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GRAMMYs

Jason Isbell

Photo: Jason Kempin/Getty Images

News
Sound Mind's Come Together: Jason Isbell & More jason-isbell-yola-more-perform-sound-mind-lives-come-together-mental-health-music

Jason Isbell, Yola & More To Perform For Sound Mind Live's Come Together Mental Health Music Festival

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Now in its second year, the landmark concert on Oct. 8 will also feature Smith & Myers, Kiiara, American Authors, Jade Bird, Shamir, Son Little and others, plus mental health resources, discussions and more...
MusiCares
Sep 24, 2020 - 2:34 pm

In celebration of World Mental Health Day, which just around the corner, Sound Mind Live has announced Come Together, a virtual mental health music festival to be broadcast live on Oct. 8. Featured perfomers include Smith & Myers, Jason Isbell, Kiiara, American Authors, Jade Bird, Yola, Shamir, Son Little, and more.

https://twitter.com/MusiCares/status/1309171418781954053

In celebration of #WorldMentalHealthDay on October 8 in partnership with Sound Mind Live and a coalition of mental health & music organizations, we are taking part in the "Come Together" Mental Health Music Festival.
Learn more: https://t.co/uMFAzsNm0f pic.twitter.com/GgBiIOH7BG

— MusiCares (@MusiCares) September 24, 2020

Comedian Jordan Carlos will handle hosting duties, and various mental health eperts from Mental Health America, MusiCares, and the landmark event's founding partner National Alliance on Mental Illness of New York City will provide information on virtual mental health resources, support programs and best practices for self-care. 

"Now is the time to break down walls of stigma surrounding mental health and elevate awareness of mental health resources when support is more needed than ever," Sound Mind Live Director Chris Bullard said in a statement. "This is the most important World Mental Health Day of our lifetime. We have experienced global collective grief like never before. Despite this, we can still come together through the power of music to heal these wounds, find hope, and support one another as we move on to more positive horizons in the future."

https://twitter.com/iamyola/status/1309192916670328834

I'm excited to perform on Oct 8th at @soundmind_live's #ComeTogetherFest, a music festival supporting mental health during the #COVID19 crisis. All proceeds go towards relevant programs and services in the wake of the pandemic. Learn more: https://t.co/er5fxTA9si 🧠🎶 pic.twitter.com/VWuGSp1fPK

— Yola (@iamyola) September 24, 2020

Festival viewers will be able to access a live interactive chat and donate in real time, with proceeds benefiting affiliates of National Alliance on Mental Illness, the largest grassroots mental health organization in the U.S., and their pandemic-response mental health programs around the country.

The pioneering event will also feature "virtual side stages," featuring break-out performances and panels discussions such as "Mental Health and the BIPOC Community," "Mental Health in the LGBTQ+ Community," and "Mental Health and the Music Community." Leading up to the festival, How Are You Really site will present a series in collaboration with Kenneth Cole's Mental Health Coalition of approximately 20 short videos of artists and notable musicians speaking about their mental health.

https://twitter.com/ShamirBailey/status/1309179510546403328

Excited to announce that I'll be partnering with @soundmind_live to perform for the Come Together Fest livestream in support of mental illness awareness. Donations will go to the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Visit the link below for more 🦋https://t.co/8rQPM3McOx pic.twitter.com/wVzfY4BhZf

— Shamir (@ShamirBailey) September 24, 2020

Come Together, for which AbbVie is generously acting as presenting sponsor, will be streamed live on Thursday, Oct. 8, at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT via the Relix YouTube Channel. For more information and updates, visit the festival website.

Inside VAULT Productions' Real-Time Doc On Electronic Music's Evolution During The Pandemic

GRAMMYs

Jason Isbell

Photo: Alysse Gafkjen

News
Jason Isbell Talks Isolation, Mental Heath & More jason-isbell-talks-surviving-isolation-mental-health-how-black-music-shaped-him

Jason Isbell Talks Surviving Isolation, Mental Health & How Black Music Shaped Him

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The Southern rocker shares his thoughts on American race relations, therapy, marriage, and releasing an album during a pandemic
Dan Reilly
MusiCares
Jun 12, 2020 - 9:54 am

Working for years on a new album only to have it released during a worldwide pandemic and one of the biggest periods of racial tensions and civil unrest in half a century could devastate any artist. Jason Isbell, just a few weeks removed from the unveiling of his seventh LP, Reunions, prefers to focus on the bigger picture. “We're all healthy and in the house,” he says. “There are worse places to be, so we're all right.”

Isbell and his wife, Amanda Shires — a singer/songwriter, virtuoso fiddler, and one-fourth of The Highwomen — have been holed up in their Tennessee house since the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March. When she had to cancel the remainder of her tour, she decided to keep the show going on YouTube with a series called “I So Lounging,” a daily concert series in which she was accompanied by her touring guitarist Seth Plemmons and, when he could join, Isbell from the barn on their property. They performed originals and covers, answered fan questions, shot the breeze about what they were going through, and used the time to raise funds for both Shires’ crew and the MusiCares COVID-19 Releif Fund. The charity is one Shires and Isbell have close ties to: It helped pay the medical bills for a hand injury that could’ve derailed her career and funded his well-documented stint in rehab. They reiterated the message throughout the performances — there’s help out there and there’s no shame in asking for it.

With that in mind, MusiCares caught up with Isbell to talk about what he’s learned from life in quarantine, supporting the Black Lives Matter protests, getting back on the road, and how to stay sane, married, and sober when it feels like the world around you is going to Hell. 

So you just announced 2021 tour dates with Lucinda Williams. How is planning to return the road working out with everything that’s going on now?

Well, those new dates aren't happening until next year, so we got a lot of time to figure all that out. I would love to be able to tour some this year, but I don't think it's going to be feasible. I don't think it will be safe, so we just moved everything back a year, basically. We were supposed to be out right now, and Lucinda was going to be touring with us quite a bit. We were looking forward to it, but it could be worse. So, we're just waiting until things crank back up.

In the meantime, you and Amanda have been raising money for MusiCares with your live streams. What inspired that?

Almost everybody I know and work with has reached out to MusiCares for some type of assistance at some point. And for the last few years, we've been very fortunate and I've had some success, but things weren't always that way. They helped me get sober — it's been about eight and a half years now. People have come to me since asked me, "What do I do? How do I pay for going to rehab or getting the treatment that I need?" and I always send them to MusiCares. The way I see it is, artists who have had some success and might not need as much assistance have a responsibility to give back to the artists who are still struggling and working extra hard without a whole lot of reward, and MusiCares is a great way to do that.

What Amanda and I did, it was her idea to do the "I So Lounging" thing, of course. She had been on the road and her tour got canceled. I actually called her the night that California canceled all the large gatherings. She was headed into California the next day from Canada and I said, "You're not going to be able to do that. You're going to have to come home because California is not having any kind of large gatherings or shows or anything." So, she came home and immediately got to work doing those live streams from our barn here. I think a big part of that was her just needing to continue the work she was doing and sort of have an airlock between being on tour and being at home. It just made sense to donate some of the proceeds because we had all used MusiCares’ assistance in the past and felt like it was a good idea to try to put some back in the pot.

I enjoyed that one joke you made about asking them for some new shoes: "How much does music really care?"

Yeah [laughs]. It's a cool thing, though. And I think a lot of musicians, people who work in the music business, touring professionals, don't understand. They, of course, are reticent to look for a handout and they've got a lot of pride. But at the same time, I don't think they understand sometimes that this thing is set up specifically for people in the music business who need some type of assistance, and that's why it's there. It's not like this fund is going to go somewhere else if people in the music business don't use it. I mean, it's there for us, so we tried to encourage people who needed it to reach out.

Do you have any idea how much money you raised?

I think Amanda did like a month of shows and it was in the six figures, I believe. And she was getting emails from people who were watching and couldn't afford to donate — they were emailing her apologizing for not being able to give or not being able to give more. It was really moving for me and her because we weren't charging people to watch the stream. We were just asking for donations if people could. It just meant a lot to me to see how many people were struggling and still taking the time to write and apologize for not being able to do more. It really restored some of my faith in humanity, in a way.

The past few months have really shown a lot of generosity that people might not have even known they had in themselves.

Yeah, I think so. People have been motivated to give their time and their money and their resources in a way that we haven't always seen.

Also, you and Amanda both have been recently promoting a lot of Black artists on Twitter, just to do what little part you can to amplify others' voices.

Yeah. But it just baffles me that we haven't gotten farther in race relations in America. I was having a conversation with a friend of mine last night and we were talking about just how much easier it would be if we had solved these problems 50 years ago in the Civil Rights movement, or a hundred years ago, any of the chances that we had to solve the issue of race in America. If we had actually solved it then, put the work in, and gotten to a point where everybody was really treated fairly, how much easier and fulfilling our day-to-day lives would be now. How cool would it be to live in a country where everybody's voice was heard equally, even for us? I think our lives would be better, just as white people. It would be a better world all the way around. We've missed so many opportunities to fix that.

And my introduction to any kind of black culture was music. Because where I grew up, it was just a bunch of poor white people in a small town in Alabama. Not even a town, we didn't have any red lights or anything like that. It was just a rural area in Alabama that borrowed the neighboring town's ZIP code and post office. We were just out in the middle of a cow field, a whole bunch of white kids, so my introduction to any kind of Black culture was musical. I became so obsessed with Black music, with the blues and R&B, that it occurred to me that a lot of the things that I hear when I'm in school can't be true. Because I was listening to records that were made in Muscle Shoals, the area where I grew up in Alabama: Otis Redding, the Staple Singers, Percy Sledge, Wilson Pickett. I'm thinking I understand what they're singing about and it moves me so much that we can't be very different, really. If I'm responding to this music in this way, on a really emotional level, on a basic level, there's no way that this guy who's singing this song could be all that different from me, despite what I hear when I go to school every day. 

I don't know, I think a lot of people had a similar experience to a culture different than theirs. When they really start to consume the music of that culture, they start thinking, "Man, we have a lot in common." Music is a good bridge between different cultures in that way, so I'm just telling people the stuff I'm listening to. I mean, I don't even really have to filter through my playlist to promote Black artists because I just put up what I'm listening to at the time. And more often than not, it is a Black artist.

You tweeted about how people say you’re going to lose some of your audience by speaking out against racism, but at least you’ll still have your soul. Do people still really not get where you're coming from?

It's hard to believe it. But you make new fans along the way, and the more popular you get, the more people who come in who don't really know what you're about. I have a larger audience now than I had a year ago, or two years ago, or 10 years ago, so I think some of the people that are coming in at this point are kind of confused. I mean, people don't know whether to call me a country singer, or a rock singer, or a singer-songwriter, Americana, or roots music. So some people come over thinking they're coming to hear this country singer, and some people come thinking they're going to hear something that reminds them of Kris Kristofferson, John Prine, Joni Mitchell, or something.

It depends on where they're coming from. If they're coming in thinking they're going to hear straight-up country music and that's all they know, then they might be a little bit surprised. But the folk audience is never surprised. They're ready for anything. Also, I think it's just people who disagree with me trying to find ways to disagree with me that are painful or damaging. I think they know for the most part what I'm about — they're just looking for a way to say something. Very often they'll regurgitate the “shut up and sing” concept because that's easy for them. If they did things the hard way, they would have learned something by now. We know that people on that side of the argument are trying to find the easiest way to hurt people's feelings. It doesn't bother me, though. I don't mind.

And it can be fun to mix it up with the naysayers on Twitter, now and then. 

It is, yeah. You’ve got to sometimes use them as a prompt. You can't respond to everybody — that'd just be too negative — but every once in a while, somebody will say something and I'll think, "Okay, I can use this to make a point." That's when I wanted to respond, usually.

While we’re on the topic of turning negatives into positives, what are some things you’ve learned during the past few months that might help some other people?

Something that's helped me a whole lot, I was thinking about, is when I got sober in rehab, was to just keep your head and your ass in the same place. It's really about living in the moment, trying to be present, and focusing on the process. My friend, Will, we had a long conversation about a lot of different things. We do that every few days, but he's a Ram Dass guy and he's into the “be here now” philosophy. I find that that's really something that carries over into a lot of other disciplines. He and I have had this conversation about similarities between the best athletic coaches like Nick Saban and Ram Dass’ philosophical teachings. If you can somehow find a way to be in the moment that you are in, it makes things like this turn from a very negative situation to what could potentially be a very positive situation.

"Just keep your head and your ass in the same place. It's really about living in the moment, trying to be present, and focusing on the process."

Amanda and I have a four-and-a-half-year-old daughter, and a huge part of us staying sane and staying happy in this quarantine, lockdown, whatever you want to call it, is trying to understand that she's not going to be a small child for very much longer. The time that we have now all at home together, we would not have gotten otherwise. If we were out touring, we'd be busy, we'd be working all the time. She would either be with me or be with Amanda, but she wouldn't be with both of us, and that's something that you can't get back later. She'll be older and she'll be interested in her own thing, and I think we'll wind up looking back on this, grateful for the fact that we had the time as a family.

That's not everybody's situation, and we're very lucky to be in the position that we're in, where we can spend quality time with our child and not be terribly concerned about how we're going to get our next meal, or what's going to happen if one of us get sick. But I think that the idea of trying to stay in the present moment and take one day at a time, like they say in AA, is something that really applies to this whole concept of repeating the same day over and over, which a lot of people are doing right now. They get up and they have the same day over and over, and if you think of it like that, it can get pretty depressing. But if you focus on each individual moment and each individual day, for me, that's made it a lot easier.

You’ve also talked openly about seeing a therapist, something a lot of men don’t want to admit. What have you learned from that?

Oh yeah, I've been going to the therapist for close to three years now. It's something that has helped me understand why I do the things that I do and why I feel the way that I feel. It's forced me to sort of go back and unpack some of the baggage from my childhood. I think if you can be aware of your own intentions and be aware of your own reasons for doing things, it really helps you understand the rest of the world. Just being able to talk every week, or sometimes twice a week, to somebody who is impartial, somebody who is not going to have to bear the burden of my pain... I go in and I pay her money and I sit down and I talk to her, and I don't leave there thinking, "Man, I just put a burden on somebody else."

It's not easy to do that to your wife or your mom or your kid, because sometimes you feel like you're making their life harder. But to have somebody who is qualified and trained, where I take all these things, say them out loud, get them in the room, sometimes she doesn't have to say anything at all. It just helps me to verbalize all these feelings that I'm having.

I think everybody needs therapy. I think everybody in the whole world needs f**king therapy. And I don't think there should be any sort of a stigma associated with it because, really, the people who are not doing their best are the people who aren't trying to get any kind of help. It was like when I went to rehab and there were so many people in there who were ashamed of going to rehab. It's like, “Man, you should have been ashamed of sitting on a bar stool.” Going to rehab is the right thing to do, trying to actually make some kind of difference in your own life so you could be a better person for the people you care about, or the people you might potentially care about somewhere down the line if you don't have anybody right now. Eventually, somebody's going to give a shit about you and you're going to want to be prepared for that. And to do that, you got to actually do some work on yourself. And that, I think is the thing to be proud of.

With Reunions coming out in the midst of all this, what did you learn about the bigger picture of your career? 

Well, it's made me aware of how fortunate I was. It's reinforced the idea that me going out and playing these shows for people was not a right, it was a privilege. It makes me more grateful for the fact that that is still my job, and there will come a time when I get to do that again. It's also shifted my priorities. I mean, at first I was upset about the idea of not being able to go out and play these shows. But as time has gone on, more important things have come to light. Issues with the virus, trying to figure out a way to stay safe and survive, and then the issues with race in our country right now, and trying to move that conversation forward and get to a point where people are actually treated equally from a systemic point all the way up, those things are way more important than me going out and playing shows.

And I'm grateful for the perspective. I feel like I'm very fortunate to be able to look at this situation and think, "Okay, my problems aren't the biggest problems in the world, and I should be thankful for the things that I have and the platform that I have and the fans that I have and the guitars that I have, and all of these things that I will eventually get to return to." That's a great privilege for me. Anything that rearranges your priorities in a way that's backed with good intention is a good thing, eventually, if you survive it.

And with good intentions, you promoted indie record stores by releasing your album early through them. How did that work out?

Oh, it was great. I saw a bunch of people asking me online, "Why don't you just put the record out now? Stream the record and put it up on the internet so people can download it and get it? We need entertainment." And I thought, "That's true." I mean, I'm sure the record would be appreciated if it came out early, but it would be another nail in the coffin for a lot of these independent record stores. I depend on those folks and have throughout my career, because I've never really relied on a major label to promote the work I was doing. I've never been able to rely on commercial radio. So, I've had to go out and do the legwork and play in stores and rely on the guy behind the counter recommending my album to somebody. That's made a difference in my career.

I wanted to come up with something I can do that would help them because I know they're struggling. It was my idea to put the record out in the indie record stores a week early, and they sold a bunch of them. And they were really happy to have the business, and I was really happy that they were out there spreading the word. We need those places or else the only music that we're going to have is music that is heavily promoted by huge corporations. And I'm not going to say that that music is better or worse than what I do, but the way I've done things is through relationships with independent venues, promoters, and record stores, and they're having a really, really hard time staying in business right now.

I've made it to a point now where I will always have a career, but I'm very lucky. There are a lot of people who are coming out right now who make really interesting music that may be a little bit left of center, a little bit different than what they would play on popular radio stations, that aren't going to have the same chance to build things from the ground up that I had unless these record stores and these venues are able to survive.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CAAnxuTAqHj

GRAMMYs

Content Not Available

Has being quarantined and performing for almost every day with Amanda inspire you both to start working on anything new?

Yeah, we've both been writing some. She's taught herself how to use Pro Tools, so she's been recording. I don't know how to use Pro Tools, so I'm still behind on that stuff. I sit on the floor and play the guitar for hours every day, and it's not necessarily to write anything — it's just because it's good for me. It makes me happy, so I've been doing a whole lot of that.

Will "I So Lounging" come back at any point?

I think there will be at least another "I So Lounging," if not more. I don't know how many of those that she'll want to do. But yeah, if nothing else, we'll do one to celebrate being able to get back out of the house and get together again, whenever that happens.

With everything being so uncertain right now, a lot of people might be stuck in isolation again soon. Based on your experience, do you have any advice for those who are in relationships and could be spending a lot more time with their significant other than they’d planned?

You’ve got to figure out how to give people their space. If there's anything in your relationship that's the slightest bit codependent, that's going to bite you on the ass, because we're used to having our own routines, being able to go to work separately. It's important to have time away from somebody, no matter how much you care about them. Other than that, I don't know. Just do your best. Be nice, even when it's not easy to do.

Learn more about how you can donate to or apply for assistance via the Recording Academy's and MusiCares' COVID-19 Relief Fund.

Learn more about the financial, medical and personal emergencies services and resources offered by the Recording Academy and MusiCares. 

Frank Iero

Frank Iero of My Chemical Romance

Photo: Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images

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Rita Wilson, Frank Iero, More Aid MusiCares Fund musicares-covid-19-fund-mcrs-frank-iero-rita-wilson-naughty-nature-ellie-drew-holcomb

MusiCares COVID-19 Fund: MCR's Frank Iero, Rita Wilson & Naughty By Nature, Ellie & Drew Holcomb & More Support With Livestreams & Beyond

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Linda Perry with We Are Hear, Brett Young via Levi Strauss' "5:01 Live" series and CMT, with their upcoming star-studded Kenny Rogers tribute special, have also joined the cause
Ana Monroy Yglesias
MusiCares
Apr 6, 2020 - 12:58 pm

Many more artists and companies have come together during this difficult time to support the many music people out-of-work and in-need due to coronavirus, with more fun fundraisers and generous donations to the MusiCares COVID-19 Relief Fund.

Today, actor/singer Rita Wilson teamed up with hip-hop legends Naughty By Nature to release a special remix of their classic track "Hip Hop Hooray," featuring none other than Wilson herself throwing down bars. All proceeds from the song will be donated to the Fund. It was released on YouTube today (listen below) and will be available across streaming/digital platforms this Friday. Wilson and her husband, Tom Hanks, contracted COVID-19 while filming in New Zealand; after posting a video rapping "Hip Hop Hooray" on Instagram, the group reached out to her about collaborating on the new version for a good cause.

For the last two weeks, Nashville powerhouse singer/songwriters and power couple Ellie and Drew Holcomb having been performing fun covers ranging from U2 to Kacey Musgraves to John Mayer on their daily Kitchen Covers series, raising money for MusiCares and their out-of-work touring band and crew.

Linda Perry and Kerry Brown's We Are Hear multifaceted music org have launched the On The Air series, in partnership with Roland, featuring music industry talks, performances and more on YouTube. With the platform's donation functionality, they are raising money for the Fund. Halestorm's Lzzy Hale offered some empowering words and music in one of the latest episodes. 

Read More: Troye Sivan, Yoshiki, Father John Misty, Selena Gomez & More Donate To MusiCares COVID-19 Relief Fund

On Wednesday, April 8, CMT will be airing a special star-studded tribute show to the late country king Kenny Rogers to benefit MusiCares. "CMT Giants Kenny Rogers: A Benefit for MusiCares" will feature at-home performances by Dolly Parton, Lionel Richie, Jason Isbell & Amanda Shires, Lady Antebellum, Vince Gill, Michael McDonald, Rascal Flatts and more.

Later this week, on April 11, the Human To Human 2020 festival on Facebook Live will feature live music from Alec Benjamin, Tayla Parx, Skylar Grey, Richard Marx, Cyn, Grouplove, Jewel, Lauren Daigle and more. They will be raising money for the Plus1 COVID-19 Relief Fund, which has partnered with MusiCares and the Sweet Relief Musicians Fund.

Until April 9 (it began April 2), the UnCanceled Music Festival is bringing tons of live sets from artists around globe by pairing with local venues and brands to curate digital stages. The massive online event is hosted on the StageIt platform and requires "attendees" to donate in a pay-what-you-can model to watch. Fender's stage has featured alt faves like Waxahatchee, Cautious Clay and The Marias, while Los Angeles venue Hotel Cafe has tapped VINCINT, Colbie Caillat, Molly Tuttle and more. All money raised is donated to the venues' staff, the artist community and MusiCares.

Fender has been finding several creative ways to collaborate with artists and contribute to the MusiCares Fund. With the Fender Artist Check-In series on IGTV, they've tapped bad-ass guitarists including My Chemical Romance's Frank Iero, John 5, Isbell, and more and are donating on behalf of each artist that participates. In Iero's recent Check-In, which you can watch below, he shares a guitar tutorial for two MCR fan-favorites, "Ghost of You" and "Welcome to the Black Parade."



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From his basement jam room, @frankieromustdie of @mychemicalromance gives a tutorial on his guitar parts for their songs “Ghost of You” and “Welcome to the Black Parade.” Be on the lookout for new Artist Check-Ins coming soon. For each artist that participates in a Fender Check-In, we are making a donation to @musicares who has set up a COVID-19 relief fund to support creators affected during this time.

A post shared by Fender (@fender) on Mar 31, 2020 at 10:19am PDT

For those seeking a little retail therapy for a good cause, live music photographer Jacob Blickenstaff and pop star Troye Sivan have you covered. Blickenstaff has partnered with some of the artists he's photographed over the years, including Isbell, Dawes, Yola and Hiss Golden Messenger, selling gorgeous prints with a portion of the proceeds going to the Fund. Sivan, who had shared he would be supporting both MusiCares and the WHO's coronavirus relief efforts, recently released merch for his new single, "Take Yourself Home." All the profits from the three t-shirts will be donated to the WHO COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund and Spotify's COVID-19 Music Relief project, which supports MusiCares and several other charities.

Last Fri., April 3, Light In The Attic & Friends Live brought live sets from Ben Gibbard, Jim James, Fred Armisen, Barbara Lynn, Devendra Banhart and more on their YouTube and Twitch accounts. All donations were directed to MusiCares. "Lo-Fi" singer Haley Reinhart recently did a performance on Billboard's Live At-Home series, choosing MusiCares as her charity of choice.

Explore: GRAMMY Museum To Debut Never-Before-Seen Content From Billie Eilish & FINNEAS, Brandi Carlile, Yola & Much More

Denim purveyors Levi Strauss have launched a star-studded 5:01 Live IGTV music and chat series to benefit COVID-19 relief efforts from MusiCares and the WHO. So far, it's featured a stellar squad including Snoop Dogg, Questlove, Burna Boy, Moses Sumney and Brett Young. Young, who performed last week, donated his performance fee to MusiCares. Additionally, the country star's past GRAMMY Museum is also being featured in the Museum's exciting digital offering rollout, going live on April 29.

https://twitter.com/MusiCares/status/1244750979590795264

Thank you for your support @ThomasRhett ❤️ It means a lot! 🙏 https://t.co/kVv1EUOUOp

— MusiCares (@MusiCares) March 30, 2020

On March 30, his birthday, country star Thomas Rhett released a new song benefiting MusiCares, called "Be A Light." Featuring none other than Reba McEntire, Keith Urban, Hillary Scott and Chris Tomlin, all of the artists' proceeds will be donated to the cause. Joining the growing coalition of companies supporting the Fund, the Country Music Association and its philanthropic arm, the CMA Foundation, announced a $1 million donation last week.

As more members of the music community rallying around a unified cause, we'll keep you posted right here on musicares.org.

Learn more about how you can donate to or apply for assistance via the Recording Academy's and MusiCares' COVID-19 Relief Fund.

Learn more about the financial, medical and personal emergencies services and resources offered by the Recording Academy and MusiCares. 

How Kevin Griffin Of Better Than Ezra Raised Over $40K (And Counting) For MusiCares In Just An Hour On Facebook

Tom Petty in 1987

Tom Petty in 1987

Photo: Ross Marino/Getty Images

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Tom Petty's 70th Birthday Bash: Stevie Nicks, More tom-pettys-70th-birthday-bash-stevie-nicks-foo-fighters-rick-rubin-more

Tom Petty's 70th Birthday Bash: Stevie Nicks, Foo Fighters, Rick Rubin & More

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The free five-hour extravaganza is raising awareness and donations for the NIVA's Save Our Stages Fund, MusiCares, Arts In Medicine and Digitunity
Ana Monroy Yglesias
MusiCares
Oct 20, 2020 - 1:02 pm

Today, Oct. 20, would have been Tom Petty's 70th birthday. To celebrate the music and legacy of the GRAMMY-winning rock hero, his estate is throwing a fittingly star-studded livestream concert on Fri., Oct. 23.

The fourth annual Tom Petty's Birthday Bash festival goes virtual this year, featuring performances and speeches from his friends and fans, including Stevie Nicks, Lenny Kravitz, Eddie Vedder, Rick Rubin, The Flaming Lips, Brandi Carlile, Norah Jones, Beck and many more. The five-hour extravaganza is free and is raising awareness and donations for the National Independent Venue Association's Save Our Stages Fund, MusiCares, Arts In Medicine and Digitunity.

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Must Read: Let Your Heart Be Your Guide: Adria Petty, Mike Campbell & More On The Enduring Significance Of Tom Petty's 'Wildflowers'

The annual concert was launched in the "Free Fallin'" singer's hometown of Gainesville, Fla. in 2017 just weeks after he died, as a celebration of his life and timeless tunes. This year's birthday party will begin on SiriusXM's Tom Petty Radio (which he helped launch in 2015) from 4:30-7:00 p.m. ET. It will feature performances from Grouplove, Jason Isbell, The Killers, Kurt Vile, the Raconteurs, the Arts In Medicine Hospital Band and others.

From 7:00-9:30 p.m. ET, the festivities will move over to Amazon Music's Twitch Channel and TomPetty.com, with an audio simulcast on SiriusXM. This show will feature Vedder, Kravitz, Nicks, the Flaming Lips, Foo Fighters, the Heartbreakers' guitarist Mike Campbell, Post Malone, Chris Stapleton, Emily King, Gary Clark Jr., Jackson Browne, Lucinda Williams, Lukas Nelson, Margo Price and more. Music mogul Jimmy Iovine, actor Kiefer Sutherland, super producer Rubin, Olivia Harrison and Stephen Perkins of Jane's Addiction will also appear.

The news follows the release of Petty's Wildflowers & All The Rest on Fri., Oct. 16. It's a long-awaited reissue of his 1994 Rubin-co-produced album, yet the first time it was released as the artist intended, a 25-track double album.

Wayne Coyne Talks Flaming Lips' New Album 'American Head,' Kacey Musgraves & Pool Parties At Miley Cyrus' House

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Liz Brasher

Photo: Jarrod Anthonee

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Liz Brasher On Memphis, "Sad Girl Status" & More liz-brasher-opens-about-memphis-mental-health-her-new-sad-girl-status-video

Liz Brasher Opens Up About Memphis, Mental Health & Her New "Sad Girl Status" Video

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The tough and talented emerging artist talks candidly about her career journey, how Memphis' "grit and hustle" inspires her, and what went into her powerful and personal new video
Robert Ham
MusiCares
Jun 23, 2020 - 10:19 am

Singer/songwriter Liz Brasher definitely took the backroads to discover and develop her distinctive style of Southern music. Influenced by everything from the spirituals of Mahalia Jackson to the crafty harmonies of the Beatles, Brasher honed her self-described mix of "garage rock meets the Delta blues meets gospel meets soul," along the winding personal and musical journey from her hometown of Matthews, NC, through Chicago and Atlanta. 

The backroads eventually led her to the home of legendary labels Stax and Sun Records, Memphis, Tenn., where she began her career in earnest and found her new creative home.

"It’s a really healthy place to write and to exist as an artist. There’s no feeling of industry or competition here," she says. "I came to Memphis to record an album and hopefully get signed. And literally the first weekend I was here, those things happened for me."

Fast success awaited Brasher in Memphis. She was snapped up by Fat Possum Records and soon found herself on the road, opening for the Zombies and the Psychedelic Furs, and making her highly acclaimed first appearance at SXSW in 2018. She released her debut album Painted Image in early 2019 and even earned a place in the hallowed halls of the Stax Museum, with one of her stage outfits and guitars on display, further celebrating and cementing her connection to the "Home of the Blues." 

But soon, Liz started to see her promising young career stall out just as the lights were turning green. 

“You’re promised that things are going to go one way,” she remembers, “then you see yourself fall to the wayside because... things aren't the way you were told they would be.” 

Instead of succumbing to adversity, Brasher poured her disappointment into her music. She sat down at her piano one day and out came a heartfelt ballad called “Sad Girl Status.” The song is a powerful expression of personal anguish and fiery determination written with ample room for her wall-shaking vocals to boom out. Appropriately, it’s matched up with a video featuring the wildly talented artist walking with purpose through Memphis—both guided tour and a reminder of her place in the musical history of this legendary city.  

While she waits for the quarantine to lift and for her touring life to begin again, Brasher spoke with the Recording Academy about the hard times that led to the creation of “Sad Girl Status,” inheriting her work ethic from her immigrant mom, and what her adopted hometown of Memphis means to her. 

Let’s start off by talking about your new single “Sad Girl Status.” In the notes for the song, you talk about how it was born from a really low point in your career and your life. What was going on at that time? 

We had just released my debut album Painted Image. Everything in my whole life had been leading up to this moment. Like, it’s your first record. You really want it to do well. I had just come off a really good previous year of touring. Then suddenly I watched everything fall into this stalemate. It didn’t matter how many songs I was writing. It didn’t matter what I was doing to get better, I couldn’t propel anything forward. That was just so frustrating because I’m not a person who sits still very well at all. That’s what I was now forced to do for almost a year. I found myself in this cycle of frustration. I knew what my potential was, but I couldn’t get myself to where I wanted to go. So, in that really low state, I sat down at the piano, and in a few minutes, the song completely came out of me. It was really melancholy, but I thought it was beautiful at the same time. I think it was really what I needed to make this mental switch. It was the catalyst for me to be able to make changes that needed to be made in my career. 

What changes did you make to help you move forward? 

I took my career into my own hands. As an artist it’s easy to feel like a lot is out of your control. You write the music, perform it, record it, but you can feel so disconnected to everything from the business side – like it’s something that’s happening to you. Some artists are okay with being hands off, with just getting informed as things happen, but I realized that’s not what I wanted. That forced me to take a step back and see that, while I have help with my career, I ultimately needed to own the fact that it’s up to me to make sure it’s driving forward in the way I want it to go.

Is it normal for you to start with the piano to write a song? A lot of the material on Painted Image is very guitar-forward. 

Aside from singing, piano was my first instrument. My mom started me on piano lessons when I was four. When I began to join bands, I would just sing. Later on, I picked up the guitar and that kind of overtook everything for me. It’s so much easier to lead a band as a guitar player. I’ve got some songs that are more piano-based but not like this. Not stripped down—just vocals and piano. 

Your hometown of Memphis is such a huge part of the video for “Sad Girl Status.” What does the city mean to you? 

The thing that attracted me most is that Memphis refuses to conform. There’s this very unique grit and hustle to this city. This constant mindset that Memphis is going to do whatever it wants to do. It’s a really healthy place to write and to exist as an artist. There’s no feeling of industry or competition here. I came to Memphis to record an album and hopefully get signed. And literally the first weekend I was here, those things happened for me. I don’t know if I’ll be in Memphis forever, but it’s always going to be the place where my career began. 

GRAMMYs

Liz Brasher's stage outfit and guitar on display at the Stax Museum in Memphis
Photo: Shane Trulin

Was it easy for you to get into the grind and hustle of the city? 

That’s something that was ingrained in me from childhood because my mom is an immigrant. She had to work her ass off to support me, including having multiple jobs so that I could take piano lessons. She’s one of nine siblings that came from the Dominican Republic where they all lived in a one room shack with dirt floors. My family came here seeking a better life. I grew up seeing how many things they had to balance and struggle with just to make ends meet. For me, it was like, how could I not work as hard as my mom?

How has your family responded to your music and your career? 

They just kind of stay out of it. Some will ask or keep up with how things are going, but most just act like it doesn’t exist. I have a very strict religious family. I grew up singing in the church and I wasn’t allowed to listen to secular music. I had to sneak out to go to concerts and had friends burn me CDs so I could hear what was going on. I had to literally hide in my closet with my radio because I was so addicted to music and wasn’t allowed to hear it. I grew up singing and was always playing some instrument, so it really shouldn’t be a shock that I turned out to be a musician. It can be an issue of contention because a prevalent thought within my family is that any time music is used outside of the church it’s automatically evil or negative. I think it’s a cultural and age difference, more than anything. My mom had me at 40, so that’s a huge age gap. You combine that with a different mentality from a different country and a legalistic view on faith, it just makes for a melting pot of misunderstanding. But I think all artists feel that way to a degree. My family’s response actually drives me. I want to be even more successful because I want them to see that this is a valid career and way of life. 

Do you have any ideas about what comes next for you – once you can get back on the road and onstage? 

I'm going to take over the world. I’ve written so much, even from the time of my first record. I’ve got multiple albums just waiting to be recorded right now. We’re having the conversations and discussing what the best options are. Is it building our own team independently or is it working with a label that’s going to be fully on board? Right now, we’re sorting through all of our options. I want to ensure we avoid repeating what I just went through. We’re just taking it one song at a time right now.   

Learn more about how you can donate to or apply for assistance via the Recording Academy's and MusiCares' COVID-19 Relief Fund.

Learn more about the financial, medical and personal emergencies services and resources offered by the Recording Academy and MusiCares.

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Some of the content on this site expresses viewpoints and opinions that are not those of the Recording Academy and its Affiliates. Responsibility for the accuracy of information provided in stories not written by or specifically prepared for the Academy and its Affiliates lies with the story's original source or writer. Content on this site does not reflect an endorsement or recommendation of any artist or music by the Recording Academy and its Affiliates.