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Twin Cities PBS Documentary “The Wild West Bank Sound” Uncovers the Music Scene That Shaped Minnesota

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Long before Minneapolis became synonymous with Prince and the funk-driven sound that bears the city’s name, the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood on the West Bank was already doing something remarkable. Twin Cities PBS’s new documentary “The Wild West Bank Sound” premieres at the Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival on April 19, followed by a broadcast on TPT 2 and the PBS App on April 21, and it makes a compelling case that this small, densely creative neighborhood deserves its own chapter in American music history.

The film blends archival footage, historic photography, and firsthand accounts from musicians and community members who lived through a scene that encompassed folk, bluegrass, reggae, rock, and more. It comes from the same studio behind acclaimed Twin Cities PBS music documentaries including “The Minneapolis Sound” and “First Avenue: Closer to the Stars,” a track record that signals serious depth of research and storytelling. “What makes this film special is hearing directly from the musicians and community members who lived it,” said Executive Producer Daniel Bergin.

Producer Kevin Dragseth framed the project as an act of listening. “As we began talking to people who were part of the West Bank music scene, it quickly became clear how many incredible stories were still waiting to be told.” Cedar-Riverside was more than a music hub. It was an incubator for activism, experimentation, and a community identity that still resonates in Minnesota’s cultural fabric today.

Warner Music Group Moves to Acquire Independent Music Platform Revelator in Major Distribution Play

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Warner Music Group has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Revelator, the B2B music platform built to serve the independent music community. Founded in 2012 by Bruno Guez, Revelator specializes in digital music distribution, rights management, royalty accounting, and real-time analytics, currently supporting hundreds of clients through cloud-based tools including Revelator Pro, Revelator API, and its White Label solutions. The deal is expected to close next quarter.

WMG CEO Robert Kyncl framed the acquisition as a direct acceleration of the company’s mission to support artists and labels globally. “The combination of Revelator’s leading-edge technology and array of premier services with our global infrastructure will turbocharge our joint mission,” he said. Revelator will continue servicing its existing customers post-closing while integrating its capabilities across WMG’s labels and ADA, the company’s independent distribution arm.

The why behind this deal isn’t complicated. The independent music sector has grown into one of the most competitive and lucrative corners of the industry, and the major labels have spent the last several years racing to build or buy the infrastructure to serve it. Revelator gives WMG a sophisticated, proven technology stack, real-time financial reporting, and a global client base it didn’t have to build from scratch. For WMG, this is about owning more of the pipeline, from distribution to royalty management, and making ADA a more complete and compelling option for independent artists and labels who might otherwise look elsewhere.

Babyface, Jodeci, and Deon Cole Headline the Soul Beach Music Festival in Curaçao This Memorial Day Weekend

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The Soul Beach Music Festival is heading to Curaçao for the first time, and the 2026 lineup makes a serious statement. Running May 20-25 on the island’s sun-drenched shores, the festival brings together 13-time Grammy winner Babyface, R&B legends Jodeci, and two-time Emmy-nominated comedian Deon Cole for a Memorial Day weekend that covers music, comedy, and everything in between. DJ Jazzy Jeff and Spinderella handle the after-hours, with Atlanta’s DJ E-Clazz also on the decks and Chris Spencer hosting throughout.

Babyface alone is a catalog unto himself. Co-founder of LaFace Records, the label that launched Usher, Toni Braxton, TLC, Outkast, and P!nk, he’s also the only producer to win the Grammy’s Producer of the Year award four times, including three consecutive years from 1995 to 1997. Jodeci brings equal weight, with over 20 million records sold, three consecutive number one albums on the Billboard R&B charts, and a run of sold-out reunion tours behind them. DeVanté Swing, Mr. Dalvin, K-Ci, and JoJo remain one of the most influential groups the genre has ever produced.

Deon Cole headlines comedy night fresh off his Netflix special ‘OK, Mister,’ bringing sharp, high-caliber performance energy to the international stage. The whole event unfolds against the backdrop of Willemstad, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with catamaran excursions, beach events, and signature main stage concerts rounding out the experience.

Lee Newton Strips Down Fan Favorite “Carolina Rain” With a Raw New Acoustic Version

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Lee Newton knows how to make a song her own, and the new acoustic rendition of “Carolina Rain” proves it. The stripped-back version of the fan-favorite single, featured on her upcoming project ‘Beautifully Undone.’ Written by Tommy Barnes and Charlie Floyd, the song has clearly found a deep home with Newton. “It takes me back home, to the roots, the memories, and the heart of who I am,” she said. “This acoustic version is stripped down, raw, and real.”

The release adds to a stretch of strong momentum for the multiple Josie Music Awards winner, including Vocalist of the Year and Album of the Year. Newton recently shared an acoustic take on her own song “Your Hat,” and earlier this year joined Georgette Jones and Heidi Parton for a recording of the classic “Silver Threads and Golden Needles,” a song with roots stretching back to rockabilly pioneer Wanda Jackson and later associated with Dolly Parton, Tammy Wynette, and Loretta Lynn. Three artists honoring a tradition that runs deep.

Country Singer-Songwriter Sarah Harralson Finds Hope in a Classic Film Line on New Single “It Can’t Rain All The Time”

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Sarah Harralson has been building her Nashville career for over a decade, and her new single “It Can’t Rain All The Time” shows exactly why she’s still here. The song draws its title and emotional core from a line in the 1994 film The Crow, reframed as a pop-country and blues meditation on resilience. Harralson co-produced it with Dale Penner (Nickelback, Loverboy) at The Owl in Nashville and co-wrote it with Bill DiLuigi, known for his work with Bonnie Tyler. It’s out now on all major streaming platforms via Synapse Publishing & Entertainment. Listen here.

The track carries real personal weight. Harralson performs it regularly for hospital patients through her volunteer work with Nashville non-profit Musicians On Call, an organization she’s been part of since 2015 and through which she’s reached over 19,000 patients. The official music video, directed and produced by Dante Nazzaro and due April 10 on her YouTube channel, also reflects on the loss of her mother in 2024 and offers a preview of the upcoming documentary Women Behind the Lyrics, in which Harralson is profiled alongside three other independent country artists.

Session players Cole Edmonson (Tigirlily Gold) on guitar, David Santos on bass, and Bryn Scott-Grimes (Goldpine) on harmonica round out the track, with Harralson’s husband Andrew Kugler on drums. Harralson herself handled piano, acoustic guitar, and harmonies. Her autobiographical EP, ‘Just the Beginning,’ arrives this May with a corresponding short film.

Actor and Composer Greg Evigan Records New Orchestral Album at Abbey Road With the Royal Philharmonic

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Greg Evigan has spent decades on stage and screen, but his new album makes a strong case that his most compelling work is happening right now. Recorded in Studio One at Abbey Road Studios with a 65-piece London Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under conductor Joe Curiale, ‘Greg Evigan with London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra’ is a collection of eight original cinematic compositions that Evigan had previously only played on piano. Curiale’s orchestral arrangements gave them a full, sweeping life.

Evigan is best known to TV audiences from B.J. and the Bear and My Two Dads, but his musical roots run deep. He sang the theme for B.J., co-wrote the theme for Dads, studied piano classically, and has written for artists including Meghan Trainor and Chromeo. The new album was mixed and edited at the Los Angeles studio of his Grammy-winning son Jason Evigan, making it a genuinely family affair.

Tracks like “Breath That Runs Through” and “Tears Like Rain” land with the kind of melodic weight that holds up well on repeat. “His lush arrangements transformed the music I had previously only played on piano,” Evigan said of Curiale, “and brought it to life with the grandeur of a 65-piece orchestra.” The album is available here.

Aaron Chapman and Simon Kendall Tell the Unlikely True Story of Doug and the Slugs

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Vancouver’s Doug and the Slugs never quite fit the mold, and that’s exactly what made them matter. ‘Real Enough: The Unlikely Story of Doug & the Slugs,’ written by historian and musician Aaron Chapman and former Slugs keyboardist Simon Kendall, arrives April 10 from Anvil Press and digs into one of Canadian rock’s most genuinely singular stories. Too polished for punk, too irreverent for radio rock, the group built a Gold record career out of relentless touring and the magnetic pull of frontman Doug Bennett, the self-appointed clown prince of Canadian rock and roll.

Kendall brings a rare insider perspective. He joined the band in 1978 and spent fifteen years as its music director and keyboardist, part of a run that produced four Gold albums and saw the Slugs perform everywhere from New York to the North Pole. Chapman, a two-time Bill Duthie Booksellers’ Choice Award winner and elected member of the Royal Historical Society, brings the historian’s eye. Together they’ve assembled never-before-published photos, personal diaries, posters, ticket stubs, and ephemera that make ‘Real Enough’ as much a visual document as a biography.

RYA Launches RYA 2.0, the First Audience Intelligence Platform That Now Predicts the Audience Impact of the Marketing Campaigns It Creates

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RYA, the Creative AI partner purpose-built for marketers, today unveiled RYA 2.0, the next-generation brand intelligence platform. Spun out of a creative agency, RYA 2.0 marks the moment a decade of authentic audience data becomes a platform any marketer can use, with or without an agency, and move from insight to campaign-ready creative in minutes, not weeks.

Campaign success can then be accurately predicted via the RYA Score, a proprietary creative evaluation system that measures ideas against two dimensions: Radical (R-Score) and Acceptable (A-Score), producing a blended RYA Score that predicts cultural resonance before a dollar is spent. Great campaigns have to push far enough to get attention but not so far they alienate the audience. RYA Score gives marketers something no other AI platform can offer: a defensible, data-backed read on whether a creative idea will land. Built on an ever-expanding set of creative industry expert interviews with leaders from creative agencies like BBDO, Ogilvy, and Weiden+Kennedy to other creative professionals in film, television, Broadway, music, and magic and validated through a proprietary audience dataset a decade in the making, RYA is grounded in behavioral signals from real people, not scraped internet data.

RYA was already helping brands cut 6-8 weeks of strategy work down to a day. With the addition of RYA Score and RYA Chat, 2.0 is what happens when you add a creative evaluation engine on top of that foundation. Unlike general-purpose AI platforms, RYA is built on proprietary audience passion data collected from 1,000 people surveyed weekly by PhDs — our machine is real people. This foundation was built long before generative AI made everyone a content-creation machine, creating a competitive moat no rival can replicate.

As marketers have rushed to adopt generative AI platforms, a fundamental gap in that strategy has been exposed. When everyone uses the same models of ChatGPT and generic AI, trained on the same data, their outputs all begin to look the same. RYA doesn’t just create more campaigns at a faster rate — it creates marketing ideas grounded in proprietary intelligence.

RYA 2.0 introduces a fully redesigned user experience, including RYA Chat, a powerful context-aware agentic workflow that connects advanced trend identification tied to passion-based audience segments, built-in strategic frameworks designed for marketers, and integrated creative workflows that connect insight directly to execution. The conversational interface allows marketers to collaborate with the system in real-time, pressure-testing ideas, refining positions, and building out multi-channel campaigns in a continuous stream of dialogue.

“RYA 2.0 represents a shift from AI as a platform to AI as a true creative partner,” said Mark Himmelsbach, CEO & co-founder of RYA. “It turns out we didn’t just spend the last decade building an ad agency — we were laying the foundation of a data company without fully realizing it. RYA 2.0 is the moment we fully take advantage of that.”

As AI models continue to commoditize, competitive advantage no longer comes from access to technology alone. The true value comes from the quality of data and the expertise of those guiding it. By operationalizing proprietary intelligence within a purpose-built platform, RYA offers an alternative blueprint for how agencies and brands can evolve alongside AI.

Count Basie Orchestra Vocalist Dennis Rowland Honors a Jazz Giant With a New Memoir

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Dennis Rowland spent years as a featured vocalist with the Count Basie Orchestra, absorbing lessons in music, mentorship, and discipline from one of the most consequential bandleaders in American history. Now he’s put those lessons on the page. ‘Keeping the Beat: What Count Basie Taught Me About Music, Mentorship and Leadership,’ written with Phoenix author Marla Sheiner, is out now, timed to Jazz Appreciation Month and arriving forty years after Count Basie’s passing in April 1984.

The memoir places Rowland in a distinguished lineage that includes Basie vocalists Jimmy Rushing and Joe Williams, voices that helped define the orchestra’s sound across generations. “Dennis Rowland represents the living lineage of the Basie tradition,” says Count Basie Orchestra Director and Grammy-winning trumpet soloist Scotty Barnhart. “His story reflects the values that have sustained this music for generations.” A portion of proceeds from the book supports music scholarships.

Rowland’s motivation to write it came from a deeply personal place. Following a stroke, he felt the urgency of passing forward what Basie had given him. “Basie’s example taught me that a life in music is really about mentorship, discipline, and respect,” Rowland said. ‘Keeping the Beat’ is available now through Amazon and booksellers nationwide.

Multi-Platinum Country Hitmaker Nate Smith Teams Up With Honda for His Long Live Country Rock and Roll Tour

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Nate Smith has barely been on the scene two years and he’s already stacking multi-platinum singles, selling out headlining tours, and landing major brand partnerships. The Long Live Country Rock and Roll Tour, Powered by Honda, kicked off March 26 at Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa with opener Brandon Wisham, and it’s rolling across the country through the spring. Special guests Josh Ross and Just Jayne join on select dates.

Honda’s involvement goes well beyond a logo on a banner. Smith, who regularly rides a Honda ATV on property near his Nashville home, personally designed a custom-wrapped Honda FourTrax Foreman Rubicon DCT EPS that’s on display at each tour stop, with fans entered to win it through a sweepstakes. “Designing a custom four-wheeler we get to give away to fans just takes it to another level,” Smith said. The partnership is built on genuine overlap, not a manufactured endorsement.

The numbers behind Smith are hard to argue with. Over 3.9 billion global career streams. Four consecutive number ones, including “Fix What You Didn’t Break,” after becoming the first artist in Country Aircheck/Mediabase history to launch with three straight multi-week chart-toppers. His self-titled debut went Gold, ‘California Gold’ followed with genre-blending collaborations featuring Avril Lavigne and Alesso, and the accolades, including ACM New Male Artist of the Year 2024, have kept coming. After this tour wraps, he’s direct support on Jason Aldean’s Full Throttle Tour 2026.