The Ronnie James Dio Stand Up and Shout Cancer Fund's second Awards Gala, set for Halloween night, Wednesday, October 31 at the Avalon nightclub in Hollywood, will include a live performance by Dio Disciples, comprising former members of the band Dio, with a number of prominent rock musicians joining them on stage for an all-star jam.

In what stands as one of the boldest, most ambitious projects of his storied career, Waterboys auteur Mike Scott has collaborated, figuratively speaking, with the legendary Irish poet W.B. Yeats on the 14 songs of An Appointment With Mr. Yeats. “I love the way Yeats’ poems lend themselves to music,” says Scott. “But I also like Yeats as a guy — a dandified, opinionated, larger-than-life character. I feel a kinship to him.

AURA Music Events has unveiled the next phase of the 2013 AURA Music & Arts Festival musical line-up which includes 15 stellar acts to compliment the four headliners already announced this summer. In addition to two sets from Papadosio, Conspirator (ft. Marc Brownstein & Aron Magner of the Disco Biscuits), Perpetual Groove and The Heavy Pets, fans can indulge in two performances by Dopapod and Kung Fu including the premier of Kung Fu’s tribute to Stevie Wonder featuring the Royal Family’s Nigel Hall.

Newgrass folk-rock pioneers Acoustic Syndicate are proud to announce new tour dates for the 2012 holiday season. Having just celebrated their 20th Anniversary this spring, the band will be closing a celebratory year with shows in Asheville, Raleigh and Charlotte, NC. Tickets are currently on sale and can be purchased through all venue outlets. A full listing of dates and venues is below.

How many Grateful Dead tribute bands does the scene need? The answer could be endlessly debated each way forever. I suppose it’s fair to say that since Dead music is a rolling snowball of endless genres, sporting both originals and reinvented covers with thirty years of varying performances where supposedly “no show was ever the same twice,” that room for countless cover acts isn’t unfound. After all, people still want to listen to their music, obsessively, even though they haven’t been around for seventeen years.

Of all the great cities in the U.S. nothing can compare culturally to New Orleans. It seems all of the hardships endured have only strengthened and secured its identity as one of the best places to see impromptu jams or the biggest names in music and party down. Their Jazz Festival thrown every April sees the best touring musicians sitting down for uncommon collaborations, partying and playing all night.

Despite torrential winds, hard rain and mud pits, I survived Yonder Mountain String Band’s Harvest Music Festival along with about 5,000 other bluegrass lovers. The weekend was filled with fiddles, foot-stompin’ and delicious falafels.

This December, Phish returns to Madison Square Garden in New York, New York for a four-show New Year's Run to close out 2012. The band has played twenty-three shows to date at Madison Square Garden.Tickets will go on sale to the general public tomorrow, Saturday, October 20, at Noon ET at ticketmaster.com or can be charged by phone at 866.858.0008.

The Mickey Hart Band have released free tracks from their Fall Tour including a very rare cover of Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away" featuring Hart's longtime collaborator and Grammy Winner, Giovanni Hidalgo, recorded at a recent show in St.

– It has been nearly two years since world-renowned guitarist John McLaughlin released To the One, his highly acclaimed, first studio recording, with The 4^th Dimension.  The veteran guitar aficionado celebrates his 70^th birthday year with his newest studio recording, Now Here This (Abstract Logix) set for release tomorrow, October 16^th as he ups-the-ante even further with greater fire, finesse and freewheeling interplay.