Sights and Sounds: Ringo Starr, 'The Pretenders with Friends,' Samantha Fish, Mac Powell, Grammy Museum

As this week rapidly draws to a close, here are some highlights of music-minded news that landed in my inbox...

Ringo Starr's 11th Annual 'Peace & Love' Birthday Celebration on July 7 circles the globe

Photo credit, Getty Images for Beautiful Day Media

On July 7, 2019 Ringo Starr returned to Capitol Records Tower in Los Angeles for his annual Peace & Love Birthday event where he joined fans gathered for a Noon #peaceandlove celebration. The dream is to create a wave of Peace & Love across the planet, starting in New Zealand and ending in Hawaii. Ringo began these in 2008 at the Hard Rock Café Chicago and last year he celebrated the 10th Anniversary at the Hard Rock Café Nice. In the ensuing years it has grown enormously with #peaceandlove events all over the world, and this year had over 30 events in 26 countries (listed below).

“I’ve said it before but I really can’t think of a better way to celebrate my birthday, or a better gift I could ask for, than peace and love. It’s so great how every year it keeps growing, with the wave of peace and love starting in the morning on July 7 in Australia and ending in Hawaii, with celebrations in all the time zones in between. I am so happy to be back at Capitol Records, and for our great sponsors who are carrying the message of peace and love around the world, like the David Lynch Foundation, Life is Good, SiriusXM, Modern Drummer and Starbucks. I also want to thank each and everyone of you for continuing to help spread peace and love, Ringo.”

The event included tribute performances by Ben Kyle from ROMANTICA with Sara Watkins who performed “Act Naturally” and “It Don’t Come Easy”, and Southern California rock and roll band The Jacks performed “You’re Sixteen” and “Speed of Sound”. There was also a special premiere of an original song about peace and love composed for the occasion by students of the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus in partnership with the South Central LA Fernando Pullum Community Arts Center. The song will later premiere online as a video featuring music students as well as guest artists and friends.

Catch up with all things Ringo Starr here.

'The Pretenders With Friends' coming Friday, July 12

The Pretenders featuring Chrissy Hynde performs with special guests 

Iggy Pop, Shirley Manson of Garbage, Kings of Leon and Incubus!

Blu-ray / DVD / CD package available July 12th featuring 

bonus interviews with band members, slide show, trailers & more

Grammy Award-winning, multi-platinum selling band The Pretenders featuring the Legendary Chrissy Hynde performs with special guests including Iggy Pop, Shirley Manson of Garbage, Kings of Leon and Incubus, recorded live at the Decades Rock Arena in Atlantic City, NJ. 

Songs include "Brass in Pocket"; "Message of Love" by Incubus, "I'm Only Happy When It Rains" by Shirley Manson, "Precious"; "Candy" by Iggy Pop and Chrissy Hynde", "Talk of the Town"; "Back on the Chain Gang"; "Drive" by Incubus; "Mystery Achievement", "Fools Must Die" by Iggy Pop, and "Middle Of The Road" encore performance featuring The Pretenders with Iggy Pop, Incubus, Kings Of Leon and Shirley Manson. 

Complete details HERE

Samantha Fish shares "Bulletproof" video via Guitar World; 'Kill Or Be Kind' album due Sept. 20, 2019

Genre-defying guitarist, singer, and songwriter Samantha Fish unveiled the video for "Bulletproof," the lead track from Kill Or Be Kind, her debut album for Rounder. The album, which will be released on September 20, was produced by three-time Grammy winner Scott Billington and mixed by two-time Grammy winner Steve Reynolds.

As she told Guitar World, "'Bulletproof' is about losing touch with yourself when you try to make everyone else happy. It's a little bit of an observation on society's standards and the music industry - how people can criticize every little thing, and because you're in show business you're expected to be bulletproof as an individual."

"Vulnerability being taken as weakness, you put on a mask to steel yourself," she continued. "It's a facade, but we all do it anyway."

Watch the video HERE

Anyone who has ever heard Fish's previous albums knows that she has earned a place in the top rank of contemporary blues guitarists and that her voice can wring the soul out of a ballad and belt out a rocker with roof-shaking force.

While those virtues are fully in evidence on Kill Or Be Kind, each of the songs on the album does far more than simply provide a setting for Fish's pyrotechnics. They tell captivating stories, set up by verses that deftly set the scene, choruses that lift with real feeling, and hooks that later rise up in your thoughts, even when you're not aware that you're thinking of music at all. It's the kind of songwriting that emerges when raw talent is leavened by experience and aspiration, and when a committed artist genuinely has something to say. Those qualities make Kill Or Be Kind a genuine artistic breakthrough for Fish.

Fish sought out high-quality songwriting collaborators for the album - the likes of Jim McCormick (who has worked with Fish before and also written for Luke Bryan and Keith Urban); Kate Pearlman (who has worked with Kelly Clarkson); Patrick Sweeney; Parker Millsap; and Eric McFadden. The result is an album on which each song is distinct, but the complete work hangs together as a coherent, entirely satisfying statement.

Fish propels "Watch It Die" with an insistent guitar riff, but near the song's end two female background singers lend the song a haunting soulful feel. Meanwhile, "Love Letters" moves on an insinuating, stop-time riff in its verses until it bursts in passion on its chorus. Both songs use horn sections for finesse and texture. "Love Letters" also introduces one of the album's central themes: the allure of losing yourself in love - and the dangers of it.  "Keep waking up in the bed I made," Fish sings. "Forget the pain when you wanna play/I'm back to broken when you go away."

The title track, a seductive ballad, offers a lover a stark choice: "Make up your mind/I can kill or be kind."  

The songs "Dirty," "Love Your Lies" and "Fair-Weather" explore similar themes - how deceit, self-deception and shifting expectations can alter the course of life and love. 

The affecting ballad "Dream Girl" stands the endearment of its title on its head and explores the dilemma of a love not coming to fruition. 

On "She Don't Live Around Here Anymore," a soul ballad once again bolstered by tasteful horn parts, the singer confronts the feeling of being used and finds empowerment in walking away.   

"You Got It Bad (Better Than You Ever Had)" is about working towards your dreams and the knifes edge we often walk to reach our goals.

"Trying Not to Fall in Love With You" finds the singer not wanting to rush a relationship - and therefore undermine it. "

Having completed an album that she believes in so strongly - "This is me coming through, my personality," she says - Fish is eager to bring it to the world. "I got the moon in the back of my mind, and I want to shoot for it!" she declares. "I want to reach over genre lines and get out to as many people as possible. This album is so broad - and it's all me. So I'm just hoping it catches people and appeals to them."

Fish is currently on tour. A full list of dates is below. More dates will be announced in the coming weeks.

Pre-order link HERE

Kill Or Be Kind Track Listing

1. Bulletproof

2. Kill or Be Kind

3. Love Letters

4. Watch it Die

5. Try Not to Fall in Love with You

6. Fair-Weather

7. Love Your Lies

8. Dream Girl

9. She Don't Live Around Here

10. Dirty

11. You Got It Bad

Samantha Fish On Tour:

7/12/19, Tremblant, Quebec, Tremblant International Blues Festival

7/13/19, Greenfield, MA, Green River Festival     

7/27/19, Fort Smith, AR, Peacemaker Music & Arts Festival

8/09/19, Louisville, CO, Louisville Street Fair     

8/10/19, Angel Fire, NM, Festival Eclectica

8/16/19, Warren, PA, Rally in the Valley

8/17/19, Cockeysville, MD, Hot August Music Festival

8/23/19, Paola, KS, Paola Roots Festival     

8/24/19, Freeland, MI, Freeland Blues Festival 

9/05/19, Urbana, IL, Ellnora / The Guitar Festival      

9/13/19, Telluride, CO, Telluride Blues & Brews Festival

9/14/19, Telluride, CO, Telluride Blues & Brews Festival

9/21/19, Louisville, KY, Bourbon & Beyond

9/24/19*, Portland, OR, Revolution Hall

9/25/19*, Seattle, WA, Neptune 

9/27/19*, Stateline, NV, Montbleu Resort    

9/29/19*, San Francisco, CA, Fillmore    

10/01/19*, Chandler, AZ, Chandler Center for the Arts        

10/03/19*, West Hollywood, CA, Troubadour 

10/04/19*, West Hollywood, CA, Troubadour 

10/05/19*, Solana Beach, CA, Belly Up 

*w/Marc Broussard

Mac Powell and the Family Reunion

release new song "Mess of Me"

Debut Album Out July 26th via Thirty Tigers

Mac Powell and the Family Reunion

This summer, Mac Powell and the Family Reunion will release their full-length debut album Back Again on July 26 via Thirty Tigers. Led by the former lead singer of Grammy-winning, multi-platinum selling group Third Day, the new band is southern roots and American rock. It's a collection of foot-stomping, hand-clapping tunes that pay tribute to Mac's early musical inspirations from his childhood, including Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, and Jim Croce to name a few. Today they released their new single "Mess of Me" which Taste of Country called "a song that sounds like what might happen if the Beatles collaborated with the Allman Brothers Band."

Listen to "Mess of Me" HERE.

Pre-order/pre-save Back Again and receive the new single instantly HERE.

"I wrote this song while looking back and remembering when I first fell in love with my wife, Aimee," Mac told Taste of Country. "Remembering what it feels like to want so bad to be with someone and that you would do anything in your power to make that happen. Sometimes that love can make us a little sick and crazy - keeping us up late at night and making us do things that we wouldn't normally do."

Mac and the Family Reunion released their debut single "Back Again" last month, a country rock travelogue that captures the group's dynamic live presence. Billboardcalled it "a blend of country, rock and gospel, brought to life with Powell's gritty, soulful voice." It was followed by the release of "Whoo!" featuring country music legend Craig Morgan. Parade Magazine named it "the perfect song for summer."

"Like most people, I grew up listening to my Mom and Dad's record collection," said Powell. "There was singer-songwriter stuff, some country and southern rock. I always liked artists like Creedence Clearwater Revival, James Taylor, The Eagles, or even the Stones, who weren't country per se, but who sometimes leaned more towards that sound. That's what was stirring my mind and my spirit."

To that end, he formed Mac Powell and the Family Reunion after Third Day's final shows in 2018, utilizing musical "brothers" who had been recording and playing live with him in support of his other solo projects, including his 2012 self-titled debut and 2014's Southpaw. Recorded in Atlanta with producer/musical director Jason Hoard, Powell and his bandmates purposely kept a raw edge to the record. The result is a welcome looseness and down-home charm to Back Again that finds the band equally comfortable between gentle ballads and hand-clapping, toe-tapping country pop.

To further support the record, Powell and band plan on hitting the road this fall. In the meantime, catch them during select dates this summer including a special hometown release show in Marietta, GA followed by Nashville's Grand Ole Opry.

Tour Dates:

07/25 - Marietta, GA @ The Strand Theater

07/26 - Nashville, TN @ Grand Ole Opry

08/11 - Spring Hill, TN @ Rippavilla Plantation

08/17 - Salem, OR @ Riverfront Park

08/18 - Chehalis, WA @ SW WA Regional Fair

08/22 - Meadville, PA @ Crawford County Fairgrounds

08/23 - Prestonsburg, KY @ Mountain Arts Center

09/10 - Knoxville, TN @ Tennessee Valley Fair

09/21 - Paoli, PA @ AbbeyFest

09/26 - Modesto, CA @ Gallo Center for the Arts

Grammy Museum® Grant Program awards $200,000 for music research and sound preservation  FUNDS WILL PROVIDE SUPPORT FOR ARCHIVING AND PRESERVATION PROGRAMS AND RESEARCH EFFORTS THAT EXAMINE THE IMPACT OF MUSIC ON HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

LOS ANGELES (JULY 10, 2019)—The GRAMMY Museum® Grant Program announced today that $200,000 in grants will be awarded to 15 recipients in the United States to help facilitate a range of research on a variety of subjects, as well as support a number of archiving and preservation programs. Research projects include work on musical anhedonia, musical training’s relationship to complex memories, and the relationship between cognitive function and singing accuracy. Preservation projects include the archiving of uncirculated John Hartford jam tapes, 960 audio reels of Cajun and zydeco artists, and 221 rare interview recordings with African-American actors, performers, composers, musicians, and scholars, among many other preservation projects. "The GRAMMY Museum Grant Program to date has awarded more than $7.5 million to more than 400 grantees," said Michael Sticka, Executive Director of the GRAMMY Museum. "The work we help fund includes an impressive array of projects that are at the forefront of exploring music's beneficial intersection with science, and that maintain our musical legacy for future generations. The initiatives announced today exemplify the Museum's mission to uphold music's value in our lives and shared culture." Generously funded by the Recording Academy, the GRAMMY Museum Grant Program provides funding annually to organizations and individuals to support efforts that advance the archiving and preservation of the recorded sound heritage of the Americas for future generations, in addition to research projects related to the impact of music on the human condition. In 2008, the Grant Program expanded its categories to include assistance grants for individuals and small to mid-sized organizations to aid collections held by individuals and organizations that may not have access to the expertise needed to create a preservation plan. The assistance planning process, which may include inventorying and stabilizing a collection, articulates the steps to be taken to ultimately archive recorded sound materials for future generations. The deadline each year for submitting letters of inquiry to the Grant Program is Oct. 15. Guidelines and the letter of inquiry form for the 2020 cycle will soon be available at www.grammymuseum.org. Scientific Research Grantees Royal Institution for the Advancement of Learning—McGill University—Montreal Awarded: $20,000 Caroline Palmer, Signy Sheldon, and Rebecca Scheurich of McGill University will test people's memories for rich auditory detail in real-world events. Brain activity of musically trained and untrained individuals will be measured as they recall complex events. Findings will address the link between musical training, imagery, and autobiographical memory. Northeastern University—Boston Awarded: $20,000 Music is a rewarding social activity across human cultures, but recent studies have identified a special population of people with musical anhedonia, who feel no reward in response to music. This project will identify the incidence and neural substrates of musical anhedonia, and test the relationship between musical reward sensitivity and difficulties with social bonding, which is characteristic in people with autism spectrum disorders. University at Buffalo—Buffalo, New York Awarded: $20,000 Recent studies have found correlations between singing accuracy and measures of general cognitive functioning: individuals' ability to form auditory images and auditory short‐term memory capacity. This project consists of two training studies designed to test whether there is an actual causal relationship: Can improved imagery and/or memory lead to more accurate singing, and can improved singing accuracy enhance imagery and/or memory capacity? Preservation Assistance Grantees The Kitchen Sisters Productions—San Francisco Awarded: $5,000 The goal of this project is to create a plan to inventory, archive, preserve, and make publicly available the Kitchen Sisters Collection, which includes some 7,000 hours of recordings of nearly 40 years of interviews, oral histories, music and sound for the NPR series, podcasts, projects, and stories. Funds will be used to hire a professional to develop a catalog, plan for digitization, long-term storage, back-up, and accessibility. Percussive Arts Society—Indianapolis Awarded: $5,000 The Percussive Arts Society (PAS) plans to inventory and assess approximately 150 hours of music on 78s from the Edwin Gerhardt Marimba Xylophone Collection in preparation for its subsequent preservation, digitization and dissemination. Support will allow PAS to engage an expert to help inventory this extensive collection of recordings and prioritize items for preservation. The House Foundation for the Arts, Inc—New York Awarded: $5,000 As a steward of Meredith Monk’s legacy, the House will embark on the Lineage Project to preserve, enhance, and maintain the integrity of Monk’s artistic works and make such works available for the benefit of the public. The House will publish an online database cataloging 50-plus years of previously unavailable photographs, video, audio, and objects. This resource will act as a centralized location for her archive and support ongoing digitization and preservation efforts, providing students, artists, curators, and the general public access to this rich history. Armenian Studies Program, California State University, Fresno—Fresno, California Awarded: $5,000 This project will focus on the inventory and cataloging of nearly 1,500 recordings on 78-rpm discs from the Armenian-American diaspora. The locally produced records document the early history of Armenians in the United States. The collection represents the voices of musicians whose social, economic, and political status forced them out of their homeland. It was thus only in the emerging cosmopolitan American music scene that most of these artists were first able to be heard. Bluegrass Country Foundation—Washington, D.C. Awarded: $5,000 The Bluegrass Country Foundation will identify, index and preserve recordings of bluegrass music shows broadcast over the last 50 years at WAMU-FM in Washington, D.C.  These include programs featuring rare and out-of-print recordings as well as interviews, concerts, and live studio performances. Preservation Implementation San Francisco Symphony—San Francisco Awarded: $12,000 The San Francisco Symphony will transfer to a digital format 118 live recordings conducted by music director Michael Tilson Thomas, who will be stepping down from his post in 2020. This comprehensive digital collection will preserve the historic contributions Thomas made to the modern orchestral repertoire during his exceptional 25-year tenure with the San Francisco Symphony. Center for Popular Music at Middle Tennessee State University—Murfreesboro, Tennessee Awarded: $19,963 This project will digitize and catalog 573 cassettes of jam performances from the John Hartford audio collection. A hit songwriter and "newgrass" pioneer, Hartford obsessively documented his activities at the epicenter of Nashville's music scene. These unique and uncirculated recordings capture some of the most important bluegrass, country, and folk musicians of the late-20th century in rare and informal settings. Smithsonian Folkways Recordings—Washington, D.C, Awarded: $20,000 This project will digitize roughly 960 audio reels and corresponding materials—related to recordings of Cajun and zydeco artists—for preservation, rights research, and online access. Boston Symphony Orchestra, Inc.—Boston Awarded: $11,518.50 The Boston Symphony Orchestra intends to transfer and preserve endangered audio from 282 DATs that correspond to 273 Boston Pops concerts held at Symphony Hall from 1992–2002. Project deliverables include preservation master files, access copies on CD for public use in the Archives Reading Room, MP3 files of the full concerts for internal and individually approved remote reference, and an Encoded Archival Description finding aid. The City College of New York Libraries—New York Awarded: $20,000 The City College of New York Libraries (CCNY Libraries) will digitize and preserve more than 221 rare interview recordings—conducted mainly between 1970 and 1974—with African-American actors, performers, composers, musicians and scholars. Digital copies will be preserved in CCNY's trusted digital repository and access copies will be made available onsite at the CCNY Archives & Special Collections as well as remotely accessible at CCNY and four partner institutions. Roulette Intermedium, Inc.—Brooklyn, New York Awarded: $20,000 The Roulette Archive is an initiative to preserve, restore, digitize, and distribute 1,100 audio recordings on threatened PCM-F1 and DAT tapes recorded between 1986-2002. These quality recordings are part of a 4,000-plus historic collection capturing significant achievements in contemporary music dating back to 1980 and continuing to this day. The concerts took place in Roulette's loft venue in New York City during a fertile period of experimentation and discovery. Tulane University—New Orleans Awarded: $11,518.50 The Hogan Jazz Archive, part of Tulane University Special Collections, will digitize and preserve 25 unique recordings from Vernon Winslow, the first black disc jockey in New Orleans. The recordings offer a rare chance to hear 1940s and 1950s radio continuity, including local advertisements and conversations with local and itinerant musicians, and provide insight into the dawn of segregated radio in the city. Once digitized, they will be accessible to the public online.

ABOUT THE GRAMMY MUSEUM Established in 2008, the GRAMMY Museum® is a non-profit organization dedicated to cultivating a greater understanding of the history and significance of music. Paying tribute to our collective musical heritage, the Museum explores and celebrates all aspects of the art form – from the technology of the recording process to the legends who've made lasting marks on our cultural identity. In 2017, the Museum integrated with its sister organization, the GRAMMY Foundation®, to broaden the reach of its music education and preservation initiatives. As a unified organization, today, the GRAMMY Museum fulfills its mission of making music a valued and indelible part of our society through exhibits, education, grants, and public programming. For more information, visit www.grammymuseum.org, “like” the GRAMMY Museum on Facebook, and follow @GRAMMYMuseum on Twitter and Instagram.