Electronic Music Pioneer Klaus Schulze Dies at 74

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music CriticJust two weeks after the last crop of honorees was formally inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in a medallion ceremony — including the Judds — the next trio of legends to be voted in has been announced, and it includes the name that has most often been cited by Hall-watchers as a snub: the long-overdue Jerry Lee Lewis.Also being ushered in are the late country star Keith Whitley — another figure that many would have like to have seen getting in much sooner — and arguably the most famous still-living executive to have reigned over Music Row, Joe Galante.In stark contrast to the more licentious Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, country’s hall only inducts three or four new members each year, including those who get in via session player or executive categories, which creates a bottleneck that leaves plenty of icons still waiting their turn, making all three of these inductions long-sought and hard-fought by their champions. The inductees were announced in a ceremony at the Hall Tuesday morning by Ronnie Dunn and Kix Brooks, who as Brooks and Dunn are already in the hall themselves.Lewis was voted in as the sole representative of the Veterans Era Artist category, whereas Whitley will be inducted as the lone Modern Era Artist choice for this year.  Galante is getting in in the Non-Performer category, awarded every third year in rotation with Recording and/or Touring Musician and Songwriter categories.“It’s a great honor and a pleasure to be here in the Country Music Hall of Fame,” said Lewis, making an entrance at the end of the morning ceremony.

Lady Gaga fans, rejoice! The «Poker Face» singer has just dropped the music video for her  ballad, «Hold My Hand,» and — grab those tissues because — it's a tearjerker!The 36-year-old singer's music video features scenes from the upcoming film as well as emotional scenes from the original 1986 flick. Gaga, at first, sits under one of the iconic planes featured in the film and pours her heart out as flash scenes show Tom Cruise -- aka Captain Pete «Maverick» Mitchell — reminisces about his late friend, Nick Bradshaw, better known as «Goose.» The music video was directed by the film's director, Joseph Kosinski.The release comes just days after Gaga teased the song on her social media.

The Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival announced its 2022 lineup including Disney’s documentary Mija and the Warner Bros. Pictures/HBO Max film Father of the Bride bookending the celebration. LALIFF will run from June 1 to 5 at the TCL Chinese Theater and TCL Chinese 6 in Hollywood.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music CriticThe Beach Boys got around to making their Stagecoach Festival debut Sunday, teaming up with the country duo LoCash on four songs to cap the latter act’s early-evening main stage fest. LoCash had a distinct advantage on any other Stagecoach artists who might ever have been tempted to ask the touring Beach Boys to charter a Palm Springs flight: They actually named their new single “Beach Boys.” Mike Love, Bruce Johnston and three members of their touring band first came out midway into LoCasg’s performance to add their harmonies to the new single — the recorded version of which they also harmonize on.

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 CriticSinger and television star Naomi Judd, famous for nearly four decades as the matriarch of the country music duo the Judds, has died at 76, her daughters Wynonna Judd and Ashley Judd said in a statement Saturday.“Today we sisters experienced a tragedy,” the statement said. “We lost our beautiful mother to the disease of mental illness.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music CriticIs every day Record Store Day? It is for the several dozen interviewees of “Vinyl Nation,” a documentary that aims to not just explain the phenomenal LP resurgence of the last 15 years but break down any “High Fidelity” stereotypes about who’s driving the comeback. Record collecting may be a massive cult, but it’s also a rainbow coalition of enthusiasts, the movie argues.

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.

statement on his social media pages, sharing that the musician died “suddenly and unexpectedly” on April 26, following a long illness.“Not only does he leave a great musical legacy, but also a wife, two sons and four grandchildren,” the statement continues. “On behalf of him and the family, we would like to thank you for your loyalty and support throughout the years – it has meant a lot.“His music will live on, and so will our memories.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music CriticAndrew Woolfolk, a saxophone player and multi-instrumentalist for Earth, Wind & Fire has died after a six-year illness, band frontman Philip Bailey confirmed in a social media post Tuesday afternoon. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member was 71.“I met him in high school,” Bailey wrote on Instagram, “and we quickly became friends and band mates. Andrew Paul Woolfolk was his name.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music CriticThe general public may not think of “E.T. the Extraterrestrial” as a divorce movie, per se … although Dee Wallace’s reading of the line “He hates Mexico” has always been one of its most resonant.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Criticare a few artists who’ve been flagship artists for Record Store Day in its 15 years of existence — among them, the Grateful Dead, Dave Matthews Band and David Bowie, all of whom have had multiple exclusive LP releases for RSD — but maybe none have seemed quite so synonymous with the day as jazz piano great Bill Evans. And Resonance Records, the archival label that has been behind the wave of live Evans releases, is doubling down on the legend this weekend with twin titles, “Morning Glory” and “Inner Spirit,” both recorded in Buenos Aires in the 1970s but never officially released until now.As with all the previous Resonance Evans titles before them, this pair of double-LPs is not likely to last a full day in stock at most of the indie music shops that have ordered it.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music CriticAs expected, Warner Music Nashville’s chairman-CEO John Esposito — widely known in Music City as just “Espo” — will move to an emeritus role in 2023 in a long-talked-about succession plan that will see his two key lieutenants moving into more elevated roles, a source close to the situation confirms to Variety. The move is expected to be formally announced within the next few weeks.The label’s two current executive vice presidents, Ben Kline and Cris Lacy, are expected to pair up and together assume Esposito’s chairman-CEO roles at the label, as has been expected since they were promoted to their current posts in 2019.

The New Mexico state agency tasked with investigating possible workplace safety violations on the set of Rust is “on track” to release its report by Thursday, according to a spokesperson for the New Mexico Environment Department.

Tributes have been left over this past week in memory of loved ones in Manchester who have recently passed away.

MixMag).It was written by female:pressure, which describes itself as “a global network of women and non-binary artists in the electronic arts that has been advocating for gender equity and diversity in electronic music since 1998.” The network has over 2800 members around the world.The letter from the group said: “We are shocked that in an event that is extensively funded by the city and the Cultural Office of Frankfurt and of such importance for the city, the manifold achievements of women and non-binary artists in and for the history of electronic music are ignored in such a way.”The letter continued: “The opening of MOMEM is exclusively in the hands of cis men (Sven Väth, Sami Hugo, Sven Louis and Noe Fazi as DJs, Tobias Rehberger as curator)”, and later went on to criticise how the directing team of MOMEM is made up entirely of men.It also took aim at an alleged claim in the museum’s exhibition that “In the middle of Frankfurt [is] where techno has its origin”. The network also referenced two key projects, Make Techno Black Again and dweller, saying the museum ignores Black and POC artists in Detroit, New York, and Chicago.It says: “Should the claim be a pure marketing measure, it inadmissibly exploits the cultures of people with histories of migration and oppression by marginalising their achievements.