Category: Newswire

Kansas played to two packed houses at the University of Alabama last weekend, then was honored as musical guests during halftime at the Alabama vs. Penn State football game, where A crowd of 106,000 spectators were treated to renditions of two Kansas classics performed by Alabama’s Million Dollar Band – "Carry on Wayward Son" and "Point of Know Return."

"We were extremely excited to have the opportunity," said Alabama’s School of Music Director, Skip Snead. "These guys are one of the best-known, iconic groups of classic rock and it was a treat for the marching band members and fans to have them introduced during halftime." For more, go to kansasband.com.

MPL and Concord Music Group are proud to announce the re-release of Paul McCartney and Wings’ Grammy-winning album, <em>Band on the Run</em>. The reissue was personally supervised by Paul McCartney who joined forces with the same team who recently re-mastered the complete Beatles’ catalog. <em>Band on the Run</em> marks the first release from the Paul McCartney Archive Collection, which encompasses 40 years of music from the most successful songwriter and recording artist in music history. <em>Band on the Run</em> will be available in a variety of formats including a standard edition (single CD), special edition (2 CD/1 DVD), deluxe edition (3 CD/1 DVD), and vinyl edition. Learn more at paulmccartney.com.

Alejandro Escovedo, whose <em>Street Songs of Love</em> was recently released by Fantasy Records/Concord Music Group, is touring the East Coast and Midwest this fall, including a show before the start of the first Miami Dolphins home game September 26.

Escovedo will play at the Tailgate Party on the Jimmy Buffett stage outside Sun Life Stadium as part of the Dolphins’ Hispanic Heritage Month. Marc Anthony, The Black-Eyed Peas, and Enrique Iglesias will also be performing when the team plays the New York Jets. Read more at alejandroescovedo.com.

A bust of Frank Zappa was installed September 19 in Baltimore as Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake declared it Frank Zappa Day in the city of his birth. Gail, Dweezil, Ahmet, and Diva Zappa dedicated the statue. The bust is a replica of the original in Vilnius, Lithuania. Also present for the occasion were the Mayor of Vilnius Vilius Navickas and Lithuanian fans and donors Saulius Paukstys, Saulius Pilinkus, and Arturas Baublys, who originated the idea.

Gail Zappa and Dweezil, Ahmet, and Diva Zappa took questions in an open Q&amp;A. It was also a full day of live music, preceding the dedication, which was followed immediately with a Zappa Plays Zappa concert. September 19 marked the 25th anniversary of Frank Zappa’s Congressional testimony for free expression and the 2010 audio release of the testimony on ‘Congress Shall Make No Law…’

Gibson’s 70th Anniversary John Lennon J-160E has a laminated Sitka spruce top with ladder bracing and mahogany back and sides. It is available with a vintage sunburst lacquer finish, a customized soft white, or natural lacquer. Hardware includes vintage-style nickel tuners with keystone buttons, and belly-up rosewood bridge with adjustable saddle. Its neck and headstock are made with the 24.75" scale length. It’s carved from a single piece of quarter-sawn mahogany to a comfortable rounded profile, and topped with an Indian rosewood fingerboard, the design incorporates Gibson’s lauded 17-degree back-angled headstock, with John Lennon signature inlaid in mother-of-pearl (and abalone on the Imagine model).

Learn more at gibson.com.

This summer, Eric Clapton gathered a veritable Who’s Who of the world’s most talented guitar players at the third Crossroads Guitar Festival, an 11-hour celebration of the six-string that attracted a sold-out crowd of more than 27,000 music fans to Chicago’s Toyota Park. All profits from this daylong display of guitar virtuosity benefited The Crossroads Centre in Antigua, a treatment and education facility Clapton founded to help people suffering from chemical dependency.

Rhino Entertainment presents more than four hours of music, interviews, and behind-the-scenes footage from this star-studded concert, including performances by Clapton, ZZ Top, Steve Winwood, Jeff Beck, Vince Gill, Buddy Guy, John Mayer, Derek Trucks, B.B. King, and Bill Murray, who served as the concert’s master of ceremonies. <em>Crossroads Guitar Festival 2010</em> will be available November 9 at all retail outlets, including www.rhino.com. This is the first-ever release of a Crossroads Guitar Festival on Blu-ray.

"The Crossroads Festival is the realization of a dream for me, to gather a group of amazingly talented musicians to perform on one stage," Clapton said. "The Crossroads performers are all musicians I admire and respect."

It’s no surprise a festival named for a Robert Johnson song would include a heavy dose of the blues and <em>Crossroads Guitar Festival 2010</em> does not disappoint with remarkable performances by Robert Cray, Hubert Sumlin (Howlin’ Wolf’s guitarist), Jimmie Vaughan, Sonny Landreth, Gary Clark Jr., Keb’ Mo’, and Buddy Guy, plus B.B. King who led an all-star jam of his classic "The Thrill Is Gone." The rock contingent was well represented by ZZ Top, Jeff Beck, the John Mayer Trio, Doyle Bramhall II, the Derek Trucks &amp; Susan Tedeschi Band, Warren Haynes, and Steve Winwood, who teamed with Clapton for several performances including an epic cover of Jimi Hendrix’s "Voodoo Chile."

Other styles find a home here too, with "Blackwaterside" by Scottish singer-songwriter Bert Jansch an accomplished acoustic player; "One More Last Chance" and an amazing take on Clapton’s "Lay Down Sally" by country picker Vince Gill who is accompanied by the legendary James Burton and others; "Angelina" and "Vonetta" by jazz guitarist Earl Klugh; and Jeff Beck who transforms Puccini’s aria "Nessun Dorma" into a soaring piece for electric guitar.

Other artists making appearances include: Sheryl Crow, Ronnie Wood, Robert Randolph, Jonny Lang, Joe Bonamassa, Pino Daniele, Stefan Grossman, and Los Lobos’ David Hidalgo and Cesar Rosas.

The new Fender Mustang I and Mustang II amplifiers raise the standard for modern guitar versatility and muscle. Driven by incredibly authentic amp models and a huge bank of built-in effects, each amp comes equipped with USB connectivity and Fender FUSE software, letting players’ musical creativity and imagination run wild.

Mustang I is a 20-watt closed-back combo with an 8" Special Design speaker; Mustang II is a 40-watt closed-back combo with a 12" Special Design speaker. Both sound great and pump serious volume, and both contain 24 presets using eight highly-accurate amp tones ranging from vintage Fender sparkle to outrageous modern metal distortion, all easily and instantly accessed right out of the box with only a twist of a knob.

Mustang I and II also contain a bank of 24 built-in effects, including reverb, delay, chorus, flanger, phaser, tremolo, vibratone, step filter, reverb, echo, octaver and more. Effects selection and adjustment is quickly and easily accomplished using two simple knobs on the control panel. Both amps are great for practice and jam sessions, and the 1/8" headphone jack doubles as a speaker-emulated line out.

The Fender FUSE™ software included with Mustang I and II opens up a world of possibilities, including on-screen parameter control, deep editing, additional amps and effects, unlimited preset storage, online preset swapping with the Fender FUSE™ community, and free Fender artist presets. An optional single-button footswitch controls two quick-access presets.

Mustang I and II run from a very simple control interface, which includes gain, volume, treble, bass, master, preset select, modulation select, delay/reverb select, save button, exit button and tap tempo button.

Other features of both models include an auxiliary input for media player, chromatic tuner, Ableton&reg; Live Lite 8 Fender Edition studio-quality recording software (compatible with the Mustang USB recording output) and AmpliTube Fender LE software. All Mustang features are packed into a striking visual design with sleek and modern Fender styling, delivering looks that are as desirable as the sound.

Visit fender.com.

Goo Goo Dolls’ new studio album <em>Something For The Rest Of Us</em> debuted at No. 7 on the <em>Billboard </em>Top 200 album chart last week. In conjunction with its release, the band performed their current single, "Home," on NBC’s <em>The Tonight Show With Jay Leno </em>on September 1st.

Keeping the momentum, the Goo Goo Dolls will also perform this evening, September 13th, on TBS’s <em>Lopez Tonight </em>and September 15th on the season finale of NBC’s hit show <em>America’s Got Talent</em>, during which they’ll perform a two-song medley of "Home" plus their classic hit "Slide."

Written and recorded over the past few years, <em>Something For The Rest Of Us </em>delivers another dose of great Goos’ songs such as "Sweetest Lie," "Notbroken," "Soldier," and "Home." With his songwriting, singer-guitarist Johnny Rzeznik confronts some of the issues that have become part of many people’s everyday lives. Learn more at googoodolls.com.

Alfred Music Publishing has released a set of Led Zeppelin play-along songbooks for guitar. Drawing from more than 30 years of documentation, interviews, and recorded footage, these TABs and tracks deliver unprecedented accuracy and insight into the guitar-style of Jimmy Page.

<em>Ultimate Guitar Play-Along: Led Zeppelin </em>songbooks are designed to allow guitarists to play along to sound-alike versions of Led Zeppelin classics in the comfort of their home, without needing a full band behind them! Featuring completely authentic transcriptions of many of their greatest hits, each of these classic songs are written in full TAB and music notation. The utmost care was taken to illustrate little-known, but absolutely critical guitar voicings, fingerings, and techniques that are unique to Jimmy Page; the very elements that give his guitar parts their completely unique character and impact.

Included with each book are CDs that contain two versions of every song: an instrumental sound-alike recording, and an instrumental accompaniment track (minus guitar) so you can play along to these legendary songs. All songs were recorded live with vintage amps and guitars to replicate the original sound as close as possible.

In addition, when you use the CDs in your computer, the included TNT (Tone ‘N’ Tempo) Changer, exclusively from Alfred, lets you easily loop sections for practice, slow tracks down or speed them up without changing the pitch, switch back and forth between full instrumental and accompaniment tracks, and even change the key!

Volume 1 of <em>Ultimate Guitar Play-Along: Led Zeppelin </em>containing the following titles: Black Dog * Communication Breakdown * Dazed and Confused * Heartbreaker * Immigrant Song * Rock and Roll * Since I’ve Been Loving You * Whole Lotta Love. Volume 2 contains the following titles: Stairway to Heaven * The Song Remains the Same * Over the Hills and Far Away * Trampled Under Foot * Kashmir * Achilles Last Stand * Nobody’s Fault But Mine * All My Love.

The matching Led Zeppelin drum and bass editions of this play-along series will be available later in the fall.

Concord Records is celebrating the 80th birthday of the legendary Ray Charles with a special gift for his legions of fans: <em>Rare Genius: The Undiscovered Masters</em>. This treasure trove of newly discovered recordings, highlighted by a duet with fellow icon Johnny Cash, will become available at physical and digital retailers October 26, 2010.

Culled from four decades worth of demos and other previously unreleased material, <em>Rare Genius</em> showcases the remarkable artistic vision, stylistic range and emotionally rich vocals that crafted Charles enduring legacy.

Listening to the ten gems from the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s that comprise this CD, fans will have no trouble envisioning the late singer rocking back and forth at the piano as he effortlessly segues between R&amp;B/soul, pop, country and gospel. "Ray would always get inside the meaning of a lyric and make the listener believe every word," says Concord Music Group Chief Creative Officer. John Burk. "His vocals carried incredible emotion and intensity, even on demo tapes. What we have here with Rare Genius is on par with some of his greatest works."

And that’s crystal clear right from the album’s sparkling opener, "Love’s Gonna Bite You Back." The March 1980 session track features an upbeat horn arrangement behind what <em>Rare Genius</em> liner notes author Bill Dahl calls "a Charles vocal that’s a signature mixture of sandpaper grit and heavenly goodness." Up next is the stunning ballad "It Hurts to Be in Love," which underscores the album’s main thematic focus and one of Charles’ favorite subjects: the ups and down of romance.

Another compelling standout is the gospel-stirred Charles and Cash duet on Kris Kristofferson’s "Why Me, Lord?" Discovered in the Sony vaults, the song was produced by Billy Sherrill in Nashville and recorded in 1981 for an anticipated release on a CBS album. For unknown reasons, that didn’t come to pass. What’s more important, however, is the emotional charge you get listening to these two powerful voices come together in this spirited and inspired pairing.

Except for "Lord," the nine other <em>Rare Genius</em> tracks including the soul-drenched "I Don’t Want No One But You," a blues-infused cover of songwriter Hank Cochran’s country classic "A Little Bitty Tear" and the joyous "I’m Gonna Keep on Singin’" were found in the vault at Charles’ R.P.M. International studios in Los Angeles. Adding a little sweetening to some of the sparse, stripped-down tracks was a team of top-notch musicians and artists: guitarists Keb’ Mo’ and George Doering, organist Bobby Sparks, trumpeter Gray Grant, trombonist Alan Kaplan, bassists Trey Henry and Chuck Berghofer, drummers Gregg Field and Ray Brinker and background vocalist Eric Benet.

As with its Concord predecessor, 2004’s Grammy-winning Album of the Year <em>Genius Loves Company, Rare Genius: The Undiscovered Masters</em> is another fitting tribute to Charles, who would have turned 80 on September 23. It’s a fresh, vibrant reaffirmation of the music icon’s unparalleled artistry and legacy.