Did you see Willie on Larry King Live and Craig Ferguson’s Late Late Show last Friday? It was a hoot!

Willie’s 4th of July Picnic happens at 12 noon at The Backyard at Bee Cave in Austin. Some of the artists appearing this year are Asleep at the Wheel, Billy Joe Shaver, David Allen Coe, Jack Ingram, Jamey Johnson, Kris Kristofferson, Leon Russell, Paula Nelson, Randy Rogers Band, Ray Price, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Kevin Fowler, with many more to be announced. More info at thebackyard.net

Win a limited edition Martin Guitar autographed by Willie, plus a trip to Austin and tickets to his 4th of July Picnic and a copy of his new CD “Country Music” from Sirius XM Radio. Contest details at sirius.com

Willie’s touring the UK and Europe in June, Tour Dates here.

Willie’s new album “Country Music” produced by T-Bone Burnett just released last week and features a collection of vintage country standards. Some of Nashville’s top bluegrass musicians appear on the album.

Willie on the Web: willienelson.com

Willie on Facebook

Willie’s Place on Sirius XM Radio

An all-star tribute to Neil Young happens in L.A. just days before the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards show, featuring Ben Harper, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Dave Matthews, Elton John, Emmylou Harris, Jackson Browne, James Taylor, John Mellencamp, k.d. Lang, Leon Russell, Lucinda Williams, Norah Jones, Sheryl Crow, T Bone Burnett and Wilco, among others.

Sources:
www.grammy.com/

twitter.com/TheGRAMMYs

www.neilyoung.com

The Performers:

Paul McCartney rocked out with Dave Grohl on drums, who was clearly enjoying himself.  How appropriate they played “I Saw Her Standing There,” one of the original Beatle songs that kicked off the British Invasion and influenced most of today’s performers.

Very cool to see B.B. King and John Mayer on stage together with Buddy Guy and Keith Urban, jamming in tribute to Bo Diddley.

Radiohead put on an amazing performance of “15 Step” with help from the USC Marching Band.  I thought it was an unique presentation, and so cool to see the marching drums on stage.

MusiCares Person Of The Year is Neil Diamond, who was honored at a ceremony last Friday with performances from Coldplay, the Foo Fighters and Jennifer Hudson.  The MusiCares organization offers financial and medical help to music people in need.

The Winners:

Album Of The Year went to Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, who also won for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals with “Rich Woman.”  In total, Plant and Krauss gathered up five Grammys, including Record of the Year for “Please Read The Letter,” from their platinum selling album Raising Sand, produced by T Bone Burnett.

Ironic that the lead singer of rock’s biggest band would win an award in the country category, but that’s what happened.  Robert Plant and Alison Krauss also won a Grammy for Best Country Collaboration With Vocals for “Killing The Blues.”  I guess that pretty much kills any existing rumors that Robert Plant will join Led Zeppelin for a reunion tour.  The bluegrass is much greener on this side.

Coldplay won three Grammys with their Viva La Vida album…Song of the Year, Best Rock Album, and Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals.

Best Alternative Music Album went to Radiohead for In Rainbows.

Adele won for Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for “Chasing Pavements.”

Jennifer Hudson won the award for Best R&B Album with her self-titled debut.  Good for her!

No surprise here; Bruce Springsteen wins Best Rock Song for his track from Magic, “Girls In Their Summer Clothes.”

Interesting that one of my favorite vocal groups, The Eagles won the award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance:  “I Dreamed There Was No War” from their album Long Road Out Of Eden.

Best Pop Instrumental Album:  Jingle All The Way by Bela Fleck & The Flecktones

Best Pop Vocal Album:  Rockferry by Duffy

Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album:  Still Unforgettable by Natalie Cole

Best Traditional Blues Album:  B.B. King for One Kind Favor

The award for Best Contemporary World Music Album went to Mickey Hart, Zakir Hussain, Sikiru Adepoju and Giovanni Hidalgo for their Global Drum Project.

Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance went to John Mayer for his song “Gravity.”  Yes, Mayer is a good vocalist, but I recognize him more for his guitar work than anything else.  In particular, the John Mayer Trio with Steve Jordan and Pino Palladino.  Good stuff.

The Mars Volta won Best Hard Rock Performance for the track “Wax Simulacra,” from their album The Bedlam in Goliath.

Best Metal Performance went to Metallica for the track “My Apocalypse” from their Death Magnetic album.

Now this is noteworthy…Best Rock Instrumental Performance went to the Zappa Plays Zappa touring ensemble featuring Steve Vai and Napoleon Murphy Brock, led by bandleader Dweezil Zappa, for “Peaches En Regalia.”  Frank would be proud!

The Grammy for Best Musical Album For Children went to They Might Be Giants for Here Come The 123s.

The Best Comedy Album award went to the late, great George Carlin for his album It’s Bad For Ya.

Surprising where some artists appear…one of my favorite performance artists Peter Gabriel won a couple of categories for soundtrack songs he did for the Disney/Pixar movie Wall-E.  He grabbed two Grammys for Best Song Written For Motion Picture, Television or other Visual Media for “Down to Earth,” and Best Instrumental Arrangement for Define Dancing, also from Wall-E.

Rick Rubin got Producer Of The Year (Non-Classical) for five big albums…Death Magnetic (Metallica,) Home Before Dark (Neil Diamond,) Mercy (Dancing For The Death Of An Imaginary Enemy) (Ours,) Seeing Things (Jakob Dylan,) and Weezer’s Red Album.

Best Long Form Music Video:  Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Peter Bogdanovich, director, Skot Bright, producer.

www.grammy.com

www.grammy.com/Musicares

http://twitter.com/TheGRAMMYs

‘One Kind Favor’ has some great players on it too; Nathan East performing on stand up acoustic bass, Dr. John on piano, and Jim Keltner on drums. Check out this YouTube video…

B.B. King’s website has a full track listing, along with the names of the artists who originally recorded the tracks:
“See That My Grave Is Kept Clean” (Lemon Jefferson)
“I Get So Weary” (T-Bone Walker)
“Get These Blues Off Me” (Lee Vida Walker)
“How Many More Years” (Chester Burnett)
“Waiting For Your Call” (Oscar Lollie)
“My Love Is Down” (Lonnie Johnson)
“The World Is Gone Wrong” (Walter Vinson aka Walter Jacobs & Lonnie Chatmon of the Mississippi Sheiks)
“Blues Before Sunrise” (John Lee Hooker)
“Midnight Blues” (John Willie “Shifty” Henry)
“Backwater Blues” (Big Bill Broonzy)
“Sitting On Top Of The World” (Walter Vinson & Lonnie Chatmon)
“Tomorrow Night” (Lonnie Johnson)

It’s just amazing (and inspirational) to witness a legend in his own lifetime still so active after so many years, and obviously still enjoying what he does!

On September 13th B.B. King will open the B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center in his hometown of Indianola, Mississippi. King will also return to broadcasting as the host of his own weekly radio show on XM Radio’s new blues channel called “B.B. King’s Bluesville.” XM Radio Channel 74.

B.B. King Tour Dates:
9/18/08 CenturyTel Center, Bossier City, LA
9/19/08 Beau Rivage Resort & Casino, Biloxi, MS
9/20/08 Pearl River Resort, Choctaw, MS
9/21/08 Von Braun Center, Huntsville, AL
9/25/08 The Klein Memorial Auditorium, Bridgeport, CT
9/26/08 The Bushnell Ctr. for Performing Arts, Hartford, CT
9/27/08 Sovereign Center, Reading, PA
9/28/08 Paramount Center For The Arts, Peekskill, NY
9/30/08 MGM Grand Detroit Casino, Detroit, MI
10/02/08 Stranahan Theater, Toledo, OH
10/03/08 Rialto Square Theatre, Joliet, IL
10/04/08 SIU Arena, Carbondale, IL
10/05/08 Welk Resort Theatre, Branson, MO
10/07/08 Century II Performing Arts & Convention Center, Wichita, KS
10/17/08 Route 66 Casino, Albuquerque, NM
10/23/08 Inn of the Mountain Gods Casino, Mescalero, NM
10/25/08 Boulder Theater, Boulder, CO
10/29/08 Iowa State Center, Ames, IA
10/31/08 The Riverside Theatre, Milwaukee, WI
11/14/08 Riverwind Casino, Norman, OK
11/16/08 Meyerson Symphony Center, Dallas, TX
11/18/08 American Bank Center, Corpus Christi, TX
11/24/08 The Tabernacle, Atlanta, GA
11/26/08 Birchmere, Alexandria, VA
11/28/08 North Shore Music Theatre, Beverly, MA
11/29/08 House of Blues, Atlantic City, NJ
11/30/08 Durham Performing, Arts Center Durham, NC
12/01/08 Maryland Theatre, Hagerstown, MD

Read more at www.bbking.com

John Mellencamp and T Bone Burnett have come up with a winner. It’s “Life, Death, Love and Freedom” Mellencamp’s 22nd album, and it’s available tomorrow July 15th. He’s already on the road so check the tour dates below to see if he might be in concert near you soon.

Look for John Mellencamp on TV:
Thursday July 17 on Late Night with David Letterman
Monday July 21 on The CBS Early Show (in a special remote concert broadcast from Chicago)

Mellencamp calls the album a collection of “modern electric folk songs.” “Life, Death, Love & Freedom” was recorded at his studio in Bloomington, Indiana and produced by T Bone Burnett.

It’s another winner for Starbuck’s Hear Music company too. The album will be the first ever release in the ΧΟΔΕ (CODE) format, developed by T Bone Burnett and his team of engineers. This new high-definition audio format claims to add warmth and presence, and will be playable on all DVD players and DVD drives.

The CODE version of “Life, Death, Love and Freedom” is a DVD that will come packaged with a standard CD version of the album, available at all retail outlets, at no additional cost to the consumer. The DVD’s content can be copied into most computer music software including iTunes and can, then, be downloaded onto personal music players such as the iPod. The standard CD is included to answer all possible compatibility questions.

Mellencamp commented, “When T Bone introduced me to CODE, it was a remarkable experience. I could hear the music the way it was intended to be heard. I’m very happy the people are going to be able to share this experience in a way that’s so true to our original intent.”

Audio: “My Sweet Love”

YouTube Video: “My Sweet Love”

John Mellencamp Tour Dates:
July 14 & 15 Bank of America Pavilion – Boston, MA
July 18 DTE Energy Music Theatre – Clarkston, MI
July 22 Charter One Pavilion @ Northerly Island – Chicago, IL
July 23 Riverbend Music Center – Cincinnati, OH
July 25 Ford Center – Oklahoma City, OK
July 27 Red Rocks Amphitheatre – Denver, CO
July 30 Santa Barbara Bowl- Santa Barbara, CA
July 31 Greek Theatre – Los Angeles, CA
Aug 2 Greek Theatre – Berkeley, CA

John Mellencamp Online @ johnmellencamp.com