Canadian folk/alt-country band Blackie and the Rodeo Kings are set to release Kings and Queens today (6/14) in the US via Music/Dramatico/Universal. The album features a different female vocalist in each track, and the list is pretty impressive. It includes Lucinda Williams, Mary Margaret O'Hara, Exene Cervenka of X, Sara Watkins of Nickel Creek, Emmylou Harris, Rosanne Cash and others. Full tracklist below.

The band plays The Living Room TONIGHT (6/14). Tickets are available. They play at 9 PM before Joseph Arthur plays one of his 10 shows at the same venue at 10 PM.

No special guests are announced, but we know at least one of the artists that appears on the album is probably in town. NYC resident Rosanne Cash, who spends much of the summer touring to promote her music and a book, has no dates scheduled before this Thursday (6/16) when she plays as part of Hal Wilner's 'Freedom Riders' show with Lou Reed, Tao Seeger, and others.

Lucinda Williams also has shows coming up too. She plays Wellmont Theatre on July 20 (tickets) and Beacon Theater on July 21 (tickets) with Amos Lee.

Emmylou Harris plays Summerstage on July 18 with the Levon Helm Band and Hayes Carll. Tickets are still on sale.

Exene Cervenka will be in NYC with X in September and October.

I don't know if Sara Watkins is on tour with the Decemberists (who play Prospect Park tonight), but she did play with them at the Beacon Theater in January.

All B&RK tour dates, album art, and tracklist below...

Continue reading "Blackie & the Rodeo Kings released a guest-filled album, playing a NYC show tonight (and other dates)"

photos by Tim Griffin

"Giants Stadium heard its last sha-la-las -- at least, the amplified kind with tens of thousands of voices singing along -- on Friday night, when Bruce Springsteen played the final concert before the stadium is demolished. During the three-hour set, sha-la-las filled this year's "Working on a Dream," the 1984 song "Darlington County" and Tom Waits' "Jersey Girl," the finale that Mr. Springsteen called the stadium's "last dance." It was Mr. Springsteen's 24th performance, dating back to 1985, at Giants Stadium, where the audiences are his most fervent fans: fellow New Jerseyans.

So in a way, Mr. Springsteen could identify with the place, and he did -- at least half-seriously -- in "Wrecking Ball," a robust, guitar-strumming song he wrote to start off each of his five final concerts at the stadium. (A video performance is at brucespringsteen.net.)

It may be the only song ever to make Giants Stadium itself the narrator, "raised out of steel in the swamps of Jersey." It remembers games played and blood spilled, and envisions the stadium's fate, when "all this steel and these stories, they drift away to rust/and all our youth and beauty's been given to the dust." Typically, Mr. Springsteen was thinking about work, mortality, and a sense of place, on his way to a chorus where everyone could join in.

He wasn't overly sentimental. Later, he pointedly called Giants Stadium "the last bastion of affordable sports seating."

At each of the Giants Stadium concerts, Mr. Springsteen played one of his albums all the way through, and the one he chose for Friday was his 1984 blockbuster, "Born in the U.S.A." Before he started the title track, he said it was "the song we started out with the first time we entered this arena."... [NY Times]

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The New York Comedy Festival (NYCF) and the Bob Woodruff Foundation (BWF) unite to present the second annual Stand Up for Heroes: A Benefit for the Bob Woodruff Foundation at Town Hall in New York City at 8:00 PM on Wednesday, November 5. Regis Philbin will host Stand Up for Heroes, which will feature star performances by Ricky Gervais, John Pinette, Bruce Springsteen, and Patti Scialfa. Both Whoopi Goldberg and James Niven of Sotheby's will make a special appearance as the guest auctioneers. In honor of the United States' injured service members, the evening promises unforgettable performances, laughter, and sincere gratitude, with proceeds going to the BWF.

Bruce is also performing at Obama-related events at Hammerstein Ballroom and in Philly. Ricky Gervais is in the new movie Ghost Town.

photos by Eric M. Townsend

It was E Street Family Night at Giants Stadium on Monday.

Drummer Max Weinberg's 18-year-old son Jay substituted for his father on "Born to Run," pounding the skins with authority as the elder Weinberg watched from the side of the stage. Bruce Springsteen's 16-year-old daughter, Jessica, danced onstage during the show-closing "Twist and Shout," and even took a little rock-star leap at the end. Also, Springsteen led the crowd in singing "Happy Birthday To You" to his wife, E Street Band member Patti Scialfa. She turned 55 yesterday.

This was the second of three shows that Springsteen and the band will be presenting at Giants Stadium this week, and though it was slightly longer than Sunday's show, it still lasted more than three hours and featured 28 songs. [The Star Ledger]

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