January 2005

Classic rock trio Cream is reuniting for a four-show run at London’s Royal Albert Hall this spring. The May 2-3, 5-6 shows will constitute guitarist Eric Clapton, bassist Jack Bruce and drummer Ginger Baker’s first on-stage appearances together since Cream’s 1993 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Tickets for the run will go on sale Monday (Jan. 31). Cream’s final shows were held at Albert Hall in 1968.

“Live, Cream was a great, hardworking band — Eric was supreme and Ginger the most musical drummer alive — and those original live albums were very good, probably the best records of their kind up to that point,” Bruce told Billboard in 1997, prior to the release of the boxed set “Those Were the Days.” “But our studio recordings were probably more important, although there you can tell that each one of us had a different idea of what Cream should be.”

Clapton is up for two Grammys at the 47th annual ceremony on Feb. 13: best traditional blues album for his Duck/Reprise set “Me and Mr. Johnson,” and best pop collaboration with vocals for his rendition of the Beatles’ “Something” with Paul McCartney, released on the live album “Concert for George.”

Source billboard.com.

Sir Paul McCartney will take advantage of media focus surrounding his halftime performance at Super Bowl XXXIX on Feb. 6 to announce his upcoming tour of North America, sources tell Billboard.com. The Beatles legend will play 38 North American cities beginning Sept. 16 in Miami and running until the end of November.

Tickets are expected to go on sale the last week in February. McCartney last visited North American in 2002 as part of a world tour that grossed more than $126 million and drew nearly one million fans.

McCartney is working on a new album for Capitol but no timetable has been set for its release. As previously reported, the artist has collaborated with producer Nigel Godrich (Beck, Radiohead) and multi-instrumentalist Jason Falkner on the set, which will be his first studio album since 2001’s “Driving Rain.”

The touring landscape will be relatively crowded with superstars this fall, as U2 will be on the second U.S. leg of its Vertigo tour, and the Rolling Stones also are believed to have an outing in the works.

Source billboard.com.

This year’s top Grammy Awards nominee is planning to show his skills in a monumental way during next month’s 47th annual ceremony. Kanye West, who is up for a leading 10 honors, including best new artist, will stage a performance incorporating the talents of R&B legend Mavis Staples, celebrated vocal group Blind Boys Of Alabama and R&B newcomer John Legend.

Staples is among the Recording Academy’s 2005 Lifetime Achievement Award honorees, while the Blind Boys are nominated with Ben Harper for “There Will Be a Light” (Virgin) in the best traditional soul gospel album category. The set’s title track is up for best gospel performance.

The Feb. 13 show at Los Angeles’ Staples Center will also feature a tribute to the late Ray Charles by contemporary blueswoman Bonnie Raitt and storied soul artist Billy Preston.

Another newly planned performance is a landmark Southern rock jam featuring members of genre stalwart Lynyrd Skynyrd joined by former Allman Brothers Band guitarist Dickie Betts, Elvin Bishop and country artists Tim McGraw, Keith Urban and Gretchen Wilson.

They join previously announced performances by U2, McGraw, Alicia Keys and Green Day.

Norah Jones, Ludacris, Sugar Ray singer Mark McGrath and actor Gary Sinise have signed on as presenters for the show, which will be hosted by Queen Latifah and broadcast live on CBS.

Source billboard.com.

Wilco are offering free bonus tracks to people who have purchased their A Ghost Is Born CD. On March 7th, Ghost outtakes “Panthers” and “Kicking Television,” along with live versions of “Handshake Drugs,” “The Late Greats” and “At Least That’s What You Said,” will be available for download at wilcoworld.net. Visitors must insert a copy of the CD into their computers to gain access to the downloads.
The following day, the band will release a double-LP vinyl edition of A Ghost Is Born, featuring new art work and album cover, as well as a limited-edition vinyl version of 2002’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.

Wilco will be touring the U.S. through February before heading to Europe in March.

Wilco U.S. tour dates:

2/8: Champaign, IL, Foellinger Auditorium
2/9: Columbus, OH, Wexner Center
2/11: Cincinnati, Taft Theater
2/12: Memphis, Orpheum Theater
2/13: Birmingham, Alabama Theater
2/15: Orlando, House of Blues
2/16: Tampa, Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center
2/17: Pompano Beach, FL, Pompano Beach Ampitheater
2/18: Savannah, GA, Savannah College of Art and Design
2/19: Myrtle Beach, SC, House of Blues
2/21: Charlotte, Ovens Auditorium
2/23-24: Washington DC, 9:30 Club
2/25: Cleveland, House of Blues
2/26: Kalamazoo, MI, State Theater

Source rollingstone.com.

Guitar slinger Charlie Sexton will release his first solo album in 10 years in July as the first fruit of a multi-album deal with Narada’s Back Porch Records. Described as “contemplative and gritty” by the label, the set will be supported by an extensive tour. Sexton plans to debut material from the set in March during the South by Southwest music conference in his hometown, Austin, Texas.

Often described as a musical prodigy, Sexton was just 16 years old when MCA released his debut album, 1985’s “Pictures for Pleasure,” and scored a hit with the single “Beat’s So Lonely,” which reached No. 17 on Billboard’s Hot 100. A self-titled solo set followed in 1989, as did a mid-’90s stint in the Arc Angels and a turn as leader of the Charlie Sexton Sextet.

He’s also become an in-demand guitarist, playing with the likes of Bob Dylan, Don Henley, Ron Wood, Lucinda Williams, Edie Brickell and Double Trouble.

Source billboard.com.

Rock legend Neil Young will give a rare awards show performance at Canada’s Juno Awards, to be held April 3 at the MTS Center in Winnipeg. Young was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1982 and has earned three Juno awards during his nearly 40-year career.

Also set to appear perform is 2005 Canadian Music Hall of Fame inductees the Tragically Hip. Nominations will be announced Feb. 7 for the Junos, which will air live nationwide on the CTV network.

In related news, Young has recently logged time at Shangri-La Studios in Los Angeles. A spokesperson had no details on the nature of the sessions, which are thought to be yielding Young’s follow-up to the 2003 Reprise album “Greendale.”

Source billboard.com.

Since the release of 2001’s “Rockin’ the Suburbs,” Ben Folds has toured various parts of the world time and time again, collaborated extensively with William Shatner, released a live album and a trio of EPs and recorded nearly all of a new studio album twice. The fruit of the latter endeavor will emerge as “Songs for Silverman” April 26 via Epic.

After finishing nine songs in early 2004, presumably in the studio he built in his adopted home of Adelaide, Australia, Folds re-recorded most of those cuts plus two more in a six-week fall session at a historic Nashville studio. In the same rooms once used by Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley and Carl Perkins, Folds returned to the trio setup with which he first found fame as leader of Ben Folds Five, pairing himself with bassist Jared Reynolds (Allison Moorer, Shatner) and drummer Lindsay Jamieson (Departure Lounge, Butterfly Boucher).

Here is the “Songs for Silverman” track list:

“Bastard”
“You To Thanks”
“Jesusland”
“Landed”
“Gracie”
“Trusted”
“Give Judy My Notice”
“Late”
“Sentimental Guy”
“Time”
“Prison Food”

Source billboard.com.