Artists
We are overjoyed to announce Warren Haynes will be playing Jerry Garcia's beloved “Tiger” guitar at SummerStage in Central Park on August 8th. Built specifically for Garcia by luthier Doug Irwin, Tiger debuted with the Grateful Dead on August 4th, 1979 and remained Garcia’s primary guitar for over a decade. Haynes is the first to perform on the guitar since Garcia last played it during his final performance with the Grateful Dead on July 9th, 1995 at Soldier Field in Chicago.
Irish band, Bell X1, undoubtedly one of Ireland’s most beloved bands, is back with their seventh studio album, ARMS, out October 14, 2016. ARMS is the follow up to their 2013 critically acclaimed album Chop Chop, which became the trio’s third #1 album on the Irish Album Charts and their fourth consecutive album to be nominated for a Choice Music Prize for “Irish Album of the Year.”
Brooklyn trio WOLF! featuring guitarist Scott Metzger announce their upcoming 2nd LP, 1-800-WOLF!, due out October 14 on Royal Potato Family. The first single from the new record was premiered via Guitar World Magazine. Check out "Pork n' Slaw" here.
Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt, and Emmylou Harris have premiered a new lyric video for an unreleased alternate version of “Wildflowers.” The Parton-penned track, which was originally released on their 1987 collaboration Trio, is featured on the upcoming three-CD set THE COMPLETE TRIO COLLECTION. The video can be viewed here and the track is also available now at digital retailers.
Blackfoot, the Southern American rock band who were originally formed in 1970’s by current lead guitarist of Lynyrd Skynyrd, Rickey Medlock, are back with a new line-up and will release Southern Native on Loud & Proud Records, August 5, 2016. Over the last two years, Medlock wrote, performed on and produced Southern Native. Fans can watch the music video for the title track, “Southern Native” today exclusively on Ultimate Class Rock
Grand Point North, the music festival presented by Grace Potter and Higher Ground at Burlington’s Waterfront Park on September 17 and 18, announced the return of Grand Point Weird, a visual arts installation, to the weekend-long party, Grand Point Local, featuring local restaurants and food products, and the Reverb Eco Village, benefiting several local Vermont non-profits. Organizers also announced that Soule Indomitable and River Whyless will perform the official after party at Nectar’s in downtown Burlington immediately following the festival Saturday night.
What a Night! As the crowd quickly filled Red Rocks Amphitheatre in anticipation of Greensky Bluegrass’ debut as a headliner there was brief rain delay. In what was to be an evening of incredible music, the hometown Jamgrass heroes, Leftover Salmon took the stage, certain not to disappoint.
I have a moleskine book I keep in my pocket at concerts. My wife gave it to me as a gift years ago. She always gives the best gifts. This tattered little vestige to my musical history is used solely for notes at concerts I am reviewing. Nothing could better embody who I am, not just as a writer, but as a person. Every time I write in the book, it is a process. I have to take the now stretched out elastic rope off of the book, turn to the page marked with the connected bookmark and pick up where I left off.
The big news over the weekend at the 15th installment of Floydfest was the unfortunate hospitalization and subsequent cancellation of headliner Gregg Allman’s Saturday night set. But in true Floydfest fashion, the excellent talent evaluators of this year’s five-day festival, dubbed “Dreamweavin’,” had just the type of jam-band superheroes onsite to put together a dream replacement set.
While multi-PLATINUM selling singer/songwriter Dierks Bentley may be at the center of his No. One album BLACK (Capitol Records Nashville) and his biggest tour to date, he has long been known for embracing the community that surrounds him. With Behind BLACK: The Anatomy of the Album & Tour, Bentley introduces the group who had a behind-the-scenes hand in bringing it all to life; his family, management team, producers, collaborators, musicians, songwriters, record label executives, touring crew and industry supporters.
