Dead and Company Announces Summer 2023 Tour Will Be the Group’s Last

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic When it comes to the 2023 Grammys, it’s easy to jump ahead and look at what we expect will be the final showdown on Feb. 3 between the top two competitors — Adele and Beyoncé. Because, yes, in the top three general categories, it’s likely to be a narrow contest that runs the gamut from A to B, as it were … almost a direct sequel to the 2017 Grammy race, in which “25” was pitted against “Lemonade.” The big question may be, will this movie have the same ending, with Adele apologizing to Bey for besting her, again? But there’s a lot of road to travel before then and considerable suspense over which other eight artists will fill out the 10 available slots in the album, record and song of the year categories. (The Recording Academy upped the slots from eight at the last minute last year, only in those divisions.) The only other virtual certainties in all three of those categories are Harry Styles and Silk Sonic, neither of whom can be completely counted out as ultimate winners, should the voting members decide they don’t even want to have to decide between all that big diva energy again

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic It wasn’t quite a proper Spinal Tap reunion, but there was some implicit history happening Tuesday night at Largo in Los Angeles as Michael McKean and Christopher Guest joined Loudon Wainwright III, the headliner for the latest in a series of Judd Apatow-hosted “Juddapalooza” benefit concerts at Largo. Besides going back together about five and a half decades as friends on the musical-comedy scene, Wainwright, as hardcore fans will know, was seen as a member of Spinal Tap in a cameo in the very first filmed comedy sketch featuring the faux group in the late ’70s. Tuesday’s Largo show featured a healthy intermingling of Wainwright performing songs from his new album, “Lifetime Achievement,” and Guest and McKean bringing back some of the very earliest Spinal Tap “hits,” along with some folk-scene collaborations. Also on tap as unadvertised guests: Beck, who sang a few of his own songs and Neil Young’s “Old Man” along with assisting others in the hootenanny, and top producer Greg Kurstin, who proved game for completely unrehearsed piano contributions and even solos over the course of the two hours-plus.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Grammy winning singer and arranger Anita Kerr, whose vocal ensemble the Anita Kerr Singers became a staple of hit pop and country recordings in the 1950s and ’60s, has died at age 94. Her daughter Kelley Kerr confirmed the death in a social media post, writing, “Such sad news and what a great loss for the music industry. Anita was a legend in her time but first and foremost she was my mother. May you rest in peace. I will forever miss you but I am comforted in knowing that you are now singing with angels. You are forever in my heart.” Kerr’s vocal arrangement sound was considered a key component in the “countrypolitan” or “Nashville sound” era of country music, in which the music saw the addition of strings and background vocals, lending lusher elements to recordings by some of the genre’s top stars, perhaps most notably Patsy Cline and Jim Reeves. The smoother take on country lent itself to less rough-hewn crossover hits.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic If Kid Cudi is indeed retiring his rapper persona, as strongly indicated in recent interviews, Monday night might have served as an early farewell party of sorts.  At a special screening at the Netflix Tudum Theater in Hollywood, the star was all smiles as he answered questions and celebrated the release of “Entergalactic,” the new animated Netflix special that serves as a kind of filmic companion piece to Cudi’s new album of the same name.  “I’m just overwhelmed, you know?” Cudi, who created, starred in, and executive-produced the project, said immediately after the screening, sitting next to the film’s director, Fletcher Moules. “The past week has been really exciting to see the reviews, see the response. We’ve been working on this thing for three years, man.” 

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The word “contested” shows up a lot lately in singer-songwriter Elizabeth Chan’s world, as she made headlines this summer for going to court to try to ensure that Mariah Carey is not legally granted sole possession of the “Queen of Christmas” tag, which has also been applied to her. But there’s at least one aspect of what Chan does that will likely continue to go unchallenged. With her 12th album, “12 Months of Christmas,” coming out this week, Chan further breaks her own record for having the most all-original Christmas albums in circulation of any nationally established pop artist. Although “most Christmas albums” is not the sort of record where Santa is keeping an official list and checking it twice — nor the Guinness Book, for that matter — it seems safe to say that no one else is even close when it comes to self-penned, all-new Yuletide collections, thanks to the one-a-year pace established by Chan, the only nationally recognized artist who does nothing but Christmas albums.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic California is in the house, and will be for the next three years, at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville. A major exhibition, “Western Edge: The Roots and Reverberations of Los Angeles Country-Rock,” has just opened and will run through 2025. The must-see walk-through traces a history of roots music in L.A. rock that expands to include the Byrds, Flying Burrito Brothers and Michael Nesmith in the 1960s; the Eagles, Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris in the ’70s; and Dwight Yoakam, Lone Justice and Los Lobos in the ’80s, among many other influential and sometimes commercially impactful figures. Variety recently visited the museum and spoke with co-curators Michael Gray, the facility’s executive senior director of editorial and interpretation, and Michael McCall, the museum’s senior editor, about why the ’60s through ’80s were a golden age for country-inflected rock in Los Angeles. The two curators also spoke about a number of the artifacts on display, from numerous Nudie’s-tailored jackets that set the visual tone for the era to key musical instruments to handwritten scores and setlists and even band flyers — see the gallery of photos below.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Although a news report went out Friday morning — and then was pulled — that Joni Mitchell had died, the story was published in error, and the singer-songwriter remains alive and well. “I can confirm all is well so this was done in error,” says a representative for Rhino, which is involved with Mitchell in an ongoing reissue series of her catalog material. The faux report went out from People magazine, with tell-tale signs of a “pre-write” obituary that was published accidentally — every major news organization’s worst nightmare. “Joni Mitchell Dies at TK AGE,” read the headline that was seen on the magazine’s website as well as in a tweet, the “TK” meaning “to come” in journalistic parlance. The story itself also included editorial notes indicating details that needed to be filled in.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Taylor Swift kept the “Midnights” oil burning later than usual late Thursday night and early Friday morning, revealing not just the name of one song at midnight, as has been her custom in the buildup to the Oct. 21 album release, but all five of the remaining mystery track titles, one per hour, until she finally reached a grand finale at 4 a.m. ET. And that final track reveal had — as she promised — “QUITE the twist of an ending,” with Lana Del Rey being revealed as making the only featured appearance by a guest on the album. Del Rey will make her cameo on a song titled “Snow on the Beach,” which will be track 4 on “Midnights.” The other four tracks whose titles were revealed over the course of the wee hours were “Lavender Haze,” set to be the first track on the album; “You’re on Your Own,” track 5; “Labyrinth,” track 10; and “Sweet Nothing,” track 12.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Taylor Swift kept the “Midnights” oil going once again with the late-night revelation of yet another new song, with an explanation of its subject matter to match. But this time, indications are that she may keep going into the wee hours and not just call it a night at 12:02 a.m. The new song Swift revealed and talked about as the clock struck 12 on the east coast is “Lavender Haze.” About the song, Swift said in a video message on Instagram: “Track 1 on ‘Midnights’ is ‘Lavender Haze,’ and I happened upon the phrase ‘lavender haze’ when I was watching ‘Mad Men.’ And I looked it up because I thought it sounded cool, and it turns out that it’s a common phrase used in the fifties where they would just describe being in love. Like, if you were in the lavender haze, you were in that all-encompassing love glow… and I thought that was really beautiful. And I guess theoretically, when you’re in the lavender haze, you’ll do anything to stay there and not let people bring you down off of that cloud. And I think a lot of people have to deal with this now, not just like ‘public figures.’ because we live in the era of social media, and if the world finds out that you’re in love with somebody, they’re going to weigh in on it. Like my relationship for six years: we’ve had to dodge weird rumors, tabloid stuff, and we just ignore it. So this song is about ignoring that stuff to protect the real stuff. I hope you guys like it.”

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Feeling like you’re having a hard time keeping up with all the new music that’s coming out? You’re not alone — even if you are, say, a computer and not just a mere mortal. Stats now show that an average of more than 100,000 songs are being uploaded to digital service providers every day. So don’t feel bad about not staying on top of things. If each of those 100K tunes lasted just three minutes (a conservative estimate by most standards), it would take over 30 years for one person to listen through all of the music released to and through DSPs in a day. New Music Friday? It’s more like New Music Nanosecond. The 100,000 daily figure was cited by the CEOs for both Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group at industry events in September, according to Music Business Worldwide, which used the staggering number as its Stat of the Week on Thursday.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Shortly after announcing that next summer’s tour would be the last one for Dead and Company, the group has announced the full schedule of dates for that farewell outing, with tickets set to go on sale a week from Friday. The tour will begin with a two-night stand at Los Angeles’ Kia Forum May 19-20 and end — perhaps not surprisingly — in San Francisco, at Oracle Park, where this offshoot of the Grateful Dead will call it a night after final gigs set to take place there July 14-15. Nineteen cities are on the agenda in all, with two-nighters set for Chicago, New York City, Saratoga Springs, NY, and George, Wa. in addition to San Francisco and L.A. Barring any added dates, Boulder is the one city due to get a three-night stand, scheduled for July 1-3. Including those multi-night runs, the total number of shows scheduled for summer 2023 comes to 27. See the full lineup of concerts below.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Ashley McBryde, one of the premium-grade country stars of the 21st century, is at the point in her career where many country stars would be playing it safer than ever. She’s in-between the second and third releases in her album cycle, a time when many would be most fixated on grabbing for the brass ring. Instead, she’s got brass balls, opting instead to put out a beautifully quirky concept album full of guest singers and co-writers called “Ashley McBryde Presents: Lindeville.” Please pardon the minor vulgarity in the preceding paragraph, but that’s partly the after-effect of listening to “Lindeville,” a character-driven set of songs whose protagonists tend to be on the straight-talking side, to the point of definitely including a few songs you will never hear on country radio. But “going for adds” is the furthest thing from the mind of an album that takes place entirely in a fictional small town where virtue is rarely the thing being modeled, and where even the local dogs are a little embarrassed about the array of sins they’ve witnessed.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Brian Ray, a familiar sight to Paul McCartney fans as a 20-year multi-instrumentalist stalwart in the superstar’s band, has a dream for making Palm Springs a destination on the routing of touring rockers, as well as more of a cultural hub for the arts in general. It’s a dream whose destination is well in sight. He’s helping with the already partially funded campaign to restore and reopen the Plaza Theatre, a 1936 gem that has sat unpolished, if not quite completely dilapidated, through eight years of notable dormancy right in the heart of Palm Springs’ famous shopping district. Since he moved to the desert part-time four years ago, Ray has often thought about what could be, or what could have been, when it comes to the Plaza. It hasn’t been fit for ages to use as a hub for the annual Palm Springs Film Festival, as it was back in then-Mayor Sonny Bono’s day. But, more in keeping with Ray’s day job: “How about the mid-week shows that all the artists do when they come to Coachella? Or with Paul McCartney during Desert Trip, when we chose to go to Pappy and Harriet’s [in nearby Pioneerville] and play for about 140 people” — something he suggests could have gone down in the 800-capacity Plaza instead. “You could imagine that before that festival, Neil Young would’ve stepped into that theater and said, ‘This is where I want to do mine.’ That’s what would’ve happened if it would’ve been ready, you know?”

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic No need to send out a search party for the “Searchin’ My Soul” singer. It’s true that Vonda Shepard has kept a low profile of late, not just during the pandemic but for a few years before it, not having released an album of new material since 2015’s “Rookie.” But she’s back with her ninth studio album, “Red Light, Green Light,” titled in part for the stop-and-go feelings a lot of us might have experienced during the past two and a half years. For Shepard at least, who has touring dates now lined up on the east coast and in Europe to follow the new release, all systems are go, again. For the still-curious who never really checked out Shepard’s discography outside of the “Ally McBeal” music, which she produced as well as sang, the new album is a chance to discover anew that she’s not just a soul-revue woman, but a distinguished songwriter when she’s out from under the covers. For those who already knew her from top-flight original albums like “It’s Good, Eve” and “By 7:30,” it’s a revisitation with a next-gen figure whose work snuggles comfortably alongside that of her piano-based ‘70s forebears.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic After hundreds of passes, DJ Cassidy’s mic is about to be set down, at least as far as TV specials go. His celebrated “Pass the Mic” series — which started online as a pandemic phenomenon bringing together classic R&B and rap stars, before moving to BET as a succession of post-awards specials — will have its final installment Oct. 4, directly following the BET Hip-Hop Awards. The half-hour grand finale on BET next week will feature rappers from what DJ Cassidy calls “the second golden age of hip-hop,” which he marks as taking place roughly between 1993 and 2003. Although he typically keeps the lineup for the “Pass the Mic” specials under wraps so the guests are a surprise to the audience, Cassidy is giving Variety a representative sample of four of the 20 stars included in the finale: Swizz Beatz, Busta Rhymes, Method Man and Ice Cube.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic If the planet was under threat of annihilation from beyond, and we had to present our divine or interplanetary overlords with just two musical emissaries to make a case that humankind is worth being spared as a species, Bonnie Raitt and Mavis Staples might be the couple we’d want to pick. Fortunately, with no such emergency yet in sight, they’ve managed to pair up of their own volition for a segment of Raitt’s current headlining tour that makes for a two-sided portrait of what heart, soul and understated heroism look like in music. Not that those kinds of superlatives showed up anywhere but in the subtext of Saturday night’s show at the Greek Theatre in L.A. It was a show where you could think about what Staples meant during the civil rights movement, and since, or about Raitt’s role as a warrior without uniform in the early days of women fighting to get their due in rock. Or you could just enjoy the chops and grease that feed into the respective performances of historically significant figures who wear their mantles as lightly as anything else they’d need to peel off upon stepping into a humid roadhouse.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Post Malone’s fall through a stage trap door during a concert last weekend may have resulted in injuries more serious than they first appeared, judging from the performer’s description of extreme pain he was suffering Saturday night that caused him to cancel a concert in Boston at the last minute. The performer posted to fans on social media Saturday evening that he was in the hospital with “stabbing pain” and would be unable to go on as scheduled at Boston’s TD Garden. Given that he was apparently still being examined, no word was offered on whether future dates are expected to go on as scheduled, with his next show being three days away in Cleveland. The singer said the Boston date was already in the process of being rescheduled.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The Doobie Brothers announced the death of drummer John Hartman Friday, collectively saying in a social media post, “Today we are thinking of John Hartman, or Little John to usJohn was a wild spirit, great drummer, and showman during his time in the Doobies.” He was 72. No cause of death was immediately announced. Hartman, a co-founder of the group, was one of nine members of the Doobie Brothers inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2020. He had long since left the frequently reuniting band. Hartman was with the group for its initial run of chart-topping hits, including signature songs like “Listen to the Music,” “Long Train Runnin'” and “What a Fool Believes.” He was one of two drummers the Doobies had on stage from 1971 until he first left the band in 1979. Ten years after departing, he returned for a reunion album in 1989 and continued on with the group through 1992.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The list of narrators for the audiobook version of Bob Dylan’s upcoming book has come to light, and it reads like a who’s who of Oscar contenders from the past few decades, along with the author himself doing some of the reading. The lineup of voice talent reading chapters from “The Philosophy of Modern Song” aloud includes Jeff Bridges, Steve Buscemi, John Goodman, Oscar Isaac, Helen Mirren, Rita Moreno, Sissy Spacek, Alfre Woodard, Jeffrey Wright and Renée Zellweger. This lineup of all-star Dylan surrogates has yet to be officially announced. It was first published by the U.K. magazine Uncut; Variety has confirmed the list.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic A live album by Barbra Streisand that had originally been planned as her debut album in 1962, “Barbra Streisand — Live at the Bon Soir,” will finally get a release, 60 years after it was first penciled in as her recorded bow. At 24 songs, the set is undoubtedly much longer than what would have come out if Columbia had issued the live album six decades ago, as was first the plan. It comes out Nov. 4, 60 years to the week after Streisand’s shows at the Bon Soir club in Greenwich Village were recorded Nov. 4-6, 1962, just a little over a month after the 20-year-old theatrical sensation signed her Columbia deal. Ultimately the idea of releasing a live album as her debut was scrapped in favor of a 1963 studio recording, “The Barbra Streisand Album,” that had her recording 11 songs that were part of her nightclub repertoire. That decision is hard to second-guess, as her first album went on to win the Grammy for album of the year.