Another Fyre Festival Is Happening, Says Con Artist and Convicted Felon Billy McFarland

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic “Thanks for coming to my dad’s birthday party,” said Micah Nelson, a few songs into an all-star tribute to Willie Nelson at the Hollywood Bowl, attended by a sold-out house happy that Willie had found a way to schedule the 90th anniversary of his birth on a Saturday night. With roughly seven decades of songwriting and recording to commemorate, though, the party is stretching over two nights, bundled together and sold as a single ticket, where by the end of Sunday night everyone will have heard about 50 artists perform a total of about 75 songs. Ironically, one of the first numbers performed Saturday evening was young Texas country artist Charley Crockett doing a cut that Nelson had a hit with as a budding songwriter in the late ’50s: “The Party’s Over.” That title proved as un-prescient for Nelson’s career 65 years ago as it proved unprophetic for the scope of the Bowl celebration this weekend. But a little irony is always welcome in Willie’s world.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic In an ultimate show-must-go-on moment in country music history, Wynonna Judd was not about to let the legacy of the Judds slip quietly into the sunset, rather than go out as spectacularly as intended, after her mother, Naomi Judd, died by suicide in April 2022. And so the Judds farewell tour that had been scheduled for last fall did proceed, against all probabilities, with a bevy of top stars trading places as Naomi’s stand-in each night. The emotional end of that road was captured for not just one but two new specials premiering on different Paramount platforms — “Wynonna Judd: Between Hell and Hallelujah,” a feature-length documentary that debuted Wednesday on Paramount+, and “The Judds: Love Is Alive — The Final Concert,” a two-hour performance special bowing tonight on CMT.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic What’s 420 divided by 90? While you ponder that, take in the news that, on the eve of Willie Nelson’s 90th birthday, he and Billy Strings have released their own birthday present to the world — a surprise collaboration called “California Sober,” which, as you might be able to guess from the title, celebrates weed as its own form of moderation. It’s the first song to come out under Strings’ new deal with Reprise Records, after a long run with Rounder. The music video portrays the two collaborators and band members recording their parts individually, although a framing device has Strings getting on a bus — presumably Nelson’s — that is emitting a prolific amount of smoke by the time he exits at the end. Strings, a young neo-bluegrass picker who now sells out shows across the country, is seen with a joint hanging out of his mouth as he pulls off one of the acoustic solos he’s famous for, while wearing a shirt that rhymes “doobie” with “Scooby.” Nelson is not so demonstrative in his choice of cannabis, having reportedly given up smoking for edibles and other lung-protecting variations some years back.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The trial settling the case of whether Ed Sheeran’s “Thinking Out Loud” plagiarized the Marvin Gaye hit “Let’s Get It On” will never likely slip into concert mode, but it came about as close as it’s likely to during the pop star’s testimony on Thursday, when he picked up a guitar and briefly sang for the Manhattan courtroom. Sheeran performed a bit of what he said was the first version of “Thinking Out Loud,” as he and co-writer Amy Wadge developed it together at his home in England. The song’s hook lyric was then — as he sang it — “I’m singing out now,” according to musical testimony reported by ABC News. “When I write vocal melodies, it’s like phonetics,” he testified, according to Reuters’ report, showing out “singing out now” became “thinking out loud,”

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The copyright case in which Ed Sheeran is being sued for allegedly lifting portions of Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On” for his own “Thinking Out Loud” took on some unexpected drama Wednesday afternoon when the plaintiff, Kathryn Townsend Griffin, collapsed and had to be carried out of court, causing an interruption in otherwise routine testimony. According to CNN, Townsend Griffin (pictured above left) — the daughter of “Let’s Get It On” co-writer Ed Griffin — fainted about two minutes into the Sheeran team’s cross-examination of a musicologist who had been brought in to testify that there was a substantial similarity between the two songs.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Kelly Clarkson celebrated her 41st birthday Monday night with a ceremonial purge, performing for fans all 14 songs from “Chemistry,” a project he’s been working on for three years that has been described — quite accurately, as it turns out — as putting her feelings about her divorce on the record, in every way. “I was really nervous about releasing the record,” Clarkson said at an early point in the emotionally powerful but good-humored two-hour concert at downtown L.A.’s Belasco, which was being filmed for future use. The singer said she felt emboldened when one of her crew members of three years told her, “I was listening to your record and, boy, did you nail that — loss and grief. And even the part where you remember the good; that’s what keeps you going back.”

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The Park City Song Summit will return to Utah this September for another installment in its annual mixture of performances and panels, featuring an array of guests from different genres, with those set to speak or sing ranging from Grateful Dead veteran Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros. to rising star Joy Oladokun. This year’s festival takes place Sept. 7-9. The 50th anniversary of hip-hop will be explored, as evidenced in the booking of progenitors like Grandmaster Flash, Darryl “DMC” McDaniels and Chuck D, amid other veteran artists like folk legend Ramblin’ Jack Elliott. Standout younger artists featured include Adia Victoria, Danielle Ponder, Celisse, Cimafunk, Joe Pug, Ruby Amanfu and Matisyahu.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic “Red” was unfortunately more than just a metaphor for Taylor Swift over the weekend, as fans took to social media after her Houston three-night stadium stand wrapped up to share photos and video of what looked like a gnarly injury to her hand midway through the second of three concerts in the city. On Monday, Swift took to social media and acknowledged the injury, while downplaying it, much as she had done by going on with the show Saturday despite suffering what appeared to be a bloody incident during an off-stage costume change. “For those asking how I cut my hand,” Swift said in a tweet, “I’m totally fine and it was my fault completely — tripped on my dress hem and fell in the dark backstage while running to a quick change — braced my fall with my palm. It was all very Mercury in retrograde coded. Don’t worry about me I’m gooooood,” she added, blowing fans an emoji kiss.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Comes a time when even Neil Young is going to set foot on a stage again after the pandemic, and the recently gig-shy legend turned in his first substantial live performance in almost four years Saturday night at a benefit concert at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles. Young shared much of his time on stage with Stephen Stills, in a show that relied so much on material from their first run as fellow band members in the 1960s, it almost amounted to a true “Buffalo Springfield revisited” show. The two longtime cohorts’ appearances apart and in tandem would have been draw enough to fill the Greek Saturday for the “Autism Speaks Light Up the Blues 6 Concert,” a sixth edition of the recurring autism benefits hosted by Stills and his wife Kristen, this one postponed by three years from its original spring 2020 date. But there was plenty of star power besides, including sets by Willie Nelson, making a brief but impactful appearance in advance of his 90th birthday celebration next weekend at the Hollywood Bowl, and Joe Walsh, who ensured that Stills and Young did not have the guitar heroism to themselves.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Drummer Bill Kreutzmann, one of the founders of the Grateful Dead and a member of spinoff group Dead and Company, will not be a part of the latter group’s farewell tour this summer, the band announced in a social media post Saturday. Although fans might assume his exit could be health-related, since he has had to sit out some Dead and Company shows in recent years, the group declared that was not the case in its post, and added that he is not retiring from music. Rather, the statement said, Kreutzmann’s departure was due to a “shift in creative direction.” No further explanation of what that might mean was forthcoming in the statement.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The LA Phil has announced the full summer season for Hollywood Bowl’s sister venue across the gorge, the Ford, with a typically eclectic and cross-cultural lineup that includes Mac DeMarco, Lucinda Williams, Jorge Drexler, the Milk Carton Kids, Darren Criss, Arooj Aftab, Meredith Monk, José James, a kids’ show by the Bob Baker Marionette Theater, a dance project from Serpentwithfeet and many more attractions. The smaller-sized amphitheater is one of the most prized venues for musicians to play in Los Angeles, although the Phil’s emphasis in its four months of annual shows there is far less on commercial acts than in maintaining intriguing blend of all possible arts, with jazz, Americana and Latin and global music definitely getting a leg up on pop in the programming.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic There could probably be no better evangelist for anything than the immensely respected Rhiannon Giddens, and the banjo is lucky to have her. The singer and multi-instrumentalist has been spreading the gospel of that instrument generally and its roots in Black culture specifically for years, in her live performances and as a member of a banjo-driven all-star ensemble, Our Native Daughters. Now, she’s taking a much deeper dive than ever with an outstanding 10-part limited series, “The Banjo: Music, History and Heritage With Rhiannon Giddens,” which has her and some guests who are pickers and/or academics exploring the twisted, fascinating journey of what she considers the quintessential American instrument. The series covers everything from the instrument’s roots in the African diaspora to its role in slavery to its adaptation as a staple of “hillbilly” music, on up to its resurgence as a staple of the Americana music scene today — and how, in Giddens’ view, it has been a reflection of divisiveness and unification in the U.S. over a period of centuries.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic If the 14th annual TCM Classic Film Festival had an official focus, it was on the 100th anniversary of Warner Bros., from the opening night premiere selection of a restoration of “Rio Bravo” to a celebration of the 50th anniversary of “The Exorcist.” Almost equal in emphasis, though, by virtue of the guests brought in, was a celebration of the ingenues-turned-leading-ladies of the 1960s, who now represent the elder guard of a Hollywood golden age — Angie Dickinson, Ann-Margret and Shirley Jones. Dickinson had the highest profile of any star at the festival, being the belle of the ball at the Thursday screening of “Rio Bravo” in the big house at the TCL Chinese Theatres, where most of the screenings were held. But there was just as much outpouring of affection for Ann-Margret, who turned up for a Q&A (and birthday cake) following “Bye Bye Birdie” on Saturday, and Jones, who was joined by her son Shaun Cassidy and a slew of grandchildren after a showing of 1962’s “The Music Man” as the festival neared its end Sunday.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Are you ready for deep-fake-Drake? Many fans are, at least as an amusing lark, as an apparently artificial-intelligence-generated “collaboration” between “Drake” and “the Weeknd” began to go viral over the weekend, for how closely the styles of the two superstars are mimicked in a track titled “Heart on My Sleeve.” It’s no joke, though, to artists and labels wondering whether such soundalike tracks can quickly be quashed, and whether gullible fans may have a hard time telling the difference if the trend accelerates. The mystery account behind the AI song, identifying as Ghostwriter, left no clues about how the imitative track was brought into being, or what information was fed into programs to create it. But in two minutes and 16 seconds, “Heart on My Sleeve” consists of two distinct verses and a chorus sung by voices distinctly resembling the two stars, with lyrics referring to Selena Gomez, who was reported to have been dating the Weeknd in the mid-2010s. Sample lyrics: “I came in with my ex like Selena to flex, aye / Bumpin’ Justin Bieber the fever ain’t left, aye”… And, “Talkin’ to a diva yeah she on my nerves / She think that I need her, kick her to the curb ‘ All I know is you could’ve had the world … yeah, you were my world.”

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Eric Clapton announced Monday that his recurring Crossroads Guitar Festival will take place in Los Angeles this fall, with a roster of 41 guest musicians or bands set to take the stage across two nights at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles Sept. 23-24. Musicians due to perform one or both nights include Santana, the War on Drugs, the John Mayer Trio, ZZ Top, Sheryl Crow, Gary Clark Jr., H.E.R., Buddy Guy, Los Lobos, Vince Gill, Stephen Stills, Jimmy Vaughan, Robbie Robertson, the Del McCoury Band and Joe Bonamassa. Others announced include John McLaughlin, Albert Lee, Doyle Bramhall II, Keb’ Mo’, Roger McGuinn, Robert Randolph, Jakob Dylan, Sierra Hull, Marcus King, Eric Gales, Sonny Landreth, Pedro Martins, James Bullard, Andy Fairweather Low, Samantha Fish, Ariel Posen, Ben Haggard, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, the Bros. Landreth, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Gustavo Satnaolalla, Danial Santiago and Bradley Walker.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic When Variety asked the members of Boygenius in an interview earlier this month about the setlists for their upcoming shows, they made it clear — no solo material, just band stuff, because that’s sufficient to fill festival-length sets anyway. On top of that, perhaps unspoken is the idea that keeping to Boygenius selections helps keep everything democratic, which would become just a little tougher if suddenly “Kyoto” earned the supergroup’s loudest roar out on the road each night. But the trio is doing some headlining shows this spring and summer, outside of festival dates. Do they really have enough in their arsenal from 2018’s initial EP and the full album that just came out to make a full show feel like a full meal?

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic It may take a greater elixir than anything Dr. Feelgood has to offer to elicit positive vibes in the war of words — and writs — between Motley Crue guitarist Mick Mars and the other three members of the group. Following a headline-making lawsuit filed by Mars against the band last week, lawyers or managers for both sides have spoken with Variety at length about the positions they are doubling down on. If you had to sum it up in a hard-rock song, it might be: “Grievances Grievances Grievances.” Until now, the Crue camp had only issued brief statements and a frustrated tweet from Nikki Sixx. But the band’s manager of 29 years, Allen Kovac, was so angered by an interview Mars gave Variety after the suit was filed that he agreed to go on record addressing what he believes are the musician’s most scurrilous accusations — including whether or not the group’s performances are largely on tape. “I have a lot of regret that I’m having to do this,” the attorney says, pointing out that he talked Nikki Sixx, the group’s unofficial leader, out of talking to the press himself, wanting the bassist to keep “taking the high road.”

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Amazon has come on board this month’s Stagecoach Festival in California to provide a livestream of the country music gathering. Live action from the April 28-30 festival in Indio will be streamed on both Prime Video and Amazon Music’s Twitch channel. It marks the second year that the festival will be extensively streamed, albeit the first involving Amazon. In 2022, Stagecoach livestreamed most of the main attractions on its own YouTube channel. In some years prior to that, Yahoo had had exclusive rights to stream select artists’ sets. Coverage from the festival will begin at 3 p.m. each of the festival’s three days. Stagecoach and Amazon did not immediately reveal how many or which sets will be streamed from the festival; a press release promised that performances from the Mane Stage will be seen.

Fyre Festival 2 is reportedly in the works, six years after that disastrous event.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The Eddie Vedder-founded Ohana Festival in southern California will again feature the Pearl Jam frontman as one of the top attractions in 2023, as is customary, along with a heavy-hitting selection of rock names in the top slots and an eclectic lineup for the undercard slots. The Killers and Foo Fighters join Vedder as the headliners for the three-day festival, taking place Sept. 29-Oct. 1 at Doheny State Beach in Doheny Point. Haim, the Chicks and the Pretenders are the second-billed acts across the three days. Other marquee attractions in the idyllic beachside setting will include Father John Misty, the War on Drugs, Japanese Breakfast, Goose and Rainbow Kitten Surprise.