Blog Posts by Patrick Doyle

Toward the end of his set at Carnegie Hall last night, James Taylor recalled the first time he played the venue, 40 years ago this June. "I can't recall that night too clearly," he said to audience laughter. "The Seventies were a blur to me. But if it was the Seventies, this song was surely in the set." He started fingerpicking "Carolina in My Mind." It's a song wrung in homesickness and sadness, but hearing him deliver it so clearly and joyously after 40 years felt like a triumph.

Photos: James Taylor, Sting, Bette Midler and More at Carnegie Hall

Backed by a 12-piece band, the singer was there to mark the 120th anniversary of the legendary theater, one of four specialty shows he's been planning for about two years. This one was a benefit for the Weill Music Institute, Carnegie Hall's educational effort. The second, on April 20th, will focus on his roots - folk, country, blues and early rock. The third will be a guitar workshop, and the final a "best-of" set. It's a fitting experiment

Robbie Robertson last played live with the full lineup of the Band when filming 1976's The Last Waltz in San Francisco, and has rarely performed live since. But to promote his upcoming LP How to Become Clairvoyant, Robertson will make several appearances with an unexpected backing group: L.A. folk rockers Dawes.

So far, Robertson and Dawes are only planning television and possible festival gigs. Robertson first became familiar with the band when he needed a backup vocalist on some songs, including the new single "He Don't Live Here No More." His manager recommended Dawes frontman ­­­- and die-hard Band fan - Taylor Goldsmith.

Band to Watch: Dawes

"We were just kind of following the curiosity path," Robertson tells Rolling Stone. "[My manager] came up with the idea of maybe working with them if I was going to do some TV things. We had a rehearsal a couple weeks ago in L.A. and ran over a few tunes, and it just felt pretty natural. They're really good and they're a band - it's different

Since performing at the Grammys with Bob Dylan and the Avett Brothers last month, London's Mumford & Sons have sold more than 300,000 copies of their debut Sigh No More - but the band are characteristically modest about becoming Top Ten mainstays. "It doesn't mean anything as of yet," keyboardist-accordionist Ben Lovett tells Rolling Stone. "We haven't seen any of it through our own eyes."

But it might be hard to stay that way for long. Next month, Lovett and the rest of the band will join Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes and Old Crow Medicine Show on the six-show Railroad Revival Tour, which kicks off April 21st in Oakland, California and wraps up April 27 in New Orleans. At each stop, the bands will play outdoor venues where the train is visible to the audience. "The train is at the core of the American musical experience," says Old Crow Medicine Show's Ketch Secor. "It's really great that's going to come again."

Watch Mumford & Sons Perform Three of Their Hits Live at Rolling

Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello spent Monday at the Wisconsin protests, performing acoustic songs at a rally and delivering a fiery speech to the thousands inside of the capital rotunda who are protesting Governor Walker's attempt to end the right of state employees to collectively bargain. "What's happened so far might be the most remarkably twenty-four hours of my life," Morello tells Rolling Stone.  "I've never seen this kind of outpouring of unapologetic, steel-backboned support for union causes in the United States. The Madison police were delivering bratwurst to the protesters inside the capitol, and the kids were thanking them. It was unbelievable."

Photos: Tom Morello Rocks Wisconsin Protesters

At a freezing cold rally outside of the capital, Morello was joined by Rise Against frontman Tim Mcilrath, Wayne Kramer of the MC5 and Boston folk group Street Dogs. The show mixed classics like Neil Young's "Ohio," Bob Marley's "Get Up, Stand Up"  and Morello's driving

In the current issue of Rolling Stone, contributing editor Mikal Gilmore takes us inside The Fury and the Power of the Clash, outlining their journey from English outcasts to conquering Shea Stadium and their bitter breakup.

Read the story in our online archive (subscription only).

Gilmore has deep roots with the band; he was in his late twenties in early 1979 when RS sent him to England to interview the band in the period between Give 'Em Enough Rope and London Calling.

We spoke to him about how he got Joe Strummer to open up, whether he wishes the band ever reunited and why he wanted to revisit them now.

'Clash: Anger on the Left,' Mikal Gilmore's 1979 feature

Did writing about the Clash again bring you back to your original 1979 story? What do you remember about going to London to meet them?

 It was just shortly before the Clash made their first trip to the U.S. It was also my first trip to London. The absolute gloominess of the place is what impressed me. It was overcast. It was

While Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young has reunited in various permutations countless times over the past 40 years, David Crosby and Graham Nash have never stopped recording and touring together as a duo. This spring they'll hit the road for their first joint tour since 2008. "Singing with Graham is kind of like two fighter pilots that have been flying together for years," Crosby tells Rolling Stone. "We know where the other guy's going, and we can fly extremely close to each other."

Joined by a group including guitarist Dean Parks, Crosby's son James Raymond on keyboards, drummer Steve DiStanislao and bass player Kevin McCormick, their sets will range from acoustic to electric performances, including deep cuts like 1994's "Camera" and some newly written songs. "It'll go through a lot of changes," Crosby says. "I've already talked it over with Graham, and at one point it'll just be a cappella, two voices."

Crosby, Stills and Nash Album Guide

The tour is one of many projects Crosby has in

The National haven't started working on any new material for a follow-up to last year's High Violet, but it's on their mind. "We've already started arguing in high-level abstract," frontman Matt Berninger told Rolling Stone last month as he took a break from the Sundance Film Festival, where the band had premiered a new song, "Win Win," in Tom McCarthy's film of the same name. "We all know we're at a point where we need to sort of try something, reinvent ourselves - just take some really big risks. We keep talking about throwing out the playbook and then we argue about what that means."

In the Studio: The National Get Loud on Follow Up to Boxer

Berninger's risk-taking was on display last night at New York's 300-capacity Studio at Webster Hall. At the end of the show, Berninger leapt off the stage, clad in a three-piece suit, and prowled to the back of the venue, screaming the bone-chilling chorus to "Terrible Love" as the crowd lifted him up.

Rob Sheffield: In Praise of "Bloodbuzz

"If you're coming to hear the greatest hits, don't even come," John Mellencamp, who kicked off a 33-date run last night in Lowell, Massachusetts, tells Rolling Stone. For his first theater tour since 1997, Mellencamp is playing a two-hour-plus show that includes a solo acoustic miniset and a country-blues combo, before finishing with a full band.

"I have zero interest in walking into an arena and banging out those hits again," he says. "I'm 59 years old. and I look fucking ridiculous." Instead, he's busting out rarities like 1989's "Jackie Brown" and covering Blind Willie McTell. Even his biggest songs are getting reworked: "Authority Song" got a rockabilly makeover, and "Jack and Diane" has become a country-swing tune.

Farm Aid 25: Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Dave Matthews, Neil Young, Steven Tyler and More 

Instead of bringing along a warm-up band, Mellencamp is screening a documentary, It's About You, shot on the road during his tour with Bob Dylan in 2009. "I like the idea of