After connecting through Instagram earlier this month, Grimes confirmed earlier this week that she’ll be working with K-pop girl group Loona on an upcoming single, “Love4eva” according to Billboard.com.

On Sunday, the Canadian artist tweeted that she’ll be lending her “dark chaos magic” to Loona’s next track. The group had previously teased the song, on social media, and announced it officially on May 19.
“Grimes, You are Loona’s goddess!” the group wrote on Twitter in response to Grimes’ tweet. “It’s an honor to work with you.”

Grimes, You are LOOΠΔ’s goddess! It’s an honor to work with you! https://twitter.com/Grimezsz/status/997959081917693952 …
11:02 AM – May 20, 2018

“Love4eva” will appear on Loona yyxy’s Beauty & The Beat EP, which will be released on May 30. It notably was co-written by songwriting team E-Tribe, best known for Girls’ Generation’s breakout 2009 hit “Gee.”

Grimes and Loona connected after the girl group DM-ed the soloist on Instagram; they asked Grimes to check her direct messages on an image she posted teasingupcoming music with Poppy.

The new song will feature Loona’s yyxy unit, featuring members Chuu, Yves, Go Won, and Olivia Hye. It is the last sub-group ahead of the girl group’s impending formal debut as a 12-member act; since 2016, the act has released multiple singles and albums from members of its group in one of the longest lead-ups to a first album that the K-pop world has ever seen.
“Love4eva” is the 17th single from the girl group, following solo tracks introducing each of the dozen singers as well as a handful of songs performed by groups of three or four members each. yyxy is the third unit, following ⅓ and Odd Eye Circle. The latter’s EP Mix & Match peaked at No. 10 on the World Albums chart last year.

https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/pop/8457769/grimes-loona-unit-yyxy-love4eva

NBC has tapped the 1960s musical “Hair” as its next live broadcast. The project from producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron is slated for a spring 2019 airing, according to Playbill.com.

The musical, featuring music by Galt MacDermot and a book and lyrics by Gerome Ragni and James Rado, premiered in 1967 at Off-Broadway’s Public Theater before a Broadway transfer the following year. The 2009 revival, starring Gavin Creel, Will Swenson, and Caissie Levy, went on to win the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical. The national tour of the production played a limited Broadway engagement in 2011.

The show follows a tribe of young, free-spirited hippies in New York, who resist authority and the looming Vietnam War through a Be-In and draft card burning. The funk/rock score includes such musical theatre standards as “Aquarius,” “Good Morning Starshine,” and “The Flesh Failures (Let the Sunshine In).”

“When we both, individually, saw Hair on Broadway, we were knocked out by how musical theatre could be stretched into something so daring, immersive, and audacious,” said Zadan and Meron in a joint statement. “Its recent Broadway revival showed how timeless the show is and that it’s relevant to any era. Hair is filled with heartfelt emotion, joy, and thrilling music, and it really will be the new dawning of the Age of Aquarius.”

http://www.playbill.com/article/nbc-will-present-live-hair-broadcast-in-2019

CMA Fest has announced more than 100 additional performances throughout Downtown Nashville Thursday through Sunday, June 7-10.

Xfinity Fan Fair X is back and more exciting than ever featuring three stages packed with artist performances, panels and meet and greets, in addition to music and lifestyle exhibits, prize giveaways and the Marketplace taking place daily from 9:30 AM-5:00 PM inside Music City Center. The HGTV Lodge returns for a seventh year, hosting performances with Country Music favorites and appearances from HGTV stars. Newly added to the Nissan Stadium stage, Jake Owen will perform on Friday night and Cole Swindell will perform on Sunday night.

The fan-favorite Radio Disney Country Stage returns to Xfinity Fan Fair X, where attendees can catch some of today’s hottest stars and up-and-coming artists. Scheduled performances and appearances include Jimmie Allen, Abby Anderson, Cam, Jillian Cardarelli, CB30, Jordan Davis, Devin Dawson, Russell Dickerson, Cale Dodds, Lindsay Ell, Emily Hackett, Adam Hambrick, Trent Harmon, Walker Hayes, Jillian Jacqueline, Caroline Jones, Madison Kozak, LANCO, Maddie & Tae, Tegan Marie, Jaden Michaels, Cassadee Pope, Stephanie Quayle, RaeLynn, Noah Schnacky, Kalie Shorr, Christina Taylor and Rachel Wammack. Marie, Hayley Orrantia and Shorr join Radio Disney Country personality Betsy Spina to share hosting duties throughout the weekend.

Discover your new favorite Country artist this year at the Spotlight Stage, an addition to Xfinity Fan Fair X. The Spotlight Stage showcases a wide variety of more than 50 emerging acts performing acoustic sets and hosting meet and greets. Scheduled artists include 2Steel Girls, 8 Ball Aitken, American Young, Paul Bogart, Haley Mae Campbell, Cort Carpenter, Caryn Lee Carter, CERRITO, Jessie Chris, Chas Collins, Dustin Collins, Nora Collins, Crystal Day, Joe Denim, Dixie Jade, James Dupré, Tim Elliott, EmiSunshine, Farewell Angelina, Folk Soul Revival, Kenny Foster, Gal Friday, Josh Gallagher, Lee Gantt, Harper Grae, Kristi Hoopes, Jason Morton & The Chesapeake Sons, Meghan Kabir, Kyle Dillingham & Horseshoe Road, Kelsey Lamb, Olivia Lane, Cherish Lee, Jenny Leigh, Lucy Angel, Elizabeth Lyons, Red Marlow, Bobby Marquez, Jackson Michelson, Kylie Morgan, Marta Olejarz, Shane Owens, Presley & Taylor, Jesse Rice, Matt Rogers, Southern Halo, Summer Brooke & The Mountain Faith Band, Glen Templeton, The Lovers, The Springs, The Wandering Hearts, The Young Fables and Karen Waldrup.

Announced last week, the CMA Close Up Stage is one of the most anticipated experiences inside Xfinity Fan Fair X, featuring Artist of the Day sessions with Country Music stars Kelsea Ballerini (June 10), Dierks Bentley (June 7), Luke Bryan (June 8) and Dustin Lynch (June 9).

In addition, the Xfinity Zone will feature appearances by Chase Bryant, Easton Corbin, Lindsay Ell, Lucas Hoge, Jerrod Niemann, Stephanie Quayle, Dylan Scott, Temecula Road, Aaron Watson and Drake White.
The HGTV Lodge at Fan Alley offers festival-goers the Ultimate Country Music Fan Experience™, with performances by Lauren Alaina, Carlton Anderson, Lee Brice, Cam, Luke Combs, Jordan Davis, Chris DeStefano, Lindsay Ell, Morgan Evans, Walker Hayes, Ryan Hurd, Jillian Jacqueline, LANCO, Chris Lane, LOCASH, Dustin Lynch, Maddie & Tae, Ashley McBryde, Kip Moore, Jon Pardi, Eric Paslay, Cassadee Pope, Michael Ray, Mitchell Tenpenny, Tenille Townes, The Cadillac Three, Rachel Wammack, Lee Ann Womack and Trisha Yearwood as well as special appearances by HGTV “Property Brothers” stars Jonathan and Drew Scott.

Great American Country’s Suzanne Alexander will emcee during the four-day event.

For a chance to win access to the HGTV Lodge, fans must enter the Ultimate Fan Experiences Drawing at CMAfest.com/FanAccess.

Chris Stapleton will open his own pop-up shop during this year’s CMA Fest, according to wncy.com.

The Stapleton store will be located in the venue known as ” The George Jones ” on 2nd Avenue North in downtown Nashville. It’ll be open from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. CT June 7-10, and feature exclusive merchandise, including custom Louisville Slugger bats. wncy.com

The “Broken Halos” hitmaker kicks off a busy CMA Fest with an appearance on the CMT Music Awards on Wednesday, June 6, followed by a set at Marty Stuart ‘s Late Night Jam at the historic Ryman Auditorium.

Stapleton plays the main stage at Music City’s Nissan Stadium on Saturday night.
http://wncy.com/news/articles/2018/may/23/shop-with-stapleton-at-this-years-cma-fest/

Dave Matthews Band have released the second single from their forthcoming ninth studio album Come Tomorrow.

“That Girl is You” finds Dave doing something like his best Al Green impression, delivering a falsetto love letter over a simple and slowly building groove. It follows first single “Samurai Cop (Oh Joy Begin),” released earlier this month. Come Tomorrow is due out on June 8, according to Billboard.com.

Listen to “That Girl is You” at:https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/rock/8457885/dave-matthews-band-release-that-girl-is-you-single-listen

Today, Resonance Records will release three concert recordings of the guitarist Grant Green that had been buried in archives for more than forty years, according to the newyorker.com.

The first two are on the two-disk set “Funk in France: From Paris to Antibes (1969-1970),” and come from France’s audiovisual archive; the third, “Slick!—Live at Oil Can Harry’s,” was recorded in Vancouver, in 1975, by a Canadian radio station; and both albums offer revelatory delights.

Green (who was born in 1935 and died in 1979) recorded copiously from 1961 to 1971, mostly on the Blue Note label, both as a leader and as a sideman, and his musical range was wide. He said that he learned to play guitar by listening to and playing along with the records of the pioneering bebop saxophonist Charlie Parker, and, though Green often played blues-based music, accompanied by an electric-organist, he was most celebrated for his forward-reaching performances alongside leading post-bop modernists of the day (such as Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner, and Joe Henderson).

Though Green played with some of the most advanced musicians of the sixties (including the drummer Elvin Jones, the saxophonist Sam Rivers, and the organist Larry Young, he stayed consistent with the forms of late bebop, without pushing toward the avant-garde as they often did. That’s no knock on Green, but it does mark the difference between his consistent and incremental approach to his bands’ new modes of raising an electrical racket and that of Davis, whose multi-keyboard and multi-guitar amplified bands of the late sixties and early seventies build sheer volume and dense textures into an orchestral frenzy that Davis’s own shrieking and splintered improvisations matched head-on. Green, by contrast, doesn’t quite find the same liberation in his newly clamorous context. He shows, here, just how far he—and his style—could go.

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/get-ready-for-some-new-revelatory-recordings-of-the-jazz-guitarist-grant-green

Little Steve and the Disciples of Soul have released “Soulfire Live!”, a 24-track collection that the band describes as “an epic electrifying journey through rock m’ roll history.” The release comes as the band begins a tour to benefit TeachRock, a middle and high school curriculum that brings music into all studies.

A few years ago, when music classes were starting to be aggressively cut in the schools, NafME (the National Association for Music Education, which was called MENC at the time) asked Van Zandt to go to Congress to help fight for the programs. He went, but had little success.

So, he went back to teachers and said although there is not going to be an instrument in every kid’s hands right now, he would create a cross curriculum to teach kids about music. “We can do a history class, a music class , an English class. They endorsed that idea,” Van Zandt said. TeachRock was created.

Now, about a decade later, Van Zandt says he has about 120 lessons available. Lessons include music starting back in the early 20th century. Van Zandt’s Rock and Roll Forever Foundation is currently hosting workshops before each concert to show teachers how to implement music education and TeachRock into their curriculum.

If this sounds good to you, and you would like more information, have your teachers go to TeachRock.org.

In the meantime, check out “Soulfire Live!”. It’s available now at all digital music retailers and streaming services. However, coming soon will be a 3-CD set as well as Blu-ray and vinyl editions. All will have different extras. The release is also an epic journey through rock n’ roll history. Among the album’s highlights are songs like Van Zandt’s “Standing In The Line Of Fire” and “I Don’t Want To Go Home” as well as covers such as The Electric Flag’s “Groovin’ Is Easy” and Etta James’ “Blues Is My Business.”

For tour dates go, to http://www.littlesteven.com/