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Jessica Simpson is paying tribute to a country icon (and a former co-star) with her amazing Halloween ensemble.

Simpson and her husband, Eric Johnson, went all out for their country-inspired couples costume this year. The singer dressed up as Willie Nelson, while her hubby went as Nelson's long-time collaborator Waylon Jennings.

For her costume, Simpson tied her long blonde locks into a pair of braided ponytails and glued a grey beard on her face. She sold the look with an American flag headband, paisley shirt and cowboy boots.

However, Simpson couldn't pass up a chance at showing off her legs, so her version of Nelson is wearing a pair of super-short daisy dukes.

Photos: Spooktacular Halloween Costumes of 2017

The costuming choice might actually be a reference to her role as Daisy Duke in the 2005 big screen remake of The Dukes of Hazzard, in which she starred opposite Nelson, who played her uncle.

Johnson kept his ensemble...

Diana Ross will be honored at the 2017 American Music Awards with the American Music Award for Lifetime Achievement, Dick Clark Productions and ABC announced on Wednesday.

Ross is a seven-time American Music Awards winner and hosted the show in both 1986 and 1987. The award will recognize Ross’ artistic contributions to the entertainment industry and popular culture.

“I have endless memories of all the years that I have appeared on the American Music Awards,” Ross said in a statement. “It started with Dick Clark and The Caravan of Stars and American Bandstand. It was Dick Clark who said, ‘Music is the soundtrack of our lives.

Little Kids Rock, the national nonprofit dedicated to transforming lives by restoring, expanding, and innovating music education in public schools announced the honorees for its annual benefit being held Wednesday, October 18th at PlayStation Theater in New York.

This year’s event will honor Elvis Costello with the Rocker of the Year Award, and Bonnie Raitt with the Lifetime Achievement Award. In addition, Founder and CEO of City Winery, Michael Dorf will be honored for his extensive philanthropic work, including efforts on behalf of expanding music education for underprivileged youth through the annually produced “Music of” tribute concerts.

The Annual Little Kids Rock Benefit, produced by Mark Krantz and Michael Matuza brings together artists and individuals who are passionate about bringing the transformational gift of music to children in public schools across the Us. Prior years’ honorees include Smokey Robinson, Steve Miller, Steven Van Zandt, Lady Gaga, Graham Nash and Joan Jett.

Nashville – Glen Campbell had many acts in his long career – sought after session guitarist, singer, TV & movie star and country personality – but his greatest contribution to culture may be the 2011 public announcement of his Alzheimer’s disease, and the documentary about the condition, “I’ll Be Me.” Campbell died on August 8th, 2017. He was 81.

The amiable persona he built as a pop music star was amplified by his variety show “The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour,” which ran on CBS-tv from 1969 to 1972. The show opened every week with his hit song “Gentle on My Mind,” and featured the good time personality of Campbell interacting with the guests and musical acts, which included an eclectic mix of artists like Ray Charles, The Monkees, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, The Righteous Brothers, Liza Minnelli and Tom Jones. And this was all before his signature song, “Rhinestone Cowboy,” became an unlikely number one hit in...

Guitar great George Thorogood is stepping out from his legendary band the Destroyers for the first time with a new solo album, Party of One, on Aug. 4—and People has an exclusive first listen!

Responsible for a string of gritty rock hits including “Bad to the Bone,” “I Drink Alone,” and “Reelin’ and Rockin’,” Thorogood’s latest will feature 14 blues tracks that range from old school traditional—John Lee Hooker’s “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer,” and Hank Williams’ “Pictures From Life’s Other Side”—to modern classics like the Rolling Stones‘ “No Expectations.”

Party of One reunites Thorogood...

A varied bag of goodies await fans of the Criterion Collection in September. Digging back into the musical thrills of the mid-1960s, Murray Lerner's documentary Festival examines the Newport Folk Festival from 1963-1966, when the very idea of "folk music" was undergoing a galvanic redefinition. The new disk will include additional footage from the festivals, which showcased the likes of Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Johnny Cash and the Staples Singers. Perhaps appropriately for the early days of the fall school term in North America, Michael Haneke offers twisted lessons in The Piano Teacher, starring Isabelle Huppert. And we can all learn a lot from watching Alfred Hitchcock's first Hollywood production, Rebecca, which demonstrated that gothic melodramas could be quite thrilling. Criterion will also release two...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Warning: This post contains major spoilers from this week’s Nashville. And if you need to catch up, check out the previous Nashville recap here.

Connie Britton is, indeed, leaving Nashville. And this week’s episode chronicles in heartbreaking detail the tumultuous final hours of Rayna Jaymes’ life. (As it turns out, the hour isn’t Britton’s last with the show. More on that here.)

RelatedConnie Britton Talks ‘Devastating’ Nashville Twist (‘There Wasn’t Any Alternative’), Teases Rayna’s ‘Return’

“If Tomorrow Never Comes” is a great — perhaps the best — episode of the country-music series. It is also the most heartbreaking.

A new documentary about legendary music executive Clive Davis will open the Tribeca Film Festival with a screening at Radio City Music Hall on April 19th.

The premiere of Clive Davis: The Soundtrack of Our Lives, will be followed by a concert featuring artists who've worked with Davis, including Aretha Franklin, Earth, Wind & Fire and Jennifer Hudson.

Directed by Chris Perkel, the new documentary is based on Davis' 2013 autobiography, The Soundtrack of My Life. Raised in Brooklyn and orphaned as a teenager, Davis earned full scholarships to New York University and Harvard Law,...

Texan singer’s surviving children will collaborate on The Big O: Roy Orbison, bringing pop star’s tumultuous story to the screen

Following recent films chronicling the lives of Hank Williams, Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash, the career and tumultuous private life of Roy Orbison is to be turned into a movie.

According to Deadline, The Big O: Roy Orbison will be produced by two of Orbison’s surviving sons, Alex and Roy, with another, Wesley Orbison, one of the executive producers. The script will be written by Ray Gideon and Bruce Evans, who collaborated on 1985’s Stand by Me, Starman and Mr Brooks.

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Back by popular demand Two-time Tony winner Norbert Leo Butz returns to Feinstein's54 Below with his hit show 'Girls, Girls, Girls' focusing on the female - both the mythic amp the contemporary. Expect tunes from the likes of Elvis Costello, Loretta Lynn, Frank Sinatra and even a little Johnny Cash After celebrating his dazzling cabaret debut which went on to be the critically lauded CD, we're delighted to re-welcome the star of Big Fish, Catch Me If You Can, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Wicked, and The Last 5 Years.

Kesha is a warrior - so says her Billboard Music Awards collaborator Ben Folds. Sunday night, Kesha took the stage in Las Vegas with singer-songwriter Folds to perform a stripped-down, solemn cover of Bob Dylan's "It Ain't Me, Babe." And while the performance went off without a hitch, it almost never happened in the first place. Following a dramatic week, she was pulled from then reinstated to the show's lineup after her label, Kemosabe Records, rescinded its initial approval of the performance before coming to an agreement. (When the set was first canceled, Kesha performed the Dylan song with...

Kesha is a warrior - so says her Billboard Music Awards collaborator Ben Folds. Sunday night, Kesha took the stage in Las Vegas with singer-songwriter Folds to perform a stripped-down, solemn cover of Bob Dylan's "It Ain't Me, Babe." And while the performance went off without a hitch, it almost never happened in the first place. Following a dramatic week, she was pulled from then reinstated to the show's lineup after her label, Kemosabe Records, rescinded its initial approval of the performance before coming to an agreement. (When the set was first canceled, Kesha performed the Dylan song with...

Morgan Neville has directed documentaries about the Rolling Stones, Johnny Cash, Brian Wilson, Stax Records, Iggy Pop and others, including his Oscar-winning look at backup singers, “20 Feet From Stardom.” But his many different musical worlds have seldom intersected the way they did at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, where a Neville-directed doc about cellist Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble premiered on Sunday, and another about Keith Richards followed on Thursday. The films are as dramatically different as their subjects. “The Music of Strangers: Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble” is a painstakingly assembled four-year project to document.

On Friday night, Bob Dylan was honored by MusiCares, a charity that gives critical aid to musicians in need. Introduced by former president Jimmy Carter, Dylan took the stage and gave a long, 30-minute speech about his storied career. He thanked John Hammond, who signed him to Columbia Records when he was a "nobody," and talked about the influence artists like Nina Simone, Jimi Hendrix, Joan Baez, Johnny Cash and others had on him. He also got around to defending his voice, which he said, critics have been giving a hard time about "since Day One."Here's Dylan on his signature "croaking," transcribed by the Los Angeles Times. (Yes, some of the parts were inaudible.) Oh, yeah. Critics have been giving me a hard time since Day One. Critics say I can't sing. I croak. Sound like a frog. Why don't critics say that same thing about Tom Waits? Critics...

For all the problems that come with the annual awards season frenzy, the great thing about it is that people who aren’t always in the foreground, but who are essential to a production can be appreciated, from sound design to visual effects. It’s fitting then that Twenty Feet From Stardom – a film which puts the spotlight on the backing singers behind some of the greatest musical legends of our time – was deservedly triumphant at the Oscars earlier this month. Directed by Morgan Neville (whose previous documentary subjects include Muddy Waters and Johnny Cash), it has a legitimate case for being the feel-good movie of the year so far.

Neville has assembled a host of ebullient and candid singers to help him chart the rise of backup artists. All hailing from church backgrounds, the focus of the pic is on a handful of female, African-Americans; Darlene Love, Táta Vega,...

Odd List Ryan Lambie Simon Brew 6 Feb 2014 - 06:08

Our series of lists devoted to underappreciated films brings us to the year 2007, and another 25 overlooked gems...

For some reason, the number three was a common factor in several blockbuster movies of 2007. The third film in the Pirates Of The Caribbean series (At World's End) dominated the box office, Spider-Man 3 marked Sam Raimi's last entry as director in the series, while Mike Myers went for a hat trick of hits with Shrek The Third.

I Am Legend was the third and most financially successful attempt to bring Richard Matheson's classic novel to the big screen, Rush Hour 3 marked Jackie Chan's last action pairing with Chris Tucker, while Zack Snyder's musky sword-swinger 300 was notable for having the number three in the title.

Iffy attempts at numerology aside, 2007 was also a superb for year for movies in general - particularly underappreciated ones,...

Pete Seeger died Monday evening. He was 94 years old.

You can read about his life here in the newspaper of record. A simple Google search will get you a bunch more versions, but these are the facts.

And the facts are so incredibly inadequate at this point.

The first time I saw Pete Seeger perform was on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in 1967. I’d heard him sing on the radio occasionally but had never seen him, nor did I think about it a lot. I was 14, so please cut me some slack. As a big fan of the Smothers Brothers I found out bit about him before the show aired, including the fact that the reason I had never seen him was that he had been blacklisted for refusing to cooperate with the House Un-American Activities Committee. You can see his performance here. Rather than grovel his way back into the public’s perception,...

It takes one hell of a special occasion to bring together George Harrison, Johnny Cash, Lou Reed, Neil Young, Tom Petty, the Band, Pearl Jam, Eric Clapton, Stevie Wonder and Willie Nelson for one concert. In October 1992, those musicians and more celebrated Bob Dylan's 30 years as a recording artist with a show at Madison Square Garden. The footage is now being reissused on CD and DVD/Blu-ray in a deluxe edition out March 4. Watch the video trailer and check out the tracklist below. Dubbed "Bobfest" by Young, the concert features an all-star cast performing Dylan’s best-loved songs and culminating...

Bob Dylan: Another Self Portrait (1969-1971) The Bootleg Series Vol. 10 (Columbia/Legacy)

If you are more than just a casual fan of Bob Dylan, you probably already know Greil Marcus’s famous opening line in his review of Dylan’s 1970 album Self Portrait in Rolling Stone. Just about any article I’ve read that has referenced the album at any length over the years has trotted out the quote -- as has everything I’ve read recently on Dylan’s latest installment (the tenth) in his ongoing Bootleg Series -- Another Self Portrait. I won’t repeat the quote here [You can Google it] but I will say that my initial reaction, while not as vitriolic as Marcus’s, was not entirely dissimilar.

At the time, I thought the album was a total (although not entirely unlistenable) train wreck -- a hodgepodge of folk, rock, country, blues, Tin Pan Alley, hokum, and even musical theater.

Singer and producer Jack Clement has died. He was 82 and had been battling liver cancer. Known to most as “Cowboy Jack,” Clement spent most of his life working in the music industry and was just recently named an inductee into the Country Music Hall Of Fame. Clement started working as a producer and engineer for Sun Records in Memphis in 1956. There, he worked with Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash, and is credited with discovering Jerry Lee Lewis. One of the songs Clement recorded Lewis performing, “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On,” is now preserved in the Library ...

Los Angeles — In the span of American pop music, few performers have gone as unrecognized as the backup vocalists who harmonize and contextualize the songs of many a heralded lead musician. With "20 Feet From Stardom," some of the most notable finally get their due, but more than a tribute, the film is a recognition of the talent and sacrifice that many of these vocalists have invested in often challenging careers.

With a documentary career that's richly profiled the likes of Muddy Waters, Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, The Rolling Stones and Pearl Jam, Emmy-award winning director Morgan Neville brings an impressive wealth of talent and depth of experience to the project, enhanced by the decades-long perspective of producer and former A&M music exec Gil Friesen, who died late last year.

Departing from the nostalgic star-power of his last film, "Troubadours," profiling Carole King and James Taylor, Neville shines a spotlight...

Singer/songwriter Pokey Lafarge can be as bluegrass as Bill Monroe, as country as Johnny Cash and as folk as Bob Dylan. In contemporary references, the nearly-30-year-old is as much of a traditionalist as the Carolina Chocolate Drops or Luke Winslow-King. And on his self-titled release—his debut on Jack White’s Third Man Records—Lafarge blends these musical styles better than ever before....

The Wild Feathers originated in Austin, Texas when members Ricky Young, Joel King, Taylor Burns, Preston Wimberly and Ben Dumas bonded over their shared devotion to legends like JOhnny Cash and Bob Dylan, leaving their solo careers behind to form a new sound that paid tribute to the old. Their genre-blending sound explains a lot about their seemingly out-there tour schedule, as they’ve opened up for the likes of Bob Dylan as well as country’s Kip Moore. Now, just in time to amp up the anticipation for their forthcoming self-titled album, the quintet has announced a tour with Willie Nelson...

Jennifer Nettles is going solo. The Sugarland vocalist announced Friday that she is currently in the studio with producer Rick Rubin,working on her debut album as a solo artist, due out this fall. Photos: Billboard Awards 2013: The Nominees In a statement, Nettles said she’s “thrilled” to be working with Rubin, whose resume includes co-president of Columbia Records and founder of Def Jam Records. In his storied career, the super-producer has worked with the likes of Johnny Cash, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Beastie Boys, Jay-z, Aerosmith, AC/DC, Sheryl Crow, The Avett Brothers, Lana Del

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Nashville, Tenn. — The country music world reacted with deep emotion upon learning of the death of legendary singer George Jones. Here's a sampling of quotes and tweets about Jones:

"The world has lost the greatest country singer of all time. Amen." – Merle Haggard

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"He was a true innovator. Nobody could sing like George Jones. Everyone who could imitate him did. I wrote and recorded a song, "Bartender's Blues," as a tribute and, in an instance of life-imitating-art, George recorded it and asked me to harmonize. It was the second dream come true of my career. He was easy and kind and I'll never forget him. Luckily, he recorded a lot of music; so he'll always be with us..." – James Taylor

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"We're just going to miss George so much. This came as a total shock to me ... and to the whole music industry. It's going to be a big void not having George out there.

Vermillion, S.D. — A 16th-century Amati violoncello displayed in the National Music Museum has long been nicknamed "The King," but the ghost of a legendary rock `n' roller has arrived in South Dakota to reclaim his regal moniker.

A slightly smashed acoustic guitar played by Elvis Presley on his final tour in 1977 now greets visitors in front of the museum's main galleries. The Martin D-35 was tossed aside by "The King" during a St. Petersburg, Fla., concert after suffering a broken strap and string, said Robert Johnson, a Memphis-based guitarist who donated the item.

"He broke the strap and at the same time he broke a string," said Johnson, noting Presley's frustration. "He tosses it straight up in the air and it just comes down."

Johnson, who played with singer Isaac Hayes and the band John Entwistle's Ox in the 1970s, donated the Elvis guitar and four other celebrity...

Los Angeles -- Concert promoter Live Nation announced Wednesday that a landmark Los Angeles music venue where Bob Marley, Johnny Cash and Frank Sinatra performed will close its doors this fall.

The Gibson Amphitheatre's lease is ending in September and the venue will close its doors.

"It is a tremendous venue with a uniquely intimate setting that has made it a very special place for fans and artists alike," said Bret Gallagher, Live Nation's President of North American Concerts for Southern California and Las Vegas.

Gallagher said details will be soon announced for a series of summer farewell shows before the closure. Fans who were planning to attend concerts scheduled for after September are advised to hold on to their tickets as Live Nation makes arrangements for performances at different venues.

The 6,100-seat space opened as the Universal Amphitheatre in 1972, an outdoor venue at Universal Studios.

The mid-sized space with...

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Through great difficulty, I recently managed to persuade a reviewer friend of mine to let me listen to his copy of The Next Day at his apartment in the capital, Bowie’s first album in a long time. Yes, his face has appeared on television here and there, but no music, nothing new to scrape into our minds, until now. The album is going to leak any day now, that’s for sure, so you won’t be required to wait much longer.

But I do urge you to wait until you have a CD, because there’s nothing quite like the feeling of being a true Bowie fan and holding a physical copy of his latest work in your hands. It’s immense. I have to admit that my favourite thing about this record isn’t the music, which shocks even me but it is something that its producer,...

Love Song Yearbook: Ten Songs That Shaped My Idea of Love “He was my real-life version of John Cusack from High Fidelity...” by Trish Broome The music we like when we're young shapes us in a lot of ways. It might give you a lifelong disrespect for The Man, or it might make you a hopeless romantic. In Love Song Yearbook, we're interested in what songs shaped your idea of love at different ages. Want to submit your own Love Song Yearbook? Email submissions@nerve.com with "Love Song Yearbook" in the subject line. 1. Age five - “Crazy,” Patsy Cline My father was a good ol’ boy from Oklahoma, and my mom was an immigrant from Korea, but one thing that brought them together was their love of classic country music. They would often listen to tapes of Loretta Lynn, Johnny Cash, and Patsy Cline [...]...

"Which movies did you enjoy the most at Sundance, Debbie?" is a line I've heard often since returning from Park City. Despite several narrative favorites, the subcategory that really stood out was music documentaries. Two of these films will screen at SXSW next month: Twenty Feet from Stardom, the first film acquired at Sundance 2013, and Sound City, produced and directed by David Grohl of The Foo Fighters and Nirvana.

The festival opened with Twenty Feet From Stardom wowing audiences onscreen and later, offscreen with special performances. Producer/director Morgan Neville is no stranger to music docs, having directed several for television including Brian Wilson: A Beach Boy's Tale, Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock'n'Roll, Johnny Cash's America, Search and Destroy: Iggy and the Stooges' Raw Power, and several American Masters and Biography series spotlighting music icons.

Twenty Feet from Stardom provides an intimate view of background singers Darlene Love,...

At first glance, The Rambler (Dermot Mulroney) seems like a character Sam Shepard might have played several years ago. A tough-as-nails, blue collar type, we can only assume that his internal soundtrack is a mix of murder ballads performed by Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard. The Rambler has not had an easy life thus far, and his recent time in prison was obviously hard on him. You see, The Rambler is a rambling man. He is a man of the highway, ain't nobody gonna to keep him in one place for very long. Soon after his release from prison, The Rambler is on the road again. He heads towards Oregon, presumably to help his brother break in some new horses, but realistically it is just a temporary destination. The Rambler's journey to the Pacific Northwest is a rambling and meandering one, leaving much to the fate of the random...

Twenty Feet From Stardom, director Morgan Neville’s documentary about the backup vocalists who have toiled in the shadows of rock and soul’s greatest artists, was acquired by RADiUS-twc after an opening-night premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. Neville, who has been nominated for three Grammy Awards for his music films, including one on Johnny Cash, directed his lens on a group of female singers who’d attempted their own solo careers but settled for providing the supporting vocals for iconic artists like Bruce Springsteen, Mick Jagger, and Stevie Wonder.

Last night, following an enthusiastic reception in Park City,...

Documentarian Morgan Neville, whose films "Respect Yourself: The Stax Records Story," "Muddy Waters Can’t Be Satisfied," and "Johnny Cash’s America" have all been nominated for Grammys, comes to Sundance 2013 with "Twenty Feet From Stardom," playing in the U.S. Documentary section. He also produced "Pearl Jam Twenty," "Beauty is Embarrassing" and "Crossfire Hurricane." Neville's first film, after working as a journalist, was "Shotgun Freeway," which took him three years to complete. "That was really my film school," he said. What It's About: "'Twenty Feet from Stardom' tells the story of a string of amazing backup singers, largely African-American women, who brought the sound of the church into popular music." What It's Really About: "Backup singing is really a metaphor for how we treat those around us. Backup singers concentrate on...

Taylor Swift, reuniting with LL Cool J to co-host the Grammy Nominations Concert Wednesday night (Sept. 5), might not have conquered all musical genres yet.

Welcoming the hip-hop actor to "her town," Nashville, T-Swizzle beatboxed while he sang "Mean." Fortunately, their performance was short: there were plenty of acts and even a few nominations to follow. The co-host herself scored a nod (Record of the Year for "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together Again") -- but Fun. led the night with nominations in all the major categories.

Here's what went down in Music City:

First act: The Band Perry and Dierks Bentley perform Johnny Cash's "Jackson."

Pop Vocal Album nominees (presented in song by Hunter Hayes):

Kelly Clarkson, "Stronger"

Florence + The Machine, "Ceremonials"

Fun., "Some Nights"

Maroon 5, "Overexposed"

Pink, "The Truth About Love"

Second act: Maroon 5 performs a medley of "One More Night," "Moves Like Jagger...

London — The Rolling Stones made a triumphant return to the London stage on Sunday night in the first of five concerts to mark the 50th anniversary of their debut as an American-oriented blues band.

They showed no signs of wear and tear – except on their aging, heavily lined faces – as frontman Mick Jagger swaggered and strutted through a stellar two-and-a-half hour show. He looked remarkably trim and fit and was in top vocal form.

The Stones passed the half-century mark in style at the sometimes emotional gig that saw former bassist Bill Wyman and guitar master Mick Taylor join their old mates in front of a packed crowd at London's 02 Arena.

It was the first of five mega-shows to mark the passage of 50 years since the band first appeared in a small London pub determined to pay homage to the masters of American blues.

Jagger, in skin-tight black pants, a...

Music rights are complicated, and as such, often official soundtrack releases don't include all the songs that are featured in a film. And so it goes for David O. Russell's "Silver Linings Playbook." While the official disc runs fourteen tracks and includes key tunes by Stevie Wonder, Dave Brubeck, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash and more, the movie features even more. Ranging from rock 'n roll offerings from Led Zeppelin and The White Stripes, to classic tunes from Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra and more, the film has a pretty varied musical backdrop. And it nicely plays against the up-and-down relationship of its lead characters, played winningly by Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence, that seems go from tentative friendship to something more, all while their families offer cautious support. As you might already know, this is a movie we really loved, and if it comes near you this holiday weekend,...

SoundTRAX this week features the slept on comedy Silver Linings Playbook which looks surprisingly...good? Okay I really have no grounds for saying that but new music from Danny Elfman, Alabama Shakes and a Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan song sound pretty awesome am I right? It's all in this weeks episode! Stream below and subscribe on iTunes.

 

Email Me: MickJoest@Geektyrant.com Twitter: @MickJoest

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Having been just bumped up a week because of great word of mouth, David O. Russell's "Silver Linings Playbook" is one you're going to be hearing lots about over the next few weeks. And it's soundtrack packs a pretty decent punch too. Ranging from jazz to pop to classic cuts, the fourteen tracks featuring everything from a new cut by Brit starlet Jessie J to two tunes by jazz legend Dave Brubeck. Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash drop by with their excellent "Girl From The North Country," while Eagles Of Death Metal turn up the volume a bit with "Now I'm A Fool." Stevie Wonder keeps things smooth with "My Cherie Amour," while Rare Earth jam out with "Hey Big Brother." And oh yeah, Danny Elfman provided the score as well. The disc will drop in stores on November 19th, a few days about "Silver Linings Playbook" opens in limited release on November 16th,...

Hey guys, I have something great to share with you today! And yes, it has a loooooot to do with David O. Russell‘s upcoming movie! I’m actually here to give you the full tracklist from Silver Linings Playbook soundtrack, and to invite you all to check out the great video for the great song from this list, which comes from American rock band Alabama Shakes. It’s called Always Alright, and I just love it! Hope you’ll enjoy too!

But let’s go step by step. First, I will remind you that Silver Linings Playbook movie stars Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, Jacki Weaver, Chris Tucker, Anupam Kher, Shea Whigham, John Ortiz and Julia Stiles, and is set to open on November 21st, 2012.

Then, I will remind you that this comedy drama centers on:

Pat Solatano (Cooper) has lost everything — his house, his job, and his wife.

You might not have immediately known Bill Dees' name, but you surely knew his work. The cowriter of Roy Orbison's 1964 hit "Oh, Pretty Woman" died last week at the age of 73, according to published reports. Dees and Orbison's smash was prominently featured in 1990's Pretty Woman, starring Julia Roberts and Richard Gere. In addition to cowriting "Oh, Pretty Woman"—which was also covered by the likes of Van Halen, Al Green, Connie Francis and even Alvin and the Chipmunks—Dees penned songs recorded by Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn and Glen Campbell. In the early 1990s, Dees found himself embroiled in a copyright-infringement lawsuit with 2 Live Crew over...

Mountain Home, Ark. (AP) — Bill Dees emerged from his days as an out-of-cash young songwriter to pen tunes recorded by Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn and other country music greats, but the centerpiece of his career was his work with Roy Orbison, including co-writing the classic rock hit, "Oh, Pretty Woman."

Dees, who died in Arkansas last week at age 73, had said writing that song with Orbison in 1964 changed his life. In a 2008 interview with National Public Radio, Dees recalled that the night they penned the hit song, Orbison told him he wouldn't need to go to work that Monday if he didn't want to.

"He said, 'Buy yourself an electric piano, and I'll take you on the road with me.' And he said, 'I'll pay you what the band's getting,'" Dees said during the NPR interview, which is posted on his Dees' website.

He went on to tour...

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

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Release date: 18th June

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When you’ve had an upbringing like Peter Wilson aka Duke Special, it doesn’t really come as a surprise that he became a musician. Saying that, you can’t really say he became a musician – he already was one. Born into it, then.

All of us love our granny’s, don’t we? Unless yours is a miserable witch who only gave you one mint imperial when you visited as a kid, I think it’s probably safe to say that most of us love our little grandmothers. Well, however cool you think yours is, Duke’s takes some beating. If it wasn’t for her, he wouldn’t have got his first taste of music – she taught him to play the piano as a young boy, giving him a hunger and desire to play and listen to music whenever he could.

Austin, Texas -- When Snoop Dogg passed through Willie Nelson's neck of the woods during South By Southwest in March, he took some time to pay tribute to his unlikely friend.

He regaled reporters with mostly Nsfw stories about time the pair spent together in Amsterdam, sharing their mutual love of music, marijuana and fried chicken. The always lighthearted Snoop also got serious when talking about his friendship with Nelson and the 79-year-old singer's unique role as a musical ambassador.

"When I first met him you would think he was a hip-hop artist because he showed love to me as if I was in his world and I never made country music or none of that, but he understood who I was," Snoop said. "And it drove me to make country music. I made a couple of country records and was a part of his album and went to...

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

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Release date: 30th April, 2012

The creation of an alter-ego has been floating around the music scene since the dawn of time (and a lot longer for literature, art etc.) but some people often forget this and contradict themselves in the process. Take Lana Del Rey for example: she arrived with a new persona having ditched her real name for one of a potential Hollywood starlet and achieves mainstream success but then the backlash appears ‘Aaah, she’s fake! Aaah, it’s a gimmick! Aaah, she’s sold out!’ yet take a look back through history and largely accepted legends such as David Bowie and Madonna consistently changed their looks to continue being successful and Robert Allen Zimmerman used Bob Dylan as his stage name to then became hugely prominent.

It’s a dilemma Josh Tillman, ex-drummer for Fleet Foxes, wants to meddle with having...

Austin, Texas -- Country music legend Willie Nelson helped unveil a statue honoring him in downtown Austin by singing his new song "Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die" on Friday, a date long reserved to celebrate marijuana use.

The faint smell of marijuana smoke wafted through a crowd of about 2,000 people as Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell accepted on the privately funded statue as a gift from a private arts group. Organizers said they didn't intentionally choose April 20 for the event, but once they found out, they scheduled the unveiling at 4:20 p.m. as a tongue-in-cheek reference to Nelson's openness about his marijuana use and advocacy for its legalization.

The statute stands in front of the Moody Theater, where the Austin City Limits Studio is now located. Nelson, a 10-time Grammy Award winner who has sold more than 40 million copies of his 150 albums, appeared on the...

Singer Nanci Griffith is an artist in the company of other American greats like Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash and Betty Lavette. Her ethereal vocal stylings are legendary in the realm of folk music. Today, Nanci Griffith releases her 20th album, "Intersection" (Thirty Tigers). The Texas-born, Nashville-based troubadour lays out poignant tracks of love lost, confessionals and even a beautiful Loretta Lynn cover. Beloved in the UK and the States, Ms. Griffith is still making some of the finest records without gimmick or artifice; her pure vocals are punctuated by her trademark styling. Nine of Griffith's 12 songs were self-penned or co-written. The covers include readings of Blaze Foley's "If I Could Only fly," Loretta Lynn's...

The 2012 Sundance Film Festival is over, and film industry types and journalists have returned home with a pretty good idea of what the indie scene will look like this year.

But what about you, dear reader, who didn't get the chance to play in Park City and mingle with bundled-up celebs? Have no fear. Our intrepid NextMovie Sundance team braved long lines, snow drifts, crowded screenings and press junkets to bring you the 20 films we loved at Sundance this year -- and that may soon be coming to a theater near you. -- By Todd Gilchrist, Jason Guerrasio, Jenni Miller and Nigel Smith

'The Ambassador'

Known for a gonzo filmmaking style that earned him a jury prize at Sundance in 2010 for "The Red Chapel," Mads Brügger travels to central Africa disguised as an ambassador on a diplomatic mission. But in fact Brügger, strapped with hidden cameras, is in...

Nashville, Tenn. -- Anyone who ever doubted the transformative power of Bob Dylan's music need only look to Ke$ha.

Yes, Ke$ha.

The irreverent pop star known for singing about brushing her teeth with "a bottle of Jack" turns poignant while covering a song from one of music's great lyricists on the new four-disc "Chimes of Freedom: The Songs of Bob Dylan Honoring 50 Years of Amnesty International." The project features 75 newly recorded Dylan songs by 80 artists, including Adele, Sting, Sugarland, Elvis Costello, hip-hop artist K'naan and others to support the human rights organization.

Ke$ha is one of the more unlikely stars to contribute to the compilation, released Tuesday. The pop star defined by party anthems like "Tik Tok" and "Your Love Is My Drug" took on Dylan's "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright." As she found herself alone in her bedroom for the first time in months, the...

By Zachary Swickey

We’re not even a full month into 2012 and one of our favorite female voices in music, Norah Jones, has plenty for us to look forward to. Just a few weeks ago, Jones released the second album behind her side-project The Little Willies – a group that focuses on covers from Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson and Dolly Parton – and now Billboard is reporting that super-producer Danger Mouse will take production duties on her upcoming fifth album, Little Broken Hearts, due for release as early as this spring.

Jones first teamed up with Mouse (aka Brian Burton), who is one of our favorite producers around, for his side-project, "Rome" – a unique collaboration with Italian composer Daniele Luppi, which was inspired by old spaghetti western soundtracks and boasted Jones and renaissance man Jack White as the voices behind the project.

It’s also worth mentioning that Burton can arguably be...

We just got a look at a crazy new Afm marketed teaser trailer for the Wetwork Media/Pinnovating Productions/Zeroinside Films production of the upcoming film American Girls, directed by Eric Anthony Pereira. And let's put it this way: I've never been more disturbed by a video of two chicks crawling all over each other!

Based on a chilling true story, the film (and trailer) stars Kristina Page (A Lure: Teen Fight Club, Aqua Caliente) and Devanny Pinn (Song of the Shattered, Piranha 3D). Other cast members that have signed on include Burgandi Phoenix, Josh Hammond (Jeepers Creepers II), Chris Anglin (A Christmas Carol), professional wrestler Al Snow (we believe Snow will be appearing sans head), Jessica Cameron (The Dead Matter), Kyle Morris (Night of the Living Dead: 3D), Barry Ratcliffe (The Witches of Oz), Tawny Amber Young (Bloody Wedding), Brandon Slagle (2012: Ice Age), Heidi Martinuzzi (Amateur Porn Star...