Classic Rock 93.9

Chicago is set to headline two new shows that will be filmed for the concert TV special Decades Rock Live, which teams classic bands with some of today’s biggest artists.

The concerts, billed as Chicago & Friends, are happening November 17 and 18 at Ovation Hall at the Ocean Casino Resort in Atlantic City, New Jersey. They’ll feature special guests Chris Daughtry, Robin Thicke, and Steve Vai, who’ll pay tribute to the band’s original lead guitarist Terry Kath, with more guests to be added.

The concerts will have the band celebrating the 55th anniversary of their debut, Chicago Transit Authority, with a set featuring tunes from the classic album as well as some of their greatest hits. The planned Decades Rock Live special is expected to air sometime in December.

“We’re looking forward to working with Barry Summers, our producer on this concert film, and celebrating Chicago’s 55th Anniversary of our debut album Chicago Transit Authority, with our fans in Atlantic City that will be filmed over two nights,” Chicago cofounder and keyboardist Robert Lamm shares. “We’ll be performing a set list of songs exclusively for these two shows, and we’re very excited to be performing with some special guests, all captured on film.”

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Carlos Santana has teamed with his family for a brand new song. The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer has just released the tune “Energía,” which features his son Salvador Santana and his nephew Jose Santana along with Orlando Torriente and Piero Amadeo Infante. 

“Being part of this project is an incredible honor,” Jose shares. “We’re infusing our individual experiences and influences to create something that is truly magical and connects with people on a deep spiritual and uplifting level.”

Jose notes that the song was written to help their friend, the song’s co-executive producer David Richardson, while he was in a Covid-related coma.

“It was about sharing and sending love and light to a long-time friend that literally woke him and saved his life,” he explains. “The spirit we sowed into those lyrics and that energy caused my Uncle Carlos to also be moved and compelled to create something bigger than us and to set it free to help our community near and far feel that energy and let it heal and uplift your soul.”

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On This Day, July 17, 2011…

At Asbury Park, New Jersey’s Wonder Bar, Bruce Springsteen made a surprise appearance for a tribute to his late friend and E Street Band saxophonist Clarence Clemons, who had passed away in June of that year.

The 45-minute set for 400 fans included soul classics as well as “Savin’ Up,” which Bruce wrote for Clemons’ 1983 album with the Red Bank Rockers.

Clemons was a member of Bruce’s E Street Band from 1974 until his passing at the age of 69. He was posthumously inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the E Street Band in 2014.

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Dead & Company wrapped their Final Tour in San Francisco this weekend with a three-night stand at Oracle Park, and fans certainly weren’t disappointed.

According to setlist.fm, the band, made up of Grateful Dead members Bob Weir and Mickey Hart along with John Mayer, Oteil Burbridge and Jeff Chimenti, kicked off their show Sunday, July 16, with the Grateful Dead classic “Bertha.” The set also featured a host of Dead tracks like “Althea,” “High Time,” “Cumberland Blues,” “Sugar Magnolia” and classics including “Truckin’” and “Brokedown Palace.”

The final encore even dipped into The Crickets cover “Not Fade Away” as well as covers of Traffic’s “Dear Mr. Fantasy,” The Rascals‘ “Good Lovin'” and The Beatles’ “Hey Jude.”

While the final show took place on the West Coast, Dead & Co. got some loving on the East Coast this weekend as well: The Empire State Building lit up in tie-dye colors on Sunday to honor the end of the tour.

Dead & Company formed in 2015, announcing a one-off show in October of that year, which led to a full tour. They subsequently hit the road each summer with the exception of 2020 due to Covid. In September 2022, they announced that the 2023 tour would be their last.

Dead & Co. kicked off the Final Tour in Los Angeles in May. According to Pollstar, ahead of the San Francisco weekend, it had brought in $434.2 million, with 4.08 million tickets sold.

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A surprising witness took the stand for the defense in Kevin Spacey‘s ongoing sexual assault trial in the U.K.: Elton John.

Elton and his husband David Furnish both testified remotely via video link from Monaco to address Spacey’s attendance at one of Elton’s AIDS Foundation charity events, the White Tie and Tiara Ball. The Ball was held at the couple’s home in Windsor, England for a period of about 15 years.

This is notable because one of Spacey’s alleged victims has accused the actor of aggressively “grabbing” him while he drove with him to the ball in 2004 or 2005.  Spacey has testified that the only year he attended the event was 2001.

Elton confirmed that Spacey had only attended the ball once, in 2001.  As Variety reports, Elton said he remembered the actor being there because “he arrived in white tie. He came on a private jet and he came straight to the ball.”

Elton also recalled that Spacey had spent the night in the couple’s house after the event, but that he never visited them there again.

David Furnish further testified that he’d checked the archives of all the photographs of the event — which were taken each year by OK! magazine — and that the only year Spacey attended was 2001. 

Asked if it were possible that Spacey had attended and hadn’t been photographed, Variety reports that Furnish said it “never happened,” explaining that all the stars understood that they would be photographed to promote the charity. 

He noted that if “a star of Kevin Spacey’s magnitude” had refused to be photographed, it would have been an “impossible situation.”

Spacey, 63, has pleaded not guilty to a dozen charges that include sexual and indecent assault counts and one count of causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent.

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A new book about the Allman Brothers Band’s classic album Brothers and Sisters will be released on July 25, and the audiobook version will feature some true gems for fans. 

Brothers and Sisters: The Allman Brothers Band and the Inside Story of the Album That Defined the ’70s, written by Alan Paul, is being released in hardcover, along with the audio version, which will include never-before-heard archival interviews with members of the band, including Gregg Allman and Dickey Betts. The interviews were conducted by archivist and photographer Kirk West.

The book is being released in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of Brothers and Sisters, which was released in August 1973 and featured the band’s first hit single, “Ramblin’ Man.” It became the Allmans’ bestselling album, selling over 7 million copies.

The book will explore the making of the album, along with its historical impact. It also looks at how the band helped Jimmy Carter get elected president, Gregg’s marriage to Cher, how the band’s success led to problems within the group and more. It also delves into the relationship between the Allman Brothers and the Grateful Dead, and how the band inspired other Southern rockers like Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Both the hardcover and audio book are available for preorder now. 

And Brothers and Sisters author Alan Paul is setting out on a book tour to promote the release. It kicks off July 27 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A complete list of dates can be found at macmillan.com.

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Graham Nash was recently reunited with a guitar he hasn’t seen in over 50 years. 

Nash was playing a concert in Berkeley, California, on Monday, July 10, where he was reunited with Jerry Garcia’s infamous “Alligator” guitar, which was actually gifted to the Grateful Dead frontman by Nash to thank him for playing pedal steel on the Crosby, Stills & Nash classic “Teach your Children.”

Photographer Jay Bakesberg, who photographed Nash’s performance, relayed the story on Instagram. He explained that after being gifted the guitar, Garcia added a green alligator sticker, which is how it got its nickname. It became his go-to guitar, especially during the Dead’s tour of Europe in 1972. 

“Graham never saw the guitar again … until this past Monday night when Alligator was brought to the Freight & Salvage in Berkeley, CA by Andy Logan via the Grateful Guitars Foundation,” Blakesberg said. Nash’s bandmate Shane Fontayne actually played it, while Nash played a “Martin acoustic that Garcia used to record American Beauty.”

Both guitars were played for Nash’s encore, which fittingly was “Teach Your Children,” with Blakesberg calling it a “Legendary reunion.”

Nash is currently on a tour of North America. He plays the Lobero Theatre in Santa Barbara, California, on July 15 and 16. A complete list of dates can be found at grahamnash.com.

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Brian May has revealed his favorite Queen album and it may surprise some people.

The Guardian had the guitarist answer questions from fans, and when one asked if he felt that 1974’s Sheer Heart Attack was Queen’s “greatest album,” May didn’t quite agree.

“It was a breakthrough in terms of getting out there, but I don’t know if it’s the greatest,” May replied. “My favorite, strangely enough, is probably the last one, Made in Heaven, which we completed after Freddie (Mercury) had gone.”

The album was released in 1995, four years after Mercury’s death. May said it’s “got so much depth to it, so much spiritual content and emotion, because we were working with Freddie’s voice when Freddie was no longer here.”

May said it took a while for them to make the album because they were grieving, but they eventually realized “this album is crying out to be made.” He noted, “It was a labor of love, but I find that I can listen to it with a great feeling of peace now.”

In the same Q&A, May discussed bassist John Deacon’s departure from Queen, saying they knew he was “quite sensitive to stress.” After working on a project in 1996, Deacon suddenly told them he couldn’t do it anymore. May shared, “We knew that he at least needed a break, but as it turned out he never came back.” 

Buy May said although Deacon doesn’t perform with them anymore, ”he’s still part of the machinery of the band.”

“If we have any major decision, business wise, it’s always run past John,” he said. “It doesn’t mean he talks to us – generally he doesn’t – but he will communicate in some way. He’s still very much part of Queen.”

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Eric Clapton has shared a new track with fans. The singer just released “How Could We Know” featuring Judith Hill, longtime collaborator Simon Climie and Daniel Santiago. 

The song is part of the just-released double A-side, 7-inch vinyl featuring “Moon River,” Clapton’s previously released collaboration with the late Jeff Beck.

Climie, who is a co-songwriter on the track, notes, “I couldn’t dream of a more incredible line up for ‘How Could We Know.’”

Clapton is set to return to the U.S. for a new tour kicking off September 8 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He’ll also headline his two-day Crossroads Guitar Festival on September 23 and 24 in Los Angeles, with a lineup that includes ZZ Top, Robbie Robertson, Santana, Stephen Stills, Gary Clark, Jr., John Mayer Trio and more. A full list of Eric Clapton tour dates can be found at ericlapton.com.

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Back in May, Dead & Company commemorated the 46th anniversary of the Grateful Dead’s iconic concert at Cornell’s Barton Hall with their own show at the venue. It turns out, that concert raised a lot of money for charity. 

The band has revealed they raised $3.1 million for the organizations MusiCares and the Cornell 2030 Project.

MusiCares helps folks in the music industry get important health and welfare services they need, while the Cornell 2030 Project works to develop climate change solutions. Both groups will receive almost $1.5 million from the band. 

“The historic performance was a highlight, and our deepest gratitude goes out to the 5,000 attendees and everyone near and far who supported the event,” the band shared. “Thank you!”

The original Barton Hall show took place May 8, 1977, and became a legendary band bootleg before officially being released in May 2017. In 2012, a soundboard recording of the show was chosen by the Library of Congress for the National Recording Registry.

Dead & Company is just about to wrap up what they are billing as their Final Tour. The final three shows at San Francisco’s Oracle Park kick off Friday, July 14, and wrap on Sunday, July 16.

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