LeAnn Rimes on the Quarter-Century Journey From ‘Blue’ to Her Stirring New Album, ‘God’s Work’

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 Loretta Lynn died Tuesday at age 90. Todd Snider is a singer-songwriter who collaborated on writing songs with Lynn, including “Don’t Tempt Me,” which he recorded, and “Everything It Takes,” which appeared on her “Full Circle” album. Lynn penned the forward for a biography of Snider that will be published in 2023, writing in part, “”Todd Snider is a flat-out musical genius. I’ve been around a pretty good while, and there are a very few singer-songwriters who I would say that about, but Todd is one of them.” He wrote down thoughts about his working friendship with Lynn for Variety: I knew Loretta through her daughter Peggy. She is married to one of my oldest and closest friends, Mark Marchetti, and because of them Loretta knew of me.

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 Country singer Lainey Wilson’s very good year is getting just a little bit better, on top of her having the leading number of nominations for the CMA Awards and coming onto “Yellowstone” as a new cast member this season. CMT announced Wednesday that Wilson will be celebrated as Breakout Artist of the Year on the network’s “CMT Artists of the Year” special airing next week. “This past year has been a wild ride,” Wilson said in a statement. “To be considered for this award reinforces that the years of hard work my team and I have put in was all worth it. The team at CMT feels like family, and the way they genuinely support artists on their platform is so special and important for dreamers like me.”

George Strait, LeAnn Rimes, Dolly Parton, Reba McEntire, Carrie Underwood and more celebrities are mourning the country music icon, Loretta Lynn, who died at 90. "Our precious mom, Loretta Lynn, passed away peacefully this morning, October 4th, in her sleep at home in her beloved ranch in Hurricane Mills," the family said in a statement shared with Fox News Digital.They asked for privacy as they grieve and said a memorial will be announced later. Throughout Lynn's career, which spanned 60 years, she won every music award known to musicians, and was inducted into the County Music Hall of Fame in 1988.

Refresh for updates… LeAnn Rimes, Carole King, Kacey Musgraves and Kris Kristofferson are among the music world stars paying tribute to the great Loretta Lynn, who died today at the age of 90.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Until now completely circumspect about any of the content or even tone of her forthcoming album, “Midnights,” Taylor Swift revealed the theme of one of the collection’s new tunes, “Anti-Hero,” describing it as “a real guided tour throughout all the things that I tend to hate about myself.” Swift also said that she “struggle(s) a lot with the idea that my life has become unmanageably sized… I struggle with the idea of not feeling like a person.” The pop superstar made the statements about “one of my favorite songs I’ve ever written” in a video posted on Instagram. It was part of her “Midnights Mayhem With Me” one-by-one rollout of the 13 song titles from the album. Although it’s the sixth song title she’s revealed in this manner, it represents the first time she’s followed the title reveal with any discussion about the track.

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 Brandi Carlile’s IMAX livecast Wednesday evening couldn’t have been better timed in the calendar year, coming just a few days after the equinox. A nationwide live simulcast on IMAX screens pretty much demands a universal start time of 6 p.m. PT/9 ET,  a time frame that, in the last week of September, means a 90-minute show being shot outdoors on a ridge overlooking L.A. will start sunny and end with a dark sky and the basin at its twinkliest. Cinematographers everywhere couldn’t have asked the movie gods for a more compliant dusk than the one Carlile and her band and filmmaking team got. She’s having her own magic hour, of course … definitely not to be confused with a twilight, in her case. The Carlile album that came out just about a year ago, “In These Silent Days,” carried on its Grammy-winning predecessor’s success in further establishing her as America’s troubadour du jour in the classic singer-songwriter vein. Now she’s celebrating that anniversary with a deluxe edition that includes a separate, all-new rendering of the album, titled “In the Canyon Haze,” featuring re-arrangements meant to invoke the spirit of early ‘70s Laurel Canyon folk-rock just as blatantly as the altered title suggests. There’s something almost ironically contrary about marrying the new record’s intimacy to giant screens — Lookout Mountain meets “Attack of the 50-Foot Woman”? — but with a little bit of help, maybe, from the spirits of the hippie holler, it worked.

Bruce Springsteen has announced his new album, ‘Only The Strong Survive’ – listen to his cover of Frank Wilson’s ‘Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)’ below.After teasing the announcement yesterday (September 28), Springsteen has now confirmed that his next record, billed as a collection of “15 soul music greats”, will be released on November 11 via Columbia (pre-order here).In an announcement video shared this afternoon (September 29) that you can watch below, Springsteen told his fans that the record will celebrate an array of soul music classics from such catalogues as Motown, Gamble and Huff and Stax.“I wanted to make an album where I just sang,” Springsteen said. “And what better music to work with than the great American songbook of the Sixties and Seventies?“I’ve taken my inspiration from Levi Stubbs, David Ruffin, Jimmy Ruffin, the Iceman Jerry Butler, Diana Ross, Dobie Gray and Scott Walker, among many others. I’ve tried to do justice to them all — and to the fabulous writers of this glorious music.“My goal is for the modern audience to experience its beauty and joy, just as I have since I first heard it.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor With lead vocals by Springsteen, “Only The Strong Survive” features songs from the catalogs of Motown and Stax Records, the songwriting duo of Gamble and Huff and more. This album, Springsteen’s 21st studio outing, will also feature guest vocals by soul great Sam Moore, as well as contributions from the E Street Horns, string arrangements by Rob Mathes, and backing vocals by Soozie Tyrell, Lisa Lowell, Michelle Moore, Curtis King Jr., Dennis Collins and Fonzi Thornton. Bruce Springsteen commented: “I wanted to make an album where I just sang. And what better music to work with than the great American songbook of the Sixties and Seventies? I’ve taken my inspiration from Levi Stubbs, David Ruffin, Jimmy Ruffin, the Iceman Jerry Butler, Diana Ross, Dobie Gray, and Scott Walker, among many others. I’ve tried to do justice to them all—and to the fabulous writers of this glorious music. My goal is for the modern audience to experience its beauty and joy, just as I have since I first heard it. I hope you love listening to it as much as I loved making it.”

Paramore are back with new music and details of an album due early next year. The band, led by Hayley Williams alongside Taylor York and Zac Farro, will release This Is Why on February 10 with the album title track streaming from today. There's a video for the song, too, directed by Turnstile's Brendan Yates.

Samia has announced details of her second album. ‘Honey’ will come out next year and is being previewed by first single ‘Kill Her Freak Out’.The record follows the New York-via-Nashville singer-songwriter’s 2020 debut album ‘The Baby’ and last year’s ‘Scout’ EP. It’s due on January 27, 2023 via Grand Jury.Of the new single, Samia said in a statement: “I wrote ‘Kill Her Freak Out’ at my loneliest and most delusional.

LeAnn Rimes stripped down literally and emotionally for her latest music video. ET's Denny Directo spoke with the 40-year-old singer about baring all for the music video of her track, «Spaceship,» which was directed by her husband, Eddie Cibrian.The music video features a makeup-free Rimes nude and wrapped in a blanket, up until the closing shot when she drops the fabric and walks away from the camera completely sans cover.«Nothing new to be seen here,» Rimes tells ET of the shooting the moment in front of her husband of more than a decade. "… Especially on this record, everything feels exposed.

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 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.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic It’s practically unheard of for artists in the rock realm to publicly announce their setlists before shows have even gone on sale, but Elvis Costello has taken things a step or two beyond that. In announcing a 10-night stand he’ll be doing in New York City in February, Costello said he would be performing at least 200 unique songs over the run, and revealed partial setlists containing 10 of the 20-plus numbers he plans to perform each night, touching on every famous or obscure part of his career. The 10 shows will take place over a two-week period Feb. 9-22, 2023, at Manhattan’s intimate Gramercy Theatre. Tickets go on sale for Citi card members today and to the general public on Friday. A 10-night pass is being offered on top of tickets for the individual shows.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The Americana Honors & Awards have always, perhaps more than any other music awards show, rewarded work that is fairly unassailable … which doesn’t always mean that the ceremony has always seized the moment. In 2018, Brandi Carlile’s breakout album and song, “By the Way, I Forgive You” and “The Joke,” both lost in their respective categories to Jason Isbell. Although he was being rewarded for top-flight work and there was nothing remotely shameful about this wins, it had the feeling of an opportunity lost, rubber-stamping the time-tested when a rising star who offered a chance for increased representation was right there in the nominees’ midst. So this year, if the award had gone to Carlile’s excellent “In These Silent Days,” it would have been a perfectly reasonable case of playing catch-up.