Chris Willman-Senior: Last News

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic With Taylor Swift already having announced international legs of her Eras Tour that will keep her busy for most of 2024, it would have seemed like she was long done adding any extra dates to the U.S. tour that wraps up in just over six weeks. But she is working in a single additional show after all, at the L.A. area’s SoFi Stadium, extending what was a five-night stand at that massive venue to six concerts. The added date is Aug. 7, two nights before her North American tour comes to an official climax at the stadium on Aug. 9. Eight additional shows for the European leg of the tour next year have also been announced, with added dates in London, Paris, Stockholm, Zurich, Hamburg, Munich, Warsaw and Vienna.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic In case anyone is tempted to think of country music as a one-man phenomenon at present with Morgan Wallen’s seemingly indomitable runs atop multiple charts, Luke Combs has come along to remind everyone that this town is big enough for the both of ’em. They’re now forming a two-man roadblock at the top of the Billboard Hot 100, as, between them, country owns the top two spots on that all-genre charts for the first time in 42 years. Wallen’s smash “Last Night” remains on top of the Hot 100 — no news there, since this is the song’s 14th week at No. 1. But it is a fresh development to have Combs’ cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” cruising close up behind it, moving up one spot to No. 2. It’s the first time the genre has claimed Nos. 1-2 on Billboard’s primary chart since March 1981, when Eddie Rabbitt’s “I Love a Rainy Night” and Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5” managed the same crossover-success feat.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic It’s difficult to know whether Lainey Wilson would be as big a star as she’s recently become in the field of country music without the visibility boost she’s received from “Yellowstone.” The series began featuring her songs in season 2, a few years before Lainey was cast for a recurring role as a musician in season 5. The most likely answer: She’d probably be almost as big, even without the Taylor Sheridan factor. After all, it’s not a TV show that came up with the combination of country-rock singing chops, irresistible Louisiana accent and gosh-dang gung-ho that have captivated listeners to the point that, in short succession, she’s racked up four No. 1 Mediabase radio singles and been one of the leading winners at the CMA and ACM awards shows.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Who wouldn’t want to sing Kelly-oke to a brand new Kelly Clarkson album? But just be prepared to go to a few darker places, as some of the deeply confessional songs on “Chemistry” come up, many of them prompted by her 2020 divorce from Brandon Blackstock and the events that led up to it. Even if she insists that she put some of the most baldly personal songs she wrote away in a drawer, what’s left is still altogether autobiographical, having been written during some of her darkest days roughly three years ago. Not that it’s entirely daunting stuff; Clarkson made sure to include some songs harking further back in her relationship, before the chemistry went sour, to cover the heat generated in the early stages of a relationship, too. She joined Variety via Zoom to discuss the full arc of what “Chemistry” covers.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic When Bobbie Nelson, longtime pianist for her brother, Willie Nelson, died in March 2022 at age 91, she left behind a recently completed posthumous album, recorded collaboratively with singer Amanda Shires. That record, “Loving You,” is finally seeing the light of day and shedding additional daylight on Nelson’s supreme talent as a player, which wasn’t always the main point of focus in the Nelsons’ family band, for obvious reasons. As a happy byproduct, this beautiful labor of love also casting sunshine on Shires’ skills as a vocal interpreter, as they both take on Willie songs, standards (“Over the Rainbow” and “Summertime,” the latter with a guest vocal from Bobbie’s brother) and other shared favorites.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Kesha and producer Dr. Luke have settled a defamation dispute out of court, both parties announced Thursday, with each releasing a quote related to the settlement that indicated they mutually see this as the end of the road for their lengthy legal disputes. Dr. Luke said in his statement that he “wish(es) Kesha well,” while the singer said that she wishes “nothing but peace to all parties involved” as the court dramas apparently draw to a close. “Only God knows what happened that night,” wrote Kesha. “As I always said, I cannot recount everything that happened. I am looking forward to closing the door on this chapter of my life and beginning a new one. I wish nothing but peace to all parties involved.”

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Singer-songwriter Brandy Clark has enjoyed triumphs recently on two fronts. Ten years of work on the score for her first Broadway musical, “Shucked,” paid off with a Tony nomination and a Drama Desk Award win for her and score co-writer Shane McAnally. And the Nashville resident’s self-titled fourth album, which found her friend Brandi Carlile moving into the producer’s chair, got the kind of great reviews that augur for more Grammy nominations (on top of the 10 nods she’s already picked up over the years). While she was making one of her many visits to New York, Variety caught up with her for a Facetime feature to discuss both her new Warner Records album, one of the year’s best, and the hit musical, which has a cast album of its own. The joint timing is coincidental, of course (“Shucked” was originally tagged for a 2020 opening, with an out-of-town run in D.C. that was just about to begin when the pandemic kicked in). That she gets to talk about two home runs at once makes her career seem far from anything that ends in “-ucked,” unless lucked applies.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Dionne Warwick, Billy Crystal, Queen Latifah, Barry Gibb and Renée Fleming have been set as the five arts figures due to be celebrated at the 46th annual Kennedy Center Honors, with a ceremony taking place Dec. 3 in Washington, D.C. The ceremony will take place Dec. 3 and be filmed for later broadcast airing on CBS and streaming on Paramount+. Four of the five honorees hail from the world of music, although Queen Latifah has shifted her focus toward acting in recent years. The ratio is not an uncommon one for the Kennedy Center Honors: Last year’s ceremony honored U2, Amy Grant, Tania León and Gladys Knight, leaving George Clooney the odd acting man out.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Musical tag-teaming doesn’t have results much more fruitful than what came about when the showrunners of “A Small Light” picked Ariel Marx to compose the score for the limited series and Este Haim to serve as executive music producer. Neither Haim nor Marx was in a position to take anything about the job lightly, given that the eight-episode series for National Geographic and Disney+ tells the story of a Dutch woman, Miep Gies, who helped hide Anne Frank and her family from the Nazis. Yet, in their very separate roles, both found ways to bring musical light or even levity into a drama that inevitably skews toward tension. Este Haim took on the EMP job for the first time with “A Small Light” after previously scoring or co-composing “Maid” and “Cha Cha Smooth” — on top of her day job as one-third of the rocking sister trio Haim. For “A Small Light,” she produced episode-ending covers of songs from the first half of the 20th century, performed by Angel Olsen, Moses Sumney, Kamasi Washington, Sharon Van Etten with Michael Imperioli, Remi Wolf, Weyes Blood, duet partners Orville Peck and King Princess, and her sister Danielle.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The suspect and victims have been identified by law enforcement authorities in a mass shooting Saturday outside the Gorge amphitheater in Washington state that left an engaged couple dead and two other concertgoers wounded. Killed in the campground adjacent to the Gorge during the Beyond Wonderland music festival were Brandy Escamilla and Josilyn Summer Ruiz, both from Seattle, who were engaged to be married. Left wounded in the gunfire were Lily Luksich, who was reported to have attended the concert with the shooter, and Andrew Cuadra, aka August Morningstar. Accused in the shootings is James M. Kelly, 26, an active-duty soldier stationed at Washington’s Joint Base Lewis-McChord. Kelly, who joined the Army in 2021, was was shot by a Moses Lake police detective, ending the melee Saturday night. After being released from the hospital Tuesday, Kelly was booked on two counts of first-degree murder, two-counts of first-degree assault and one count of first-degree assault domestic violence.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Taylor Swift announced 2024 international dates for her Eras Tour Tuesday, beginning with a Feb. 7-10 run of four shows at the Tokyo Dome and running through Aug. 16-17 gigs at Wembley Stadium in London. Besides the U.K. and Japan, countries on the agenda for next year include France, Italy, Spain, Ireland, Australia, Germany, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Austria, the Netherlands and Switzerland. Altogether, it was 38 overseas dates that Swift announced in Tuesday’s major rollout. “EXCUSE ME HI I HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY,” she tweeted. “Can’t wait to see so many of you on The Eras Tour next year at these new international dates! Visit http://TaylorSwift.com/tour for more information on your registrations, pre-sales and on-sales!!”

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic In the history of album cover art, only two parties have become arguably almost as famous as some of the bands they shot or designed for: Hipgnosis, in the 1970s, and Anton Corbijn, from the mid-‘80s forward. Those two forces come together with a new documentary, “Squaring the Circle (The Story of Hipgnosis),” directed by Corbijn, about the era of artwork that entranced him, like most music fans, as a youth. Forty years after Hipgnosis ceased to be a going concern as we knew it, the company’s covers for Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and countless others continue to be collected in coffee-table books. And when it comes to the stories behind the sleeves, rock fans still just can’t get enough… to quote a band that Corbijn came to be associated with a little bit later.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Multiple gunshot victims were reported as being treated after violence broke out in a campground at the site of the Gorge amphitheater in Washington state Saturday night, while performances were still going on inside the venue as part of the Beyond Wonderland festival. After initial reports of an active shooter, local authorities reported that a suspect had been apprehended. Information on the victims’ condition was not released prior to a scheduled law enforcement press conference set for 11:30 p.m. PT. But at 10:52 p.m., the Grant County Sheriff’s Office tweeted: “We have five confirmed injuries. The suspect is in custody. The scene has been secured.”

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic If most people thought of which performer best represents pure, satanic evil in music, Pat Benatar would not be their first go-to. But Sen. Ted Cruz is not most people, as he demonstrated Thursday with a mention of Benatar that seemed intended to cast the well-liked, seemingly benign Rock & Roll Hall of Famer as an emblem of Satan. Appearing on Joe Pagliarulo’s conservative talk show, Cruz was asked if he thought there was any possibility that President Joe Biden could be both impeached and convicted by a supermajority in the Senate, a fantasy scenario openly hoped for by some on the far right. Expressing the unlikeliness of that, Cruz replied, “I don’t think Senate Democrats, if you had video of Joe Biden murdering children dressed as the devil under a full moon while singing Pat Benatar, they still wouldn’t vote to convict.”

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic In a move certain to shock Los Angeles theatergoers, the Center Theatre Group (CTG) announced Thursday that it is canceling plans for a 2023-34 season at the Mark Taper Forum, one of the most important homes for new plays in the city, if not the country, due to severe financial concerns. The organization’s two other theaters, the Ahmanson and Kirk Douglas Theatres, will continue with their seasons as usual, with 2023-24 programs to be announced shortly, the announcement said. The programming suspension at the 736-seat Mark Taper will begin after a current world premiere musical, “Transparent,” wraps up its run on June 25. Two other shows that had already been announced will have their runs canceled or postponed. The world premiere of “Fake It Until You Make It,” set to begin Aug. 2, is being called off, although the org said “we plan to feature it) in a future season.” Meanwhile, a touring production of “Cambodian Rock Band” set for the Mark Taper has been canceled outright.  

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic No one could deny that there were star-driven aspects to this past weekend of shows at one of America’s most beloved outdoor venues, the Gorge, all of them headlined or organized by Brandi Carlile. That was apparent soon enough for anyone driving out of Seattle-Takoma Airport to make the three-hour drive to the remote amphitheater in the middle of Washington state, as the freeways were dotted with cars with “Brandi or Bust!” (or messages about the “Bramily”) emblazoned on their rear windshields. And Carlile wasn’t the biggest star appearing over the three nights. No one lords over a cult of personality right now, actively or passively, quite like Joni Mitchell. Not so very long ago, Mitchell was more or less seen as one boomer icon among many, yet she has somehow just in the past few years graduated — with no campaigning on her part, but with valuable microbursts of assistance from Carlile — to being arguably the most revered North American singer-songwriter of any generation. Bob Dylan can only be looking on a little jealously at how his old friend and rival has kind of quietly been pushed ahead of him in the line, even as she did not much more than stay out of sight and work to recover from a debilitating aneurysm.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Although Dr. Luke’s defamation claims against Kesha await an actual trial next month, the singer won a victory on some key points in her counterclaim Tuesday from the New York Court of Appeals, which ruled that the producer qualifies as a public figure,. He thus will have a higher bar to hurdle in succeeding with his lawsuit against her. The suit claims that the producer/songwriter legally known as Lukasz Gottwald was defamed by Kesha Sebert when she made public or legal statements accusing him of drugging and raping her in 2005, and when she additionally alleged that he had raped another singer. In considering Dr. Luke’s level of fame, the court wrote that “we first consider whether Gottwald is a public figure such that he must prove the allegedly defamatory statements were made with ‘actual malice.’ If subject to that standard, Gottwald would be required to prove by clear and convincing evidence that each statement was made ‘with either knowledge that it was false or reckless disregard for the truth.'”

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Sphere in Las Vegas isn’t just a round vehicle for a series of fall U2 concerts — it’s also host to an immersive screen of mammoth proportions that will be its own attractions when there aren’t any world-class rock bands taking over the space. And even when they are, someone has still got to come up with the visual content that will be part-and-parcel with any live residency there. That’s where Sphere Studios will come in, a division of Sphere Entertainment Co. that was announced Monday as the provider for what will appear on the venue’s ultimate big screen in Vegas (and those like it that are planned for Spheres to be built in other cities). Also revealed Monday as part of the rollout for Sphere Studios was Big Sky, described as “an ultra-high resolution camera system” that is “the first of the Studios’ many groundbreaking immersive innovations.”

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Joni Mitchell wrote rather presciently about “The Circle Game” 57 years ago, but anyone who’s experienced a little life knows that circles don’t always — or even very often — come back around to allowing people to enjoy some of the most triumphant nights of their lives when they’re reaching the end of their 70s. Yet with a little bit of an assist from Brandi Carlile, aka the Great Enabler, and her wide circle of friends, that’s what was able to happen Saturday night at the Gorge in Washington state, in a nearly three-hour “Joni Jam” echoed a similar but much shorter event that happened last year at the Newport Folk Festival. This more elaborate follow-up — billed as Mitchell’s first ticketed concert in 20 years — was partly a tribute concert and consummate love-fest. But mostly it was a testament to the singer-songwriter’s own willpower in fighting her way back to full performance mode after a debilitating physical setback that went unmentioned but was not far out of mind. However much Mitchell was in “basking” mode, it was understood that this triumph represented a circle that she really had had to close herself.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Jason Isbell has a new album out, “Weathervanes,” and he says, “I’m happy to be talking about it. You know, I’ve been talking about a lot of other stuff lately, and it’s nice to actually discuss the job that I chose for myself.” Nothing against the Other Stuff on his part, mind you. He’s proud of the much-heralded HBO Max documentary that director Sam Jones made about him, “Jason Isbell: Running With Our Eyes Closed,” even if it did open him and his wife, Amanda Shires, up to a huge amount amount of personal scrutiny. And he’ll sure be spending an even bigger part of the year than he is now talking about his dramatic role in Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon,” which he now feels confident did not leave him in the position of “be(ing) the one guy that screws up this $200 million movie.”

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Days before he’ll attend the Tony Awards as an original score nominee for “Shucked,” country music hitmaker Shane McAnally has announced that rights to much of his songwriting and producing catalog have been acquired by CTM Outlander, a company that has moved aggressively into publishing deals with a particular eye toward investing in renowned Nashville tunesmiths. Also being picked up by CTM Outlander are songs by four writers in McAnally’s SMACKsongs stable: Josh Osbourne, Matt McGinn and Old Dominion members Matthew Ramsey and Trevor Rosen. Additionally, the company will handle global administration for SMACKsongs and SMACKBlue publishing.