Chris Willman-Senior: Last News

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music CriticConsider it a sign of the times, maybe: In the list of seven artists that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s select industry voters elected into the institution for the class of 2022, there is not a single rock band. That can be taken as a major signifier that the pendulum among the music intelligentsia really has swung all the way from what was coined some years back as “rockism” — the belief that rock ‘n’ roll is inherently superior to other forms of popular music — to the other side of the scale: poptimism.The MC5? No go, again, this year, despite this being the band’s sixth nomination, the first having come back in 2003.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music CriticMandolin, one of the most celebrated livestream platforms to have come to the forefront in the last two years, is looking to keep the concert streaming boom going with the launch of its Venue and Promoter Network. The newly announced initiative is aimed at providing artists’ camps access to a list of dozens of U.S.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music CriticWell, Dolly Parton didn’t get her wish, although she’s likely to be happy anyway. The country superstar will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in November — a possibility she said last week she’d come to terms with and would “graciously” accept, after initially trying to get herself nixed  — along with Duran Duran, Pat Benatar, Eminem, Lionel Richie, Eurythmics and Carly Simon.Those are the seven performers that the Hall’s thousand-plus voters chose.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music CriticDiscogs, the website that has become the primary online spot for the buying and selling of collectable physical music, might be thought of by many as being part of a move away from traditional music retail. But the site is emphasizing how many of its sellers are, in fact, traditional brick-and-mortar stores by starting up International Record Store Month, an initiative that will roll out on Discogs.com in June.The month-long event is described in an announcement as “a series of virtual events connecting music fans to independent record stores across the globe and recognizing the importance of independent brick-and-mortar shops and their contribution to vinyl culture.”Most of what the initiative aims to do will continue on a year-round basis, including creating a global directory of ma-and-pa record stores that the site’s habitues can visit in the flesh if they aren’t getting their fix via mail order.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music CriticHaim’s homecoming show Sunday at the Hollywood Bowl felt a little bit like a block party first, and a big rock ‘n’ roll coronation secondarily. “We are Valley girls through and through!” declared Alana Haim, one of the three sisters who make up the core group, explaining why “there’s gonna be a lot of emotion tonight.” When they’d headlined the Greek Theatre across the hills in 2017, that might’ve seemed like the prime hail-the-conquering-heroes moment of their lives, but, of course, there were bigger nearby ravines to conquer.Now that they were assuming the dominative position in the Bowl, with Danielle getting something in her eye as she announced they’d been told right before coming on stage that the group had sold it out, leading to quick discussions of whether there is crying in baseball.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music CriticKacey Musgraves has recorded a version of the 1961 Elvis Presley classic “Can’t Help Falling in Love” for the upcoming soundtrack to director Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis” biopic, the singer has revealed.The country-pop star noted that she had covered the song Monday while walking the red carpet at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute benefit gala. Musgraves was there with Luhrmann, Priscilla Presley and members of the film’s cast.Details on the soundtrack have been hard to come by before now, with little publicly revealed beyond the fact that the first single from the album, Doja Cat’s “Vegas,” which includes an interpolation of the Presley hit “Hound Dog.” will be out this Friday.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music CriticThe Beach Boys got around to making their Stagecoach Festival debut Sunday, teaming up with the country duo LoCash on four songs to cap the latter act’s early-evening main stage fest. LoCash had a distinct advantage on any other Stagecoach artists who might ever have been tempted to ask the touring Beach Boys to charter a Palm Springs flight: They actually named their new single “Beach Boys.” Mike Love, Bruce Johnston and three members of their touring band first came out midway into LoCasg’s performance to add their harmonies to the new single — the recorded version of which they also harmonize on.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music CriticThe announcement of winners for the  ASCAP Screen Music Awards, being held virtually again for 2022 and announced Monday morning, included revealing the top vote-getters for several Composers’ Choice Awards, including the scores for “Encanto” and “The White Lotus.”Germaine Franco prevailed for film score of the year for “Encanto.” Cristobal Tapia de Veer won two of these peer-voted awards, for television score of the year and television theme as well, for “The White Lotus.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music CriticThe Judds were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame Sunday evening in Nashville, in an emotional medallion ceremony that went on as scheduled the day after Naomi Judd’s death. The Hall had announced Saturday that the induction would go on in the wake of the tragedy due to the wishes of the family.“I’m sorry that she couldn’t hang on until today,” said a tearful Ashley Judd, according to an Associated Press report.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music CriticWhen Carrie Underwood’s band broke into the opening strains of “Sweet Child o’ Mine” at the Stagecoach Festival Saturday, it seemed like business as usual. The country superstar’s Guns N’ Roses fangirl-ism is well known, and she’s incorporated GNR numbers into her set on a regular basis before, even showing an aptitude for appropriating Axl Rose’s snaky frontman moves as her own.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music CriticThomas Rhett and Maren Morris were the top-billed attractions on the Stagecoach Festival’s opening day, Friday but when it came to heightened emotions, and pure enthusiasm per-square-inch, Tanya Tucker’s climactic set in the Palomino tent might have ruled the day at the desert gathering.The veteran of 50 years of country hitmaking seemed taken aback by the roar of the crowd, late in the set, and not just in a typical welcoming-the-roar way. “It’s hard for me to believe anybody would want to watch me,” she admitted, belying more than a hint of insecurity amid one of the brassier facades in the business.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music CriticFor a headlining appearance at the Hollywood Bowl Sunday night, the group Haim does have two official support acts (Waxahatchee and Buzzy Lee). But for hometown fans who really want to make a full day of it, there’s an additional opening act: a screening just a couple of blocks down the hill of the complete tandem filmography of Haim and director Paul Thomas Anderson.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music CriticYou remember the old quote about how “Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did… backwards and in high heels”? Miranda Lambert has a variation on that. Talking about her first time prevailing at the Academy of Country Music Awards this year in the entertainer of the year category, and what a long-overdue triumph it has been for Carrie Underwood and then her to score in that eternally male-dominated division, the singer says that the two of them “we know what we put into it.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music CriticDolly Parton now says that she’ll accept her induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, if she’s voted in, after having previously stated she wanted to bow out of consideration.Parton made the remarks Friday while appearing on NPR’s “Morning Edition,” as the host pointed out that she had not actually been removed from the ballot, and asked what she’ll do if the voters move to put her in the hall despite her declared wishes..“Well, I’ll accept gracefully,” she said. “I will say ‘thanks’ and accept that.”Parton indicated that, when she made her previous statement about wanting to decline the honor, she didn’t realize that there were already so many artists from other genres that are only rock-adjacent already in the hall.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music CriticThe Stagecoach Festival in the southern California desert is officially asking attendees to secede from any love they might have for the Confederate flag or any other “divisive symbols.”The Desert Sun newspaper noticed an addition to Goldenvoice’s Stagecoach website this year, on the General Resort Rules page that provides guidelines for those in the overnight camping areas. It reads: “No divisive symbols, including, without limitation, Confederate flags and racially disparaging or other inappropriate imagery/public displays.”Confederate imagery among fans has been a point of contention at the festival in the past, with some seeing the flag as a harmless symbol of Southern pride — even this many thousand miles away from the South — while others see it as a dog whistle for racism or an emblem of insurrection against the government.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music CriticStagecoach has revealed the full lineup and schedule for the livestream that will go out this weekend on the country music festival’s YouTube channel, and it includes a number of artists that weren’t previously announced for the stream, offering couch sitters a nearly comprehensive view of what will be going down live in the California desert.The lineup includes the headliners — Thomas Rhett on Friday, Carrie Underwood on Saturday and Luke Combs on Sunday — as well as other marquee names that were named as part of the lineup earlier this week, like Maren Morris, Brothers Osborne, Margo Price, Cody Johnson, Yola, Lainey Wilson and the Black Crowes.It also now is revealed to have a substantial number of artists that weren’t previously included in the livestream announcement, including Tanya Tucker, Smokey Robinson, Jordan Davis, Lee Brice, Ingrid Andress, the Marcus King Band, Ryan Hurd, Charley Crockett, the Mavericks and Mitchell Tenpenny. Most of the lineup is now included, in fact, save for some of the artists who are appearing in the early part of the afternoon, including Americana artists such as Rhiannon Giddens, Amythyst Kiah, Molly Tuttle and Waylon Payne.Brandi Carlile is off the bill, having disclosed in a social media video late Wednesday night that she has contracted COVID and won’t be making it.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music CriticIs every day Record Store Day? It is for the several dozen interviewees of “Vinyl Nation,” a documentary that aims to not just explain the phenomenal LP resurgence of the last 15 years but break down any “High Fidelity” stereotypes about who’s driving the comeback. Record collecting may be a massive cult, but it’s also a rainbow coalition of enthusiasts, the movie argues.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music CriticWith Wilco’s first couple of albums in the mid-1990s, the band got saddled with an “alt-country” tag that was perhaps inevitable, especially coming out of the ruins of Uncle Tupelo, a group that helped form that subgenre as a movement. And for the last quarter-century or so, Jeff Tweedy and company have endeavored to shake it off.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music CriticThe last time there were as many trombones in a movie as there are in “Take Me to the River: New Orleans,” Harold Hill was probably leading a parade. The ongoing vitalization of the Crescent City’s music culture really is like something out of a horn salesman’s fever dream, with younger generations readily taking up New Orleans’ traditional second-line culture in a way that can only make the aging elders of other regional music scenes green with envy.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music CriticPost Malone has posted a release date for his long-promised new album: “Twelve Carat Toothache” will be out June 3, he announced in a social media message that contained little else besides a blurry red image and a link to pre-save the album on streaming services.The album will mark the performer’s first on the Mercury Records label, the revival of which was announced by Republic Records earlier in April. Tyler Arnold, the newly installed president of Mercury, signed and developed Post Malone at Republic, where he had been executive VP of A&R.Twelve Carat Toothache.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music CriticGerman composer and musician Klaus Schulze, a pioneer in the field of electronic music and leading figure in what came to be known as “Kraut-rock,” died Tuesday. He was 74 and the death was described in an announcement from his record label as coming “after a long disease, but all of a sudden.”Schulze was an early member of the groups Tangerine Dream, the Cosmic Joker and Ash Ra Tempel, in the beginnings of a career that grew to include more than 60 albums.Despite his illness, Schulze had new music in the pipeline.