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CatSong Festival, which was staged to celebrate the 50th anniversary reissues of the singer’s 1970 albums ‘Tea for the Tillerman’ and ‘Mona Bone Jakon’, also features Dave Matthews.

Dec 7, 2020
AceShowbiz – HAIM, Jack Johnson, and Dave Matthews were among the stars who came together to honour Yusuf/Cat Stevens as part of Saturday’s (December 05) CatSong Festival.
The livestream event was staged to celebrate the 50th anniversary reissues of the singer-songwriter’s 1970 albums “Tea for the Tillerman” and “Mona Bone Jakon”.
Johnson kicked off the special by performing “Where Do the Children Play?”, confessing it was an “honour” to play a track by one of his “all-time favourites.”
He was followed by the HAIM sisters, who offered their rendition of “Hard Headed Woman”.
Incubus’ Brandon Boyd, Feist, James Morrison, Passenger, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Ron Sexsmith and Imelda May also pitched in for the two hour-plus event, joining in the fun by sending in videos from home.

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Highlights included Feist’s version of the “Mona Bone Jakon” classic “Trouble” and Matthews’ take on “Tea for the Tillerman” track “Father and Son”.
“It’s great to see and hear these covers of my songs given new life,” Yusuf said of CatSong in a statement. “There’s no better honor for a songwriter than to have his songs performed by talented musicians with such love and sincerity. Thank you.”
The singer, who adopted the name Yusuf Islam after converting to Islam in 1977, also celebrated the 50th anniversary of his album “Mona Bone Jakon” by releasing a previously-unreleased demo recording of “Maybe You’re Right”. The studio demo offers impressively clean audio of Stevens in the studio with just his acoustic guitar and vocals to perform the song in one take.
The “Mona Bone Jakon” 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Box Set was released on December 4. It includes newly-remastered audio recordings from the original album on CD and Blu-Ray discs, along with unreleased demos, live recordings, video footage, a 98-page hardback book and unique memorabilia.

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Hear tracks by Margo Price, Jamie xx, the Comet Is Coming and others.Every Friday, pop critics for The New York Times weigh in on the week’s most notable new songs and videos. Just want the music? Listen to the Playlist on Spotify here (or find our profile: nytimes). Like what you hear? Let us know at theplaylist@nytimes.com and sign up for our Louder newsletter, a once-a-week blast of our pop music coverage.Red Hot Chili Peppers, ‘Eddie’Red Hot Chili Peppers memorialize Eddie Van Halen and 1980s Los Angeles with what sounds like an old-fashioned, real-time studio jam in “Eddie.” Anthony Kiedis sings biographical snippets — “My brother’s a keeper/I married a TV wife” — while Flea’s bass and John Frusciante’s guitar chase each other all the way through the song, in an ever-changing counterpoint of hopping bass lines and teasing, wailing, shredding, overdriven guitar — the sound of a band in a room, still pushing one another. PARELESKelsea Ballerini, ‘Muscle Memory’In “Muscle Memory,” Kelsea Ballerini orchestrates an instinctive reunion with an old flame — “my body won’t forget our history” — with classic tools: two chords, a backbeat, a lead guitar with wordless caresses. “How long will you be back in town?” she asks, concealing her eagerness. PARELESMargo Price, ‘Change of Heart’Margo Price reaches toward the 1960s and the confrontational side of psychedelia with “Change of Heart.” A wiry blues guitar riff and jabs of organ hint at the Doors as Price delivers a breaking-away song that toys with paradoxes: “You run from danger/straight into trouble,” she sings, adding, “Way down deep you’re as shallow as me.” Just to keep things off- balance, every now and then the band adds an extra beat, while a long, gradual fade-out suggests she’s still a little reluctant to move on. PARELESJamie xx, ‘Kill Dem’It’s now been seven long years since the D.J., producer, and longtime xx member Jamie xx released his beloved solo album “In Colour,” but this year he’s put out two rousing new singles: first the ecstatic “Let’s Do It Again” and now the elastic “Kill Dem.” Built around a sample of the dancehall great Cutty Ranks’ “Limb by Limb,” Jamie minces his source material into barely discernible syllables and launches it into hyperspace, leaving its component parts to ping off one another with a bouncy, exuberant energy. ZOLADZThe Comet Is Coming, ‘Pyramids’The British jazz saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings, who lived in Barbados from ages 6 to 16, is at the core of multiple groups with different lineups. In the Comet Is Coming, he works with the synthesizer player Dan Leavers, or Danalogue, and the drummer Maxwell Hallett, a.k.a. Betamax, in a zone where electronic dance music and jazz collide. “Pyramids” is from the trio’s new album, “Hyper-Dimensional Expansion Beam”; the title of this track might allude to “Pyramid Song” by Radiohead, which shares some of the same ascending yet foreboding chords. Danalogue uses 1980s synthesizers for plump bass tones and upward swoops; Betamax mixes drums and drum machines, constantly accenting different offbeats. And with his meaty tone on tenor saxophone, Hutchings plays a jumpy, dissonant line that’s equally mocking and party-hearty, a bent Carnival shout. PARELESWitch, ‘Waile’In the 1970s, the Zambian rock band Witch — an acronym for We Intend to Cause Havoc — fused garage-rock, psychedelia and funk with African rhythms, spurring a movement called Zamrock. The wider world discovered them with the release of a 2011 collection, and surviving members of the band — the singer Emmanuel (Jagari) Chanda and the keyboardist Patrick Mwondela — returned to the studio in 2021 backed by international musicians, including the Dutch neo-psychedelic songwriter Jacco Gardner. “Waile,” written in 1978 but not previously recorded, addresses “sorrow and suffering” and the separation of a family. It moves through a percolating xylophone-and-guitar riff, blasts of fuzztone, some brisk African funk and, midway through, a slower lament carried by women’s voices before the beat picks up again and hard-nosed guitar riffs push ahead — undaunted. 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ZOLADZLil Nas X, ‘Star Walkin’If Lil Nas X continues to play jester, expertly, on social media — this week, he posted impishly hilarious videos of himself sending pizzas to protesters outside of one of his concerts, and of his newly minted wax figure FaceTiming his confused friends — his new single “Star Walkin’” suggests that he is still interested in using his music as an outlet for feelings that complicate that persona, like anxiety, light melancholy and self-doubt. “They said I wouldn’t make it out alive,” he sings defiantly on this gleaming, synth-driven track, which serves as the theme song for this year’s League of Legends World Championship. The one-off certainly doesn’t rank among his most memorable singles, but it’s further proof that he’s figured out a reliable sonic formula to turn personal apprehension into steely braggadocio; by the end of the song, he asks, “Why worship legends when you know that you can join them?” ZOLADZEmiliana Torrini & the Colorist Orchestra, ‘Right Here’Emiliana Torrini attests to the reassurance of a lasting relationship in “Right Here”: “Here’s to all the roads that we’ve been down,” she sings with a smile. “I’m right here by your side.” She’s backed by the Colorist Orchestra, a happily quirky Belgian chamber-pop ensemble that mixes standard instruments with homemade ones — including, for this song, the sound of stone scraping stone. Torrini and the Colorist Orchestra rearranged some of her older songs on an album they shared in 2018, while “Right Here” previews an LP of new collaborations due early next year. There’s pointillistic syncopation from marimba, glockenspiel and pizzicato strings, with a backdrop of sustained chords: the ticktock of everyday minutiae held together by the promise of constancy. PARELESShannen Moser, ‘Oh My God’Shannen Moser recreates a community sing and a hometown band concert in “Oh My God,” from an album arriving next week. In “The Sun Still Seems to Move,” Moser offers theological and existential musings — “I know that life’s not one linear seamless destination” — over fingerpicking and woodwinds, muscles and hands and breath. The music is thoughtful but determinedly physical. PARELESAnna B Savage, ‘The Ghost’The London-based artist Anna B Savage’s devastating new single, “The Ghost,” derives its power from a gradual accumulation of small, intimate details. “We used to notice the same things: His toenails, that little bug,” she sings to an old flame in a trembling low register. “But that changed, you couldn’t see the grave we dug.” Long after the breakup, though, the memory of her ex still lingers. “Stop haunting me, please,” she begs on the chorus, as the austere, piano-driven arrangement suddenly fills up with an eerie atmosphere. It sounds like an exorcism — or at least a yearning, last-ditch attempt at one, in desperate hope that it works. ZOLADZ More

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Addressing his diss track at Rihanna, the ‘Lose Yourself’ spitter says he was just rapping whatever rhymed because the song was recorded during the time that he was relearning how to rhyme.

Jan 5, 2021
AceShowbiz – Eminem may be one of the best rappers alive today, but a near-fatal drug overdose almost stripped him of the ability. The Grammy Award-winning artist admits he had to relearn how to rhyme again after the 2007 incident that almost took his life.
The Slim Shady briefly touched on his drug issue and its aftermath when addressing his diss track “Things Get Worse” aimed at Rihanna. “When it first happened, I was like, first, I didn’t know how, how somebody got it,” he said to SiriusXM’s Gray Rizzy on Monday, January 4.
The 48-year-old star claimed he had no recollection of the lyrics and figured he was just rapping whatever rhymed because the song was recorded during the time he was relearning how to rap. “Second of all, I have no, zero recollection of even remembering doing that, that verse, like ‘The rhyme schemes didn’t even sound familiar to me.’ So I was caught off guard, too,” he shared.

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Em went on recounting, “I was like, ‘What the f**k, I said that?’ And that was during early stages of the ‘Relapse’ record that I was working on. So, you know, it’s ten-plus years old, but not making excuses for it. I said it and I was wrong for saying that, it was f**king stupid.”
“A lot of times, especially with the ‘Relapse’ record, when I first started learning how to rap again, because of the drug situation that I went through and having to relearn a lot of things,” the “8 Mile” star continued. “That was one of those things that it was like, well, if it rhymes, say it. I think that being able to look back – I mean, that’s not even an excuse – but I’m just saying there was a phase I was going through with that ‘Relapse’ record.”
In the said diss track, which was recorded during sessions for his 2009 album “Relapse”, Em rapped, “I’m not playing, Rihanna, where’d you get the VD at?/ Let me add my two cents/ Of course I side with Chris Brown/ I’d beat a b***h down too/ If she gave my d**k an itch now.” The song was leaked in 2019.
Em later addressed the controversial lyrics in his new song “Zeus”, on which he apologized to his “Love the Way You Live” collaborator, “And wholeheartedly, apologies, Rihanna/ For that song that leaked, I’m sorry, Ri/ It wasn’t meant to cause you grief.”

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The ‘Somethin’ Bad’ singer has rescheduled her Salt Lake City and Denver concert to February 25 and March 2 after she was forced to back out of them due to an illness.
Feb 3, 2020
AceShowbiz – Country star Miranda Lambert has apologised to fans for having to postpone a pair of weekend tour dates after losing her voice.
The “Vice” singer had been due to perform in Salt Lake City, Utah on Friday, January 31, but took to Instagram earlier in the day to reveal she would no longer be taking the stage.
“I’ve been doing everything in my power to be 100% but my voice is just not there. Not even close,” she wrote.
“I am so sorry to let everyone down. Since I’m not well, we thought it would be better to come back and give y’all the best show we can.”

Lambert was then forced to also scrap plans to play Denver, Colorado on Saturday as her illness still lingered.
“I spent the last 24 hours on the bus trying to get as well as I could. No talking. All the tea in the world. Sleep. Meds (sic),” she shared.
“I’m feeling a lot better but unfortunately my voice is just not back yet and there is nothing else I can do but wait. It’s the worst feeling in the world to not be able to show up and put on a show for y’all.”
The gigs have since been rebooked for February 25 and March 2, respectively.

It’s not yet known if any further tour dates will be affected by her ailment, but Lambert will have a few more days to rest before she is next due onstage in Kansas City, Missouri on Thursday.

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He began playing as a child and quickly found success for his technical command and, as one critic put it, his “thoughtful elegance.”Antônio Meneses was 10 when he and his four brothers were recruited for the Rio Municipal Theater Orchestra. Their father, a French horn player in Rio de Janeiro, decided that his children should play string instruments to increase their employment odds.By the age of 24 Mr. Meneses had exceeded his father’s expectations: He had won two major international cello competitions, including the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, and was on his way to making recordings of Brahms and Richard Strauss with Herbert Von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic. He was later recruited by Menahem Pressler to become the last cellist in the late 20th century’s greatest piano trio, the Beaux Arts Trio.Mr. Meneses, who became one of his generation’s premier cellists and an important figure in the musical life of his native Brazil, died on Aug. 3 in Basel, Switzerland. He was 66.His death, in a hospital, was confirmed by his agent, Jean-Marc Peysson. The Brazilian news media said the cause was brain cancer.With his serious, concentrated playing, his singing tone, his sure technique and his absolute dedication to the musical text, Mr. Meneses marked himself as a musician’s musician.He was sought after by conductors like Zubin Mehta, Claudio Abbado and Andrew Davis, and by recitalists like the great Portuguese pianist Maria João Pires, with whom he recorded Brahms and Schubert, as well as the pianist Cristina Ortiz, his compatriot, with whom he recorded a memorable Villa-Lobos disc.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More