2004

Bruce Hornsby’s upcoming Columbia album “Halcyon Days” features a number of high-profile guest performers, including Eric Clapton, Sting and Elton John. Clapton contributes guitar to three songs on the album, due Aug. 10, and vocals to the track “Candy Mountain Run.” Sting duets with Hornsby on opener “Gonna Be Some Changes Made,” while John joins the artist on the song “Dreamland.”

“Halcyon Days” finds Hornsby backed by his regular band, bassist J.V. Collier, drummer Sonny Emory, multi-instrumentalist Bobby Read, guitarist Doug Derryberry and organist John “JT” Thomas. Also guesting on the set is the artist’s brother, guitarist RS “Bobby” Hornsby.

“Halcyon Days” is Hornsby’s first album for Columbia, following a career spent on RCA. His last release, 2002’s “Big Swing Face,” debuted at No. 22 on Billboard’s Top Internet Album Sales chart. Its electronic beats and looped samples marked a departure from the jazz-inflected adult contemporary music for which he’s known.

A national U.S. viewing audience saw guitarist Pat Metheny join Hornsby Sunday night in Indianapolis for a performance of the National Anthem prior to game five of the National Basketball Association’s Eastern Conference Finals. The game was broadcast live on cable sports channel ESPN.

Hornsby has a U.S. summer tour on the books that will kick off in advance of the new album. The run gets underway July 14 in Saratoga, Calif., and will close Aug. 27 in Memphis. A European tour is slated to kick off Sept. 10 in Dublin. For the full list of dates, visit Hornsby’s official Web site.

Here is the “Halcyon Days” track list:

“Gonna Be Some Changes Made”
“Candy Mountain Run”
“Dreamland”
“Circus on the Moon”
“Halcyon Days”
“What the Hell Happened”
“Hooray for Tom”
“Heir Gordon”
“Mirror on the Wall”
“Song F”
“Lost in the Snow”

Source billboard.com.

Fans of progressive Americana have reason to rejoice: Bela Fleck & The Flecktones are coming through this summer on the Acoustic Planet Tour, featuring friends Keller Williams and Yonder Mountain String Band on almost all dates.

The tour kicks off August 5 at Interlochen, Mich.’s Kresge Auditorium. They’ll play amphitheatres across the eastern half of the U.S. for just over a month, finishing up September 5 in Myrtle Beach, S.C., at the House of Blues.

Bela Fleck & The Flecktones will precede the tour with dates of their own in June and July, including Colorado’s Telluride Bluegrass Festival and the Playboy Jazz Festival in Hollywood, Calif.

Telluride will also feature Yonder Mountain String Band, who have a busy early summer schedule of their own. Keller Williams is no exception, with a host of solo dates and festival appearances in addition to an opening stint for Dave Matthews in late June.

Source pollstar.com.

L.A. rock veterans gone solo Grant Lee Phillips and John Doe are teaming up for a tour of the eastern U.S. this June.

Phillips, who spent the bulk of the ’90s fronting the critically acclaimed Grant Lee Buffalo, is supporting his new release, Virginia Creeper.

Doe has been doing solo work for more than a dozen years now, along with occasional reunions with X, the seminal punk band he co-founded in the late ’70s. His most recent album is Dim Stars, Bright Sky.

The two troubadours will hit the highway June 2, when they play Headliners in Louisville, Ky. They’ll move on to Nashville, New York City, Boston and other hot spots throughout the East Coast and Midwest before wrapping in Chicago June 17.

Immediately following the tour, Doe will hook up with original X bandmates Exene Cervenka, D.J. Bonebrake, and Billy Zoom for two shows at Anaheim’s House of Blues June 18-19.

Source pollstar.com.

Woodstock, Monterey Pop, Altamont and Isle of Wight are famous music festivals of the late ’60s/early ’70s that have been immortalized on film. But the new documentary “Festival Express” may rank among fans and critics as one of the era’s “must see” concert films.

The documentary focuses on an overlooked event in rock history: the five-day, cross-country festival tour of Canada in 1970, where acts including Janis Joplin, the Grateful Dead, the Band and Buddy Guy traveled together on a train called the Festival Express.

THINKFilm will release “Festival Express” in select U.S. theaters this summer. The movie opens July 23 in San Francisco and July 30 in New York and Los Angeles. It will have a rollout in other cities in August.

“This just may be the last great rock’n’roll movie of that time,” says documentary director Bob Smeaton, who has won two Grammy Awards for directing such longform music videos as “The Beatles Anthology” and “Live at Fillmore East” from Jimi Hendrix’s Band Of Gypsys.

Footage of “Festival Express,” originally shot by Peter Bizou, had been stored in the Canadian National Archives for nearly 25 years. It then took almost 10 years for the project to be completed for theatrical release. “It was truly a labor of love,” says Gavin Poolman, who produced the movie with John Trapman.

When Smeaton came on board for the project, he had to comb through about 40 hours of raw footage, much of which had to be “cleaned up” through digital transfers and audio restoration. “It took about nine months to get the performances’ sound and pictures to match,” Smeaton tells Billboard.

Joplin is undoubtedly the highlight of the film, with electrifying performances of “Cry Baby” and “Tell Mama” that underscore her legendary status. The movie documents the problems the tour encountered when protesters demanded free admission for concertgoers. It also captures the camaraderie that existed among the musicians as they socialized and performed together on the train. The Dead even wrote a song about the experience, “Might As Well.”

The film includes commentary from the festival’s participants, who offer their perspectives on the event. The Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir, Mickey Hart and Phil Lesh; Guy; and festival co-promoter Ken Walker are among those interviewed.

Poolman theorizes why the tour remained in the shadows of the Woodstock and Monterey Pop festivals. “At the time, the Festival Express tour was not considered a success. It lost money, and the venues weren’t that full. But the musicians involved remembered it as a phenomenal event.”

Source billboard.com.

After a long break, activity is slowly brewing in the Pearl Jam camp. The group’s official Web site hints at a handful of future releases and live performances by the fall. “There could be some shows — maybe acoustic, maybe not, a possible CD of some sort, and it’s possible the band may head back to the studio towards the end of the year to begin work on their eighth album,” the site says.

“As far as new music from side projects goes, some releases are possible but not definite,” the post continues, referring to such affiliated acts as Brad and the Rockfords. In addition, frontman Eddie Vedder is confirmed to appear on former Pearl Jam drummer Jack Irons’ upcoming solo album, but will not make a rumored guest spot on the Who’s in-progress studio release.

The prospective fall shows may be held in swing states in the run-up toward the U.S. presidential election. And while Pearl Jam actively campaigned for Ralph Nader in the 2000 election, the site says the group will not play any fundraisers on his behalf this year.

Bassist Jeff Ament and guitarist Stone Gossard will be seen in the upcoming documentary “Malfunksun: The Andrew Wood Story,” which chronicles the life of the late Mother Love Bone vocalist. Former Soundgarden members Chris Cornell and Kim Thayil have also participated in the film.

Finally, the site confirms that Sony Music is working on a Pearl Jam greatest hits album, with details to be announced. The band exited Sony’s Epic Records last year after spending its entire career on the label. Pearl Jam says it is “still leaving options open” for a new record deal.

Source billboard.com.

The late Bob Marley’s sons Ziggy, Stephen, Julian and Damian will team this summer for the first Bob Marley Roots Rock Reggae Festival. The trek begins Aug. 7 in Portsmouth, Va., and will wrap Aug. 29 in Berkeley, Calif. Other artists confirmed to perform are Toots & the Maytals, Common, Slightly Stoopid and Looner.

Roots Rock Reggae marks the first time the Marley family is collaborating on a national tour that is this extensive. Stops on the trek include an Aug. 10 appearance at Celebrate Brooklyn in the borough’s Prospect Park, an Aug. 22 show at Red Rocks outside Denver and an Aug. 28 gig at San Diego’s annual Street Scene festival.

A number of the headliners are supporting new albums. Stephen is scheduled to release a solo effort on Motown this fall. Ziggy is touring in support of 2003’s “Dragonfly” on Private Music/Arista, while Julian rolled out “Time & Place” in November 2003 on Ghetto Youths/Tuff Gong Records.

Common has recently collaborated with hot producer Kanye West on his next set, the follow-up to 2002’s “Electric Circus.” Toots & the Maytals just released their newest album, “True Love,” via V2.

Here are the Roots Rock Reggae dates:

Aug. 7: Portsmouth, Va. (nTelos Pavilion Harbor Center)
Aug. 8: Vienna, Va. (Wolf Trap)
Aug. 10: Brooklyn, N.Y. (Celebrate Brooklyn)
Aug. 12: Boston (Fleet Boston Pavilion)
Aug. 13: Trenton, N.J. (Sovereign Bank Arena)
Aug. 14: Wilmington, Del. (Tubman-Garrett Park)
Aug. 15: Pittsfield, Mass. (Berkshire Music Glen)
Aug. 17: Cleveland (Tower City Amphitheatre)
Aug. 18: Rochester Hills, Mich. (Meadowbrook Music Festival)
Aug. 20: Chicago (The Chill on Kingsbury Street)
Aug. 21: Riverside, Mo. (E.H. Young Riverfront Park)
Aug. 22: Morrison, Colo. (Red Rocks Amphitheater)
Aug. 24: Albuquerque, N.M. (Journal Pavilion)
Aug. 26: Mesa, Ariz. (Mesa Amphitheatre)
Aug. 27: Los Angeles (Greek Theatre)
Aug. 28: San Diego (San Diego Street Scene)
Aug. 29: Berkeley, Calif. (Greek Theatre)

Source billboard.com.