Leon Russell: Last News

CBS‘ upcoming daytime sudser Beyond the Gates (new title) has cast three actors to play prominent members of the fictitious Dupree family.

George Harrison’s 1971 ‘Concert For Bangladesh’ live album, featuring Bob Dylan, Ringo Starr and more, is set to arrive across streaming platforms for the first time.Held across two sold-out concerts at New York’s Madison Square Garden back in August 1971, the concerts are considered to be the first major music benefit of its kind and saw the music icon assemble a star-studded event for a common humanitarian goal.Titled ‘The Concert For Bangladesh’, Harrison organised the shows in a bid to raise both awareness and funds for the 10 million East Pakistani refugees who had fled over the border into India, and were facing challenges including the threat of hunger and disease.Setting the precedent that music could be used to serve a higher cause, the MSG shows saw the former Beatle team up with Ravi Shankar, and invite Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr, Leon Russell and Billy Preston to perform at the non-profit event.By the point they took to the stage, little public attention had been drawn to the crisis in East Pakistan/Bangladesh and few outside of the region were aware of how to help those affected.“The musicians were great. I mean they completely put down their own egos to play together and to do something because the whole vibe of that concert was that it was something bigger than the lot of us,” Harrison said at the time.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music The Songwriters Hall of Fame, which staged its annual awards ceremony on Thursday night, is an institution and an event unlike any other in the music industry, even though many of its elements are hardly unique and many things about it have barely changed over decades, and possibly since it launched in 1969. Indeed, we say many of the same things about the ceremony in an article very similar to this one every year — it’s a combination of an awards show, a family reunion and a trade event that is invite-only yet features a mind-blowing array of Grammy-level, once-in-a-lifetime performances and tributes, always held at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York’s Times Square.

It’s official – The Gates is coming to CBS!

Just a few days after revealing how The Talk will wrap its 15-season run this December, CBS announced today that it has ordered the new daytime drama The Gates to series and will premiere the soap in January 2025.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter CBS has ordered the daytime soap opera “The Gates” to series, Variety has learned. The series was first reported to be in development in March. It was developed under CBS Studios’ content partnership with the NAACP.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter CBS and the NAACP are developing a new daytime soap opera under their content partnership. The series, currently titled “The Gates,” would air on the CBS Television Network with the CBS Studios NAACP production venture producing in partnership with P&G Studios, a division of Procter & Gamble.

Dwight Twilley, the singer/songwriter who helped bring the Tulsa Sound to a wider audience, has died at 72. No cause or other details have been revealed.

Michaela Zee Singer-songwriter Dwight Twilley, known for such hits as “I’m on Fire” and “Girls,” has died. He was 72. Church Studio, where Twilley recorded several songs including “I’m on Fire,” announced the news on Facebook, writing, “He peacefully departed this world, surrounded by the love of his life, Jan, and close friends.

Bob Dylan Center has launched a new yearly songwriter fellowship in partnership with Universal Music Publishing Group.Announced Wednesday (August 23), the fellowship will see two recipients awarded annually with a $40,000 (£31,784) project stipend, along with public engagement and presentation opportunities, time in the Bob Dylan Archive, mentorship, studio time at Leon Russell’s historic Church Studio in Tulsa, a roundtrip airfare and more.The review panel includes American rapper Nas along with musicians and songwriters including Juliette Armanet, Patty Griffin, John Mellencamp and Carla Morrison, along with a BDC and UMPG executives.A post shared by Bob Dylan Center (@bobdylancenter)“The Bob Dylan Center Songwriter Fellowship is core to our mission of educating, motivating and inspiring visitors to engage their own capacity as creators, and we cannot wait to hear the entries from undiscovered talent around the world,” said Bob Dylan Center Director Steven Jenkins in a statement.“We are grateful to continue our partnership with UMPG—the world’s leading music publisher is already such a great supporter of the BDC—and we know that this panel of extraordinary songwriters will select deserving Fellows for our inaugural year.”Applications are now open for the 2024 fellowship until October 18, 2023.

Margo Price has shared her cover of Leon Russell‘s ‘Strangers In A Strange Land’ from the forthcoming tribute album ‘A Song For Leon’.Price’s cover is the lead single from the star-studded tribute album that features contributors such as Orville Peck, Nathaniel Rateliff, Pixies, Leon’s daughter Tina Rose with Jason Hill and Amy Nelson (Willie Nelson‘s daughter), Bootsy Collins, Hiss Golden Messenger, and more.“I’ve always loved Leon Russell’s vibe and approach to music and life in general. I completely fell in love with him after watching the documentary by Les Blank called ‘A Poem Is A Naked Person’,” said Price in a statement.She continued: “I had the pleasure of briefly meeting him at a show many years ago in the hallway.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music The estate of legendary British singer Joe Cocker has entered into an agreement with Irving Azoff’s Iconic Artists Group to acquire and develop the singer’s five-decade catalog. The acquisition includes the singer’s music intellectual property assets, including his interest in his sound recordings, compositions, and his name, image and likeness; further terms were not disclosed. After working as a singer through the early 1960s, Cocker burst into the mainstream in 1969 with his electrifying cover of the Beatles’ “With a Little Help from My Friends,” which topped the British charts and sparked a major U.S. following, thanks in large part to his show-stopping performance at the Woodstock festival (and subsequent film). With his powerful and unmistakable soul-blues voice and explosive stage presence, Cocker’s popularity grew with the “Mad Dogs & Englishmen” tour, live album and film, which featured an all-star band helmed by Leon Russell.

Matty Healy of The 1975 has responded to Noel Gallagher, who recently called him a “slack-jawed fuckwit”.Healy responded to the comments from the songwriter and former Oasis member while onstage in Dublin last night (June 7). Here, he acted as the support act for his own band after Caroline Polachek pulled out at the last minute due to losing her voice.Taking to the stage to perform a solo set, he performed stripped-down renditions of The 1975’s songs, including the live debut of ‘Then Because She Goes’ and ‘Playing On My Mind’, as well as a cover of Colin Hay’s ‘I Just Don’t Think I’ll Ever Get Over You’.He was also joined onstage by one of the band’s touring musicians, Jamie Squire, who played a cover of Leon Russell’s ‘A Song For You’, before Healy went on to address the recent comments made by Gallagher.The comments came from a recent interview with Spin, where the High Flying Birds musician shared his annoyance at discovering that Healy had claimed that he and Liam Gallagher needed to “grow up” and reform Oasis.Speaking to the crowd, Healy first discussed the support he has had from members of Coldplay and U2, who he said reached out to him recently.

Matty Healy is sorry. Or at the very least "sorry?" Earlier today, Caroline Polachek shared that she'd lost her voice, and would have to pull out of her slot opening for the 1975 tonight in Dublin. Her replacement: Matty himself.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Jim Gordon, a top drummer for Eric Clapton, George Harrison and countless others who was diagnosed with schizophrenia after murdering his mother in 1983, has died. According to the announcement, he died Monday from natural causes at California Medical Facility in Vacavillle, Calif., after a long incarceration and lifelong battle with mental illness.

EXCLUSIVE: The NAACP production venture with CBS Studios has set up two more drama projects at CBS in its second broadcast development cycle, For Justice, from writers Sallie Patrick and Garen Thomas, which is based on the life of former NYPD Detective Katrina Brownlee; and The Pact, from writer Marcus Dalzine. They join Carver Law, from writer Aaron Carew and executive producer Martin Lawrence, which also was recently sold to CBS for development. The trio of projects span the three classic network drama genres, a cop (For Justice), medical (The Pact) and legal (Carver Law) show.

EXCLUSIVE: CBS is developing a pair of drama series from Aaron Carew, a writer and co-exec producer of The CW’s Walker.

. The track has finally debuted, and it’s damn beautiful. , “Hold Me Closer,” is a dance-pop mashup of John’s classic “Tiny Dancer” and “The One.” The fresh, disco-tinged duet is the first new music Spears has released in six years and her first release since the end of her 13-year conservatorship.

Bill Pitman, a guitarist whose work as part of the legendary recording session group The Wrecking Crew made an invaluable contribution to countless radio hits, TV series and films, died yesterday at his home in La Quinta, California. He was 102.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorThe music industry’s return to whatever passes for normal these days has been hit and miss, to put it mildly: Grammy Week, Coachella, and the first publishers’ week in three years have seen an uneven balance of caution and carelessness — some events have a relatively high percentage of masks and distancing, some have hardly any at all, and at each one you hear tales of how severe someone’s bout with Covid was or wasn’t, and that someone else couldn’t make it because they suddenly tested positive.The “publishers week” we’re referring to is the usual combination of A2IM’s Indie Week conference, the National Music Publishers Association’s annual meeting, and the closer, the Songwriters Hall of Fame induction ceremony, which is one of the most unique and memorable awards shows in the business — which is a parallel event to the Clive Davis pre-Grammy Gala in that it’s invite-only and features a number of once-in-a-lifetime performances. Not only is it the annual family reunion for the songwriting an publishing industry, over the years we’ve seen performances from  Neil Diamond, Drake, Tom Petty, Bonnie Raitt, Justin Timberlake, Ariana Grande, Van Morrison, Cyndi Lauper, John Prine, Leon Russell, Elvis Costello and dozens of others, along with several completely unique homages: Lady Gaga singing Four Non-Blondes’ hit “What’s Up” to Linda Perry; Stevie Nicks belting “The Rose” to Bette Midler; Emmylou Harris performing Eric Clapton’s heartbreaking hit “Tears in Heaven” for the song’s co-writer Will Jennings; and one year, the evening ended with Billy Joel and Garth Brooks duetting at the piano in matching Stetson hats.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorThe Grammys might be the most well-known music awards show in the world, but the Songwriters Hall of Fame’s ceremony is arguably the most unique. The invite-only event, being held June 16 at the Marriott Marquis in New York City, and its awards honor the most important and yet most frequently overlooked people in the music business — the songwriter, duh — and it resembles a cross between the Grammys and an annual family reunion for the tight-knit songwriting and music-publishing community.At each ceremony, superstars receiving honors frequently tell the room that the accolade means more to them than any other award they’ve received, because it’s an endorsement and a validation from their peers.