9 APRIL
Featured Events
2018 The chain is broken: Fleetwood Mac announce that Lindsey Buckingham has been fired from the band and will be replaced with Mike Campbell and Neil Finn on their upcoming tour.
1996 The New York Yankees grounds crew dances to "Y.M.C.A." as they drag the field in the fifth inning of their home opener, eliciting roars of approval from the crowd. The routine, with improved choreography, becomes a regular feature at Yankee Stadium.
1994 Heavy metal makes a mark as Pantera's album Far Beyond Driven debuts at #1 in America.
1977 ABBA goes to #1 on the US singles chart with "Dancing Queen," the group's seventh US Top 40 hit and first #1. The song is also a #1 in the UK and 12 other countries.More
1976 Folk singer-songwriter Phil Ochs commits suicide at age 35 in Far Rockaway, New York City, after a long battle with bipolar disorder and alcoholism.
1973 Queen play the Marquee Theater in London, their first concert since signing with EMI Records.
1965 Bruce Johnston joins The Beach Boys as the permanent replacement for Brian Wilson.
1860 An anonymous vocalist sings "Au Clair De La Lune" to Parisian inventor Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville, who makes the first known and oldest surviving recording of the human voice.More
9 APRIL
In Music History
2021 Hardcore rapper DMX dies at age 50 a week after suffering a massive heart attack. His first five albums all went to #1 in America.
2009 Following a contentious interview where he insults Canadian audiences, Billy Bob Thornton's music career hits a roadblock when he and his band the Boxmasters are booed at their show in Toronto opening for Willie Nelson. The Boxmasters cancel their remaining Canadian dates the next day.More
2009 Philadelphia soul singer Randy Cain (of The Delfonics) dies at age 63.
2008 Elton John plays a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, bringing in about $2.5 million. In 2013, Clinton is honored by the Elton John AIDS Foundation for her support of gay rights.
2004 Weird Al Yankovic's parents, Nick and Mary Yankovic, are found dead of accidental carbon-monoxide poisoning in their Fallbrook, California. The tragedy was caused by using their fireplace with the flue closed.
1999 Bruce Springsteen begins his first tour with the E Street Band since 1988 with a concert in Barcelona. The European leg ends in June, with the first American show in their home turf of New Jersey on July 15. The tour lasts until July 2000, a total of 132 shows.
1999 Faith Hill begins her first headlining tour ("This Kiss") in Minneapolis.
1997 Amidst personal tensions between its band members, Soundgarden announce their breakup, which lasts for 13 years.
1997 Nashville songwriter Mae Axton, co-writer of Elvis Presley's "Heartbreak Hotel," dies at age 82 when she has a heart attack and drowns in her hot tub.
1994 Pearl Jam visit the White House, where they meet with President Bill Clinton. The band push for reforms to rein in Ticketmaster, while Clinton looks for help crafting an official statement on Kurt Cobain, who was found dead the previous day.
1994 Wayne Newton marries his second wife, Kathleen.
1992 "Deep Cover" by Dr. Dre, written for the movie of the same name, is released. It marks the first appearance of Snoop Doggy Dogg, recently signed to Dre's Death Row Records, on a major release.
1988 Soul singer Dave Prater (of Sam & Dave) dies at age 50 in a single-car accident in Sycamore, Georgia.
1988 Billy Ocean's "Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car," from the movie License To Drive, hits #1 in the US. Written by Ocean with superproducer Mutt Lange, it's the last of his three US #1 hits, following "Caribbean Queen (No More Love On The Run)" and "There'll Be Sad Songs (To Make You Cry)."
Gillian Welch Releases Revival
1996Bluegrass duo Gillian Welch and David Rawlings release their debut album, Revival.
With Revival, from Elvis Costello producer T Bone Burnett, Gillian Welch (that's Gillian with a hard 'G') isn't striving to be the next Faith Hill with country-flavored pop songs. Her thrift-store style and lonesome vocals aren't the stuff of mainstream country. Welch sounds like she descended from the Appalachians with nothing but a guitar in her hands and the bitter experience of hardship in her soul. She's an "orphan on God's highway" in the opening track "Orphan Girl," a song she wrote while working as an innkeeper in Nashville and passed on to Emmylou Harris for the folk album Wrecking Ball. She's a fruit picker slaving for one more dollar to pay for passage back home in "One More Dollar." She's a penitent bootlegger at death's door in "Tear My Stillhouse Down." But Welch is no coal miner's daughter. She was adopted by a couple of entertainers who wrote music for The Carol Burnett Show in sunny Los Angeles, a far cry from backwoods Kentucky. At first, some critics question her authenticity and view her evocative mountain ballads as little more than hillbilly shtick from a Hollywood poseur. But Revival earns the respect of the bluegrass community and is regarded as a seminal piece of Americana. The album is even nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album (the winner: Bruce Springsteen's The Ghost of Tom Joad). The ultimate litmus test is a performance of Revival's "Paper Wings" on the historic stage of the Grand Ole Opry: By the second verse, Welch and Rawlings receive a standing ovation. The duo is grateful for the recognition but aren't as satisfied with the release. Burnett padded their meticulous arrangements with a full band, including Elvis Presley's former bandleader James Burton on electric guitar and seasoned session musician Jim Keltner on drums. "I wasn't as interested in putting the band on tracks," says Welch, "because David and I were already playing as a duet - the duet was what we loved and what we felt was the most original and closest to our vision." But there isn't any bad blood between artists and producer. In 2000, the duo reunites with Burnett for the Grammy Award-winning soundtrack to the Depression-era comedy O Brother Where Art Thou?
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