Music

“When I came to Nashville back in 2007, I was too country for pop and I was too pop for country. I was kind of just sitting. I didn’t know what to do really,” says country up-and-comer Jimmie Allen, calling from a radio tour stop in Las Vegas. The Delaware …

Barbara Ann Alston, co-founder and lead singer of the hit-making Sixties girl group the Crystals, died February 16th in Charlotte, North Carolina. She was 74. The singer’s family told the Charlotte Observer that Alston died at a Charlotte hospital following a two-week battle with the flu. Alston’s daughter Donielle Prophete …

James McMurtry opened up 2018 by hitting the road with Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, playing a supporting role for a run of shows that just wrapped up last week. The Americana veteran is due to head right back out next month, though, and this time he’ll share the …

Frank Ocean is suing producer Om’Mas Keith over songwriting credits on the singer’s 2016 album, Blonde. The suit also names Keith’s Analog Genius Corporation and several unnamed John Does as defendants, arguing none of them “own any portion of the copyright rights” to Ocean’s music. The suit claims that Ocean’s …

Various Artists, We Out Here |*** 1/2Nubya Garcia, Nubya’s 5ive|****Ashley Henry & the Re:Ensemble, Easter EP|*** 1/2 The question of who will “save” jazz – a music that celebrated a century on record in 2017 – is one that gets a new answer every few years. The cycle goes like …

The rock world has never seen a rash of retirements like this. In the past few weeks, some of rock & roll’s most legendary performers have declared they’re giving up the endless highway. Elton John announced his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour, the final curtain for the ultimate showman. Paul …

L7 are thrashing into spring with new tour dates and a raucous single, “I Came Back To Bitch.” Produced by Billy Bush, the menacing track is the second original by the newly-reunited head-bangers after “Dispatch From Mar-a-Lago” was released in September, marking the band’s first original material in 18 years. …

Bully released a graceful animated clip for their new single, “Focused,” on Wednesday. The song is from their galvanic second album, Losing. The video is the work of Rozalina Burkova, who presents spare, delicate animations in front of a dark backdrop: A pair of blue pants running across the screen, …

With his new LP Rearview Town due out this spring, Jason Aldean stopped by The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon on Monday to give the album’s lead single “You Make It Easy” its network TV debut. Released just last week, the soulful “You Make It Easy” takes a page out …

Eric Church, Maren Morris and country duo Brothers Osborne led an emotional tribute to victims of concert tragedies at the 60th annual Grammy Awards on Sunday night with a performance of Eric Clapton’s “Tears in Heaven.” TJ Osborne, sporting a white rose in support of the Time’s Up movement, handled …