Beach Boys Join LoCash at Stagecoach for Surprise Collaborative Set… Including the New Single Named After Them

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music CriticBob Neuwirth, a recording artist and mainstay of the New York City folk scene in the 1960s, and a collaborator with Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, John Cale and Peter Case, among others, died in Santa Monica Wednesday night at age 82. The cause of death was heart failure.“On Wednesday evening in Santa Monica, Bob Neuwirth’s big heart gave out,” said his longtime partner, entertainment executive Paula Batson, in a statement. “He was 82 years old and would have been 83 in June.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic“I’m 90% sure the reason I’m here is because I have a song called ’22,'” quipped Taylor Swift, delivering the commencement address for New York University’s class of 2022 at a graduation ceremony held Wednesday. The pop superstar was awarded an honorary doctorate before giving a playful and reflective speech that lasted… no, not 22, but a little over 23 minutes.“Last time I was in a stadium this size, I was dancing in heels and wearing a glittery leotard,” Swift noted.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music CriticDirector Peter Jackson’s eight-hour documentary “The Beatles: Get Back” is set to be released on DVD and Blu-Ray this summer, with the sprawling doc from 2021 finally available in physical editions July 12.If there’s a sense of deja vu to that announcement, it’s because these home video editions were already previously announced to come out six months earlier, but that release was scotched before it happened due to a defect that was detected in the discs.“The Beatles: Get Back” has been originally scheduled to come out Feb. 8, after an initial announcement Jan.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music CriticThe Billboard Music Awards telecast positioned itself this year as the official awards show of forgiveness for so-called “canceled” stars, with performance slots offered to both Morgan Wallen and Travis Scott. In the case of Wallen, that also extended to a major on-air award, as Wallen was called to the BBMAs’ podium Sunday night to accept a trophy for top country artist.It wasn’t Wallen’s first win at an awards show since his career time-out in early 2021; he won album of the year at the fan-voted Academy of Country Music Awards in March.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music CriticPaul McCartney has something to prove. What that is is between him and his shrink, although maybe a desire to seem and feel undiminished is not as mysterious as all that.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music CriticIn paying tribute to Bob Dylan at a concert held during the opening festivities for the Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Elvis Costello sang an epic, rip-roaring “Like a Rolling Stone,” apparently the first time he’s covered the signature song of his most obvious influence in full in concert. But earlier in the set Costello also did a lesser-known balladic chestnut from the Dylan catalog: “I Threw It All Away.” Of course, that title was the very opposite of the message being sent out by the new museum.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music CriticWho’s introspective? Pete Townshend is, in a new two-hour release from Audible that is effectively a casual audio sequel to his formal autobiography, 2012’s “Who I Am.” The part-talking, part-rocking project, “Somebody Saved Me,” which came out Friday, is an Audible Original that’s essential listening for anyone who cares about the Who, which is a demographic that has a pretty substantial overlap with people who care about rock ‘n’ roll generally.In the 27th installation of Audible’s laudable “Words + Music” series, the Who’s songwriter and guitarist goes deeper into what he calls the Who’s “middle age,” a period that’s bookended roughly by the death of drummer Keith Moon in 1978 on one end and the equally sudden passing of John Entwistle in 2002, a time frame he admits he didn’t deal with as much as he could have in his book. Townshend talks about the band’s on-again, off-again status in the wake of those tragedies and why he and singer Roger Daltrey ultimately carried on in both cases, even as the band’s main creative force has not been shy about sometimes preferring the less lucrative benefits of his solo career over dealing with the band legacy decades on.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music CriticConsider it a sign of the times, maybe: In the list of seven artists that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s select industry voters elected into the institution for the class of 2022, there is not a single rock band. That can be taken as a major signifier that the pendulum among the music intelligentsia really has swung all the way from what was coined some years back as “rockism” — the belief that rock ‘n’ roll is inherently superior to other forms of popular music — to the other side of the scale: poptimism.The MC5? No go, again, this year, despite this being the band’s sixth nomination, the first having come back in 2003.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music CriticWell, Dolly Parton didn’t get her wish, although she’s likely to be happy anyway. The country superstar will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in November — a possibility she said last week she’d come to terms with and would “graciously” accept, after initially trying to get herself nixed  — along with Duran Duran, Pat Benatar, Eminem, Lionel Richie, Eurythmics and Carly Simon.Those are the seven performers that the Hall’s thousand-plus voters chose.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music CriticThe announcement of winners for the  ASCAP Screen Music Awards, being held virtually again for 2022 and announced Monday morning, included revealing the top vote-getters for several Composers’ Choice Awards, including the scores for “Encanto” and “The White Lotus.”Germaine Franco prevailed for film score of the year for “Encanto.” Cristobal Tapia de Veer won two of these peer-voted awards, for television score of the year and television theme as well, for “The White Lotus.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music CriticThe Judds were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame Sunday evening in Nashville, in an emotional medallion ceremony that went on as scheduled the day after Naomi Judd’s death. The Hall had announced Saturday that the induction would go on in the wake of the tragedy due to the wishes of the family.“I’m sorry that she couldn’t hang on until today,” said a tearful Ashley Judd, according to an Associated Press report.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music CriticWhen Carrie Underwood’s band broke into the opening strains of “Sweet Child o’ Mine” at the Stagecoach Festival Saturday, it seemed like business as usual. The country superstar’s Guns N’ Roses fangirl-ism is well known, and she’s incorporated GNR numbers into her set on a regular basis before, even showing an aptitude for appropriating Axl Rose’s snaky frontman moves as her own.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music CriticThomas Rhett and Maren Morris were the top-billed attractions on the Stagecoach Festival’s opening day, Friday but when it came to heightened emotions, and pure enthusiasm per-square-inch, Tanya Tucker’s climactic set in the Palomino tent might have ruled the day at the desert gathering.The veteran of 50 years of country hitmaking seemed taken aback by the roar of the crowd, late in the set, and not just in a typical welcoming-the-roar way. “It’s hard for me to believe anybody would want to watch me,” she admitted, belying more than a hint of insecurity amid one of the brassier facades in the business.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music CriticThe Stagecoach Festival in the southern California desert is officially asking attendees to secede from any love they might have for the Confederate flag or any other “divisive symbols.”The Desert Sun newspaper noticed an addition to Goldenvoice’s Stagecoach website this year, on the General Resort Rules page that provides guidelines for those in the overnight camping areas. It reads: “No divisive symbols, including, without limitation, Confederate flags and racially disparaging or other inappropriate imagery/public displays.”Confederate imagery among fans has been a point of contention at the festival in the past, with some seeing the flag as a harmless symbol of Southern pride — even this many thousand miles away from the South — while others see it as a dog whistle for racism or an emblem of insurrection against the government.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music CriticStagecoach has revealed the full lineup and schedule for the livestream that will go out this weekend on the country music festival’s YouTube channel, and it includes a number of artists that weren’t previously announced for the stream, offering couch sitters a nearly comprehensive view of what will be going down live in the California desert.The lineup includes the headliners — Thomas Rhett on Friday, Carrie Underwood on Saturday and Luke Combs on Sunday — as well as other marquee names that were named as part of the lineup earlier this week, like Maren Morris, Brothers Osborne, Margo Price, Cody Johnson, Yola, Lainey Wilson and the Black Crowes.It also now is revealed to have a substantial number of artists that weren’t previously included in the livestream announcement, including Tanya Tucker, Smokey Robinson, Jordan Davis, Lee Brice, Ingrid Andress, the Marcus King Band, Ryan Hurd, Charley Crockett, the Mavericks and Mitchell Tenpenny. Most of the lineup is now included, in fact, save for some of the artists who are appearing in the early part of the afternoon, including Americana artists such as Rhiannon Giddens, Amythyst Kiah, Molly Tuttle and Waylon Payne.Brandi Carlile is off the bill, having disclosed in a social media video late Wednesday night that she has contracted COVID and won’t be making it.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music CriticWith Wilco’s first couple of albums in the mid-1990s, the band got saddled with an “alt-country” tag that was perhaps inevitable, especially coming out of the ruins of Uncle Tupelo, a group that helped form that subgenre as a movement. And for the last quarter-century or so, Jeff Tweedy and company have endeavored to shake it off.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music CriticThe last time there were as many trombones in a movie as there are in “Take Me to the River: New Orleans,” Harold Hill was probably leading a parade. The ongoing vitalization of the Crescent City’s music culture really is like something out of a horn salesman’s fever dream, with younger generations readily taking up New Orleans’ traditional second-line culture in a way that can only make the aging elders of other regional music scenes green with envy.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music CriticPost Malone has posted a release date for his long-promised new album: “Twelve Carat Toothache” will be out June 3, he announced in a social media message that contained little else besides a blurry red image and a link to pre-save the album on streaming services.The album will mark the performer’s first on the Mercury Records label, the revival of which was announced by Republic Records earlier in April. Tyler Arnold, the newly installed president of Mercury, signed and developed Post Malone at Republic, where he had been executive VP of A&R.Twelve Carat Toothache.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music CriticProducer T Bone Burnett has long promised the development of a new analog format that he promised would improve on both vinyl and CDs, as well as digital streaming and any other existing recorded music medium. Now, he appears closer to reaching that goal with the news that he has been in the studio with Bob Dylan, re-recording some of the legendary singer-songwriter’s classic songs with the purpose of introducing the new ultra-high-fidelity medium.Details are scarce about when the Dylan recordings might come out — not to mention the new hardware that will be required to play them.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music CriticTyler, the Creator is back on top of the Billboard 200 album chart for the first time since premiering at No. 1 back in July of 2021, due to “Call Me If You Get Lost” very belatedly making its bow on vinyl 10 months after the digital release.The tally for “Call Me” in the LP format was 49,500 copies, which Luminate says is the most pieces of vinyl sold in a week for any hip-hop record since rolls began being kept in 1991.