TCM’s ‘Great Composers’ Series Turns a Spotlight on the Movies’ Maestros

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Very few people would have guessed that we’d be getting an album of previously unreleased original material from Johnny Cash in 2024 — a collection that really feels like a “new” album from the legendary singer, 21 years after his death. Far fewer still bet on anything coming out at this late date would be any good, if the original recordings sat in the vault this long.

Callum Woodhouse, who plays the charming Tristan Farnon, has returned to the Yorkshire Dales after his stint with the Royal Army Veterinary Corps. He's joined by Nicholas Ralph, reprising his role as James Herriot, as they prepare to shoot the fifth and sixth series amidst the stunning Yorkshire landscape.

Walking through the quiet streets of Farnworth there was growing frustration amongst voters, with many refusing to see hope for the future.

Oldham has seen one of the biggest increases in car parking costs across the UK in the last two years. The council has doubled its fees since 2022, making it the third biggest increase among local authorities.

Two years after it premiered, Taylor Sheridan’s “Tulsa King,” starring Oscar-nominated actor Sylvester Stallone, is finally returning to Paramount+. Today, the streamer released a new teaser trailer and announced a Sunday, September 15 premiere date in the U.S.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic It’s difficult to believe that JD McPherson, one of the great classic-minded rock ‘n’ roll singer-songwriters of the modern age, hasn’t had a new album of non-seasonal material out in seven years. That absence of fresh recordings hasn’t caused anyone to issue any missing-person alerts for him in the past few years, though. He’s been quite visible, serving as both the band leader and opening act for three successive Robert Plant/Alison Krauss tours.

Police have issued a new image of Daniel Gee showing the fugitive smiling following his arrest. The former Merseyside gangster, who turned his own estate into a 24 hour drug trading zone, absconded from Kirklevington Grange prison in North Yorkshire on May 27.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic “I Am: Celine Dion,” newly released for viewing on Prime Video, is so focused on what the singer has been through in more than a decade and a half of struggling with Stiff Person Disease that it’s hard to believe that director Irene Taylor didn’t even know Dion was ill when she signed on to the project. All she Taylor really knew, when she agreed to direct the film about a year of discussions, was that Dion seemed like a star who really, really had something to get off her chest… with little anticipation of just what kind of floodgates would open.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic John Mayer says he didn’t always feel a sense of urgency about getting people out to see Dead & Company concerts … not even when the group was doing a final national tour in 2023. Now, he does, with a month and a half left on the group’s engagement at Las Vegas’ Sphere. He’s not making any pronouncements about this marking an end of the road for the band — a Grateful Dead offshoot that he formed with three original Dead members back in 2015.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Variety won eight first-place awards Sunday night at the Los Angeles Press Club‘s 66th annual SoCal Journalism Awards, including a top win for executive editor Brent Lang as entertainment journalist of the year. Variety came into the 2024 ceremony with 74 nominations, representing work published by staffers online or in the weekly print edition during the 2023 calendar year.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Daryl Hall and Elvis Costello, take a seat. That might be a thing to shout out as a request the next time these two veteran singers co-headline a tour together, rather than calling out for “Maneater” or “Pump It Up.” It’s not that they aren’t standup guys, or that there is anything about their energy levels that suggests they need to take a load off.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic During Dead & Company’s current run of 30 shows at Las Vegas’ Sphere, no one is exercising the gift of gab on stage. As is typical for the Grateful Dead spinoff group, the music does all the talking, for three and a half hours — with additional non-verbal help from the world’s most advanced concert video design on the dome’s wrap-around screen.

The rail service from Bolton’s smaller towns has been branded a ‘disgrace’ after four of them were included in the top 10 worst train stations in the UK. Over the four weeks leading to May 29, Kearsley train station had a staggering 81 per cent of services delayed or cancelled.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Zach Bryan once release a surprise live album on Christmas Day. So for his next long-awaited studio album, why not keep the tradition of holiday drops alive? “The Great American Bar Scene,” a new release Bryan has been teasing for a while, now has a release date — the 4th of July. The singer-songwriter made the announcement via a social media post Thursday evening.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Before John Williams became the flagship film composer-conductor anyone thought of when they thought about the Hollywood Bowl, that honor belonged to Henry Mancini. And in some years, when Los Angeles is particularly lucky, it still does, even though the scorer behind “The Pink Panther,” “Days of Wine and Roses” and other classic scores has been gone for 30 years now. This Sunday, the LA Phil will devote the Bowl’s traditional opening night to a 100th birthday celebration for the man who, arguably more than any other, turned movie scores into a truly populist artform… and who conducted at the Bowl 29 times.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Tanner Adell, one of the artists at the forefront of the new wave of Black country music, has inked a new recording contract with Love Renaissance, aka LVRN Records. Adell had been independent since splitting with Columbia Records last year, and her profile increased exponentially when she was one of the artists featured on Beyoncé‘s blockbuster “Cowboy Carter” album this spring, leading to an influx of interest in Adell’s recent catalog, like the signature song “Buckle Bunny.” LVRN is an Atlanta-based label and management company whose roster includes such artists as Summer Walker, 6LACK, DVSN, Spinall and TxC.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic A lot of bong water has passed under the bridge since “Reefer Madness: The Musical” first premiered at the Hudson Theatre on Santa Monica Blvd. in 1998. Like, legalization of the demon weed in most states… plus, about a million more camp musicals that have come down the pike since then, maybe lessening any obvious need to bring back a show satirizing long-bygone pot paranoia.

William Earl administrator “Bar Rescue” is one of Paramount Network’s flagship shows, with industry expert and host Jon Taffer attempting to save flailing watering holes across the country. While his common sense advice and industry knowledge make running a successful tavern business seem achievable even for home audiences, the show’s whirlwind filming schedule allows Taffer’s team to record an incredible amount of material at a breakneck pace. After 13 years, nine seasons and an average of 1.3 million viewers, “Bar Rescue” will celebrate its 250th episode, airing June 30.

Kim Kardashian is preparing for a summer launch. The reality star and businesswoman is getting ready for summer with the release of a new set of swimsuits for her brand, and online users are already sharing their excitement after seeing Kim modeling the new design, which features a cut-out that accentuates her figure.Kim Kardashian shares photo with North, Chicago and Kris Jenner; ‘My girls’Lauren Sánchez and Ivanka Trump are officially part of Kim Kardashian’s bestiesWhy Kim Kardashian has to blow-dry her jewelry before wearing itKim took to social media to share a photo in a black bikini with a blurry effect.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic For his new “Honeymind” album, singer and actor Ben Platt brought in an especially honeyed voice as a counterpart on one song, Brandy Clark. He had written “Treehouse” in a writing session with Clark well before the album was being put together, and then he and producer Dave Cobb had the eureka (or as Platt puts it, “duh”) moment of realizing just how much more haunting it might sound as a duet with the co-writer, whose chops obviously don’t begin and end with songwriting prowess.