Mike Henderson, Chris Stapleton’s Grammy-Winning Cowriter and SteelDrivers Co-Founder, Dies at 70

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic “Song of the Summer” is not an official Grammy category, of course, but the soundtrack to America’s collective life during those halcyon warm-weather months is definitely a harbinger. And although that distinction has never previously gone to a country song, most independent observers agreed that 2023’s title belonged to Morgan Wallen’s “Last Night.” After becoming the first country song by a solo male to top the Hot 100 in 42 years, it became the second longest-running single of any genre to top that Billboard chart, with an astonishing 16 non-consecutive weeks at No.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Any fan seeing “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” won’t be in for a huge number of surprises when it comes to the movie setlist, which largely follows the template that was locked into place — with a few exceptions or switch-outs — through the entire five-month 2023 U.S. tour. But there are a few choices that couldn’t exactly have been predicted.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Who will be the anti-hero of the 2024 Grammys? Well, if that question sounds a little bit rigged, it’s not far from the truth: Taylor Swift enjoys a level of cultural dominance that few other performers have approached (including monopolizing National Football League coverage in recent weeks). Her fall 2022 album “Midnights” isn’t full of obvious swing-for-the-fences smashes like “1989” or seen as more of an art project like “Folklore” (her last two album of the year winners), but it’s got huge hits and a unique, late-night, bringing-the-club-home feel that will appeal to voters who like artists who don’t make the same album twice.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic For the millions who loved him, John Prine was an angel from Illinois. The singer-songwriter had a 50-year career trajectory that went the full distance from being part of the “next Dylan” brigade in the early ’70s to inspiring Next-John-Prines by the thousands before his death in April 2020.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic In an intimate performance and conversation in Los Angeles Monday night, Olivia Rodrigo admitted that there were tears shed during the making of her new album, “Guts.” But she and producer/co-writer Dan Nigro clarified that it wasn’t just about the emotion in the lyrics. Some of those were tears of frustration as they obsessed over songs and struggled to get her all-important sophomore release just right over its 10-month creation. “We cried just because we were frustrated.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Halsey has joined the production of “The Nightmare Before Christmas” coming to the Hollywood Bowl for a three-night stand just prior to Halloween, singing the role of Sally on the first two nights of the engagement, before the movie’s original voice actor, Catherine O’Hara takes it over on the third. The dates Halsey will appear are Oct. 27-28.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The most appreciative audience for “Dicks: The Musical” may be the Venn-diagram overlap between viewers who think the envelope for raunchy language in R-rated comedies doesn’t get pushed nearly hard enough and people who saw “Les Miserables” on Broadway three times. In other words, the warning not for every taste has never applied more.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The songs and score of the new film “Dicks: The Musical” are deadpan, but about as far away from dead and humanly and musically possible. It sounds like a fully fleshed-out Broadway musical brought to vibrant life on the big screen, even though it went directly from being a two-man mini-show in a New York comedy club to a movie with a traditonal-sounding, fully orchestrated song score, the scope of which is matched only by the gleeful vulgarity of the lyrics.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The process of guts-spilling was the focus of a conversation between Olivia Rodrigo and veteran songwriter-producer Linda Perry at the Grammy Museum Wednesday night, before the young pop champion took to piano and acoustic guitar to sing solo versions of three hits and/or fan favorites from her new album, “Vampire,” “Making the Bed” and “Lacy.” Although the conversation inevitably skewed more toward the mechanics and philosophy of writing than personal details, Rodrigo kept the fan base on hand in the intimate auditorium rapt with mentions of how she came to write several of the new songs. There were passing revelations, too, like the fact that she took a poetry class at USC last year, which helped generate one of the most talked-about songs on the new “Guts” release, or that St. Vincent is a previously unmentioned collaborator on the bonus track “Obsessed.” “In this time of music where we’re getting fed a lot of different styles, I’m not buying a lot of it,” said Perry — famous as part of 4 Non Blondes and for her work with Pink, Christina Aguilera and Dolly Parton — in kicking off her questioning of Rodrigo.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Country star Hardy announced on social media Tuesday that he is canceling or postponing his next three concerts, due to what he described as “serious anxiety” and panic attacks that have “landed me in the hospital.” He indicated that these conditions have “taken over my life” over the last two weeks, and represent delayed trauma from a bus accident a year ago. The singer noted that he expects to be in better shape in nine days, when he will resume his fall headlining tour on Oct. 12 in Jonesboro, AR.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame has a new television home.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame ceremony will be streamed live for the first time in November, as Disney+ has picked up rights to let viewers see the event as it happens, a marked change from the years in which music fans had to wait weeks to see an edited broadcast. The Disney+ livestream will go out coast-to-coast from Brooklyn’s Barclays Center on Nov. 3 at 8 p.m..

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic For a while there, unbeknown to all but a few, there was a danger that hit country-pop duo Dan + Shay might go separate ways. But replacing the “+” in their moniker for a minus sign iwouldn’t have had much of a ring to it for either of them, so it’s to everyone’s benefit that they got to the root of what threatened to put a damper on their personal chemistry and found their duo mojo again in approaching the making of “Bigger Houses,” their fifth full-length album for Warner Nashville.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Every year at the Americana Honors & Awards program in Nashville, Jim Lauderdale will exclaim, as a running joke, “Now, that’s Americana!” — usually right after someone has given a rousing performance in a style that most people wouldn’t reflexively classify as Americana. The fact that it’s said both enthusiastically and slightly facetiously does beg the obvious, perennial question: What’s Americana… all kidding aside? Standing outside the Ryman Auditorium, where the 22nd annual edition of the awards show was about to go down, Brandi Carlile had an answer. And since she is the closest thing to an offical mascot the genre has had since the passing of John Prine, when Carlile talks about Americana, people listen.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Bonnie Raitt, Billy Strings, Tyler Childers, the duo the War and Treaty and S.S. Goodman were among the winners as trophies were handed out at the 22nd annual Americana Honors & Awards show Wednesday night at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium. Raitt won the award for song of the year for her (literally) heart-rending number “Just Like That” — just like she did at the most recent Grammys, in a very rare example of overlap between the two shows.

Chris Stapleton and rap legend Snoop Dogg have teamed up to cover rock icon Phil Collins‘ ‘In The Air Tonight’ as the NFL’s new Monday Night Football theme song – listen to it below.Today (September 19), ESPN took to social media to share the new Monday Night Football anthem, which also features drummer Cindy Blackman Santana taking on the iconic drum fills of the original track.Watch the three artists breathe new life into ‘In The Air Tonight’ below.Can you feel it?

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic When the lineup for the 2024 Stagecoach Festival was announced earlier this month, Bailey Zimmerman’s name was up there on the second line, right beneath Morgan Wallen’s. It represented a heady move up into the big leagues (and big fonts) for a 23-year-old who had only the most scant awareness that there was such a thing as a country music industry a few short years ago.

The power and popularity of Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight,” which first famously appeared on TV in Season 1 of Michael Mann’s Miami Vice, has outlasted 30 years of screen appearances in everything from Risky Business to a Cadbury chocolate bar ad to a fictional Mike Tyson’s affinity for the tune in the original Hangover. Now, it’s been reinvented as the theme song for one of TV’s most popular shows.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic U2 will begin its two-residency at Las Vegas’ Sphere with at least one new song to perform: “Atomic City,” a Vegas-themed tune that is expected to be released on or before the band’s Sept. 29 opening-night show. Filming a music video, the foursome repeatedly played through the song Saturday while positioned on a flatbed trailer that had come to a halt on Fremont Street in the city’s neon-filled downtown area.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The 75th anniversary of Atlantic Records is being celebrated by that label and its sister catalog imprint, Rhino Records, with a year-long rollout of 90 vinyl releases and re-releases, covering the gamut from Led Zeppelin to Lizzo and John Coltrane to Coldplay. Most — not all — of the titles are being pressed on clear vinyl and are described in the label’s product descriptions as one-time pressings. Most have previously been released on vinyl, although three modern albums, Gayle’s “A Study in the Human Experience,” Christina Perry’s “Lovestrong” and Kehlani’s “Cloud 19,” are getting their first-time LP iterations as part of the campaign.