Mack Emerman, the founder of Criteria Recording Studios where acts including Eric Clapton, James Brown and the Bee Gees made some of their most famous records, has died after a long illness. He was 89.
Two things singer Miguel didn't land at Sunday's Billboard Music Awards: an award for "Top R&B Song" and an attempted jump from one stage to another. The singer's high-energy performance of "Adorn" was amplified Sunday by the unsuccessful jump when his leg caught the face of a fan, her head slamming onto the stage.
Another day, another domination for Taylor Swift: She was the red hot winner at the Billboard Music Awards. Swift won eight of 11 awards, including top artist and top Billboard 200 album for "Red." Check out the red carpet photos.
Ticketmaster has agreed to settle claims for up to $23 million over a lawsuit affecting more than a million people who, after buying a ticket online, were enrolled in a rewards program that cost $9 a month but never gave them any benefits.
On Wednesday, Bob Dylan became the first rock star inducted into the 115-year-old American Academy of Arts and Letters, joining a membership that includes E.L. Doctorow, Chuck Close and John Ashbery.
Hit boy band One Direction has announced plans for an ambitious world tour in 2014.
The name of its latest record is “Fade,” but as it approaches its 30th anniversary, Yo La Tengo is as vibrant as ever, a scrappy old dog open to learning new tricks and trying new techniques.
One of the most successful pianists in the smooth-jazz idiom didn’t come from some gritty inner city or pleasant suburb. Alex Bugnon, who comes to the Gem Theater with trumpeter Cindy Bradley on Saturday, hails from Montreux, the Swiss town at the foot of the Alps.
For many of the estimated 55,000 people in attendance, Rockfest isn't merely an 11-hour concert. Rockfest represents a spirited reunion of likeminded lovers of aggressive rock. The dark and despairing tone of Alice In Chains, the day's headliner, wasn't the least bit celebratory, but that didn't deter the diehard partiers.
A reunited Alice in Chains, one of the biggest bands of the grunge movement of the 1990s, headlined Rockfest — "the biggest one-day music festival in America" — on Saturday at Penn Valley Park. An anticipated horde of 50,000 heard a lineup that also included Device, Kansas City's Red Line Chemistry, Massachusetts' Killswitch Engage and the industrial rockabilly of Denmark's Volbeat.
REO Speedwagon and Styx returned to Starlight Theater on Friday night for the fourth time in five years, and for a good reason. They always draws a big crowd. The bands aren’t who they used to be, but those details don’t matter when the live versions of the songs sound so much like the ways they were recorded.
The Rolling Stones have embarked on their "50 and Counting" tour, celebrating half a century of extraordinary staying power with a raucous Oakland show Sunday at Oracle Arena and a San Jose stop to come Wednesday at HP Pavilion. Mick Jagger still works the stage, prancing and preening, while the rest of us wonder what it'd be like to have 2 percent body fat.
The group rides a professional high into its Friday concert in Kansas City. Its new album, “Lead With Your Heart,” debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s crossover charts. Last month the group snagged adult contemporary album of the year at the Juno Awards, Canada’s equivalent of the Grammys.
Victoria Alaadeen has been feeling stronger the past few months, maybe because she’s been sharing her story. She released a book of her poetry, “The Heartbeat Next to My Heartbeat,” full of memories and feelings about her late husband, Kansas City jazz great Ahmad Alaadeen.
A nuanced and multidimensional portrait of Woody Guthrie, and a celebration of his art and influence, can be found in a new center in Tulsa. To listen to contemporary singer/songwriters, all roads lead to Guthrie. To listen to Nora Guthrie, his daughter, the road from the Woody Guthrie Center extends in all directions.
Diana Krall, one of the most bankable commodities in jazz, represents different things to different people. Many observers consider her a reliable traditionalist. Others view Krall as a sultry pop star. She offered a simple explanation of herself to an audience of about 2,500 at the Midland theater Wednesday.
Carrie Underwood, who has gone from a wide-eyed "American Idol" contestant to a powerhouse country star in the span of eight years, performed Wednesday night at the Sprint Center, touring in support of her new record, "Blown Away." Hunter Hayes, country music's version of Justin Bieber, opened the show. Click the link to see photos from the concert by The Star's Joe Ledford.
Four years after its last appearance in Kansas City, no one in Fleetwood Mac is younger than 63. Yes, the world is turning, and time makes you bolder and older, but Tuesday night at the Sprint Center the band showed that it somehow manages to keep its chain intact.
Strikingly different aspects of Gov’t Mule were displayed Tuesday at the Uptown Theater. After delivering a concise opening salvo, the band entertained an audience of about 1,000 with an eclectic second set of jazz, classic rock and heavy metal.
Merle Jam at Knuckleheads has evolved into a fundraiser, an awareness campaign for the Midwest Transplant Network, a gathering of organ recipients and donor families, and a two-day music festival stocked with big-time entertainment. This year’s headliners are Kelly Willis and Bruce Robison on Friday, which is country night, and Delbert McClinton on Saturday, blues night.
