New Music Video From Trisha Yearwood - "When Will I Be Loved" (Live at the Opry)

New Music Video From The Band of Heathens and Jamie Lin Wilson - "You're No Good"

This brilliant Lone Star State collaboration features the guys from The Band of Heathens along with their good friend Jamie Lin Wilson on Linda Ronstadt's "You're No Good" from her 1974 album, Heart Like a Wheel. The song was written by Clint Ballard Jr. and was actually first released in 1963 by Dee Dee Warwick. Betty Everett also had a killer version of this tune. Video edited by Jesse Wilson. 

Respected Singer/Songwriter David Olney Passes Away At The Age of 71

Longtime singer/songwriter David Olney (born March 23, 1948) died Saturday, January 18, 2020, after suffering an apparent heart attack during a performance in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida. He was 71. A key member of Nashville’s music community since his move to Music City in 1973, the Lincoln, Rhode Island native was a compelling and enigmatic presence. He wrote sonnets and starred at the Nashville Shakespeare Festival, and his live concerts blended tenderness and ferocity, theater and sincerity, agitation and embrace.

Country Music Hall of Fame member Emmylou Harris said “David Olney tells marvelous stories, with characters who cling to the hope of enduring love, all the while crossing the deep divide into that long, dark night of the soul.” Troubadour Steve Earle called Olney “One of the best songwriters working in the world today,” and the late Townes Van Zandt once said, “Anytime anyone asks me who my favorite music writers are, I say Mozart, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Bob Dylan and Dave Olney."

Olney’s songs have been recorded by Harris, Del McCoury, Linda Ronstadt, Steve Young, and many others. His lyrics are products of a remarkable inquisitiveness that allowed him to explore subjects that few songwriters would consider: He wrote of a Nashville train disaster, of baseball shortstop Phil Rizzuto, and of actor John Barrymore. He wrote about Jesus Christ from the narrative perspective of the donkey that carried him into Jerusalem, and about the Titanic from the perspective of the iceberg that sank the ship.

His friend and songwriting great Guy Clark said that Olney’s art “transcends craftsmanship. It’s inspired, for sure.”

Olney moved to Nashville after briefly studying English at the University of North Carolina. He quickly fell in with a group of like-minded songwriters that included Clark, Van Zandt, Rodney Crowell, and Richard Dobson. In the early 1980s, he formed The X-Rays, a jagged rock band that secured a contract with Rounder Records. In 1986, he embarked on a solo recording career that produced more than 20 albums and allowed him to travel the world making music.

He is survived by wife, Regine, daughter, Lillian, and son, Redding, and by a devastated music community.

New Live Performance Music Video From Trisha Yearwood and Aaron Neville - "Don't Know Much"

Bruce Robison & the Back Porch Band Sets Album Release Date Of April 28

Artist: Bruce Robison
Album: Bruce Robison & the Back Porch Band
Label: Motel Time Music
Release date: April 28, 2017

Bruce Robison has taken his time releasing Bruce Robison & the Back Porch Band. Available on April 28, the album marks his first solo project since 2008 (The New World).

Robison has been making music professionally for decades, including No. 1 hits for Dixie Chicks, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, and George Strait, but he has never lost his genuine enthusiasm for music – writing it, recording it, playing it, sharing it. He literally can’t keep it to himself, and you feel that urgency of discovery and passion on every cut of this new album. Robison has also poured that passion into his new project, The Next Waltz, a blossoming community of artists, fans and friends gathering both virtually and at his recording studio in Lockhart, just outside of Austin. With impeccable musical taste and ability, Robison is a trusted North Star for anyone searching for music that is rooted in rich traditions and untethered creativity.

“Writing is where it all starts for me,” he explains. “Whether it’s my writing, or songs I want to do with somebody else. I love the mechanics of it; how simple it can be.”

Keeping it simple was the guiding principle behind the album, which is a collection of Robison originals, co-writes, and covers that capture country’s most beloved stylistic elements: good-time, lighthearted romps (“Rock and Roll Honky Tonk Ramblin’ Man;” “Paid My Dues”) and wistful, sometimes bittersweet ballads (“Long Time Coming;” “Still Doin’ Time”). But even the Who’s “Squeezebox” — which Robison calls “a great country song by some English dudes” — shows up, in a lively version dressed with Cajun fiddle by Warren Hood and acoustic guitar and harmonies by Robison’s wife, Kelly Willis. Robison’s last two albums were with Willis (Cheaters Game and Our Year) and while they are currently creating separately, Robison found the perfect love song to record for this album (he says he’s incapable of writing one of his own): Damon Bramblett’s “The Years,” a sweet, slow waltz with harmony from Willis.

The album reflects other influences as well: Christie Hayes’ “Lake of Fire” displays his love of the ‘70s West Coast sound embodied by Jackson Browne and Linda Ronstadt.

“I’m always collecting songs,” he says. “That’s what The Next Waltz is about, too; I’m just a fan of songs, and I love the way they come alive in the hands of the right artist.”

The Next Waltz is a musical salon where you can find Jerry Jeff Walker’s ruminations on writing “Mr. Bojangles,” an exclusive recording of Randy Rogers singing Merle Haggard’s “Misery and Gin,” the Turnpike Troubadours performing “Come As You Are,” or Rodney Crowell telling Robison and Willis about how he came to own one of John Lennon’s suits.

Robison has created a place where songs are re-imagined, with reinvigorated covers and crafted new works. Meanwhile, he’s cultivating a house band he hopes might one day be as revered as Stax Records’ Booker T. & the M.G.’s or Muscle Shoals’ Swampers. The Back Porch Band does it old-school, all analog, cutting songs together in one paneled room where “happy accidents and all kinds of things that just feel real,” including sound bleed, are allowed to occur.

Next Waltz sessions are documented on video, along with interviews in which Robison, speaking artist-to-artist, often draws out stories journalists don’t. The content is designed to let fans peek behind the curtain to witness the creative process, not only providing unique insights, but tightening their connection to the proverbial unbroken circle of country music. That influence extends far beyond songwriting; Robison’s ultimate dream for The Next Waltz is to follow in the late Guy and Susanna Clark’s footsteps by providing a safe, welcoming place for artists, a haven where musicians can socialize, inspire one another artistically and find a creative, emotional and spiritual nourishment.

The windows are rolled down; fresh air pours in: “It’s all about performing the song and seeing where it takes us,” says Robison, “and having great players in a real collaborative atmosphere.”

1. Rock and Roll Honky Tonk Ramblin' Man
2. Long Time Comin'
3. Paid My Dues (featuring Jack Ingram)
4. Lake of Fire
5. Squeezebox
6. The Years
7. Long Shore
8. Sweet Dreams
9. Still Doin' Time (In a Honky Tonk Prison)

Aaron Neville Readies Apache For July 15 Release

Artist: Aaron Neville
Album: Apache
Label: Tell It Records/Kobalt
Release date: July 15, 2016

While he's certainly been better known for his work in the genres of R&B, soul and that musical jambalaya that comes out of New Orleans, Neville has a history in country music. He charted a solo single called "Grand Tour," a duet with Trisha Yearwood entitled "I Fall To Pieces" and is well-known for his smash duets with country songstress Linda Ronstadt.

Neville has one of the most recognizable voices in American music and his latest release, Apache, is set for release on July 15 via Tell It Records and Kobalt Label Services. The album celebrates Neville’s 75th birthday, while 2016 marks the 50th anniversary of his first number one single, “Tell It Like It Is.”
 

In support of the record, Neville will tour nationwide this summer with a very special performance at the historic Apollo Theater celebrating his 75th birthday and 50th anniversary of the release of “Tell It Like It Is" on August 4 in New York City, as well as intimate dates in Baton Rouge, Chicago, San Francisco, Austin, Atlanta and more. See below for full list of dates.

Apache was recorded at Studio G in Brooklyn and produced by multi Grammy-winning artist and producer Eric Krasno (Soulive, Lettuce, Tedeschi Trucks Band). Of the album Neville says, “It brought out another side of me; people were used to me doing a lot of ballads, but this is more gritty, and some of it has the New Orleans feel.” He adds, “One song talks about my roots ‘Stompin’ Ground.’ It names a lot of real people that were in my life at different points in time. Another one, ‘Orchid In The Storm,’ was inspired by my wife Sarah; she’s been my orchid in a storm, and still is. Another song is ‘Heaven,’ from a poem I wrote a while back. My inspirations come from real things in life and I have many more where these came from.”
TRACK LIST

1.   Be Your Man
2.   All Of The Above
3.   Orchid In The Storm
4.   Stompin’ Ground
5.   Heaven
6.   Hard To Believe
7.   Ain’t Gonna Judge You
8.   I Wanna Love You
9.   Sarah Ann
10.  Make Your Momma Cry
11.  Fragile World

New Album Of Unreleased Material To Make Up Third Parton/Ronstadt/Harris Trio Compilation Project

Artist: Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt, and Emmylou Harris
Album: The Complete Trio Collection
Label: Rhino
Release date: Sept. 9, 2016

Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt, and Emmylou Harris have three careers unparalleled in music history. Together they have sold over 200 million albums worldwide and performed for decades in front of countless fans around the globe. It’s no surprise that when their three voices united to release their debut collaboration, the results were remarkable. The threesome released two albums together, Trio (1987) and Trio II (1999), which have combined to sell more than five million copies worldwide and win three Grammy Awards.

 Both of these classic albums have been newly remastered for a three-CD collection packed with rare and unreleased music. Produced by Harris, The Complete Trio Collection will be available on September 9.

On the same date, a single-disc set will also be available entitled My Dear Companion: Selections from the Trio Collection, featuring a mix of songs taken from the three-disc set, as will Farther Along, a double-LP set of all the bonus material from The Complete Trio Collection. Trio II will also be released on vinyl for the first time.

Even though Parton, Ronstadt, and Harris began recording together in the 1970s, a full album proved elusive. When the stars aligned and the friends were finally able to record a full album, a powerhouse sound of country and Americana was born. The results were remarkable. Trio arrived in 1987; sold more than four million copies; won two Grammy Awards; and topped the country album chart for five consecutive weeks. Among the standout tracks are “To Know Him Is to Love Him,” “Wildflowers,” and “Farther Along.”

It would be more than a decade before the group released a follow-up, but when Trio II arrived in 1999 it did not disappoint. The album won a Grammy Award and peaked in the Top Five of the country album chart. It sold more than one million copies worldwide on the strength of tracks like “Do I Ever Cross Your Mind?” the Carter family’s “Lover’s Return” and a cover of Neil Young’s “After The Gold Rush.”

The bonus disc is loaded with 20 songs, including alternate takes of album tracks like “I’ve Had Enough,” “Making Plans” and “My Dear Companion.” Also featured are 11 completely unreleased recordings from the trio spanning both album sessions including “Waltz Across Texas Tonight,” “Pleasant As May,” “Are You Tired of Me,” and the gospel standard “Softly And Tenderly.” Among the unreleased material is also an alternate version of “Do I Ever Cross Your Mind?” featuring Parton on lead vocals and a stunning acapella version of “Calling All My Children Home.”

1999 Live Concert from Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt To See Release Next Month

Artists: Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt
Album: Live on KSWM
Label: Laser Media
Release date: Sep 18, 2015

While Parkinson's disease has robbed Linda Ronstadt from the ability to sing, fans of her voice will have a new recording to add to their collection in the near future. A long-lost radio broadcast from KSWM, recorded in 1999, will see its release finally. This show contains duets of Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris from a show in San Francisco and features Buddy Miller and Bernie Leaden. The double CD will feature more than 30 songs including many of each of their respective hits played live.

Track listing:

Disk: 1
1. Loving The Highwayman
2. For A Dancer
3. Raise The Dead
4. Icy Blue Heart
5. The Blue Train
6. Valerie
7. It Doesn't Matter Anymore
8. Blue Bayou
9. 1917
10. Green Pastures
11. Orphan Girl
12. Telling Me Lies
13. All I Left Behind
14. Get Up John
Disk: 2
1. Hello Stranger
2. Sweet Spot
3. He Was Mine
4. Sisters Of Mercy
5. This Is To Mother You
6. Falling Down
7. Goin Back To Harlan
8. Talk Top Me Of Mendocino
9. Heart Like A Wheel
10. Wheels
11. Born To Run
12. Feels Like Home
13. Rose Of Cimarron
14. Intro
15. Pancho & Lefty
16. High Sierra

JD Souther To Release Tenderness On May 12

Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee, iconic musician and actor JD Souther releases his new album Tenderness via Sony Music Masterworks. Produced by Larry Klein (Joni Mitchell, Madeleine Peyroux, Melody Gardot, Herbie Hancock), the album will be available on May 12, 2015 and supported by select tour dates across the country and internationally.

JD Souther is both a legendary and mysterious figure in American popular music," says Chuck Mitchell, SVP of Sony Music Masterworks. "He's a self-described 'classicist' who, in his new work, draws a through line between the first great songbook of Porter, Kern, etc., and his own generation's massive impact on the art of the song. The result is an album that brings a new and fresh perspective to this amazing singer-songwriter's contributions."

Now there are many ways to listen to music, and my intention is, as always, that each song tell its own story," adds Souther.  "However, Tenderness is designed as a set.  I invite you to enjoy it this way."

JD Souther proves once again why he's an American treasure," says Irving Azoff, the music industry icon whose company manages Souther. On Tenderness, Souther balances his pop and jazz sensibilities paying particular homage to his earliest influences, the geniuses of the 20th Century Great American Songbook, while maintaining the signature qualities that have made him one of the true contemporary giants of American song. Souther is best known penning countless hits for the Eagles, Linda Ronstadt, Roy Orbison, James Taylor, Don Henley, George Strait, Trisha Yearwood, Brooks and Dunn and others; while establishing a cult following as a performer with the Souther-Hillman-Furay Band and as a solo artist.

As an actor, he has appeared in the TV Shows Thirtysomething and Nashville, among others. A passionate animal lover and advocate, JD is also involved with Best Friends Animal Society.

Track Listing:
   • Come What May   

   • Something in the Dark   

   • This House   

   • Let's Take a Walk   

   • Dance Real Slow   

   • Show Me What You Mean   

   • Horses in Blue   

   • Need Somebody   

   • Downtown (Before The War) 

New Unreleased Recordings From Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris To See Release This Year

Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt released two well-known albums, Trio, a Grammy-winning album released in 1987 and 1998’s Trio II. Now word comes out via a CMT interview with Parton that a collection of unreleased recordings made during the two recording sessions will make up a third release for the three legends. Parton says that the sessions will include additional recordings that have never been heard by the public.

“We’ve been trying for years to put out the thing that we had in the can and repackage the things that we did,” she said. “Emmylou has been working at this for a long time. We thought it was coming out two to three years ago — actually even before that — but I just got a note from Emmy and Linda saying that they had signed off on it, and so it is gonna happen. I don’t have a date, but it’s supposed to be coming out this year.”

Interestingly enough, this could actually be the fourth Trio album.  In 1978, Ronstadt, Dolly Parton, and Emmylou Harris, friends and admirers of one another's work (Ronstadt had included a cover of Parton's "I Will Always Love You" on Prisoner in Disguise) attempted to collaborate on a Trio album. Unfortunately, the attempt did not pan out. Ronstadt later remarked that not too many people were in control at the time and everyone was too involved with their own careers. (Though the efforts to complete the album were abandoned, a number of the recordings were included on the singers' respective solo recordings over the next few years.) This concept album was put on the back burner for almost ten years.

This would mark an end in the threesome's collaborative efforts as in August 2013, Ronstadt revealed to AARP that she has Parkinson's disease, and "can no longer sing a note."

Linda Ronstadt's Duets Scheduled For April 8 Release

Rhino Records is bringing together 14 of Linda Ronstadt's biggest collaborations with the likes of Aaron Neville, Emmylou Harris, Don Henley, Frank Sinatra, James Taylor, Dolly Parton and James Ingram along with a previously unreleased collaboration with Laurie Lewis, for a new collection that was created with help from Ronstadt and her longtime manager, John Boylan.  Duets will be available on April 8.

The album will arrive just days before Ronstadt is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on April 10. The honor recognizes her role as a pioneering female artist and pays tribute to her exceptional musical legacy, which has earned 12 Grammy Awards, two Academy of Country Music Awards and one Emmy. Last year, Ronstadt released her best-selling memoir Simple Dreams and also revealed that she had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, which left her unable to sing.

Several songs on this collection are also Grammy winners. Ronstadt won her first in 1976 for a cover of Hank Williams’ “I Can’t Help It (If I’m Still In Love With You)” that featured Emmylou Harris and appeared on what many consider her masterwork, Heart Like a Wheel (1974). Another Grammy-winner featured on Duets is “Somewhere Out There,” which Ronstadt recorded with James Ingram in 1986 for the soundtrack to An American Tail.

Duets also includes two of her most successful collaborations, both of which feature Aaron Neville. The Grammy-winning songs “Don’t Know Much” and “All My Life” originally appeared on Ronstadt’s triple-platinum album Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind (1989).  In 1976, she and Don Henley sang the Warren Zevon-penned track “Hasten Down The Wind,” which was the title track to Ronstadt’s Grammy-winning, #1 album. It was her third consecutive million-selling album, an accomplishment no other female artist had achieved at that point.

Duets also spotlights a number of Ronstadt’s more recent collaborations, like “Sisters” with Bette Midler, which appeared on Bette Midler Sings the Rosemary Clooney Songbook (2003). That same year, Ronstadt partnered with Carl Jackson on “The New Partner Waltz,” for the Grammy-winning tribute album Livin’, Lovin’, Losin’: Song of the Louvin Brothers. Duets also includes three tracks from Adieu False Heart – a Grammy-nominated album Ronstadt recorded in 2006 with Cajun-music singer Ann Savoy – including a cover of the 1966 hit, “Walk Away Renée.”

Track Listing
1.                  “Adieu False Heart” with Ann Savoy
2.                  “I Can’t Get Over You” with Ann Savoy
3.                  “Walk Away Renee” with Ann Savoy
4.                  “The New Partner Waltz” with Carl Jackson
5.                  “I Never Will Marry” with Dolly Parton
6.                  “Pretty Bird” with Laurie Lewis*
7.                  “I Can’t Help It (If I’m Still in Love With You)” with Emmylou Harris
8.                  “Hasten Down The Wind” with Don Henley
9.                  “Prisoner In Disguise” with J.D. Souther
10.               “I Think It’s Gonna Work Out Fine” with James Taylor
11.               “Don’t Know Much” with Aaron Neville
12.               “All My Life” with Aaron Neville
13.               “Somewhere Out There” with James Ingram
14.               “Sisters” with Bette Midler
15.               “Moonlight In Vermont” with Frank Sinatra

Linda Ronstadt Reveals She Has Parkinson’s Disease

Life doesn’t seem fair sometimes. On one hand, you have a rocker like the Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards who has lived faster and harder than an F-1 race car and who is still going strong at the age of 70. And then you have the beautiful songstress Linda Ronstadt who has just revealed in an AARP interview that she has been battling Parkinson’s disease for eight months now and that it has stolen her ability to sing at the still-relatively-young age of 67. She suspects that she started showing symptoms of the disease several years ago. Whatever your opinion may be of her artistic creativity, it's pretty hard to deny that she had one of the best voices in music. I own many of her albums, including country and non-country alike. Her influence on music is as ingrained as deeply as any artist.

Who can forget her first country number one back in 1975, “When Will I Be Loved?”



Or her smash 1977 hit, “Blue Bayou?”



Or her incredible duet project album with Aaron Neville including the number one hit, “I Don’t Know Much?”



Or her groundbreaking project with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris appropriately called Trio? Here’s “To Know Him Is to Love Him.”

 

Here’s hoping that the disease progresses as slowly as can be expected and that Ronstadt is able to live out the balance of her days with a grace and elegance that she’s showed in all of her previous ones.