Music Blogs

Kenny Chesney lands his seventh #1 album on The Billboard 200 with Life On A Rock. Only one other country artist, Garth Brooks, has topped the chart seven or more times. Brooks lassoed eight #1 albums between 1991 and 2001. Chesney has amassed all seven of his #1 albums since Brooks released his most recent studio album, Scarecrow.

Chesney pulls ahead of Brooks in one respect: His #1 albums span a longer period of time (a little more than 11 years). Chesney first topped the chart in April 2002 with No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems. Brooks’ #1 albums spanned 10 years and two months, from Ropin’ The Wind in September 1991 to Scarecrow in November 2001.

Will Danielle Bradbery lead Team Blake to a third consecutive win?After Adam Levine and Usher's teams competed Monday night in the first Live Playoffs episode of "The Voice" Season 4, on Tuesday it was time for Blake Shelton and Shakira's contestants to give it a go. The episode started off oddly, when Blake took his all-country team to a karaoke club to rehearse, which wasn't exactly the best way to change public belief that all singing shows are basically glorified karaoke. But hey, who wouldn't want to hang out with Blake Shelton at a karaoke bar? That sure sounds like an awesome night out to me.

By Jon Wiederhorn

photo: Associated Press/Chris PizzelloAnyone who has met, hung out with, or known Tim Lambesis, the frontman for Christian metalcore band As I Lay Dying and an established music producer, has probably never even seen the 32-year-old singer jaywalk, let alone commit any sort of felony. Yet the soft-spoken, amiable Lambesis was shockingly arrested Tuesday, May 7, for allegedly trying to hire a hitman on May 2 to murder his estranged wife.

Big Chief Iron Horse & the Black Seminoles Mardi Gras Indians [Photo: Rick Diamond/Getty Images]THURSDAY MAY 2:

A series of heavy rains have only served to multiply the mud fields generated at the 44th Annual New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival’s first weekend at the Fair Grounds Race Course. On my way in for the first day of weekend #2, with threatening clouds overhead (again), I pass by some serious testifying by the Singing Mustangs Choir to find that some of the track’s grassy infield has become a beach. A layer of sand has been added in an attempt deal with the growing quagmire, though some areas remain a gooey swamp -- like the wide moat that separates the Jazz & Heritage Stage and Big Chief Iron Horse & the Black Seminoles’ Mardi Gras Indian chants from the crowd. As I slog over to Fais Do Do, with my Converse hi-tops already massacred by mud, I reach a spot on New Beach where there’s a perfect harmonic convergence of sound from three stages, with Big Chief, Grupo Sensacion’s meringue, and the charm of Balfa Tojours’ traditional Cajun participating in a spontaneous,

By Jon Wiederhorn

Ex-Guns N' Roses and current Velvet Revolver drummer Matt Sorum and a bunch of his rocker peers are teaming up to speak out about cruelty against Asian bears.

With the guidance of Animals Asia, Sorum, Def Leppard frontman Joe Elliott, ex-Guns N’ Roses guitarist Gilby Clarke, current Velvet Revolver/former GNR bassist Duff McKagan, ex-Skid Row vocalist Sebastian Bach, Billy Idol guitarist Steve Stevens, and Deep Purple vocalist Glenn Hughes have recorded a minute-long PSA to protest the practice of Asian bear bile farming.

By Jon Wiederhorn

Rapper Ja Rule (a.k.a. Jeffrey Atkins) is a free man--mostly.

After serving most of a two-year sentence for illegal gun possession and tax evasion, the 36-year-old rapper has received his get-out-of-jail card, but will remain in home confinement until his official July 28 release date, TMZ reported.