Classic Rock 93.9

Edgar Winter has released a second advance single from his upcoming album project, Brother Johnny: An All-Star Tribute to Johnny Winter: a rendition of his late older sibling’s 1968 song “Mean Town Blues.”

Edgar’s version of the driving blues-rock gem, which is available to stream now, also features acclaimed contemporary blues guitarist Joe Bonamassa, drummer Gregg Bissonette of Ringo Starr‘s All Starr Band, and longtime John Mayer bassist Sean Hurley.

“Johnny’s most highly respected authenticity was as a blues man, particularly his style of slide guitar, and if there’s one song that best epitomizes and brings all those elements together to represent the many aspects of who Johnny was in the early days, it is ‘Mean Town Blues,'” Edgar writes in the liner notes for Brother Johnny. “Every time I hear it I think, ‘Now that’s Real Johnny Winter.’ It just captures the essence of everything he was.”

As previously reported, Brother Johnny, which Edgar organized as a tribute to his brother, blues-rock guitar great Johnny Winter, will be released on April 15. The album features contributions from an impressive list of guest musicians, including Starr, Joe Walsh, ZZ Top‘s Billy Gibbons, Michael McDonald and John McFee of The Doobie Brothers, ex-Allman Brothers Band members Warren Haynes and Derek Trucks, Foo Fighters‘ Taylor Hawkins, Toto‘s Steve Lukather, and many others.

The 17-track collection, which was curated by Edgar and producer Ross Hogarth, was put together to present Johnny’s artistic evolution. In addition to featuring various covers and renditions of songs by Johnny, it also includes two new originals by Edgar.

The album’s lead single, which was released in January, is a cover of the Chuck Berry classic “Johnny B.Goode” that features Edgar and Walsh sharing lead vocals.

Johnny Winter died in 2014 at age 70.

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The Scorpions have released another advance track from their their forthcoming studio album, Rock Believer, which is due out next Friday, February 25.

The new tune, titled “Shining of Your Soul,” is available via digital formats now, and is one of the few love songs on Rock Believer. Scorpions frontman Klaus Meine, who wrote the lyrics for the track, says it’s about the intensely passionate attraction that one person can sometimes feel for another.

Meine notes that “Shining of Your Soul” is about that emotion you may experience “[w]hen someone enters the room and you sense an aura that makes everything else fade into the background. When the atmosphere changes inexplicably, and one is enveloped in a warm glow. The shining of a soul.”

Musically, the song features verses that offer up a taste of reggae, while the choruses burst forth with the German rockers’ trademark melodic metal sound.

“Shining of Your Soul” is the fourth advance track from Rock Believer that the Scorpions have released, following “Peace Maker,” the album’s title track and “Seventh Sun.”

You can pre-order Rock Believer now.

As previously reported, The Scorpions will kick off their 2022 tour in support of the Rock Believer album with a nine-date Las Vegas residency at the Zappos Theater at Planet Hollywood, running from March 26 to April 16. Visit The-Scorpions.com for more info.

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Paul McCartney just announced a 2022 U.S. tour today, which should help him offset the big loss he recently took on the sale of a New York City penthouse he owned with his wife, Nancy Shevell.

The Wall Street Journal reports the the former Beatles star and his spouse sold their luxury apartment on Fifth Avenue overlooking the Big Apple’s Central Park for $8.5 million, which is $7 million less than they purchased the residence for in 2015.

According to the newspaper, the duplex apartment initially was listed at $12 million in June of 2021, then was reduced to $10.5 million in September.

McCartney and his wife bought the apartment, located at at 1045 Fifth Ave., for $15.5 million, which is about 40% less than they sold it for.

As reported by the Street Easy real-estate website in 2015, the co-op residence boasts wraparound balconies, a living room, library, master bedroom, and master sitting room that all face Central Park above the Jacqueline Onassis Reservoir, plus a formal dining room and “a double height gallery.” The duplex also boasts floor-to-ceiling windows that are 40 feet high.

The New York Post reports that the building was built in 1967 by late developer Manny Duell, who created the duplex for his wife. She lived there until her death in 2014.

McCartney’s upcoming trek, dubbed the Got Back Tour, is scheduled to run from an April 28 concert in Spokane, Washington, through a June 16 show in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

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More new Guns N’ Roses music is on the way.

Speaking with Consequence.net, guitarist Slash reveals that the “Welcome to the Jungle” rockers plan to drop some fresh tunes ahead of their European tour launching in June.

“There is new material coming — everybody’s always asking,” Slash says. “I would imagine that there will be one or two songs that come out around the time that we hit the road in June.”

Last year, GN’R released two new songs, “Absurd” and “Hard Skool.” Prior to that, the Rock & Roll Hall of Famers hadn’t put out anything since 2008’s Chinese Democracy, which featured Axl Rose as the only remaining original member in the band. Slash and bassist Duff McKagan rejoined the group in 2016 after leaving in the mid-’90s.

Ahead of the European tour, Guns N’ Roses will headline Florida’s Welcome to Rockville festival in May.

Meanwhile, Slash is currently on tour with his solo band Myles Kennedy & the Conspirators in support of their new album, 4.

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Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell and his current band, The Dirty Knobs, have released a second advance single from their forthcoming sophomore album, External Combustion, due out on March 4.

The new tune, “Electric Gypsy,” is available now via digital formats, while a music video for the song has debuted on Campbell’s official YouTube channel.

The clip begins with Campbell hitchhiking in the desert, where he’s picked up by RV driven by a tattooed woman. Inside the motor home are The Dirty Knobs’ members and some female friends. The vehicle soon stops, and the musicians and their friends get out, and band proceeds to play the song out in the desert around a fire pit.

In a recent Facebook post, Campbell writes, “‘Electric Gypsy’ is one of my favorite songs on the new record. The song came to me in a moment of inspiration before a session with the band — and we recorded it that day in one take, guitar solo and all.”

As previously reported, External Combustion is an 11-track collection that features guest appearances by Ian Hunter of Mott the Hoople fame, Heartbreakers keyboardist Benmont Tench and alt-country artist Margo Price.

Campbell wrote most of the songs on External Combustion during the past year, although two tunes date back to the 1990s and were recently rediscovered by Mike in his vault of unreleased tracks.

Prior to “Electric Gypsy,” Campbell and the group also released the album’s lead track, “Wicked Mind,” as an advance digital single, along with a companion music video.

External Combustion can be pre-ordered now, and is available on CD, on vinyl and via digital formats.

Campbell and The Dirty Knobs kick off a U.S. tour on March 9 in Tampa, Florida. Visit TheDirtyKnobs.com for the band’s full schedule.

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Here’s your chance to party in wine country with Metallica.

The metal legends have announced a charity raffle with the grand prize of two VIP three-day passes to the ‘Tallica-headlined BottleRock Napa Valley festival, taking place May 27-29 in Napa, California.

The campaign will raise money for Metallica’s All Within My Hands charity foundation. The more you donate, the more entries you’ll receive.

For more info, visit Metallica.com.

In related news, Metallica’s hometown baseball team, the San Francisco Giants, have announced the details of its 2022 Metallica Night. The annual celebration, which has missed the past two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, makes its return to Oracle Park on May 24.

Previous Metallica Nights have featured the band performing the national anthem and throwing out the game’s ceremonial first pitch.

You can grab tickets now via MLB.com.

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Everyone knows that Billy Joel is from Long Island, New York, but if you’ve ever wanted to get a better sense of the places that he sings about in his songs, you can now do it online.

The Billy Joel “New York State of Mind” Landmarks website has just launched, featuring an interactive map of 50 locations in New York that are either connected to Billy’s life, or are mentioned in his songs. You can navigate to places he’s played, like Madison Square Garden or Yankee Stadium, or see, for example, exactly where the “Miracle Mile” is that Billy sings about cruising in “It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me” is located.

In keeping with this theme, a new digital five-track EP called Places is out on all streaming platforms, showcasing some of the locations on the map.  The songs include “Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song),” “New York State of Mind,” “Big Man on Mulberry Street,” “Everybody Loves You Now” and “Miami 2017 (See the Lights Go Out on Broadway).” It’s just the first in what will be a series of thematic EPs.

And if you want even more Billy, Walmart is now selling exclusive collectors’ editions of six of his albums, pressed on 12-inch colored vinyl with photo inserts.  Piano Man, The Stranger, 52nd Street, Glass Houses, An Innocent Man and Storm Front are all available, in different colors.

Both the website, the EP and the vinyl discs are part of the #50YearsofBilly celebration, recognizing 50 years since the release of his debut solo album, 1971’s Cold Spring Harbor.

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Dave Grohl may need to clear his schedule for a collaboration with yet another rock legend.

KISS‘ Paul Stanley tells Consequence.net that he’d be interested in working with the Foo Fighters frontman.

“At some point, I’m sure we’ll do something,” Stanley says. “We’ll make some noise together. That’s what makes music so fun.”

The two did previously jam together at Grohl’s birthday party concert in 2015. Grohl, meanwhile, just released a cover of KISS’ “Rock and Roll All Nite” last year alongside producer Greg Kurstin for their Hanukkah Sessions series.

Previous Grohl collaborators include Mick Jagger, Paul McCartney, Motörhead‘s Lemmy and Led Zeppelin‘s John Paul Jones.

Currently, Grohl is preparing for the premiere of the new Foo Fighters movie Studio 666, which hits theaters February 25. He’s also been working on recording a metal album under the moniker Dream Widow, a fictional band from the film.

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If watching Get Back has made you crave more Beatles, then we’ve got good news: Paul McCartney‘s hitting the road for what he’s calling the Got Back tour.

“I said at the end of the last tour that I’d see you next time. I said I was going to get back to you. Well, I got back!” says Paul in a statement. 

The 13-city trek, the first since his Freshen Up tour wrapped in 2019, launches April 28 in Spokane, WA and is set to wrap up June 16 in East Rutherford, NJ.

The tour marks McCartney’s first-ever show in Spokane, as well as his live debuts in Hollywood, FL, Knoxville, TN and Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and his first show in Baltimore, MD since 1964 with The Beatles.

Tickets go on sale February 25 at 10 a.m. local time. American Express® Card Members can get tickets starting Tuesday, February 22 at 10 a.m. local time through Thursday, February 24 at 10 p.m. local time. For all the details, visit PaulMcCartneyGotBack.com.

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Ringo Starr stopped by ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Thursday to talk about his latest photo book, Lifted: Fab Images and Memories of My Life with The Beatles from Across the Universe, which features many rare, unseen and newly discovered photos of the band members, as well as recollections and anecdotes written by Ringo.

One memory he shared with Kimmel was that the band slept two to a room while on the road, a tradition that began as soon as he joined the band.

“As soon as we started going around, you know, Europe first, and even Scotland if we had to stay over, but usually if it was in Britain, that night we’d drive home. Even if it was 200, 300 miles, we’d drive home,” he recalls. “When we started going out, we only ever had two suites. We shared all the time.”

When Kimmel asked if there were situations where the hotel rooms didn’t have two beds and they were forced forced to sleep in the same bed, Ringo joked, “Well, I don’t want to talk about that.”

The idea to play their final concert on the roof of Abbey Road Studios also came up, which, like many of the band’s best laid plans, seemed to fizzle in the end.

“[It was always that way] with The Beatles, we’re going to India, we’re going to Everest, we’re going here! Aw, sod it, let’s just go on the roof,” he explained. “Abbey Road was another one. Let’s go to the Alps, let’s go to India…ah, just walk across the road.”

Lifted can be purchased now exclusively at JuliensAuctions.com. Proceeds benefit Ringo’s Lotus Foundation, which funds and supports charitable projects that focus on various social welfare causes.

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