Music

Illinois state officials rejected a concert organizer’s bid to host an R. Kelly-headlined music festival in Springfield. Spring Break Jam previously announced that Kelly would “host” the April 6th festival at the Illinois State Fairgrounds. However, in the aftermath of Surviving R. Kelly and the subsequent protests against the singer, …

“Few players have changed the way we hear an instrument the way Earl has, putting him in a category with Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong, Chet Atkins and Jimi Hendrix.” Those words, penned by actor, comedian, author and banjo player Steve Martin, appeared in a New Yorker tribute following the 2012 …

The R&B singer Jacquees will open 2019 with a 22-date tour in support of his 4275 album and his Lost at Sea 2 release with Birdman. The crooner opens his trek January 11 in Salt Lake City, jumps over to California for seven different performances, and wraps up on the …

Keith Urban is the latest country singer to contribute to Spotify Singles, the streaming service’s program that asks an artist to perform a cover song of their choice. In Urban’s case, it’s “Happier,” the dance hit by producer Marshmello and the U.K. band Bastille. While the original is a more …

Noname enlisted Saba and Smino for a live performance of her Room 25 track “Ace.” Noname is currently in the midst of a U.S. tour in support of her debut album. Smino kicked off the performance with a soulful, gorgeous rendition of the sung chorus. Noname and Saba followed with ferocious …

Chris Brown has been charged with two misdemeanor counts stemming from his possession of a pet capuchin monkey without a permit, Los Angeles Times reports. Authorities were alerted about the monkey after Brown posted photos of the animal to his Instagram account. Following his posts, the California Department of Fish …

H.E.R. has music in her blood. Her Filipino mother instilled an early appreciation for karaoke, and the rising R&B star would belt Mariah Carey, Alicia Keys and Whitney Houston as a toddler. Thanks to her dad’s cover band rehearsing in her family’s Vallejo, California home, she was surrounded by instruments …

Paul McCartney and Emma Stone play a scene out of a therapist’s office in his new video for “Who Cares,” a song against bullying off his latest record, Egypt Station. The onetime Beatle plays a hypnotist who attempts to help Stone with her feelings of unease using a turntable with …

Joe Osborn, the bassist in the famed Wrecking Crew, the group of studio musicians who performed on tracks like Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water” and the Mamas & the Papas’ “California Dreamin’,” has died at the age of 81. Denny Tedesco, the director of the 2008 documentary The …

Small towns can still have room for big personalities, and two of them come together today on “What Happens in a Small Town,” a wistful new country power ballad that pairs Brantley Gilbert with Lindsay Ell. Gilbert, who has stayed true to his own small-town roots in Georgia even as …