Classic Rock 93.9

Musicians and singers including ex-Yes frontman Jon Anderson, Michael McDonald of The Doobie Brothers  and former Allman Brothers Band guitarist Warren Haynes, are featured on Jake & Friends, new collaborative album by Hawaiian ukulele virtuoso Jake Shimabukuro that’s due out on November 12.

Other artists who contributed to the 16-track collection include Moon Taxi, Jack Johnson, Kenny Loggins, Jimmy Buffett, Jesse Colin Young, Ziggy Marley, Willie Nelson, Bette Midler and Vince Gill.

“I have to pinch myself when I see those names on my own album,” Jake says of the duets project. “It’s like, ‘Did that really happen?’ Making the album was a real challenge, but I’m deeply honored that all of the artists agreed to record with me.”

Anderson appears on a version of The Beatles‘ “A Day in the Life,” McDonald contributes to a rendition of the early Moody Blues hit “Go Now,” and Haynes lends his talents to “On the Road to Freedom,” a song by late Ten Years After frontman Alvin Lee.

Young, meanwhile, is featured on a new version of the folk-rock classic “Get Together,” popularized by his old band The Youngbloods.

Jake & Friends also includes two other Beatles covers — “All You Need Is Love” sung by Marley, and “Something,” a duet featuring Gill and his wife, Amy Grant.

Two songs have been released as advance singles from the album: a new version of Moon Taxi’s 2017 hit “Two High,” and an updated rendition of one of Willie Nelson’s signature tunes, the 1920s standard “Stardust,” featuring the country legend.

Jake & Friends can be pre-ordered now. Here’s the album’s full track list:

“A Place in the Sun” — featuring Jack Johnson and Paula Fuga
“Sonny Days Ahead” — featuring Sonny Landreth
“All You Need Is Love” — featuring Ziggy Marley
“Why Not” — featuring Kenny Loggins
“Smokin’ Strings” — featuring Billy Strings
“Find Yourself” — featuring Lukas Nelson
“On the Road to Freedom” — featuring Warren Haynes
“Come Monday” — featuring Jimmy Buffett
“Something” — featuring Vince Gill and Amy Grant
“Two High” — featuring Moon Taxi
“A Day in the Life” — featuring Jon Anderson
“Go Now” — featuring Michael McDonald
“Wrapping Paper” — featuring Ray Benson & Asleep at the Wheel
“Stardust” — featuring Willie Nelson
“The Rose” — featuring Bette Midler
“Get Together” — featuring Jesse Colin Young

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Spanish Model, the unique new album featuring a variety of Latin-music artists performing Spanish-language versions of the songs from Elvis Costello‘s second studio effort, 1978’s This Year’s Model, got its release today.

As previously reported, Spanish Model features all of the songs from This Year’s Model, plus select other tunes from that record’s sessions, with newly recorded vocals by various Latin artists accompanied by the original music by Costello and his band The Attractions.

Coinciding with the album’s release, a music video for award-winning Colombian-born singer/songwriter Sebastian Yatra‘s rendition of “Big Tears,” re-titled “Llorar,” has debuted on Costello’s official YouTube channel.

“Big Tears” didn’t appear on This Year’s Model, but was released in 1978 as the B-side of the “Pump It Up” single, and also was included on Costello’s 1980 compilation, Taking Liberties.

“‘Big Tears’ should have always been on the album, as it was at least equal if not superior to some of the other songs but we always wanted to make 7″ inch singles very special by having such a great track on the flip side of a hit record,” Elvis explains. “Yatra’s wonderful rendition of the song, only confirms my feeling that the tune is now where it has always belonged.”

Among the other artists who put their Spanish-language spins on the This Year’s Model tunes are Juanes, Luis Fonsi and Vega.

Meanwhile, the first episode of a six-part documentary series focusing on Spanish Model will premiere September 13. The series, which will roll out over the course of two weeks, will include interviews with nearly all of the artists who contributed to the album, as well as with Costello, The Attractions’ members and This Year’s Model producer Nick Lowe.

Here’s Spanish Model‘s full track list:

“No Action” — Nina Diaz
“(Yo No Quiero Ir a) Chelsea” (“[I Don’t Want to Go to] Chelsea”) — Raquel Sofía y Fuego
“Yo Te Vi” (“The Beat”) — Draco Rosa
“Pump It Up” — Juanes
“Detonantes” (“Little Triggers”) — La Marisoul
“Tu Eres Para Mi” (“You Belong to Me”) — Luis Fonsi
“Hand in Hand” — Francisca Valenzuela y Luis Humberto Navejas
“La Chica de Hoy” (“This Year’s Girl”) — Cami
“Mentira” (“Lip Service”) — Pablo López
“Viviendo en el Paraiso” (“Living in Paradise”) — Jesse & Joy
“Lipstick Vogue” — Morat
“La Turba” (“Night Rally”) — Jorge Drexler
“Llorar” (“Big Tears”) — Sebastián Yatra
“Radio Radio” — Fito Páez
“Crawling to the U.S.A.” — Gian Marco y Nicole Zignago
“Se Esta Perdiendo la Inocencia” (“Running Out of Angels”) — Vega

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When Metallica released their self-titled record, aka The Black Album, in 1991, it had a gigantic impact on metal and its standing in the mainstream. Beyond that, though, it also had a huge influence on music as a whole.

That’s on full display with The Metallica Blacklist, a massive tribute compilation featuring covers of every Black Album track recorded by 53 different artists in honor of the record’s 30th anniversary.

Many artists on The Metallica Blacklist wouldn’t raise too many eyebrows — there’s Ghost playing “Enter Sandman,” Royal Blood covering “Sad but True” and Volbeat taking on “Don’t Tread on Me.” More left-field selections include St. Vincent‘s industrial version of “Sad but True,” J Balvin‘s reggaeton “Wherever I May Roam,” and Chris Stapleton turning “Nothing Else Matters” into a country epic.

Other participants include Cage the Elephant, Weezer, Portugal. the Man, White Reaper, Biffy Clyro, Slipknot‘s Corey Taylor, Phoebe Bridgers, Depeche Mode‘s Dave Gahan, Phoebe Bridgers and My Morning Jacket.

However, the centerpiece of The Metallica Blacklist might be an all-star recording of “Nothing Else Matters” featuring pop star Miley Cyrus, Metallica’s Robert Trujillo, Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, Elton John, guitarist/producer Andrew Watt, and cellist Yo-Yo Ma.

The Metallica Blacklist is out today via digital outlets. It’ll be available on physical formats October 1. All profits will be donated to Metallica’s All Within My Hands foundation and the charity of each participating artist’s choice.

Along with the Blacklist, Metallica is celebrating The Black Album‘s 30th anniversary with a deluxe, remastered reissue of the record featuring tons of bonus material including demos, live recordings, and rough and alternate mixes. That’s also out today.

Meanwhile, you can catch Metallica performing Friday night on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, airing at 11:35 p.m. ET on ABC.

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Foo Fighters will be sticking around Brooklyn, New York, for an extra day following their MTV Video Music Awards performance.

Dave Grohl and company have announced a headlining show at the Coney Island Amphitheater on Monday, September 13. Tickets are on sale now. All attendees must show proof of full vaccination against COVID-19, or provide a negative test within 48 hours of entering the venue.

The VMAs, meanwhile, take place Sunday, September 12, at the Barclays Center, the home of the Brooklyn Nets. The Foos will be performing at the ceremony, during which they’ll also be honored with the Global Icon Award.

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The Hella Mega tour might be over, but you can still “Rock and Roll All Nite” with Green Day.

Billie Joe Armstrong and company have officially released their cover of the KISS classic, recorded during their trek with Fall Out Boy and Weezer. You can download the cover now via digital outlets, and watch its accompanying video, featuring Hella Mega live footage, streaming now on YouTube.

When Green Day first debuted their version of “Rock and Roll All Nite” live, both Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley praised the performance.

The Hella Mega tour concluded this past Monday in Seattle. The European leg of the outing is set to kick off June 2022.

(Video contains uncensored profanity.) 

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Alice in Chains guitarist/vocalist Jerry Cantrell has released the title track off his upcoming solo album, Brighten.

While the previously released single “Atone” sounded very much cut from the same grungy cloth as Alice, “Brighten” feels more like a classic, bluesy rock n’ roll tune.

You can download the song “Brighten” now via digital outlets. Its accompany, surreal video premiered via Consequence.net.

Brighten the album arrives October 29. It’s Cantrell’s first solo outing in nearly 20 years.

Cantrell will launch a U.S. tour in support of Brighten in 2022.

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In 2018, former Journey frontman Steve Perry returned to music with Traces, his first new solo album in 24 years.  Now he’s set to release his first-ever collection of holiday tunes.

The Season, which is due out on November 5, features Perry’s renditions of eight classic yuletide tunes, including “Winter Wonderland,” “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town,” “Auld Lang Syne,” “Silver Bells” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.”

“I hope when people hear this record, they’re teleported in the same way I was when I recorded all these songs,” says Steve. “I hope it brings them back to those golden moments with their loved ones and gives them that feeling of joy and connection and comfort that we all need so much.”

In conjunction with the album announcement, Perry has debuted one of the songs as a digital single, a jazzy, stripped-down rendition of “I’ll be Home for Christmas.”

“When I was recording vocals for ‘I’ll be Home for Christmas,’ as I was singing ‘Please have snow and mistletoe and presents under the tree’…I was emotionally thrown into standing in my grandmother’s house staring through the door that I always hung mistletoe and then I saw her beautiful Christmas tree in front of her living room window,” Perry notes. “I had to stop singing because it felt like I was really there…I was a bit stunned…Back Home for Christmas is where everyone wants to be!”

The Season, which you can pre-order now, is available in multiple formats, including CD, digital, streaming and vinyl. Various limited-edition colored-vinyl versions of the album can be purchased at Perry’s official online store, Target and Barnes & Noble.

Here’s the full track list of The Season:

“The Christmas Song”
“I’ll Be Home for Christmas”
“Auld Lang Syne”
“Winter Wonderland”
“What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve”
“Santa Claus Is Coming to Town”
“Silver Bells”
“Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”

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Rolling Stones fans in the U.S. will have an additional chance to see the band on their upcoming 2021 No Filter Tour. The British rock legends have just announced that a second concert at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles has been confirmed for October 14, three days before the previously scheduled show at the venue will take place.

Tickets for the October 14 performance go on sale to the general public on Friday, September 17 at 10 p.m. PT via RollingStones.com.

Pre-sale tickets will be available for people who’ve signed up for the Stones mailing list starting Wednesday, September 15 at 10 a.m. PT. You can sign up for the mailing list at uk-umg.com.

The Rolling Stones’ U.S. tour leg, which now features 13 dates, kicks off September 26 in St. Louis and is mapped out through a November 20 concert in Austin, Texas.  The trek will feature lauded session drummer Steve Jordan stepping for the band’s beloved longtime beat keeper Charlie Watts, who died August 24 at age 80.  Jordan’s participation was arranged prior to Watts’ unexpected passing.

Meanwhile, in honor of Watts, the band is asking fans to share photos and memories of Charlie and of their favorite pieces of vintage Rolling Stones-related memorabilia, artwork and more, on Twitter and Instagram using the hashtag #mystonesmerch. The Stones also have been displaying many of the images on a fan wall that you can check out at digital.umusic.com/rollingstones.

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This Saturday marks the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and Vanilla Fudge drummer Carmine Appice has shared with ABC Audio his recollections of that awful day.

The Brooklyn, New York, native says he was living in California at that time, and he recalls that he was sick that day and was watching on television as the Twin Towers collapsed after terrorists flew passenger planes into the buildings.

“I have this condition with really bad nosebleeds, and I had one that day, and I was just watching the news,” he remembers. “I was laying around and I saw the towers go down.”

Appice continues, “[M]y anxiety level was through the roof, ’cause I was living in Brooklyn when those things were going up, and every time I’d come into the city, I’d see them get higher and higher…And now they were gone. Freaked me out.”

Carmine admits that after the first plane crash, “I thought…’What kind of idiot flies a plane into the tower’…I thought it was like an accident. And then when the second one hit, I said, ‘Whoa!…This is no idiot, this is planned.'”

Appice reveals that he actually visited the Twin Towers two weeks before the attacks, while he was in New York for a concert with his band Cactus.

“For some reason, [guitarist] Jim McCarty wanted to go down to the towers,” he recalls. “[The band] went down to the towers after the gig. It was late, like one o’clock in the morning…and we just looked up at the towers and there was nobody around…And then we went home to California. Two weeks later, bam, they’re gone.”

Earlier this week, Vanilla Fudge released a new single, a cover of the Supremes classic “Stop in the Name of Love.”

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Wolfgang Van Halen isn’t backing down from the top of the Billboard charts.

The son of the late Eddie Van Halen — and one-time Van Halen bassist — has earned his second number-one hit the Mainstream Rock Airplay ranking with “Don’t Back Down,” the latest single from his Mammoth WVH solo project.

Mammoth previously reached the Mainstream Rock Airplay peak earlier this year with “Distance,” Wolfgang’s tribute to his iconic father, who passed away in October 2020.

With “Distance” and “Don’t Back Down,” both of Mammoth WVH’s first two singles to appear on Mainstream Rock Airplay eventually grabbed the top spot on the chart. The last artist to accomplish that feat was The Glorious Sons, who hit number one with their first Mainstream Rock Airplay entry “S.O.S. (Sawed Off Shotgun)” in 2019, and then again with “Panic Attack” later that year.

You’ll find both “Distance” and “Don’t Back Down” on the self-titled debut Mammoth WVH album, which dropped in June. Wolfgang is currently on tour in support of the record playing headlining shows and opening for Guns N’ Roses.

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