Author: Lauren Leadingham

The Rolling Stones have surprised fans with a new song called “Living In A Ghost Town.” It’s their first single in eight years, one they started working on pre-pandemic and wrapped up remotely during isolation. “Living In A Ghost Town” was written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, created and recorded in Los Angeles and London. “We cut this track well over a year ago in LA for a new album, an ongoing thing, and then shit hit the fan. Mick and I decided this one really needed to go to work right now and so here you have it,”…

Today is Earth Day, and to celebrate Jackson Browne has released a new track titled “Downhill From Everywhere,” which he started writing nearly a decade ago. The song follows another, “A Little Soon to Say,” which was released in March. Both will be featured on Jackson’s forthcoming studio album, due out October 9. You can preorder it on vinyl or CD. “Plastic is a great and really useful thing, for medical uses for instance. But it’s just absurd that we use it to deliver things like water,” he told Rolling Stone. “That bottle will be around for hundreds of years and does…

Mike Campbell (lead guitarist of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Fleetwood Mac, and The Dirty Knobs) has premiered a new song and video called “Lockdown,” a lighthearted take on lockdown lifestyle. The video was shot at home by Campbell’s wife, Marcie, and co-directed by Ryan Daniel Browne.  The track will only be available for download, and all proceeds from the track will go to Feeding America. Says Campbell of the song, “Since we’re all keeping away from each other, I have been doing what I always do when I am home: writing and recording. I came up with ‘Lockdown’ for…

Says Waits, “More than kin and more than kind, more than friend and more than fiendish in his daunting and devoted pursuit of the lost and the buried, long may his coattails run and long may we now ride, and those that follow us continue to ride upon them.”

When Neil Young rounded up the current lineup of Crazy Horse last spring, they recorded Colorado, the first Crazy Horse album since 2012’s Psychedelic Pill.  The band features founding bassist Billy Talbot and drummer Ralph Molina, as well as multi-instrumentalist Nils Lofgren on guitar. Nils played with Crazy Horse during the ’70s and rejoined in 2018. Colorado was recorded in the Rocky Mountains and was produced by Neil Young and John Hanlon. Young has released a new version of “Shut it Down,” a track from the album, and has renamed it “Shut it Down 2020.” He and his wife, Daryl Hannah, made a video…

Bonafide soul singer and composer Bill Withers, whose career only lasted about a decade but encompassed several major hits, died from heart complications on Monday. The three-time Grammy winner and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer was 81. “We are devastated by the loss of our beloved, devoted husband and father. A solitary man with a heart driven to connect to the world at large, with his poetry and music, he spoke honestly to people and connected them to each other,” the family said in a statement on Friday. “As private a life as he lived close to intimate family and…

To all of us fans, she’s Dolly Parton. To little people, she’s “the Book Lady.” Today the singer/songwriter started a 10-week online series in which she reads a children’s book at bedtime, selecting books from her Imagination Library. You and your child can watch the “Goodnight with Dolly” readings streamed on YouTube on Thursdays at 7 p.m. EST. As the mother of a toddler, I am ever thankful that I can add Dolly to my presently scant list of family diversions during this challenging time. Dolly’s Imagination Library book gifting project was started in 1995 to serve children in…

“We’ll probably do this for the internet. Unless, you know, something terrible happens and we have to cheer up the world on the TV show.” These are the portentous words of Stephen Colbert preceding a duet with John Prine back in 2016. Their performance of “That’s the Way the World Goes Round,” filmed in the Ed Sullivan Theater, had not been broadcast until this latest at-home episode of The Late Show. Colbert unearths the clip with this statement: “I’d like to take a moment right now to send out a personal message to a friend. Last week, our friend and yours,…

Joe Diffie, the hitmaker behind such timeless 90s country songs as “John Deere Green” and “Prop Me Up Beside the Jukebox (If I Die)” has sadly passed away today, March 29, due to complications from COVID-19. Diffie’s rep shared the news of the diagnosis on Friday, March 27. The Grammy winner and Grand Ole Opry member will be remembered for his great vocal range, and for being an unrivaled interpreter of neo-traditional country music. https://twitter.com/opry/status/1244360215664963590?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet “Don’t spread my ashes out to sea don’t lay me down to rest / You can put my mind at ease if you fill my…

Bill Rieflin, drummer for bands such as R.E.M., King Crimson, and Ministry has died after a battle with cancer. He was 59. While best known as a drummer/hired gun, he was also a multi-instrumentalist versed in guitar, piano, and bass. His drum method was regarded as an industrial mainstay, as he played on tracks for Nine Inch Nails, Revolting Cocks, KMFDM, and Swans, in addition to Ministry. Rieflin had also done work with Peter Murphy, Chris Cornell, Pigface, and many others. He joined R.E.M. in 2003 as a touring member, playing with them regularly — live and in the studio…