Louie Anderson’s reaction to a phone alarm going off might be one of his greatest moments ever.
Slipknot Announce The Knotfest Roadshow 2022
Slipknot, one of the most thrilling and visceral musical collectives on the planet, are excited to announce the 2022 iteration of their infamous Knotfest Roadshow tour. The tour will take place over two legs, both headlined by Slipknot. The first leg will feature special guests In This Moment and Jinjer. The second leg will feature special guests Cypress Hill and Ho99o9.
The first leg of the 38 date tour, produced by Live Nation, kicks off in Fargo, ND on Wednesday, March 16th, 2022 and hits a further 17 cities before wrapping up in Vancouver, BC on Sunday, April 17, 2022. The second leg kicks off on Wednesday, May 18th, 2022 in University Park, PA and hits a further 17 cites before culminating on Sunday, June 18, 2022 in Chula Vista, CA. Full routing below.
2021 marked a banner year for Slipknot. Making a triumphant return to the road, their Knotfest Roadshow 2021 tour sold out amphitheaters across the country, bookended with the record-breaking Knotfest Iowa and the biggest headline show of their career, Knotfest Los Angeles at Banc of California Stadium where they debut their first new music in two years – the furious ‘The Chapeltown Rag’ taken from the highly anticipated new Slipknot album, expected to release this year. In addition, they topped the bills of multiple, internationally renowned festivals including Riot Fest, Rocklahoma, Inkcarceration, Welcome To Rockville, and more.
The tour will be part of Live Nation’s Live Stubs initiative which provides digital collectible NFT ticket stubs to ticket holders, which are free with ticket purchase (These are collector items and will not replace the digital tickets needed to physically enter the show).
Slipknot sit alongside musical institutions like Metallica and Iron Maiden, as one of a select few bands whose legacy is secured within heavy music’s elite. The band emerged at the end of the 20th Century from the American mid-western town of Des Moines, IA and quickly established themselves as the most enigmatic, provocative and aggressive music collective of the modern era. 1999’s eponymous debut is widely viewed as a modern day classic and was honoured by Metal Hammer magazine as the ‘Best Debut of the Last 25 Years.’ The release racked up double RIAA platinum certification in the US, with many of Slipknot’s subsequent releases achieving platinum status both in the US and around the globe. To date, the band have been nominated for 10 Grammy Awards (winning in 2006 for ‘Before I Forget’), as well as scoring 12 Platinum and 41 Gold album certifications around the world and over 3.2 billion YouTube views and counting. Slipknot’s fanbase is as unwavering as it is ubiquitous – the band’s most recent studio album, 2019’s ‘We Are Not Your Kind’ debuted at #1 in the Official Album Charts of 12 countries around the world, including the US, UK, Australia, Canada and Mexico and in the Top 5 of an additional 12 countries including Germany, France and Sweden.
Knotfest is Slipknot’s own self-curated, destination festival brand, currently held in four international locations; the US, Japan, Mexico and Colombia, with the inaugural Brazilian event set to happen in December 2021. Plans for the first UK event are still underway, having been postponed in 2019 by Covid-19 restrictions. Designed as an immersive, unforgettable, ‘dark carnival experience’, the event invites you into Slipknot’s apocalyptic underworld where stunning visuals, fire breathers and nightmarish creatures on stilts set the stage for an intoxicating and memorable weekend of live music.
Knotfest Roadshow 2022
LEG 1
Slipknot w/ In This Moment & Jinjer
Wed Mar 23 Tulsa, OK BOK Center
Fri Mar 25 North Little Rock, AR Simmons Bank Arena
Sat Mar 26 Durant, OK Choctaw Grand Theatre
Tue Mar 29 Birmingham, AL Legacy Arena at the BJCC
Wed Mar 30 N. Charleston, SC North Charleston Coliseum
Fri Apr 01 Greensboro, NC Greensboro Coliseum Complex
Sat Apr 02 Reading, PA Santander Arena
Mon Apr 04 Cleveland, OH Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse
Wed Apr 06 Green Bay, WI Resch Center
Thu Apr 07 Peoria, IL Peoria Civic Center
Sat Apr 09 Minneapolis, MN Target Center
Mon Apr 11 Winnipeg, MB Canada Life Centre
Tue Apr 12 Regina, SK Brandt Centre
Thu Apr 14 Saskatoon, SK SaskTel Centre
Fri Apr 15 Edmonton, AB Rogers Place
Sun Apr 17 Vancouver, BC Pepsi Live at Rogers Arena
LEG 2
Slipknot w/ Cypress Hill and Ho99o9
Wed May 18 University Park, PA Bryce Jordan Center
Fri May 20 Brooklyn, NY Barclays Center
Sat May 21 Providence, RI Dunkin’ Donuts Center
Sun May 22 Manchester, NH SNHU Arena
Tue May 24 Albany, NY MVP Arena
Thu May 26 Montreal, QC Bell Centre
Sat May 28 Quebec, QC Videotron Centre
Sun May 29 Ottawa, ON Canadian Tire Centre
Mon May 30 Toronto, ON Budweiser Stage
Wed Jun 01 Cincinnati, OH Heritage Bank Center
Thu Jun 02 Grand Rapids, MI Van Andel Arena
Sat Jun 04 East Troy, WI Alpine Valley Music Theatre
Sun Jun 05 Moline, IL TaxSlayer Center
Tue Jun 07 Bonner Springs, KS Azura Amphitheater
Thu Jun 09 Colorado Springs, CO The Broadmoor World Arena
Sat Jun 11 Nampa, ID Ford Idaho Center
Mon Jun 13 Seattle, WA Climate Pledge Arena
Tue Jun 14 Ridgefield, WA RV Inn Style Resorts Amphitheater
Fri Jun 17 Las Vegas, NV MGM Garden Arena
Sat Jun 18 Chula Vista, CA North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre
Victoria, BC’s Folk Artist Kele Fleming Gives Social Media a Dressing Down in “Echo Chamber”
We live in a time when finding ‘proof’ to support our ideas and beliefs is merely a scroll and a click away, and our social media news feeds provide a precision-tailored buffet hot and ready to serve our appetites for confirmation bias. With that, Canadian folk rock artist Kele Fleming is spotlighting social media’s divisiveness through the ‘thoughts’ of a futuristic AI character with her timely new single, “Echo Chamber.”
‘So long in an echo chamber, I’m getting into danger’
“Some say that social media is the ultimate echo chamber,” notes Fleming. “It can give us the ability to connect with like-minded people while shielding ourselves from divergent viewpoints.”
Fleming has witnessed, as many of us have, the dangerous outcomes that can result from being able to surround ourselves with only beliefs or opinions that agree with our own. We can see this scenario play out in daily life now.
“When all we hear are our own voices and ideas reflected back, this does tricky things to our sense of reality and truth, not to mention self-image,” she adds.
An examination of this troublesome societal issue isn’t how this song started out for Fleming and her co-writer Ron Yamauchi. It began as a song about a key character in a new sci-fi musical that the two long-time collaborators started working on in 2018, prior to Fleming writing, recording, and releasing her latest full album in 2020, The Song I’ll Write for the Rest of My Life.
“We weren’t initially thinking of the idea of the world of social media creating an echo chamber,” explains the Ontario-born, Victoria-based artist. “We were envisioning an AI character who has been entrusted with the care of a spaceship crew while they are in hyper sleep. The AI is alone with their thoughts for too long and becomes a little unhinged.”
My voice has been my only true friend
I’ll listen to me until the end
My role is to serve
But there’s much more I deserve
Both the AI’s thoughts and the musical environment they’re carried in in the song evoke that focused singularity of being in an echo chamber where no external influences are allowed in.
“The song opens with the hammering of a single note like a Morse code signal,” describes Fleming. “Musically, it’s a melodic plaint driven by a syncopated piano rhythm. The drums, bass and keys fall in step to create a mesmerizing tiktok or robot-like vibe that gives the lead voice lots of space to play with.”
After Yamauchi dug a half-finished sketch of the song out of his songbook, the two finished it and earmarked it as one of the character vehicle songs in the production. Fleming and Yamauchi plan to finish the musical, which centers around a small crew on a deep space mission to find a suitable new home for humanity, this year and hopefully to stage it in 2023, pandemic-willing.
As with Fleming’s last album, “Echo Chamber ” was recorded at Vancouver’s Warehouse Studio with JUNO award-winning engineer Sheldon Zaharko. Fleming and Yamauchi premiered the new single with a live performance and discussion on – where else – Fleming’s Facebook and Instagram accounts on Friday, Feb. 18th and a self-produced video premiered on YouTube the same day.
In “Echo Chamber” the disquieting experience of a single AI being losing its perspective and purpose while traveling at warp speed through the universe eerily parallels the route many humans are currently taking down the pitfall-laden, social media highway.
“Social media has been a connector during the pandemic, but we’ve also seen it can be divisive,” observes Fleming. “It’s not a pretty picture of our present and future if we’re all hurtling through space isolated in our own little echo chambers, with no opportunity to consider viewpoints or beliefs or identities different from our own.”
Singer/Songwriter Wendy Irvine Urges Us To “Make Time” For Love, Connection And Community
Canadian singer/songwriter and composer Wendy Irvine urges humanity to reach out to each other and “Make Time” with the release of her newly unveiled single.
The first to land from the song’s namesake album, Make Time, set for release this Spring 2022, the title reflects two words that hold deeply personal and perspective-shifting meaning in the Toronto-based artist’s day-to-day outlook.
“‘Make Time’ has become a mantra in my life,” the Toronto-based artist reveals. “I cannot control other people and their actions but, in order to make a difference in the world, I believe it starts with me.
“I need to put forth more light,” she continues. “I need to reach out and show love to other people, and I need to plant the seeds of acceptance, balance, love, and communication each and every day.”
The passion woven within the song’s message reflects the passion Wendy holds for music overall. Singing and performing since the age of three, the gifted artist was accepted into the Royal Conservatory of Music at age five and attended York University on a vocal scholarship.
She has recorded and performed with the likes of Nick Blagona (Alexisonfire, Protest the Hero, Green Day), Jay Douglas, Matt Dusk, Dan Hill, Russ Little, the ‘La Jeunesse’ choir, Ian Thomas, and more. Wendy has worked extensively as a sought-after voice-over artist and in musical theatre.
Her extensive career has seen her release numerous offerings, both as a solo artist and with the group Sixteen Different Minds. The forthcoming Make Time marks Irvine’s newest full-length release — and one she describes as a true labour of love.
“It has been a beautiful, and yet sometimes very difficult journey for my soul,” she shares. “I see it now as a reflection on how I see life’s wild adventure.”
“Make Time — Radio Edit” is available now. The album, Make Time, is set for release this Spring 2022.
Chris Sunfield Explores Adversity & Existentialism In Feel-Good “Tomorrow’s Here (Far Away Objects Mix)”
Canadian progressive-pop artist Chris Sunfield rises through adversity and wrangles existentialism in his new and empowering feel-good anthem, “Tomorrow’s Here (Far Away Objects Mix).”
Featuring lush, symphonic suites embedded in deeply human messages, the inventively reimagined take on his 2021 single “Tomorrow’s Here” appears on singer/songwriter’s 2022 four-track EP, Far Away Objects.
“Lyrically, the new release is a clarion call to live authentically, and realize one’s full potential before it’s too late — all while accepting that life’s achievements are sometimes gained at the expense of intimacy,” he explains. His ability to convey kind, yet transcendent messages through a medium like music gives “Tomorrow’s Here (Far Away Objects Mix)” a unique edge in its genre.
Tackling lyrics in such a way is par for the course for the Toronto-based artist who has always held a connection with music; Sunfield had initially pursued a career in psychology and management consulting, despite his ambition to become a recording artist.
As the years passed, he came to realize he had hundreds of half-written songs on fading scraps of paper and deteriorating tapes.
“If I had died suddenly, that big box of music would have ended up in a landfill.”
Then came a perfect storm, he shares.
“Close friends died. Bad career decisions. A move to a remote area isolated me from friends… And finally, an accident hospitalized me. It felt like rock bottom. I was a behavioral scientist facing my own dark night of the soul.”
In facing the waves of adversity, Sunfield found himself drawn to his childhood ambition. He reveals that dusting off old music gear gave him a therapeutic outlet to cope, and led to the creation of his first completed song in years.
Fast forward a few years and Sunfield presents a dynamically crafted pallet of sonic experiences and introspective messaging — including “Tomorrow’s Here (Far Away Objects Mix).”
The exciting compilation of enthusiastic brass breakdowns and pop-rock riffs delivers a bubbly, feel-good melody entwined with progressive messaging for Sunfield’s growing fanbase.
“I thought I was going to write a ska tune with some breezy lyrics but, on the day I started writing, I found out that a long-term mentor of mine had passed away,” he recalls. “Soon after that, I lost a beloved pet. The only thing I could do to distract myself from the grief that night was to finish writing and recording the demo; the sun was rising the next morning as I finished it.
“‘Tomorrow’s Here’ is about moving beyond losses and challenges, and continuing to grow as a person.”
Willie Nelson‘s Outlaw Music Festival Tour Announced With Special Guests ZZ Top, Jason Isbell and More
The initial dates and lineups have been announced for the 2022 edition of Willie Nelson‘s Outlaw Music Festival Tour, which will feature ZZ Top at select events.
The trek is confirmed to visit 19 cities this year so far, beginning with a June 24 event in the St. Louis suburb of Maryland Heights, Missouri, and scheduled through a September 23 performance in Philadelphia.
ZZ Top will be part of the lineup at six stops — in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, on July 29; Cincinnati on July 30; Burgettstown, Pennsylvania, on July 31; Gilford, New Hampshire, on August 12; Bethel, New York, on August 13; and Darien, New York, on August 14.
Gov’t Mule, the band fronted by former Allman Brothers Band singer/guitarist Warren Haynes, also will be performing on July 29, 30 and 31.
As usual, Nelson and his family band will headline all of the shows. Other artists on the various lineups include Chris Stapleton, The Avett Brothers, Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, Billy Strings, Brothers Osborne, Steve Earle & the Dukes, Larkin Poe and more.
Tickets go on sale to the general public this Friday, March 25, at 10 a.m. local time. VIP packages also will be available. Citi card members will be able to purchase presale tickets starting this Tuesday, March 22, at 10 a.m. local time; visit CitiEntertainment.com for more details.
“The Outlaw Music Festival Tour has always been about family and friends coming together for a great day of music and fun, and with the amazing group of artists joining us, this year promises to be our most special Outlaw Tour to date,” Willie says. “I just can’t wait to get back on the road again.”
Willie Nelson and Family Outlaw Music Festival Tour 2022
June 24 – St. Louis, MO @ Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre
Willie Nelson & Family
Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit
Charley Crockett
Brittney Spencer
June 25 – Grand Rapids, MI @ Van Andel Arena
Willie Nelson & Family
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit
Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats
Charley Crockett
Brittney Spencer
June 26 – Indianapolis, IN @ Ruoff Music Center
Willie Nelson & Family
Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit
Charley Crockett
Brittney Spencer
July 1 – Rogers, AR @ Walmart AMP
Willie Nelson & Family
Brothers Osborne
Steve Earle & the Dukes
Allison Russell
July 2 – Dallas, TX @ Dos Equis Pavilion
Willie Nelson & Family
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit
Brothers Osborne
Charley Crockett
Steve Earle & the Dukes
Allison Russell
July 29 – Cleveland, OH @ Blossom Music Center
Willie Nelson & Family
ZZ Top
Gov’t Mule
Larkin Poe
July 30 – Cincinnati, OH @ Riverbend Music Center
Willie Nelson & Family
ZZ Top
Gov’t Mule
Larkin Poe
July 31 – Pittsburgh, PA @ The Pavilion at Star Lake
Willie Nelson & Family
ZZ Top
Gov’t Mule
Larkin Poe
August 12: Gilford, NH – Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion
Willie Nelson & Family
ZZ Top
Zach Bryan
Charley Crockett
The War and Treaty
August 13 – Bethel, NY @ Bethel Woods Center
Willie Nelson & Family
ZZ Top
Zach Bryan
Charley Crockett
The War and Treaty
August 14 – Darien, NY @ Darien Lake Amphitheater
Willie Nelson & Family
ZZ Top
Zach Bryan
Charley Crockett
The War and Treaty
September 9 – Atlanta, GA @ Ameris Bank Amphitheatre
Willie Nelson & Family
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit
Billy Strings
Charley Crockett
Larkin Poe
September 10 – Charlotte, NC @ PNC Music Pavilion
Willie Nelson & Family
Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats
Billy Strings
Charley Crockett
Larkin Poe
September 11 – Virginia Beach, VA @ Veteran’s United Home Loans Amphitheater at Virginia Beach
Willie Nelson & Family
Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats
Billy Strings
Larkin Poe
Brittney Spencer
September 13 – Bridgeport, CT @ Hartford HealthCare Amphitheater
Willie Nelson & Family
Billy Strings
Larkin Poe
Brittney Spencer
My Next Read: “Bet My Soul on Rock ‘n’ Roll: Diary of a Black Punk Icon” by Jean Beauvoir and John Ostrosky
Jean Beauvoir joined the Plasmatics in 1979, playing bass and keyboards for the most notorious band to emerge out of the New York City punk scene. By 1982, he was a member of Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul, a retro-rock revival act headed by Steven Van Zandt. The Disciples of Soul videos played on MTV during the network’s earliest years, making Beauvoir one of the first Black recording artists to cross the start-up music channel’s “color line.”
Beauvoir went on to become a multi-platinum artist, producer, and songwriter. Bet My Soul on Rock ‘n’ Roll follows his ride through the American music industry, detailing his encounters with rock stars such as Bruce Springsteen, Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, and Lita Ford, as well as the actor Sylvester Stallone, the billionaire executive Richard Branson, and even Donald Trump. Beauvoir also considers the manner in which his Haitian heritage has shaped his public image, his music, and his role as an activist for the dispossessed and the poor.
SXSW Live Studio: Oleksandra “Sasha” Zaritska of Kazka
Ukrainian musician Oleksandra “Sasha” Zaritska of Kazka joins SXSW in the studio to speak on her experiences of what is happening in her home country.
My Next Read: “How to Be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question” by Michael Schur
From the creator of The Good Place and the cocreator of Parks and Recreation, a hilarious, thought-provoking guide to living an ethical life, drawing on 2,400 years of deep thinking from around the world.
Most people think of themselves as “good,” but it’s not always easy to determine what’s “good” or “bad”—especially in a world filled with complicated choices and pitfalls and booby traps and bad advice. Fortunately, many smart philosophers have been pondering this conundrum for millennia and they have guidance for us. With bright wit and deep insight, How to Be Perfect explains concepts like deontology, utilitarianism, existentialism, ubuntu, and more so we can sound cool at parties and become better people.
Schur starts off with easy ethical questions like “Should I punch my friend in the face for no reason?” (No.) and works his way up to the most complex moral issues we all face. Such as: Can I still enjoy great art if it was created by terrible people? How much money should I give to charity? Why bother being good at all when there are no consequences for being bad? And much more. By the time the book is done, we’ll know exactly how to act in every conceivable situation, so as to produce a verifiably maximal amount of moral good. We will be perfect, and all our friends will be jealous. OK, not quite. Instead, we’ll gain fresh, funny, inspiring wisdom on the toughest issues we face every day.
My Next Read: “Feels Like Home: A Song for the Sonoran Borderlands” by Linda Ronstadt
Linda Ronstadt is writing a new book that has been acquired by Heyday and is set to release in Fall 2022.
In Feels Like Home, Grammy award-winning singer Linda Ronstadt effortlessly evokes the magical panorama of the high desert, a landscape etched by sunlight and carved by wind, offering a personal tour built around meals and memories of the place where she came of age. Growing up the granddaughter of Mexican immigrants and a descendant of Spanish settlers near northern Sonora, Ronstadt’s intimate new memoir celebrates the marvelous flavors and indomitable people on both sides of what was once a porous border whose denizens were happy to exchange recipes and gather around campfires to sing the ballads that shaped Ronstadt’s musical heritage. Following her best-selling musical memoir, Simple Dreams, this book seamlessly braids together Ronstadt’s recollections of people and their passions in a region little understood in the rest of the United States. This road trip through the desert, written in collaboration with former New York Times writer Lawrence Downes and illustrated throughout with beautiful photographs by Bill Steen, features recipes for traditional Sonoran dishes and a bevy of revelations for Ronstadt’s admirers. If this book were a radio signal, you might first pick it up on an Arizona highway, well south of Phoenix, coming into the glow of Ronstadt’s hometown of Tucson. It would be playing something old and Mexican, from a time when the border was a place not of peril but of possibility.
Linda Ronstadt, the great-granddaughter of Friedrich and Margarita Ronstadt of Sonora, Mexico, is one of the world’s most acclaimed singers. Her six-decade career encompassed rock, folk, country, light opera, Mexican songs and American standards. She has sold more than 100 million records, won 12 Grammy awards and is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice, directed by Rob Epstein, just won a Grammy for best musical film at the 63rd Grammy Awards on March 14, 2021.