Madison Cunningham: Last News

Shirley Halperin Executive Editor, Music Universal Music Group is home to dozens of labels spanning every genre, from pop to hip-hop, rock to R&B, country to Latin and niche styles like Christian, classical and Jazz. To run one of these companies is to associate with top talent — household names like Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Drake and Lady Gaga — and the pressure to perform is equally massive. Which makes a label like Verve, which launched in the 1950s with the music of Ella Fitzgerald — and whose current roster includes left-of-center signings like Tank and the Bangas, Kurt Vile and Arooj Aftab — a sort of refuge in the giant commercial enterprise that is the world’s biggest music company. But Verve’s value to UMG is significant, and this is not lost on Sir Lucian Grainge, its chairman and CEO, who has given the label the leeway to invest in traditional artist development. What does that mean? For some familiar context: it’s letting an artist like Bruce Springsteen put out two albums achieving less-than-stellar sales so that he can reach a “Born to Run,” his third and career-launching release. Verve has its own success stories that follow this trajectory, like Jon Batiste, the former Stephen Colbert bandleader and master musician from New Orleans, whose “We Are” won album of the year at the 2022 Grammys.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic If you live in Los Angeles and you sometimes feel the heat, congestion or cost of living making you wonder about greener pastures, you may keep a running checklist in the back of your mind of Reasons Never to Move Away. If you live in L.A. and you’re a fan of roots or Americana music, you may keep the monthly Watkins Family Hour shows at Largo on that checklist of reasons not to check out— because in what other city are you going to find such a reliable monthly gathering of the contemporary folk-rock tribe? For 20 years now (maybe 21 — no one thought to start a count in the early 2000s), Sean Watkins and Sara Watkins have been convening some of the top musicians in Southern California, especially those with an acoustic bent, to join them at Largo for (mostly) monthly shows that bring a sense of community to a town where that’s not always easy to find. The extent to which the small, clubby theater enforces its no-phones policy means that potential fans definitely hear about the shows through word-of-mouth, not word-of-video.

The stars and sun aligned on the Grammy red carpet this warm Sunday at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Prominent artists and entertainers arrived in iridescent one-pieces, print dresses and colorful suits in anticipation of a spectacular evening.

It all starts with a song, as the music business axiom reminds us. But if the song remains the same, the ways to watch the 64th annual Grammy Awards this Sunday are multiplying.

Chris Willman Music WriterLeVar Burton will host the Grammys’ “premiere ceremony,” the pre-telecast afternoon event during which the vast majority of winners will be announced April 3.The Grammys-before-the-Grammys will get underway at the the MGM Grand Conference Marquee Ballroom in Las Vegas at 12:30 p.m. PT/3:30 ET.

The joy of playing the guitar radiates from Really Good Rejects, Alice Gu’s SXSW documentary about Reuben Cox. Cox is a modern-day “luthier” – he makes stringed instruments, and his custom guitars grace stages all over the world. Artists clearly have a passion for his work: those lining up to praise him include Jackson Browne, Carrie Brownstein, Aaron Dessner of The National, Jim James of My Morning Jacket, Madison Cunningham, and Andrew Bird.

Harry Styles is enjoying a sunny day in NYC!