Allison Russell, Brandi Carlile, Billy Strings Score Wins at Americana Honors & Awards

Michelle Zauner (Japanese Breakfast) has teamed up with The North Face to release a cover of “The Story,” the 2007 hit by singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile. The cover features a string arrangement by Craig Hendrix and will be featured in The North Face’s new “It’s More Than A Jacket” campaign.

Wynonna Judd returned to stage for the first time as part of the 11-show stint with The Judds, a final tour which was initially scheduled as a series of reunion concerts including her mother and singing partner, Naomi Judd.  But weeks after the slate of programs was announced, Naomi died by suicide on April 30 at the age of 76. Wynonna enlisted the help of a few women in the industry to make sure the tour continued on as planned, only now more so to honor her mother for the trailblazing path she paved in the country community. "It’s devastatingly beautiful to go back to the past and relive some of these memories," Wynonna told the Associated Press said earlier this week after practicing on stage.

Imax is out this Sunday with Brandi Carlile: In The Canyon Haze – Live from Laurel Canyon on 31 screens nationwide, an encore of a live event that reps a milestone for the large format exhibitor.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Brandi Carlile’s IMAX livecast Wednesday evening couldn’t have been better timed in the calendar year, coming just a few days after the equinox. A nationwide live simulcast on IMAX screens pretty much demands a universal start time of 6 p.m. PT/9 ET,  a time frame that, in the last week of September, means a 90-minute show being shot outdoors on a ridge overlooking L.A. will start sunny and end with a dark sky and the basin at its twinkliest. Cinematographers everywhere couldn’t have asked the movie gods for a more compliant dusk than the one Carlile and her band and filmmaking team got. She’s having her own magic hour, of course … definitely not to be confused with a twilight, in her case. The Carlile album that came out just about a year ago, “In These Silent Days,” carried on its Grammy-winning predecessor’s success in further establishing her as America’s troubadour du jour in the classic singer-songwriter vein. Now she’s celebrating that anniversary with a deluxe edition that includes a separate, all-new rendering of the album, titled “In the Canyon Haze,” featuring re-arrangements meant to invoke the spirit of early ‘70s Laurel Canyon folk-rock just as blatantly as the altered title suggests. There’s something almost ironically contrary about marrying the new record’s intimacy to giant screens — Lookout Mountain meets “Attack of the 50-Foot Woman”? — but with a little bit of help, maybe, from the spirits of the hippie holler, it worked.

Jamie Redknapp’s parents Harry and Sandra were forced to make a mad dash to Bermuda when he shared the surprise news he was marrying his now ex-wife Louise Redknapp. Harry, 75, and Sandra, 74, were in France when Jamie, 49, called to tell them he had popped the question to Louise – and they were getting married in a matter of days. Recalling the moment in their new book, When Harry Met Sandra, Sandra shares: “Harry and I were in France where we had been watching the 1998 World Cup when Jamie called with the news.

Christian Bale’s Burt Berenstein character says he “left his eye in France” in David O. Russell’s fanciful, murder-mystery/ larger-conspiracy comedic thriller, “Amsterdam,” a movie named for the city where the films lead trio spends their halcyon years, living, loving and laughing together.

Al Pacino has been set to star in Billy Knight, an indie drama that will mark the feature film debut of writer-director Alec Griffen Roth. Stranger Things star Charlie Heaton and Diana Silvers (Space Force, Booksmart) will also topline the pic, which begins shooting this week in Los Angeles.

Angelique Jackson Russell Hornsby has signed onto Searchlight Pictures’ “The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can Eat,” joining the film’s starry lead trio of Uzo Aduba, Aunjanue Ellis and Sanaa Lathan. Based on Edward Kelsey Moore’s 2013 bestselling novel, “The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat” is set to be directed by Tina Mabry from a script by Gina Prince-Bythewood, with revisions by Mabry. Aduba, Ellis and Lathan play best friends dubbed “The Supremes,” who, according to the film’s synopsis, “have weathered life’s storms together for two generations through marriage and children, happiness and the blues,” and “find their paths at a crossroads that test their lifelong bond.” Hornsby has been cast in a key role in the project, specifics of which are being kept under wraps.

Antonio Ferme editor There was a lingering feeling of ambiguity and anticipation on Sunday night at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, the site of 20th Century Studios’ worldwide premiere of David O. Russell’s “Amsterdam.”  Russell has not released a new film in nearly seven years — his last feature was 2015’s “Joy” with Jennifer Lawrence. Given his various controversies and 2011 sexual assault allegation, it was unclear whether Hollywood would re-embrace the director with open arms. And then Drake walked out on stage. “This is just a real moment,” Drake said. “So I am here to introduce the extremely talented, very legendary, one of the most handsome men in Hollywood. He goes by the name of David O. Russell.”

David O. Russell is a filmmaker with an amazing track record of award-winning films.

Marcus Mumford released “Cannibal,” the lead-off song for his first solo album, he was very much declaring a different set of lyrical as well as musical intentions. But for most of the press and public, the focus immediately got put on peripheral matters. Like: Did the existence of a solo project mean Mumford and Sons were breaking up? Had tension over one of the band members leaving last year amid controversy forced a fissure in the group? And then, on the lighter side, hey, how about that Steven Spielberg clip for “Cannibal,” the first music video the filmmaker had ever done? All good, reasonable questions… and all of them burying the lead, as it were. But when Brandi Carlile, who co-wrote and sings on the new album’s final track, “How,” publicly praised him for his bravery and described the album — “Self-Titled” — as “a trust fall,” something more seemed to be afoot than the very modest amount of courage it might take for a star frontman to go solo. And then Mumford went public in confirming what fans who’d listened carefully to “Cannibal” had already figured out: that it was a song addressing someone who sexually abused him in his childhood. The rest of “Self-Titled,” which arrives this weekend, is not so strictly focused on that particular trauma as “Cannibal” and “How” are, but they all touch on points in a lifelong series of reconciliations that will strike deep chords in any listeners who may be on the same journey from horror to healing.

How do you inspire a legend? Country music star Tanya Tucker finds motivation to try again in “The Return of Tanya Tucker-Featuring Brandi Carlile.” The film chronicles a surprising chapter in Tucker’s career, charting an unexpected comeback album. Singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile is invaluable to the project.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The Americana Honors & Awards have always, perhaps more than any other music awards show, rewarded work that is fairly unassailable … which doesn’t always mean that the ceremony has always seized the moment. In 2018, Brandi Carlile’s breakout album and song, “By the Way, I Forgive You” and “The Joke,” both lost in their respective categories to Jason Isbell. Although he was being rewarded for top-flight work and there was nothing remotely shameful about this wins, it had the feeling of an opportunity lost, rubber-stamping the time-tested when a rising star who offered a chance for increased representation was right there in the nominees’ midst. So this year, if the award had gone to Carlile’s excellent “In These Silent Days,” it would have been a perfectly reasonable case of playing catch-up.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic On the eve of AmericanaFest in Nashville, Lucinda Williams was celebrated at BMI’s headquarters as the recipient of the performing rights organization’s annual Troubadour Award, where an invitation-only crowd heard Williams’ songs covered by Jason Isbell, Angel Olsen, ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons, Amos Lee and Madeline Edwards. Other artists saluted Williams via taped congratulations, like Robert Plant and Dwight Yoakam, who called giving Williams the lifetime achievement award “long overdue.” Maybe it wasn’t that long overdue: Williams is only the fourth artist to get the Troubadour honor since it was instituted in 2017, following in the footsteps of John Prine, John Hiatt and Robert Earl Keen.

Now all the trophies have been put on their respective shelves, it’s no slight to say the 74th Primetime Emmy Awards last night ended up being a tricky mix of the arcane, retro and optimistic, among other things. Off-screen, NBC’s Kenan Thompson hosted broadcast of television’s big night had to contend with the awkward reality of a match-up with Monday Night Football’s season debut on ABC and ESPN.

EXCLUSIVE: For the first time since launching eventual Best Picture Oscar winner Green Book five years ago, writer/director Peter Farrelly returns to the Toronto Film Festival with another drama built around an obscure and difficult to be believed but fact-based road trip set in the turbulent ‘60s.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Brandi Carlile livestreamed some intimate performances to fans’ computer screens during the heart of the pandemic, but now that everyone is out and about again, she’s taking the livestream experience very big, with plans to simulcast a live concert, “Brandi Carlile: In the Canyon Haze — Live from Laurel Canyon,” to more than 100 IMAX screens on Sept. 28. The IMAX presentation will include a full performance of her “In the Canyon Daze” album, set to come out that same day. The forthcoming release is a full-on remake of her “In These Silent Days” album, which came out last October, this time arranged with more of an acoustic bent and the vintage Laurel Canyon sound in mind.

Some people adore his films, others detest his films and the man himself. (Likely for good reason.) Wherever someone may fall with their opinions on him, one thing is certain about David O.