“Is there anybody alive out there?” Bruce Springsteen yelled into the abyss on 2007’s “Radio Nowhere.” A decade later, Ryan Culwell poses a similar, but even more urgent question: “Can you hear me?” That query drives the Nashville-by-way-of-Texas singer-songwriter’s new song “Can You Hear Me.” Premiering today, it’s the first …
Read More »Watch Sturgill Simpson's Furious 'Brace for Impact' at Bonnaroo 2018
Sturgill Simpson turned 40 years old last Friday, and he celebrated the milestone in style, heading to Bonnaroo for a set on the festival’s biggest stage. Sandwiched between performances by Paramore and Muse, Simpson’s gig offered 75 minutes of raw, roadhouse country-rock, with the frontman abandoning sheet cake and other …
Read More »Can Hemp Clean Up the Earth?
In 2017, Gavin Stonehouse, a graduate student in plant biology at Colorado State University, started cultivating hemp plants in a special soil mixture dosed with varying levels of selenium. A mineral that occurs naturally in most of the western United States, selenium is also a nasty environmental pollutant when produced …
Read More »Watch Little Big Town's Breezy 'Summer Fever' Video
Little Big Town embrace the carefree days of the coming season with the just-released video for their irresistible new single, “Summer Fever.” Opening with the group members riding bicycles together on their way to an outdoor party, the clip is less casual sun-and-skin than their previous summer blockbusters “Pontoon” and …
Read More »See Kelly Clarkson's Soulful Cover of 'American Woman' at CMT Awards
Kelly Clarkson gave the television debut of her cover of the Guess Who’s “American Woman,” performing the classic hit on Wednesday’s 2018 CMT Music Awards. With an introduction from a gospel choir in full robes, Clarkson began her portion of the performance slow and low, smoke wafting across the stage …
Read More »'Ocean's 8' Review: All-Female Heist Reboot Gives You Stars For a Steal
Casting eight female stars,all consummate scene-stealers, as master thieves in a gender-reversed spin on the all-dude Ocean’s 11 trilogy? It’s a smart idea – not to mention smashing fun. Yes, the plot has more holes than a wheel of swiss cheese and director Gary Ross (The Hunger Games) lets the …
Read More »Clarence Fountain, Blind Boys of Alabama Leader, Dead at 88
Clarence Fountain, founding member and longtime leader of the gospel group the Blind Boys of Alabama, died Sunday in Baton Rouge, Louisiana at the age of 88. The Blind Boys of Alabama confirmed Fountain’s death in a statement on the group’s website. No cause of death was provided, but the …
Read More »Woody Harrelson's Lost Weekend
Up in the fourth-floor bedroom of a friend’s house in London, Woody Harrelson, 56, has spent the past five hours playing online speed chess against anonymous souls from out there in the ethers. His only nourishment is coming from a few blueberries eaten here and there. Yes, he’s managed to …
Read More »10 Best Rap Releases of the Month: May 2018
Rap Release of the Month:Pusha-T, Daytona“I predict snow/Al Roker,” raps Pusha-T on this seven-track project’s “If You Know You Know.” But Daytona is more than just drug tales from a rapper who has specialized in coke rap since the dawn of the Aughts. As a master of metaphor and punchlines, …
Read More »Watch Thom Yorke Debut Radiohead's 'Spectre' Live
For the first time onstage,Thom Yorke performed“Spectre,” the Radiohead song intended as a potential theme song for the 2015 James Bond film. Yorke gave the live debut during his solo show Tuesday in Milan, Italy, crooning in falsetto over dramatic yet sparse piano chords, as opposed to the original version’s …
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