COUNTRY

TYRA MADISON ‘PLEAD THE 5TH’

Country artist Tyra Madison has released her new single, “Plead The 5th.” The track is now available for streaming on all major platforms, allowing fans to experience Tyra’s vocals and storytelling abilities firsthand.

“Plead The 5th” highlights Tyra’s storytelling prowess as she portrays the role of a mistreated significant other who endured the lasting impact of a tumultuous relationship spanning three years. When confronted by the police about her husband’s whereabouts, Tyra skillfully exercises her right to remain silent, indicating her full awareness of the events surrounding his disappearance, or more accurately, the actions she took.“Plead The 5th” Tyra’s most recent single, “Right Girl Wrong Time,” has amassed millions of streams, further solidifying her rising star status. The music video for the song premiered exclusively on CMT.com, providing fans with an immersive visual experience.

Alt Country Renegade Dale Watson

Starvation Box begins with the captivating title track, which Watson co-wrote with CMA award-winning songwriter Mike Henderson, of Chris Stapleton’s “Broken Halos” fame. The song rides a bluesy 12-string guitar riff backed by a sparse rhythm track that gives ample room for Watson’s leathery baritone voice.

As Watson explains, “Living in Marshall, TX, the area so influential to Lead Belly, I went down the Lead Belly rabbit hole. It led me to a 1957 Stella 12-string guitar just like the one Lead Belly had, which his father called a ‘starvation box.’ I knew I had to write that song as an ode to Lead Belly. What I wrote was ok but with Mike Henderson’s additions and of course, his slide guitar and harmonica, I think we came up with a fitting tribute that I hope people like.

There’s plenty more bluesy, folk and roots rock in store on Starvation Box, the album, including an ode to Elvis Presley’s mechanic, “Billy Strawn,” a fantastic cover of Percy Mayfield’s “Like A Stranger In My Own Hometown,” and the superb closer, a gospel rave-up called “Ain’t Nobody Everybody Loved.”

Victoria Bailey

“FOREVER, YOU & I”

In Victoria Bailey’s songs, she carries us over an expansive emotional and musical terrain. We ride with her through the desolation of loss, over the rocky ledges of heartache, across the fields of blossoming wildflowers of new love, and along the plains of promise and newfound faith. Bailey’s vocals ring with an emotional purity that reverberates deeply. Like Emmylou Harris and Dolly Parton, Bailey dwells in her songs, drawing out every note of emotion with her vocal phrasing and musical range.

Bailey is joined on A Cowgirl Rides On by some of LA’s best musicians. “I’m really proud of the players on this album,” says Bailey. “It gave me a lot of confidence to be in the room with these guys. It showed a lot on the record; we only did a couple of takes on each song.” She heard guitarist Brian Whelan (Jim Lauderdale, Dwight Yoakam) perform on a Merle Haggard tribute, and says she was drawn to him. “He’s a great producer,” says Bailey. Other players include Ted Russell Kamp (Shooter Jennings, Tanya Tucker) on bass; Philip Glenn (Show Ponies, Jason Hawk Harris) on fiddle, mandolin, and banjo; Jeremy Long (Sam Outlaw) on pedal steel and Dobro; and Leeann Skoda on background vocals.

MAPS AND LEGENDS: THE STORY OF R.E.M.

Nottingham Press will release Maps and Legends: The Story of R.E.M. by John Hunter, the most comprehensive biography of R.E.M. yet published. Maps and Legends covers not just the band’s entire career, from Radio Free Europe to Collapse Into Now, but also delves deeply into the childhoods of each of the band members. It tells the story of each of the teenage bands one or more of the members played in before R.E.M.

To research Maps and Legends, Hunter pored through over a thousand original newspaper and magazine articles about R.E.M., and watched and listened to hundreds of video and audio interviews with the band. He also conducted new / original interviews with eyewitness sources and members of the band’s inner circle, ranging from high school classmates, bandmates, and friends of Peter Buck and Michael Stipe, to Hib-Tone Records founder Jonny Hibbert and the band’s catalyst Kathleen O’Brien, to Jeff Walls of Guadalcanal Diary and R.E.M. producer John Keane.

Maps and Legends, a whopping 706-page 6” x 9” trade paperback, is available at select retailers and online outlets.

The Pretenders Us Headline Tour

The Pretenders have announced a very special US headline tour, set to visit a series of intimate venues across the country beginning August 16 at New York City’s Bowery Ballroom and then continuing into early October. Limited tickets for all nine dates are on sale.

For complete details, please see thepretenders.com.

The atypical headline run heralds the eagerly awaited arrival of the Pretenders’ forthcoming new studio album, Relentless, arriving via Rhino Records on Friday, September 15. Pre-orders – including digital download, baby pink vinyl, black vinyl, and CD – are available now.

The Pretenders will further introduce Relentless by joining Guns N’ Roses as a special guest on their upcoming North American stadium tour at East Rutherford, NJ’s MetLife Stadium (August 15).

McCartney: A Life in Lyrics is a combination master class, memoir, and improvised journey with one of the most beloved figures in popular music, where each episode focuses on one song from McCartney’s iconic catalog – spanning early Beatles through his solo work.

The podcast offers listeners an unrivaled opportunity to sit in on conversations between McCartney and Muldoon where they dissect the people, experiences, and art that inspired McCartney’s songwriting. A Life in Lyrics will be released weekly starting September 20, 2023 on iHeartRadio, Apple, Spotify, and wherever podcasts are available. Pushkin+ subscribers will be able to binge the entire season on the very first day. McCartney: A Life in Lyrics will be distributed by iHeartPodcasts.

NEW PODCAST:MCCARTNEY: A LIFE IN LYRICS

Paul McCartney is teaming up once again with poet Paul Muldoon, his collaborator on the #1 bestseller The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present. This time, McCartney will invite listeners into his creative process with a new podcast coproduced by Pushkin Industries and iHeartPodcasts, out September 20, 2023.

BEASTIE BOYS 4LP EDITION OF ‘HELLO NASTY

Celebrating the 25th anniversary of Beastie Boys’ multi-platinum selling album ‘Hello Nasty,’ on September 8, 2023, UME will reissue the highly sought after and long out-of-print limited deluxe edition 4LP box set originally released as a limited run in 2009 featuring 21 bonus tracks including rarities, remixes, and b-sides. Pressed on 180g vinyl in an 8-panel gatefold package housed in a hardcover “coffee table book” slipcase with a removable sew-on patch, ‘Beastie Boys - Hello Nasty (4LP Deluxe Edition)’ is now available for pre-order at Beastie Boys’ official online store.

Preceded by the universal smash “Intergalactic,” Hello Nasty crashed into the #1 spots of charts worldwide upon its July 1998 release, with first week sales of nearly 700,000 in the U.S. alone. Buoyed by the launch of the 360 in the round tour, Hello Nasty would yield B Boys classics “Body Movin’,” “Three MCs and One DJ,” “Remote Control,” “Super Disco Breakin’” and more, win two Grammys, see the band presented with an MTV Video Vanguard lifetime achievement award, and ultimately sell some 7 million copies worldwide.

STEVE HACKETT ‘FOXTROT AT FIFTY + Legendary guitarist Steve Hackett presents his brand new live audio/ visual extravaganza, with the release of ‘Foxtrot at Fifty + Hackett Highlights: Live in Brighton’, set for release on the September 15th, 2023.

Filmed & recorded live on his 2022 UK tour, in the coastal city of Brighton, UK, this release documents Steve and his band celebrating the 50th anniversary of the much-loved Genesis album ‘Foxtrot’. Played in full, this album features fan favorites including ‘Watcher Of The Skies’ and ‘Supper’s Ready’. The show also features a set of Hackett solo material, including ‘The Devil’s Cathedral’ from his latest studio album ‘Surrender of Silence’, and the powerful ‘Ace of Wands’.

Shot by longtime collaborator Paul Green, you can now watch the band perform ‘Watcher of the Skies’ here: https://youtu.be/bFgdvFnAVX0

You can pre-order now here: https://stevehackett.lnk.to/ FoxtrotAtFiftyHackettHighlights-LiveInBrighton