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Rush Icon Alex Lifeson Gets His Own Epiphone With The 1976 ES-355 “Whitey” Reissue

Eric Alper
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Rush Icon Alex Lifeson Gets His Own Epiphone With The 1976 ES-355 “Whitey” Reissue

Alex Lifeson’s most iconic guitar is finally within reach for the rest of us. Epiphone has unveiled the Alex Lifeson 1976 ES-355 Reissue, a stage-ready, Custom Shop-inspired recreation of the Rush guitarist’s famous 1976 ES-355, known to fans as “Whitey.” It’s available now worldwide at authorized Epiphone dealers, Gibson Garage locations, and online.

Lifeson is thrilled with how it turned out. “The ES-355 has always been a really special guitar for me, it’s got this incredible balance of elegance and power,” he says. “What I love about this Epiphone ‘Whitey’ recreation is how faithfully it captures that original spirit while still feeling fresh and alive in your hands. It’s a guitar that invites you to explore, to take chances, and to find your own voice.”

The build is serious. The reissue features a five-ply semi-hollow body of maple and poplar with multi-ply binding, a solid maple centerblock for sustain and reduced feedback, and a three-piece maple neck that mirrors the original 70s-era instrument, complete with a volute for added strength. The Slim C profile and ebony fretboard make for a fast, luxurious feel, finished with mother-of-pearl block inlays and 22 medium jumbo frets.

The appointments lean upscale throughout. Gold hardware includes a harmonica-style Tune-O-Matic bridge and gold pickup covers, with a gold Maestro Vibrola for expressive pitch control. A pair of USA-made Gibson T-Type humbuckers bring Lifeson’s voice to life, wired through CTS potentiometers, Mallory capacitors, a Switchcraft three-way toggle, and a mono Varitone switch that opens up the tonal range. The truss rod cover carries Alex’s engraved name, and the whole thing ships in a custom black hardshell case with his signature, a plush red interior, and gold hardware. It’s a gorgeous instrument built for players who want both heritage and adventure.

Lifeson co-founded Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Rush, where his guitar textures and adventurous harmony helped define progressive rock across 19 studio albums. An Officer of the Order of Canada, he keeps pushing into new territory, including the alt-rock collective Envy of None, whose 2025 sophomore album ‘Stygian Wavz’ arrived via Kscope alongside singles “Not Dead Yet,” “Under the Stars,” and the title track.

He’s also back on stage this summer. Lifeson reunites with Geddy Lee for Rush’s Fifty Something Tour, a limited run celebrating the band’s legacy and honoring Neil Peart, with Anika Nilles on drums. The dates open June 9-13 at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles before stops in Mexico City, Fort Worth, Chicago, New York, Toronto, and Cleveland, with more legs slated into 2027.

Bluegrass Icon Ricky Skaggs Breaks A Decade Of Silence With New Single “Say A Prayer”

Eric Alper
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Bluegrass Icon Ricky Skaggs Breaks A Decade Of Silence With New Single “Say A Prayer”

Ricky Skaggs is back in the studio for the first time in over a decade. The 15-time Grammy winner releases his new single “Say A Prayer” on June 26 via Skaggs Family Records, distributed by Virgin Music Group, his first new music in more than ten years.

Written by Gordon Kennedy and Ben Cooper, the song blends country, bluegrass, and rock, with instrumentation that runs from sitar to fiddle, mandolin, and banjo. It came together as a response to the struggles facing communities around the world, built on themes of faith, reflection, and unity.

“I’m incredibly excited to share my new single, ‘Say A Prayer,'” Skaggs says. “The song addresses a world carrying a lot of grief right now, serving as a universal call for everyone to stop and lean into faith. It’s got a chorus that resonates with faith, country and rock audiences alike.”

The release arrives in the middle of a packed touring stretch. Skaggs and his band Kentucky Thunder join Dierks Bentley on select dates of Bentley’s Off The Map Summer Tour starting June 12, and Skaggs returns to Nashville’s historic Ryman Auditorium to close out the Bluegrass Nights at the Ryman series on July 21.

He’s coming off one of CMA Fest’s most talked-about moments too. This past Saturday night, Skaggs made a memorable appearance during Carly Pearce’s Nissan Stadium set in Nashville, joining her and Grammy-winning bluegrass star Molly Tuttle for a performance of “From Now On.” Pearce introduced it as a tribute to her Kentucky bluegrass roots, and the collaboration brought three of the genre’s most respected names together for one of the night’s standout moments. The packed stadium ate it up, a reminder of how much pull Skaggs still has across traditional bluegrass and today’s country crowd.

Metal Heavyweights Unite As Sebastian Bach Fronts All-Star Cover Of Rainbow’s “Man On The Silver Mountain”

Eric Alper
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Metal Heavyweights Unite As Sebastian Bach Fronts All-Star Cover Of Rainbow’s “Man On The Silver Mountain”

Sebastian Bach just delivered a knockout, and it’s the last piece of one of the year’s biggest tributes. The former Skid Row frontman, who now leads Twisted Sister, fronts a devastating cover of “Man On The Silver Mountain,” the final single from ‘Ride The Rainbow,’ the all-star tribute to Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow that lands June 19 via Cleopatra Records.

The track itself goes back to Rainbow’s epochal 1975 debut and stayed a concert favorite for years after. Bach’s version stacks the deck, pulling in Rainbow’s own Bob Daisley, Uriah Heep’s Mick Box, Journey’s Jonathan Cain, Whitesnake’s Doug Aldrich, and the super-legendary Carmine Appice of Vanilla Fudge and Beck Bogert & Appice.

Appice has a story to go with it. “I was supposed to be in Rainbow back in the day. Ritchie asked me to be in it, but I couldn’t do it, so I was very pleased to play on this track,” he says. “I love all the musicians, too, they are all fantastic players and all good friends. So this track kicks ass!”

Cain came to it with warm memories of the band’s golden era. “Rainbow with Ronnie James Dio were one of the truly melodic and memorable metal bands,” he says, recalling a chance to party with Dio late in his touring days after a Sweden Rock Festival. “His soaring voice and melodies will be remembered for decades to come.”

The full album is a star-studded trip through every era of the Blackmore-led legend, featuring no fewer than six Rainbow alumni. Daisley is joined by Ronnie Romero, Graham Bonnet, Don Airey, Joe Lynn Turner, and Doogie White, plus Steve Morse, Blackmore’s successor in Deep Purple, and Ritchie’s Blackmore’s Night partner Candice Night. The 14-song set earns its billing as the ultimate tribute to Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow.

Queen Drummer Roger Taylor Returns With Solo Album ‘Violence Insane In A Beautiful World’ And A UK Run

Eric Alper
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Queen Drummer Roger Taylor Returns With Solo Album ‘Violence Insane In A Beautiful World’ And A UK Run

Roger Taylor has plenty left to say at full volume. The Queen drummer, singer, and songwriter announces his seventh solo album ‘Violence Insane In A Beautiful World,’ out September 18 via Columbia Records, his first since 2021’s top-three record ‘Outsider.’

Leading the way is the exuberant single “Come On Summer (It’s Party Time),” featuring a stunning turn from The Ndlovu Youth Choir of Limpopo, South Africa, the same group that earned worldwide attention for their Zulu-language version of “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Taylor was so taken by them that he brought them onto three tracks. “I was really happy when I became aware of this amazing South African choir, who sing in Zulu. They’re just wonderful,” he says. “It gives them a whole new dimension.”

The album carries a clear message without tipping into concept-record territory. “There is a theme, you know, it’s in the title really, what a beautiful world we live in, don’t fuck it up,” Taylor explains, pointing to the violence, plastics in the sea, and wars he sees around him. The tone, though, lands on hope. “It’s a beautiful world, you know. And kindness is very important, I think. It seems to be forgotten quite a lot.”

Taylor wrote, produced, sang, and performed nearly everything himself, with help from long-time collaborator Joshua J. Macrae and members of his live band. The one outside song is a cover of “Jealous Guy,” which he calls one of the greatest ballads ever written.

The artwork came with its own cosmic twist. While Taylor was finishing the sleeve, built around lead song “A Beautiful World” and imagined from the view of an alien orbiting Earth, NASA’s Artemis II photographed the planet from a distance on its mission to the dark side of the Moon. The Queen fans at NASA in Houston called it kismet.

His solo work has never dodged politics, and tracks like “Chump” speak for themselves. Asked if he feels optimistic, Taylor doesn’t sugarcoat it, naming Nigel Farage and drawing a direct line to Trump-era populism. The eclecticism, meanwhile, is the point. “I like the idea of different things,” he says, citing the Beatles from ‘Revolver’ onward as the model. “I think people are really going to like the surreal stuff.”

The Violence Insane In A Beautiful World Tour opens in Newcastle on September 21, with album pre-orders unlocking first access to tickets. Taylor’s band features keyboardist Spike Edney, supporting drummer Tyler Warren, multi-instrumentalist Tina Keys, Neil Fairclough on bass, and Christian Mendoza on guitar.

Violence Insane In A Beautiful World Tracklisting:

  1. A Beautiful World featuring The Ndlovu Youth Choir
  2. Violence Insane
  3. What Really Matters
  4. Don’t Photograph Food
  5. I See You Now
  6. Chump
  7. Spit In His Eye
  8. Jealous Guy
  9. Come On Summer (It’s Party Time) featuring The Ndlovu Youth Choir
  10. A Great Big Beautiful World (Reprise) featuring The Ndlovu Youth Choir

Roger Taylor 2026 Tour Dates:

Sept 21 – Newcastle, UK @ O2 City Hall

Sept 22 – Edinburgh, UK @ Usher Hall

Sept 24 – Birmingham, UK @ The Alexandra

Sept 25 – Manchester, UK @ Opera House

Sept 28 – London, UK @ Roundhouse

Sept 29 – Swansea, UK @ Building Society Arena

Taylor Swift Channels Her Inner Jessie With New ‘Toy Story 5’ Song “I Knew It, I Knew You”

Eric Alper
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Taylor Swift Channels Her Inner Jessie With New ‘Toy Story 5’ Song “I Knew It, I Knew You”

Taylor Swift grew up with the ‘Toy Story’ films, and now she’s part of one. The global superstar has lent her voice to the ‘Toy Story 5’ soundtrack with an original song, “I Knew It, I Knew You,” and she’s telling the story behind it in an exclusive ABC sit-down as part of a new special.

‘Toy Story 30 Years and Beyond – A Special Edition of 20/20’ airs Friday, June 12 from 8-9 pm ET/PT on ABC and streams the next day on Disney+ and Hulu. The hour charts Pixar’s rise from making shorts and TV commercials to becoming an animation superpower, told by the people who lived it.

A longtime admirer of composer Randy Newman, Swift says the movie’s message hit her so personally that it inspired a song bringing her back to her country roots. She channels her inner Jessie on the track, joining the long line of fans who can’t picture these films without Newman’s iconic music.

The two turned the LA premiere into a moment. Swift and Newman surprised the audience by performing after the end credits, with Swift playing “I Knew It, I Knew You” and joining Newman for a duet of the classic “You’ve Got a Friend in Me,” the song that opened the very first film back in 1995.

The special digs into how the original ‘Toy Story,’ voiced by Tom Hanks and Tim Allen, was so challenging it almost wasn’t made, and how that first full-length computer-animated feature paired technical innovation with real storytelling heart. It also looks ahead to ‘Toy Story 5,’ with exclusive footage and a behind-the-scenes look at Pixar’s Emeryville campus.

The lineup of voices is deep. Interviews include Tom Hanks as Woody, Tim Allen as Buzz Lightyear, Joan Cusack as Jessie, Greta Lee as Lilypad, Tony Hale as Forky, Ernie Hudson as Combat Carl, Craig Robinson as Atlas, Blake Clark as Slinky Dog, Jeff Bergman as Mr. Potato Head, and Wallace Shawn as Rex, plus Pixar chief creative officer Pete Docter, director Andrew Stanton, and co-director Kenna Harris.

Open Mike Eagle And Producer Kenny Segal Drop The First Half-Whimsical Breakup Album On ‘DOOMED!’

Eric Alper
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Open Mike Eagle And Producer Kenny Segal Drop The First Half-Whimsical Breakup Album On ‘DOOMED!’

Two friends of nearly 20 years finally built something whole together. Open Mike Eagle and Kenny Segal announce their first full collaborative album ‘DOOMED!,’ out August 14 via Backwoodz, with worldwide physical distribution through Rhymesayers / Secretly. The duo shared the first single, “Unfinished Concrete Initials” featuring Hemlock Ernst, alongside the news.

The record runs 15 songs and lands somewhere none of us have been before, what the duo calls the world’s first half-whimsical breakup album. It’s five years in a blender, every misunderstanding of a long relationship stretched into an absurdist black comedy on wax, the sound of every fight playing at once.

It’s also Los Angeles. Both Mike and Kenny arrived in the city as young, aspiring artists pulled toward the scene around the groundbreaking rap crew Project Blowed, and they’ve been friends and occasional collaborators ever since. ‘DOOMED!’ marks the first time they’ve built a full body of work together, and the timing made it click. Mike was processing the end of a turbulent relationship and hungry for catharsis. Kenny, fresh off acclaimed collaborations with billy woods, K-the-I???, Human Error Club, and Benjamin Booker, was looking for his next challenge.

“In recent years, Kenny made it very clear that he wasn’t trying to keep having one or two beats on my projects; he wanted to build something,” Open Mike Eagle explains. “Then my relationship fell apart right when we started working, and it was like, ‘Perfect, I have a lot to say about this.'”

Mike frames the album like prestige TV. “Out To Lunch” is the pilot, introducing a man whose head is still stuck in yesterday. From there it moves through fights about the color of a rental car, a prayer for the strength not to check an ex’s social media, a doomed attempt to carve lovers’ initials into wet concrete, and an Adventure Time character he describes as someone he uncomfortably identifies with.

The writing is vivid and strange in the best way. “Each vision is a crashed airplane halfway on the border of dream and nightmare, bitter and sweet, sadness and freedom,” Mike says. “Every one of Kenny’s beats is a chunk of ore from a different comet. I used each one as a canvas to paint my impression of a dead world.”

DOOMED! Tracklisting:

  1. Out to Lunch
  2. Streets of Rage: Public Arguments Edition feat. Gothic Tropic
  3. DOOMED!
  4. Unfinished Concrete Initials feat. Hemlock Ernst
  5. Don’t Go Look (Battleworld Focus Prayer)
  6. She Swear I’m Colorblind feat. billy woods
  7. Science Fiction/Fantasy
  8. The Irredeemable Magic Man
  9. The Many Hustles of my Lonely Time Traveling Uncle
  10. Trying to Remember What I Aimed At
  11. Shrodinger’s Green Room (There but Uninvited)
  12. It Happens in Every Universe (interlude)
  13. Sweetheart Jail
  14. Infinity War Spoliers
  15. Watching a Movie Called Freedom By Myself

The Waterboys Unearth Lost ‘Fisherman’s Blues’ Treasures On ‘Atlantic Rain’

Eric Alper
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The Waterboys Unearth Lost ‘Fisherman’s Blues’ Treasures On ‘Atlantic Rain’

Nearly 40 years after the sessions, The Waterboys are opening the vault. The band has announced ‘Atlantic Rain – The Lost Fisherman’s Blues Recordings,’ a 25-track collection of previously unheard music from the classic ‘Fisherman’s Blues’ era, out July 17 via Chrysalis Records in 3CD, 3LP, and digital editions.

The backstory is staggering. During the 1986-88 sessions, The Waterboys recorded almost 400 multi-track reels, many running at half-speed to pack in more music. Around a fifth of those reels carried no song titles, just scribbled notes like “instrumental,” “unknown,” “soundcheck,” or “jam.” Band leader Mike Scott finally went through the mystery tapes in 2024-25 and pulled out a trove of release-worthy performances.

Among the finds are never-before-heard songs like “Come Back To Galway,” “Light Shine On Me,” and “Endless Store,” the epic “Man With The Wind At His Heels,” and covers of Hank Williams, Woody Guthrie, and Willie Nelson. The set stands proudly alongside the legendary 6-disc ‘Fisherman’s Box’ from 2013, once thought to be the final word on these sessions.

A second preview track is out now, a passionate cover of Bob Dylan’s “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door,” with a new lyric video streaming. It follows last month’s first teaser, “Too Close To Heaven (soul version).” There’s also a fresh remix of the classic “We Will Not Be Lovers,” recently featured in the Netflix show ‘Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen.’

When ‘Fisherman’s Blues’ arrived in 1988, it marked a sharp turn for the band. After their early alternative rock records, they relocated to Ireland and embraced roots, country, and Celtic music, and as ‘Atlantic Rain’ shows, the palette also stretched into soul, old-time gospel, and ecstatic instrumental jams. The album drew bemusement, delight, and rage in equal measure on release, and has since become the band’s biggest seller. The physical editions come with a 54-page deluxe book featuring track-by-track notes from Scott.

This summer brings the music to the stage. The Waterboys head out on a nine-date arena run dubbed The Fisherman’s Blues Revue, celebrating the era across Dublin, London, Glasgow, and Europe. The shows feature Americana great Steve Earle, who joins the ensemble singing his own songs while adding guitar and mandolin to Waterboys numbers, alongside legendary fiddler Steve Wickham and ‘Fisherman’s Blues’ flautist Colin Blakey. The lineup also includes Brother Paul on organ, Famous James on piano, Aongus Ralston on bass, Eamon Ferris on drums, and Norwegian lap steel ace Roar Øien. Tickets are on sale now.

Atlantic Rain Tracklisting:

  1. Too Close To Heaven (soul version)
  2. Come Back To Galway
  3. The Man With The Wind At His Heels
  4. And Then The Gods
  5. Light Shine On Me
  6. Endless Store
  7. This Land Is Your Land (studio version)
  8. Saints And Angels (1988 version)
  9. I Can’t Feel At Home In This World Anymore
  10. Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door
  11. Honky Tonkin’
  12. No Expectations
  13. When Doves Cry
  14. Angel Flying Too Close To The Ground
  15. Killing My Heart (full length)
  16. Bob And Anto’s Soundcheck
  17. We Will Not Be Lovers (live take)
  18. Lost Highway (double version)
  19. The Good Ship Sirius / The Ship In Full Sail
  20. Mister Saxman
  21. The Waves
  22. The Last Jam (long version)
  23. Night Falls On Windmill Lane
  24. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
  25. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)

Video: Cypress Hill Bring The Smoke To Germany’s Summerjam Festival In 2019

Eric Alper
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Video: Cypress Hill Bring The Smoke To Germany’s Summerjam Festival In 2019

Cypress Hill rolled into Cologne in 2019 and reminded everyone why they’ve spent three decades owning festival stages. Captured by Rockpalast at the Summerjam Festival, the South Gate, California crew tore through a career-spanning set built on the gritty, psychedelic hip-hop they pioneered in the early 90s. The lineup brought B-Real and Sen Dog on vocals, Mix Master Mike on the turntables, and Eric Bobo on percussion, a combination that hits with serious force live. The setlist pulled from across their catalog, from “Hand On The Pump” and “When The Shit Goes Down” to the inescapable “Jump Around” and newer cuts off their 2018 record ‘Elephants On Acid.’ Ever since their 1991 debut and the monumental ‘Black Sunday’ in 1993, which gave the world “Insane In The Brain,” they’ve built a sound on DJ Muggs’ smooth loops and the contrasting deliveries of B-Real and Sen Dog.

The Tiny Bumps On Your F And J Keys Have A Secret 138-Year History

Eric Alper
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The Tiny Bumps On Your F And J Keys Have A Secret 138-Year History

Ever run your fingers across a keyboard and felt those two tiny ridges on the F and J keys? A new explainer from Simple Things – Surprising Histories digs into why they’re there, and the answer goes back more than a century. Those bumps are homing bars, physical anchors that let your index fingers find the home row without looking down. The video traces the story from the birth of touch typing in 1888, credited to Frank Edward McGurrin, through the shift away from slow hunt-and-peck typing, to June E. Botich’s 2002 standardization of the tactile ridges we use today. There’s a fun detour into vintage 1980s Apple keyboards, which oddly placed the bumps on D and K instead, plus a look at the science of tactile priming and the nerve endings in your fingertips that make the whole system work. It’s a clean, four-minute history of a design detail most people never think about, and the comments add a great wrinkle: blind computer users point out those same bumps are essential for navigating a keyboard by touch.

Muscle Shoals Quartet The Family Turn Six Years Of Patience Into Debut Album ‘Delusions of Grandeur’

Eric Alper
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Muscle Shoals Quartet The Family Turn Six Years Of Patience Into Debut Album ‘Delusions of Grandeur’

Four acclaimed Muscle Shoals songwriters waited six years to let this record out, and now it’s coming. The Family, made up of Dylan LeBlanc, James LeBlanc, Angela Hacker, and Bay Simpson, announce their debut album ‘Delusions of Grandeur,’ due July 31 via Big Black Cow Records. The connection runs deeper than the music. Dylan is James’ son, Bay is Angela’s son, and James and Angela raised the boys together as a family of musicians.

They cut the album at the legendary FAME Studios in 2020, at the urging of FAME’s Rodney Hall, with no expectations about what the sessions would become. Lockdown gave them the time, and a show in Huntsville gave them their first taste of playing together publicly. The idea of a band took shape from there.

Lead single “The End,” out today, is taut and timeless, soulful folk rock built on lush harmonies, jazzy chord changes, and a groove that wouldn’t sound out of place on a lost Eagles or Steely Dan record. James sings lead and digs into darker territory. “To me the song is about nihilism. People’s fascination with post-apocalyptic hysteria,” he says, describing a “staring into the abyss” mentality that comes naturally to where the family comes from as people.

The road here wasn’t smooth. Dylan, Angela, and James each fought private battles with substances and alcohol, and the family had drifted apart over the years under the weight of touring schedules and separate lives. The record pulled them back together. “We all came into it carrying different scars, different experiences, and different stories of survival, but through the music we found healing in each other,” they shared in a family statement, calling the album proof that broken things can still become beautiful.

With Spencer Coats engineering and Brad Crisler co-producing, each member brought ideas to FAME, and the sessions forged a bond that shaped the album they’d always heard in their heads. Once the world reopened, though, no label bit. Dylan kept the flame alive in January 2026 by sharing the riff-driven “Pick Your Poison” on Spotify, billed as Dylan LeBlanc, The Family, and it became one of his most popular tracks.

The final push came from Jesse “Chunk” Walker, a naval officer and entrepreneur married to Dylan’s twin sister, whose online store Big Black Cow Records gave the album a home. “So much of your life, you can sit around and just wait for someone to give you an opportunity, and you’ll be waiting for a really long time,” James says. “Why don’t we create the opportunity for ourselves?”

The album channels a ’70s folk-rock sound, full of FM radio warmth and Southern rock grit. The hook-laden “History of Things to Come” puts Angela up front, while the Fleetwood Mac-esque “Everybody Loves You Now,” powered by Bay, is the quartet’s own favorite. It’s a warm, lived-in collection that earns every bit of its golden-age comparison.

The album is only the start. The Family recently cut seven new songs plus a live album from their first shows in May 2026. “We go through what any other family would go through,” Angela says. “Then we get to share what we love, which is music, that’s so freaking cool to me.”

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That Eric Alper

Eric Alper is a 6-time nominee for Publicist of the Year during Canadian Music Week and has overseen the publicity campaigns for over 183 JUNO Award-nominated albums (and 16 in 2025), 45 Grammy-nominated albums, including 47 JUNO Award, 58 Canadian Folk Music Award, 126 Maple Blues Award-winning albums and is also truly honoured to work with some of the biggest and most important artists of our time.

Contact me: eric@thatericalper.com

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