “I mean, it’s not 100 percent true, but it’s usually true.”
At the end of the day, Dylan continues, “It’s just exciting to have guys playing in a room together. That’s how you get the one plus one equals three factor, you know? That’s the magic.”
For Dylan, Exit Wounds is the next chapter in a career devoted to chasing – and capturing – that magic. “I came up in an era of great rock ‘n’ roll bands making great music, and it’s the way I always imagined I would do it one day,” he says.
“So that’s always been my vision with the Wallflowers – to be a great rock ‘n’ roll band. And I’ve worked on it for 30 years now and I still have a lot to say. It’s something I started a long time ago, and it’s far from finished.”
Expertly crafted songs and sublime musicianship are the backbone of Nashville-based The Brook & The Bluff. Originally from Birmingham, AL, the band’s name is derived from the pockets of Birmingham where they grew up — Bluff Park for frontman Joseph Settine, and Mountain Brook for bassist Fred Lankford, drummer John Canada, keyboardist Kevin Canada, and guitarist Alec Bolton. Yard Sale, the band’s most recent album, harnesses the spirit of their live show while showcasing intricate harmonies and inventive arrangements. Such is the case on featured singles “Misnomer” and “Doobie Bronson”. Recorded with longtime collaborator Micah Tawlks (Coin, Jake Wesley Rogers), Yard Sale comes in the wake of First Place - the band’s compelling debut, which features the anthemic “Halfway Up” along with fan favorites “Everything Is Just A Mess” and “Shelby”. The Brook & The Bluff have built a successful foundation of touring on the back of their famously energetic live performances. Headlining sold-out rooms in major markets across the country and having supported Mt Joy, Rainbow Kitten Surprise, and Ashe in 2022 - the band now enters the new year with all the momentum in the world. 2023 holds an impressive festival season, the band’s Red Rocks debut (supporting Rainbow Kitten Surprise), and a fresh Spring 2023 tour.
