The modest home in the Hudson Valley of New York State that members of The Band resided in while working with Bob Dylan in 60's, is available to rent.  $650 gets you a night in Big Pink, the house the Basement Tapes were recorded in and the abode The Band named their debut album for.  The 3 bedroom house in Saugerties, New York is owned by a couple that have avoided making modifications to it to preserve its connection with its famed early occupants.
CNN.com

It might surprise you to find out that the Rocker almost always seen wearing frumpy flannel shirts owns a waterfront estate in Hawaii worth $24 million.  Neil Young put the property on the market earlier this month.  Just 3 acres but sporting more than 800' of ocean front, the estate includes a 5 bedroom, 4 bath house, a pair of guest cottages, a greenhouse and a pool house. Located on a peninsula bookenede by two ocean bays, the very private setting is touted as one of the most desireable pieces of property on the Big Island of Hawaii.

HawaiiLife.com

MORE NEIL YOUNG INSIGHTS

A Donald Trump victory in the next US Presidential election could cause David Crosby to move to Canada, a country that's having its own issues with a maverick head of state.  Asked by a follower what he'd do if The Donald takes up residence in the White House, Crosby responded, 'Vancouver would start looking pretty good.'  Given Trump's tendency to pounce on anyone critical of him or prospects for the country under his leadership, a counter comment from him is almost inevitable.  Given Crosby's past, there's no shortage of bones for Trump to pick on.

Straight.com

MORE DAVID CROSBY INSIGHTS

A Friday night (8/28) private screening of Rock The Kasbah, the new movie featuring Billy Murray, Kate Hudson and Bruce Willis, was an intimate gathering of A-List attendees.  The stealth premier screening at the United Artists Theater in East Hampton, NY was hosted by Jimmy Buffett and his wife, Jane, and included Murray, Bruce Springsteen, former President Bill Clinton, and screenwriter Barry Levinson.  The post party at the Blue Parrot Bar & Grill added Paul McCartney, John Mellencamp and Jon Bon Jovi, Bruce Willis to the cluster of high profile attendees.  The film features Murray as a down on his luck Rock manager in a role written specifically for him by Mitch Glazer, the writer for Murray's character in Scrooged.

BostonHerald.com

Aerosmith's closing set at the 2014 Download Music Fest in Donington provided plenty of highlights.  Joe Perry recalled the night had a great level of energy on stage and in the crowd.  Steven Tyler said that performing at the festival left him '...howling at the moon' and adds that his band '...couldn't have had a better time on stage that night.' Aerosmith Rocks Donington gets released on Blu-ray and DVD September 4th.  Here's a preview.

HenneMusic.com

Word that Axl Rose and Slash have decided it was time for a cease fire between the former Guns N' Roses band mates (story) has already triggered a bunch of reunion rumors about the group.  The band's lone guitarist after DJ Ashba and Bumblefoot parted ways with the group last month did not not dismiss the possibility. Richard Fortus said during an interview with a St. Louis radio station that next year would be a 'big year' for the goup, and alluded to the band adding another guitarist.  An Australian concert promoter claims an industry insider Down Under is saying Slash may not be the only one in line to rejoin the band, suggesting that ohter original band members could also re-up.

ConsequenceOfSound.com

MORE GUNS N' ROSES INSIGHTS

Work on the new Def Leppard album is nearly complete.  Speaking with the Grand Forks Herald, Joe Elliott revealed that the 14 song album contains tracks that reflect different musical influences on group members throughout their lifetimes, making the album the most musically diverse record yet.  Elliott said fans can expect to hear things that remind them of Led Zeppelin, Queen, AC/DC and even Crosby, Stills and Nash. 'We have not shied away from anything that's influenced us in our growing up periods of our life.  Just because we've made the kind of music we've made doesn't mean we don't like all of this other stuff.'  Rest assured he also says there are tracks that sound more like Def Leppard. 
HenneMusic.com

MORE DEF LEPPARD INSIGHTS

Friday (8/28) Experience Hendrix LLC and Legacy recordings will release six never previously available Jimi Hendrix performances from the July, 1970 Atlanta Pop Festival.  The concert actually took place nearly 100 miles south of Atlanta in a field near Byron, Georgia and featured a lineup that included Hendrix, Bob Seger, the Allman Brothers Band, BB King and more than two dozen other acts.  The collection contains 16 tracks from Hendrix recorded on Huly 4th, including ones previously available and showcased in the Showtime Special Jimi Hendrix: Electric Church, a documentary about the festival and the set the Experience did during it that the channel will debut September 4 at 9pm (Eastern).

BraveWords.com

Scorpions, a band that planned to disband not long ago, has decided to continue making music and will make its September 12 date at the Barclays Center in New York one that fans worldwide can stream live.  The Yahoo feed from the Brooklyn arena will be available through a screen app and be viewable through this link.  The Return To Forever album gets its release on September 11.  The Scorpions & Queensryche tour includes 16 stops, starting the night before the New York date in Boston and wrapping up in Queensryche's home base of Seattle on October 9.
AntiMusic.com

Iron Maiden is gearing-up for an extensive world tour with Bruce Dickinson at the controls of the leased 747 that will fly his group around the US starting in late February before Maiden heads to Central America, Mexico, South America, back to the States for additional dates in March of 2016, then on to Canada before heading tothe Far East, South Africa and Europe. Ed Force One is large enough to transport the band, crew and all of the staging andd equipment at nearly 850mph and with a non-stop range of 7,000 nautical miles.  Cities and dates included in the tour will be finalized and announced soon.The massive tour is being staged in support of the group's 16th studio album, The Book Of Souls, a double disc release due September 4.  

IronMaiden.com

Edun Apparel has been mired in losses since being formed in 2005 by U2 frontman Bono and his wife, Ali Hewson. The Man In Black and his wife are now reportedly more than £40 million in the red on the clothing venture after posting a loss of £3.4 million last year.  Despite the firms struggles, the pair remains determined to stand by their duds. A statement released by the directors maintains they are, '...confident the current business strategy will result in the development of a successful and sustainable brand.'  The label has attracted a high profile designer to take the lead role in pumping up the appeal of the clothing line that draws on artisans in Africa for its retail line.

Mirror.co.uk

MORE BONO INSIGHTS

You've heard of swine flu.  How about the swine that flew?  Algie, the inflatable pig that Pink Floyd commissioned so it could be photographed floating between the smokestacks of the Battersea Power Station for the cover of the Animals album, was about to be auctioned off but has been witdrawn from the lineup. Decommissioned in 1983, the plant served as a backdrop in the Beatles movie Help! and in the first Batman movie. More recently, it appeared on the big screen during the first Batman movie, The Dark Knight.  The famous power station itself is being transformed into luxury apartments with a complex of retail stores at the street level. 

The pig along with other Rock related props created by artist Rob Harries was going to be sold to make room in his studio following a transition of his own from working on inflatables to sculpting with clay.  Items that remain up for grabs include a giant, bronzed Babylonian woman used during a Rolling Stones tour and the enormous pig's head commissioned by Roger Waters for his Berlin Wall concert stage.  Algie broke loose after the photo for the album cover was taken and briefly disrupted flights at Heathrow airport before being recovered from a field in Kent.

BBC.com  Newsweek.com

MORE PINK FLOYD INSIGHTS

If George Lynch and Jeff Pilson end up on the same page, the lineup of Dokken that produced the hard Rockin' band's best material will get back together. Speaking with Glide, Lynch both played up and down the prospects, saaying, 'We're both incredibly busy so it's hard to find the time' , and adding, '...the project that's on the table right now is possibly a Dokken reunion, but of course that comes and goes every couple of years so who knows.'  If the Dokken deal doesn't get done, Lynch says that he and Pilson might work together in the future with Michael Sweet, vocalist of Stryper.
ClassicRockTeamRock.com

Bill Ward's prospects for being welcomed back for Black Sabbath's final concert appearancess are probably slim to none after the drummer vented on Eddie Trunk's podcast about his treatment by Ozzy Osbourne and called the group's reunion album without him,'...a pile of s%#t.  As for being left off the album and out of the lineup for tour dates, Ward said, 'I had to stop loving them, because if you're loving a dog as it's biting you and ripping your insides out, it's hard to love a dog that's doing that.'  Ward's ouster from the group reportedly came as a result of him objecting to the fact that Osbourne stood to make so much more money for participating than he would.  Ozzy claimed it was due to Ward's health.

MusicNews.com

MORE BLACK SABBATH INSIGHTS 

Axl Rose and Slash may ever get along well enough to stay in the same band, but the two GNR veterans are at least on speaking terms gain.  On Friday (8/21), A Swedish TV personality mentioned during an interview that they heard that Axl and his former guitarist were getting along again. Slash responded by saying, 'It was probably way overdue, you know. But it's, you know, very cool at this point', and added it was good to, '...dispel some of that negative stuff that was going on for so long.' But when asked whether the improved relationship could lead to a reunion for the pair in Guns N' Roses, Slash quickly insisted on a change of subject.

BraveWords.com

More than a year after ordering one, Sammy Hagar has his new Ferrari.  The Red Rocker told ABC 7 News in California that just sitting in the $1.3 million dollar 2015 LaFerrari is, 'intimidating'.  Expect the guy that Can't Drive 55 to find staying below the legal limit in it pretty tough too.  In a post on his web site, the Red Rocker calls the yellow rocket, '...much faster than I ever imagined' and says it '...sounds like a monster of some kind'.  His first 100 mile drive in the exotic car that Ferrari only produces 499 of in a decade drew more attention than he expected.  The 949 HP super car is custom made with a driver's seat that is molded for a form fit of each owner's body.
BraveWords.com

  Juan Carlos ABC 7

Uriah Heep has announced that Ken Hensley and Lee Kerslake will take the stage with the group for a one-off reunion on October 15 in Russia. Hensley parted ways with the Heep in 1980 and Kerslake left the group eight years ago. The group contends that it was the first Western band to ever perform live in Russia.

Uriah-Heep.com

The recording contract John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and then drummer Pete Best signed in 1961 is expected to attract a top bid of around $150,000 when Heritage Auctions puts it up for bids on September 19. The six page document was drawn up and entered into the year before Best was replace by Ringo Starr.

BBC.com

Bruce Hornsby says the experience of playing live with Trey Anastasio has him at the ready if the Phish guitarist is interested in working together in the future. Calling Anastasio a 'prime time' player while talking with the Wall Street Journal, Hornsby later indicated that the idea of an ongoing playing relationship involving the two of them is definitely something he is open to. As for the performances during the Dead Fare Thee Well dates were concerned, Hornsby gives the Core Four's additional players high marks for learning close to 90 songs in the weeks leading up to the concluding series of concerts.

JamBase.com

David Gilmour is on the verge of releasing a new solo album and is taking the opportunity while promoting Rattle That Lock to make it painfully apparent to Pink Floyd fans that he has no interest or intention to ever perform or record as a member of that band again. Speaking with the Daily Mail, the former Floyd guitarist said that 95% of his time in the band was artistically fulfilling and that any attempt to revive the group would require "fakery".

MORE DAVID GILMOUR INSIGHTS

Exiled drummer Phil Rudd maintains he could talk his way back into AC/DC if he could get just 5 minutes alone with Angus Young and Brian Johnson. Talking with Rolling Stone while serving his 8 months of house detention, Rudd said tge band is not up to par without him behind the drums.  He also says he's matured since his arrest and sentencing.

NME.com

No Country band Rocks more than the Zac Brown Band and Steven Tyler is promoting a Country album he released lately, so the Aerosmith front man appearing during the Zac Brown run of shows at Fenway Park was almost inevitable. It came during the fabled park's record setting third consecutive sold out concert when Tyler strutted out to sing Walk This Way and Sweet Emotion with the ZBB.

The 2011 arrest of David Gilmour's son on charges related to a tuition increase protest has turned out to be a great thing for some of his fellow inmates.  Charlie Gilmour was 21 when he was apprehended after scaling a war memorial statue during street protests over a tuition hike at his college.  He eventually served some jail time at Wandsworth Prison.  A behind bars choir known as the Liberty Choir exists in that lock-up and somw inmates graduate to the South London Choir after serving their time.  David Gilmour enlisted seven singers that were serving sentences while Charlie was incacerated to sing on the title track to Rattle That Lock, the album he releases September 18.  Commenting on why he decided to give them the opportunity, Gilmour told the BBC, 'We got to see how the system worked, and there's a lot wrong.  There are many initiatives, but this one, with the dual thing of doing it inside prison and on the outside as well, is a different step that we think is very good.'

ClassicRock.TeamRock.com

MORE DAVID GILMOUR INSIGHTS

Bill Wyman apparently has an issue over the plaque placed on a pillar on the train platform at Dartford station where Mick Jagger and Keith Richards first met.  The inscription reads, "Mick Jagger and Keith Richards met on platform 2 on 17 October 1961 and went on to for The Rolling Stones - one of the most successful bands of all time.'  Wyman's objection is evidently based on Mick & Keith being credited without mention of Ian Stewart, a complaint Jagger feels is ridiculous because the meeting is what the plaque commemorates and none of the other eventual members of the band were there that day. Asked for his take on the Wyman's objections by Esquire magazine, Richards said that when Jagger mentioned that Wyman was complaining about the inscription of the plaque said to Mick, 'A plaque, I though we had a statue'.  Richards says he believes Jagger sent the band's former bass player a note saying, "if a plaque went up in Penge (Wyman's home town) station that said you were the founding member of the Rolling Stones, do you think we'd complain?"

KentOnline.co.uk

MORE ROLLING STONES INSIGHTS

With ian Anderson's decision to carry on the Jethro Tull saga without the help of the musicians that made the group one of the most compelling live bands going, Martin Barre has turned his attention to exploring some of the JT material differently. The guitarist's last solo album consisted largely of Tull songs Barre liked that Anderson wasn't insterest in doing live anymore. His next, Barre's 6th solo release, will include new versions of the Jethro Tull songs Skating Away and Slow Marching Band. Back To Steel also features a version of the Beatles Eleanor Rigby.  Speaking with Classic Rock Magazine,Barre calld this release his '...most important work in my career' and work he wants '...to be the basis of everything I do from now on - my criteria were that it would work live in a powerful way and keep our identity as a blues-rock band' Look for the 15 song album on September 18.

ClassicRockTeamRock.com

With David Gilmour, Peter Gabriel and Keith Richards releasing albums in the coming months there is no shortage of potentially good material to listen forward too, but the one we find especially interesting is the Hollywood Vampires, a pick-up group brought together by Alice Cooper and Johnny Depp. The album this pair has put together to release on September 11th also features Dave Grohl, Slash, Paul McCartney, Brian Johnson of AC/DC and Perry Ferrell from Jane's Addiction. Among the tunes the Vampires will vamp on are Manic Depression by Jimi Hendrix, T-Rex's Jeepster, the Faces classic Itchycoo Park and John Lennon's Cold Turkey.
BostonGlobe.com

A half dozen or more times in the last three years, stories emerged that the Faces were going to get back together for at least one gig.  It appears that will finally happen in September.  Rod Stewart's camp is reportedly confirming that he will perform with Ronnie Wood and Kenny Jones at a benefit to raise money to fight prostate cancer.  Sadly, the reunion comes too late for keyboard player Ian McLagan.  Mac, who passed away last December, had worked the hardest to try to get the group together on the same stage.  Stewart's schedule or health were cited as reasons previous attempts at a reunion never came off.  Jones, who went on to replace Keith Moon in the Who after the Faces had disbanded, said his years with Stewart, McLagan and the late Ronnie Lane in the Faces were '...some of the best of my life' in expressing how much he is looking forward to the occasion, which Stewart referred to as 'a jam'.
Pitchfork.Com

MORE FACES INSIGHTS

John Fogerty has signed-on to mentor contestants on NBC's The Voice.

Gregg Allman says he's open to the idea of sharing the stage with Dickey Betts.

Phil Rudd, already charged with violating terms of his house detention, may face an additional count for allegedly boozing it up.  An alcohol ban was also imposed on him when he was found guilty on the original charges of drug possession and threatening to kill an associate.

The Latin infused album Billy Gibbons has been working on (story) now has a title and a release date.  Perfectamundo will come out October 23.  The self-produced album features the ZZ Top guitarist collaborating with top notch Latin music figures Gibbons has long admired.  Gibbons, Argentinian keyboard player Martin Guigui, bass player and vocalist Alex Garza and drummer Greg Morrow form the core of the BFG's. Billy plays some bass, piano, Hammond B3 organ and adds an assortment of percussion to the release.

HenneMusic.com

MORE BILLY GIBBONS INSIGHTS

The last tour by the Who was the first one that Pete Townshend had no say in.  Having total creative control and sole authority over the band were the conditions Roger Daltrey countered with when Townshend imposed one of his own; that he would only do a tour to perform Quadrophenia.  The tour was a success, but the guitarist says that being barred from involvement in decisions about the band members, arrangements and other aspects of the performances was very difficult for him.
ContactMusic.com

MORE PETE TOWNSHEND INSIGHTS

The first taste of David Gilmour's next album is it's title track, Rattle That Lock.  The video that accompanies the lead track has some impressive animated sequences.  

The nine track album drops September 18.

DJ Ashba is joining the ranks of former Guns N' Roses members.  Sixx: AM, the group fronted by Motley Crue's Nikki Sixx that Ashba also plays guitar in, is gearing up for a lengthy world tour and plans to prep a pair of albums for release next year.  Faced with having to choose which band to commit to for the next couple of years, Ashba decided to go with Sixx, ending his six year run with GNR.  Unlike some other former Guns members, Ashba has nothing but praise for Axl Rose.  In announcing his departure on social media the guitarist wrote that he leaves Guns N' Roses '...with a very heavy heart and yet great pride', adding for Axl, 'You are a true friend and a champion of mine and I am forever grateful.  And even as I move on to pursue other endeavors, I will always remain one of your biggest fans.'
HenneMusic.com

Bono took the role of spectator, letting Bruce Springsteen take the lead in starting I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For during U2's last performance in an 8 run series of dates in Madison Square Garden on Friday (7/31).  The pair let the audience deliver the chorus for that and Stand By Me, The Ben E. King classic that sometimes gets folded into Still Haven't Found during concerts.

 

On Jerry Garcia's birthday, we share a world wide group of musicians that contributed to a remake of the Grateful Dead song Ripple to support the music education and opportunity efforts of the Playing For Change Foundation.