Brandi Carlile’s Phenomenal Weekend at the Gorge Showed Why We Don’t Just Need Joni Mitchell Back, but Lilith Fair, Too

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic In “Into the Woods,” the audience laughs at the gluttony of the Little Red Ridinghood character, especially in the earliest, most deliberately cartoony parts of the production. But in a sense, the crowd is getting off on gorging, as well, since this is the ultimate having-your-cake-and-eating-it-too show. Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine weren’t too proud to cook up their 1987 classic with copious amounts of Mad magazine-style spoofery — or Looney Tunes-level laughs, even — and yet you can feel like those seemingly empty calories are justified, knowing you’ll be gulping back salty tears by the end. “Into the Woods” is as overstuffed with characters and ideas as any musical ever has been, but if everyone does their job right, you leave feeling like you’ve just been fed a perfectly balanced meal, and not a morsel more.

Charna Flam AppleTV+ announced “The Morning Show” returns for its third season on Sept. 13, and provided a peek at the series’ newcomers, Jon Hamm and Nicole Beharie. The 10-episode season will debut with its first two episodes and will be followed by one new episode every Wednesday through November 8.

Liam Gallagher has announced an intimate live show in London celebrating the release of his upcoming live album ‘Knebworth 22’.Later this summer the singer-songwriter and former Oasis singer releases a live album from a show at Knebworth in 2022. The gig marked one of his biggest headline shows to date as a solo artist, performing in front of more than 170,000 people over two nights.Now, ahead of the album, Gallagher has announced that he’ll be performing one of his smallest headline shows to date to celebrate the upcoming release.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic With Taylor Swift already having announced international legs of her Eras Tour that will keep her busy for most of 2024, it would have seemed like she was long done adding any extra dates to the U.S. tour that wraps up in just over six weeks. But she is working in a single additional show after all, at the L.A. area’s SoFi Stadium, extending what was a five-night stand at that massive venue to six concerts. The added date is Aug. 7, two nights before her North American tour comes to an official climax at the stadium on Aug. 9. Eight additional shows for the European leg of the tour next year have also been announced, with added dates in London, Paris, Stockholm, Zurich, Hamburg, Munich, Warsaw and Vienna.

Five-year-olds in Britain are, on average, up to seven centimetres shorter than children in other wealthy nations, new data has revealed.

Princess Catherine (aka Kate Middleton) and Roger Federer hit the tennis courts for a brief match.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic When Bobbie Nelson, longtime pianist for her brother, Willie Nelson, died in March 2022 at age 91, she left behind a recently completed posthumous album, recorded collaboratively with singer Amanda Shires. That record, “Loving You,” is finally seeing the light of day and shedding additional daylight on Nelson’s supreme talent as a player, which wasn’t always the main point of focus in the Nelsons’ family band, for obvious reasons. As a happy byproduct, this beautiful labor of love also casting sunshine on Shires’ skills as a vocal interpreter, as they both take on Willie songs, standards (“Over the Rainbow” and “Summertime,” the latter with a guest vocal from Bobbie’s brother) and other shared favorites.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Singer-songwriter Brandy Clark has enjoyed triumphs recently on two fronts. Ten years of work on the score for her first Broadway musical, “Shucked,” paid off with a Tony nomination and a Drama Desk Award win for her and score co-writer Shane McAnally. And the Nashville resident’s self-titled fourth album, which found her friend Brandi Carlile moving into the producer’s chair, got the kind of great reviews that augur for more Grammy nominations (on top of the 10 nods she’s already picked up over the years). While she was making one of her many visits to New York, Variety caught up with her for a Facetime feature to discuss both her new Warner Records album, one of the year’s best, and the hit musical, which has a cast album of its own. The joint timing is coincidental, of course (“Shucked” was originally tagged for a 2020 opening, with an out-of-town run in D.C. that was just about to begin when the pandemic kicked in). That she gets to talk about two home runs at once makes her career seem far from anything that ends in “-ucked,” unless lucked applies.

Fleet Foxes have officially released their two live covers of Joni Mitchell‘s ‘Hejira’ and The Strokes‘ ‘Under Control’.The band covered both of the songs during their live shows. They performed ‘Hejira’ earlier this year in Los Angeles, while ‘Under Control’ was performed last summer in New York with singer-songwriter Uwade as a special guest.“Last summer we were honored to have the incredible vocalist and songwriter Uwade Akhere open for us on tour,” Pecknold said in a press release discussing the cover of ‘Under Control’.A post shared by Fleet Foxes (@fleetfoxes)“One thing we all bonded over backstage was a shared love of the Strokes—hearing Uwa’s voice echoing down the halls as she sang ‘The End Has No End’ or ‘Reptilia’ was always a highlight of the day.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Musical tag-teaming doesn’t have results much more fruitful than what came about when the showrunners of “A Small Light” picked Ariel Marx to compose the score for the limited series and Este Haim to serve as executive music producer. Neither Haim nor Marx was in a position to take anything about the job lightly, given that the eight-episode series for National Geographic and Disney+ tells the story of a Dutch woman, Miep Gies, who helped hide Anne Frank and her family from the Nazis. Yet, in their very separate roles, both found ways to bring musical light or even levity into a drama that inevitably skews toward tension. Este Haim took on the EMP job for the first time with “A Small Light” after previously scoring or co-composing “Maid” and “Cha Cha Smooth” — on top of her day job as one-third of the rocking sister trio Haim. For “A Small Light,” she produced episode-ending covers of songs from the first half of the 20th century, performed by Angel Olsen, Moses Sumney, Kamasi Washington, Sharon Van Etten with Michael Imperioli, Remi Wolf, Weyes Blood, duet partners Orville Peck and King Princess, and her sister Danielle.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The suspect and victims have been identified by law enforcement authorities in a mass shooting Saturday outside the Gorge amphitheater in Washington state that left an engaged couple dead and two other concertgoers wounded. Killed in the campground adjacent to the Gorge during the Beyond Wonderland music festival were Brandy Escamilla and Josilyn Summer Ruiz, both from Seattle, who were engaged to be married. Left wounded in the gunfire were Lily Luksich, who was reported to have attended the concert with the shooter, and Andrew Cuadra, aka August Morningstar. Accused in the shootings is James M. Kelly, 26, an active-duty soldier stationed at Washington’s Joint Base Lewis-McChord. Kelly, who joined the Army in 2021, was was shot by a Moses Lake police detective, ending the melee Saturday night. After being released from the hospital Tuesday, Kelly was booked on two counts of first-degree murder, two-counts of first-degree assault and one count of first-degree assault domestic violence.

Taylor Swift set to perform at Wembley in 2024; 16 years after her first UK show in a Student Union in LondonWell, it’s finally happened - Taylor Swift has revealed that she will be performing in the UK as part of a number of international tour dates announced yesterday evening, with Swifties now patiently waiting a registration process to find out if they have a chance to buy tickets the day they go on sale, or if they have to wait in line. That’s right, it’s a ballot system to see Taylor Swift at Anfield in Liverpool or Wembley in London.

Elton John has revealed that he has developed a “brand new show” for his set at Glastonbury 2023.The singer-songwriter announced the update in a new interview with BBC Radio One — where he admitted that he has already planned for the upcoming set to be unlike any of his past performances.He is set to take to the stage on Sunday for the final night of the 2023 instalment (June 25), and will perform on the Pyramid Stage as part of the music icon slot. The gig will also mark the final date of his mammoth Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour, which has spanned over 350 dates across the course of five years.Originally, the farewell tour was set to draw to a close in 2021 — allowing the now-76-year-old to spend more time with his family — however, this was later rescheduled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and later by a hip injury he sustained last year.Now, according to the new interview, it seems that the ‘Rocketman’ singer is looking to end his live shows with a bang, and has planned for the Sunday set to feel like a “brand new show”.“I’m starting with a song I haven’t played for about 10 years, so we’ll see how it goes,” he began.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Multiple gunshot victims were reported as being treated after violence broke out in a campground at the site of the Gorge amphitheater in Washington state Saturday night, while performances were still going on inside the venue as part of the Beyond Wonderland festival. After initial reports of an active shooter, local authorities reported that a suspect had been apprehended. Information on the victims’ condition was not released prior to a scheduled law enforcement press conference set for 11:30 p.m. PT. But at 10:52 p.m., the Grant County Sheriff’s Office tweeted: “We have five confirmed injuries. The suspect is in custody. The scene has been secured.”

Arctic Monkeys are set to kick off their three sold-out shows in London this weekend, check out the support acts, stage times and expected weather below.The shows are the latest on the Sheffield rocker’s ongoing UK stadium tour, and follow their previous stops in Bristol, Coventry, Manchester, Norwich and Swansea — as well as two of their mammoth homecoming shows at Hillsborough Park.Now, Alex Turner and co. are set to perform three back-to-back gigs in London’s Emirates Stadium, with the first show kicking off tonight (June 16).

Joni Mitchell had a big moment back on stage.

Joni Mitchell has been one of the most honored musicians of this century. She’s picked up honors from the Kennedy Center, Library of Congress, the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, and an honorary degree from the Berklee College of Music.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Joni Mitchell wrote rather presciently about “The Circle Game” 57 years ago, but anyone who’s experienced a little life knows that circles don’t always — or even very often — come back around to allowing people to enjoy some of the most triumphant nights of their lives when they’re reaching the end of their 70s. Yet with a little bit of an assist from Brandi Carlile, aka the Great Enabler, and her wide circle of friends, that’s what was able to happen Saturday night at the Gorge in Washington state, in a nearly three-hour “Joni Jam” echoed a similar but much shorter event that happened last year at the Newport Folk Festival. This more elaborate follow-up — billed as Mitchell’s first ticketed concert in 20 years — was partly a tribute concert and consummate love-fest. But mostly it was a testament to the singer-songwriter’s own willpower in fighting her way back to full performance mode after a debilitating physical setback that went unmentioned but was not far out of mind. However much Mitchell was in “basking” mode, it was understood that this triumph represented a circle that she really had had to close herself.

Joni Mitchell played her first full headline show in over 20 years last night (June 10) – see footage, the full setlist and more below.Last July, Mitchell performed a surprise set at the legendary Newport Folk Festival – which she last appeared at in 1969 – delivering a 13-song “JONI JAM” set that featured Brandi Carlile on the tracks ‘Carey’, ‘A Case Of You’ and ‘Big Yellow Taxi’.Soon after that, Carlile announced that Mitchell would play a special ‘Joni Jam’ performance at the Gorge Amphitheatre in Washington state. It was her first headline performance in 23 years.At the show, like the Newport performance, Mitchell played with Carlile and a group of collaborators including Marcus Mumford, delivering a 24-song set of tracks from across her career and a few covers.Opening with ‘Big Yellow Taxi’, she then played favourites from her iconic LP ‘Blue’ including ‘A Case Of You’, ‘Carey’, as well as a cover of George Gershwin’s ‘Summertime’ and more.As the LA Times reports, Carlile guided Mitchell through the performance, reading out signs from the audience at one point.

Joni Mitchell is releasing a live album of her comeback live performance at Newport Folk Festival last summer – watch her perform ‘A Case Of You’ with Brandi Carlile and Marcus Mumford below.Last July, Mitchell performed a surprise set at the legendary music festival – which she last appeared at in 1969 – delivering a 13-song “JONI JAM” set that featured Carlile on the tracks ‘Carey’, ‘A Case Of You’ and ‘Big Yellow Taxi’.The new live album, titled ‘At Newport: Featuring the Joni Jam’, will be released on July 28, and the performance of ‘A Case Of You’ has now been shared online.It comes ahead of a special ‘Joni Jam’ performance tonight (June 10) at the Gorge Amphitheatre in Washington state. It will be her first headline performance in 23 years.Watch the performance of ‘A Case Of You’ from Newport below.Mitchell opened up about her endeavours to re-learn the guitar in a recent interview with CBS Mornings.