Blue Note Records is releasing a 12 song tribute album to Leonard Cohen that includes renditions of his songs from an eclectic group of musicians. Here's the list of songs and the artist featured on Here It Is: A Tribute To Leonard Cohen, due out on October 14th...

Steer Your Way - Norah Jones

Here it Is - Peter Gabriel

Suzanne - Gregory Porter

Hallelujah - Sarah McLachlan

Avalanche - Immanuel Wilkins

Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye - Luciana Souza

Coming Back to You - James Taylor

You Want it Darker - Iggy Pop

If it Be Your Will - Mavis Staples

Seems So Long Ago, Nancy - David Gray

Famous Blue Raincoat - Nathaniel Rateliff

Bird on the Wire - Bill Frisell

Fender is producing a limited and painstakingly detailed reproduction of the 1955 Stratocaster that Graham Nash gave Jerry Garcia as an gift for playing on Nash's debut solo album. The instrument would be Jerry's go-to guitar during a good stretch of his career. The 2022 reincarnation of what came to be known as 'the Alligator' is faithful right down to the alligator and other stickers on it, the unusual string-retainer bar, and even the cigarette burns on it. The original almost met its demise in November 1971 at Symphony Hall in Boston when the the lower half of the pickguard cracked wide open. As the guitar’s electronics spilled out, Garcia frantically waved his tech, Steve Parish, onstage for a helping hand. Parish started shoving the guts of the instrument back in place while keeping everything together with nothing more than a roll of gaffer’s tape. Miraculously, Garcia and the Strat made it through the rest of the show. Some days later, the pair decided to replace the missing chunk of pickguard with a Masonite plate (replaced with a brass plate in the early 80’s). From there, the modifications just kept coming. By 1972, the Alligator was hardly recognizable from the 1955 Stratocaster that Graham Nash gifted Garcia back in 1970. However, thanks to the countless personal touches added by Parish and Garcia, it has become one of history’s most iconic guitars. Every detail of the Jerry Garcia Alligator Stratocaster is meticulously recreated, from the carefully measured contours and radii of the one-piece ash body to the hammered brass control plate, replica pickguard and body stickers, and custom replica “Blaster” clean-boost output jack assembly. Master built in the Custom Shop by Austin MacNutt, the Jerry Garcia Alligator Stratocaster is limited to 100 built-to-order instruments. All three pickups are Josefina hand-wound ’55-style single-coil Stratocaster pickups replicated from the Alligator itself, along with five-way switching, standard vintage Stratocaster wiring and replica “hat” control knobs on a three-ply parchment pickguard. Premium features also include a Relic lacquer finish, one-piece rift-sawn maple neck with a profile scanned and replicated directly from the original guitar, 7.25” fingerboard radius and 1.625” brass nut width, 21 Medium Vintage frets, custom brass bridge and tailpiece with rosewood base plate, Schaller M6 tuners, disc string tree with custom retainer bar, and custom birdseye maple back plate. Custom hardshell case included.
The materials, detail and craftsmanship being put into these instruments comes at a hefty price.  Each of the 100 being made will go for $20,000.

David Gilmour and his wife, author Polly Samson, are said to be planning to sell their elegant 8.000 square foot seaside home in East Sussex, England. The beautiful home includes a guest cottage, the former Pink Floyd guitarist's home studio and beautiful views of the sea to the south and the English Channel to the east. Asking price for the custom built home belonging to one of the most renowned guitarists of all time is expected to be $18.3 million.

Fans of Little Feat will find a lot to like in Steve Huntington's on demand show with Fred Tackett, now playing on the SiriusXM app. The founding DJ and programmer of Radio Margaritaville's open ended sessions with musicians make for great listening as his guests share anecdotes along with favorite songs of their own and ones from other musicians they admire. Subscribers can latch ears onto Steve's session with Fred as well as previous and upcoming episodes by searching Steve Huntington in the SirusXM app.

Todd Rundgren's first album of new material in five years will arrive October 14th. Space Force includes contributions from Cheap Trick's Rick Nielsen, Split Enz, Crowded House and now Fleetwood Mac member Neil Finn, and King Crimson guitarist Adrian Belew, who also worked with David Bowie, and Frank Zappa and others. Most of the songs on the 12 track album were not written by Rundgren.

Ozzy Osbourne assembled quite the lineup of musicians for his soon to be released album Patient Number 9. The Prince of Darkness is joined on the September 9 release by co-founding Black Sabbath member Tony Iommi, Eric Clapton, Zakk Wylde, Metallica's Robert Trujillo, Pearl Jam veteran Mike McCready, Guns N' Roses Duff McKagan, the late Taylor Hawkins of the Foo Fighters and Jane's Addiction's Chris Chaney.

Last night'sSouth Park anniversary concert at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colorado included a surprise reunion of Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson of Rush. The pair combined with Matt Stone on Closer to the Heart. While Lee has kept a low musical profile, Lifeson has continued performing with his group Envy of None. Asked by Eddie Trunk during an edition of his SiriusXM show whether he and Geddy might get around to playing together in the future, Alex replied, "If there's something that comes up in the future, an opportunity for us to do something, we'll decide over a cup of coffee what that'll be", but he added, "We had such a great history and did so much great stuff together, it's really not a big deal if, for the rest of our lives, we're just best friends."

Farm Aid makes its way back to Raleigh, North Carolina for the first time in nearly a decade on September 24th. The annual benefit for family farms organized by Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp and Neil Young was first staged in Champaign, Illinois in September, 1985. It was last hosted at Walnut Creek in 2014. The 2022 edition will feature Nelson, Mellencamp and frequent regular Dave Matthews but not Neil Young, who won't resume playing live concerts until the pandemic is in the rearview mirror. Others confirmed for the event include Chris Stapleton, Sheryl Crow, Lukas Nelson & Promise Of The Real, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats and Allison Russell.

Organizing this event is one of the many reasons we love Joe Walsh.

A film and recordings of a mid April, 1970 performance Creedence Clearwater Revival did at London's Royal Albert Hall have emerged after having languished in storage for more than 50 years. Producer Giles Martin has restored and remixed the recordings, which will get released on September 16th. The album and film will be offered together in a box set coming out November 14th.

Photo Credit: Michael Ochs archive

One of the most highly regarded figures in the music business passed away at 95 Sunday. Mo Ostin, the past chairman of Warner Bros. Records, brought musicians from Frank Sinatra, to Jimi Hendrix, Fleetwood Mac, Van Morrison, the Grateful Dead, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, R.E.M., and Green Day to labels within the Warner orbit and earned the trust and respect of all of them by making sure artists felt like the label worked for them instead of the other way around. Ostin also helped cultivate the development of other labels that helped establish the careers of the Talking Heads, Pretenders, Slash and many others. He did it all in a much less assuming way that brash label head honchos like Clive Davis and David Geffen. As Ostin said, "To me, the artist is the person who should be in the foreground", and that's the way it always was with Mo.