Tickets to Bon Jovi Tulsa show go on sale Nov. 16
Rockers Bon Jovi have announced that their 2010-2011 “The Circle World Tour,” promoted by AEG Live, will stop April 13 at the BOK Center in Tulsa.
Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Monday, Nov. 16 and can be purchased at the BOK Center Box Office and all Tickets.com outlets, phone at (866) 7BOKCTR or online at www.bokcenter.com.
Ticket prices are $29.50, $59.50, $99.50 and $129.50. Tickets are subject to applicable service charges and event time and date are subject to change.
The GrammyAward-winning band will spend much of the next two years on the road, performing 135 shows in 30 countries.
With the grounds of New Meadowlands Stadium as their backdrop, the band’s Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora, David Bryan and Tico Torres recently announced their two-year global trek with an exclusive performance for a group of more than 5,000 lucky contest winners, fan club members, and on-site construction workers currently building the venue. Following in the footsteps of their hugely successful “Lost Highway Tour” — Billboard’s No. 1 top-grossing tour of 2008 — Bon Jovi will draw fans around the world into “The Circle,” with a residency at London’s O2 Arena in June 2010 before returning to America in the fall for an additional nationwide leg, and further dates well into 2011.
The Nov. 10 release of the band’s new album, “The Circle,” and subsequent world tour, provides a powerful reassertion of Bon Jovi’s commitment to the rock ’n’ roll that has been the band’s indelible signature since it began more than 26 years ago.
For more information on the tour, go to www.bonjovi.com.
-BAM
Rascal Flatts closes 2009 tour, sells 550,000 tickets
Rascal Flatts (Associated Press photo)
Top-selling country band Rascal Flatts, which includes Joe Don Rooney of Picher, wrapped the first leg of the “Rascal Flatts American Living Unstoppable Tour” last weekend. The tour sold 550,000 tickets in 39 shows since it began in June, according to a news release.
This total includes the two sold-out stadium concerts at Chicago’s Wrigley Field and Columbus, Ohio’s Crew Stadium. From January of this year, the band has sold more than a million concert tickets, bringing the trio’s four-year total to more than 4 million tickets sold.
Critics claimed their live shows were a huge success. The Minneapolis Pioneer Press said, “the biggest band in country employed showers of sparks, a well-lit runway that ran the length of the arena’s main floor, and big screens bedecked with images of misty moors and words like “passion,” “faith” and “courage.” And it all fit well with their songs, which assign weighty import to the events of everyday life through carpe diem lyrics, every chorus screamed out with vein-popping urgency.” “Rascal Flatts is a dominant country band for a reason. The songs are catchy and the musicianship is some of the best in ANY genre,” claimed the Cleveland Plain Dealer and The Dallas Morning News said, “The show is high-energy, flat-out from the get-go.”
Next up for Rascal Flatts are nominations for Group of the Year at next Wednesday’s CMA Awards (watch the Country Music Association’s awards show on ABC and follow the live-blog here) and Country Group of the Year and Country Album of the Year at the American Music Awards (Nov. 22 on ABC).
Rascal Flatts newest CD, “Unstoppable,” has been certified platinum for sales in excess of 1 million. The CD launched as the group’s fourth consecutive studio album to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard Top 200 chart, more than any other country artist in the history of Soundscan. This brings the band’s career album sales to a staggering 20 million units in just this decade, and the group has amassed 22.5 million digital downloads.
Rascal Flatts is the biggest-selling and grossing group in country music history and has been named a Billboard Top Ten Touring Act in all genres with more venue attendance records than any other country act.
-BAM
Friday Featured Track for Nov. 6, 2009: Remember back when Milla Jovovich made good music instead of bad movies?
Milla Jovovich getting scared out of her wits in “The Fourth Kind.” Hey, Milla, are you sure you wouldn’t rather make another folk-rock album?
The song that has been in my head the most this week:
- “Gentleman Who Fell,” Milla Jovovich, from her 1994 debut album “The Divine Comedy.”
After a couple of weeks’ hiatus, I’m returning with the weekly BAM’s Blog music spotlight the Friday Featured Track.
This week’s selection came out of a discussion this week with my colleague George Lang. We were bemoaning Milla Jovovich’s propensity for starring in cheap, critically panned movies like today’s “The Fourth Kind” and wishing she would find a better outlet for her skills and looks.
George, who has an incredibly sharp musical memory, reminded me that Jovovich made an interesting and well-received folk rock album back in ‘94. This light and lovely ballad, nicely spotlighting her lilting voice, became an alternative rock hit.
As Allmusic.com notes, Jovovich eschewed the tired dance-pop path many actress/models take when they want to make an album and opted instead for a low-key, largely acoustic record that tapped into her Slavic heritage.
Jovovich made only one more album, a 1998 mail-order-only effort called “Peopletree Sessions.”
But she’s making, what, her fourth “Resident Evil” movie? Listening to “Gentleman Who Fell,” that seems even more wrong than it did previously.
There were apparently two videos filmed for the song, so I’m posting them both here for your viewing/listening enjoyment:
-BAM
Carrie Underwood writes more on new album “Play On”
A version of this story appears in Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman.
Carrie Underwood’s got the write stuff for new album
Underwood co-wrote seven of 13 titles on her New album, ‘Play On’
Between the No. 1 hits and the TV appearances, the magazine covers and the red carpet fashions, music fans can be forgiven for forgetting that country superstar Carrie Underwood was once an aspiring journalist.
But the credits for her new album “Play On” serve as a pointed reminder that the Oklahoma native was sharpening her pen long before she won “American Idol” in 2005.
“I got a lot of practice writing in general, especially in college. You know, in high school I wrote for the school paper, in college I wrote for the school paper, and was always busy writing stories,” she said in a September press conference at her Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame induction in Muskogee.
Underwood, 26, co-wrote seven of the 13 songs on “Play On,” her third album. She helped pen four tracks on her second record, 2007’s “Carnival Ride,” and one on her 2005 debut “Some Hearts.”
“This one, I had a lot more time to do a lot more writing, and I feel like I’m a lot more comfortable in myself as a writer. That just happens — the more you do it, the better, the easier it gets, I suppose,” said Underwood, who received her mass communications degree from Northeastern State University in Tahlequah almost a year after she won the reality TV singing contest.
“Play On,” released Tuesday, has been one of the fall’s most anticipated country albums — for good reason. Since winning the fourth season of “Idol,” Underwood has sold more than 10 million records, notched 10 No. 1 hits from her first two albums and won four Grammy Awards, as well as myriad other industry accolades. On Nov. 11, she will co-host and compete for two honors at the Country Music Association’s 43rd Annual CMA Awards.
While she is best known for belting out feisty breakup songs, uplifting anthems and soaring ballads, Underwood is demonstrating a knack for helping craft her hits. Three songs she co-wrote for “Carnival Ride” — “So Small,” “All-American Girl” and “Last Name” — topped the country charts.
For “Play On,” she set out to stretch her songwriting skills.
“I kind of branched out and wrote with a lot of people that I’ve never even met before — people that weren’t even necessarily involved in country music,” she said. “We’d take like me and a good friend of mine who I’d written with before who is a staple in country music and then kind of bring another element to it, which was a lot of fun.”
For instance, she penned “Cowboy Casanova” with respected Nashville songsmith Brett James, who also co-wrote her Grammy-winning hit “Jesus, Take the Wheel,” and hip-hop writer/producer Mike Elizondo, known for his work with Dr. Dre, Eminem and 50 Cent. The saucy lead-off single zipped into the top five in just seven weeks on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart.
“This is probably the fifth song I’ve written with Carrie and she’s just delightful. She’s a fantastic person, she’s a fantastic singer, obviously an amazing singer, and she’s a really, really great songwriter,” said James, who grew up in Oklahoma City and Cordell.
The songstress also wrote with rockers Raine Maida of My Lady Peace on the lovely ballad “Unapologize” and Zac Maloy, former frontman of Oklahoma City band The Nixons, on the spiritual tearjerker “Temporary Home.”
“I had to be a fan,” she said of Maloy. “I was like, ‘I saw you when I was in high school.’ So, it was a lot of fun for me to work with him.”
Underwood, who counts fellow Oklahoman Garth Brooks as one of her idols, remains unapologetic for making rock- and pop-flavored country music.
“Right now in country music is a great time for a lot of different kinds of country music,” she said. “If you turn on the radio you can find something you like, whether you like things that are more kind of contemporary country, or you find more things that are traditional country or more kind of rock-influenced.”
But she acknowledged her mix-and-match approach to choosing songwriting partners didn’t always work.
“Sometimes we’d get things that were like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is new and fresh and awesome,’ and sometimes it was like, ‘Whoa — what have we done?’ she said. “Most of those you’ll probably never hear — that’s why they were ‘whoa, what have we done moments.’ But it was a great learning experience.”
Among the collaborations that didn’t make it onto the album were songs she co-wrote with fellow Oklahoma native and Country Music Hall of Famer Vince Gill.
“It was still an investment in somebody you like, and a neat kid who’s got her head on straight. And you just root for her,” said Gill, who sings on her new track “Look at Me.”
“She’s all things good.”
Contributing: Assistant Entertainment Editor George Lang.
-BAM
CD review: Carrie Underwood, “Play On”
A version of this review appears in Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman.
Country
Carrie Underwood “Play On” (19 Recordings Limited/Arista Nashville)
Contemporary country star Carrie Underwood stretches her strong soprano, her songwriting skills and musical boundaries on her third album, “Play On.”
The Checotah native co-wrote seven of the 13 songs, ranging from “What Can I Say,” a twangy heartbreaker with country brother act Sons of Sylvia, to the anthemic title track, which could well be next season’s “American Idol” farewell theme. The album’s sonic diversity reveals the 2005 “American Idol” winner’s willingness to grow and experiment.
The record opens with her latest hit, “Cowboy Casanova,” a feisty country-rocker about a “snake with blue eyes” lothario. She co-wrote the cautionary tale with successful country songsmith and fellow Okie Brett James (who also co-wrote her Grammy-winning hit “Jesus, Take the Wheel”) and hip-hop writer/producer Mike Elizondo, who has worked with Dr. Dre, Eminem and 50 Cent.
She keeps rocking with “Undo It,” a catchy kiss-off with a stuttering chorus and strutting groove that she penned with “Idol” judge Kara DioGuardi and hard-rock producer Marti Frederiksen. Her woman-wronged sass takes a more distinctly country turn on “Songs Like This.”
Underwood, 26, gets sentimental with songs like the spiritual weeper “Temporary Home,” which she co-wrote with Zac Maloy, former frontman for Oklahoma City band The Nixons, and the earnest ballad “Mama’s Song,” her other DioGuardi/ Frederiksen collaboration. And if “Change” comes across as a too syrupy bit of idealism, her youth and philanthropy (including a recent donation of musical instruments to Checotah schools) can probably earn her a pass.
The crossover hitmaker often takes her lumps from the Nashville establishment for her pop-flavored music, but she spotlights her country side on the beautifully sad “Someday When I Stop Loving You” and the slow-dancer “Look at Me,” featuring Oklahoma star Vince Gill on vocals.
- BAM
OKC Philharmonic going on a Classical Mystery Tour, giving away Beatles box set
Classical Mystery Tour
The Oklahoma City Philharmonic will reunite this weekend with the Beatles tribute band Classical Mystery Tour.
The orchestra and the band will perform together at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the Civic Center Music Hall, 201 N Walker.
In 1996, Classical Mystery Tour joined the ranks of the many Fab Four tribute bands out there, but what sets this group apart is that its appearances are backed by a full symphony orchestra.
The group played a successful engagement with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic in January 2007, so Classical Mystery Tour will help the orchestra open its 2009-10 pops season this weekend.
Band members Jim Owen (John Lennon), Tony Kishman (Paul McCartney), Tom Teeley (George Harrison) and Chris Camilleri (Ringo Starr) will return for two performances conducted by Martin Herman.
For more information, click here to read Fine Arts Editor Rick Rogers’ story about the show. For tickets and information, call 842-5387 or go to www.okcphilharmonic.org.
In conjunction with the shows, the OKC Philharmonic is giving away one of the new Beatles’ stereo box sets and a set of four box seats to one of the performances. Participants must be 18 or older to enter, and the deadline is for entries to be submitted online is 2 p.m. Thursday. The winner will be chosen by a random drawing of all eligible entries.
To learn more or enter the contest, go to www.okcphilharmonic.org/contest-rules.
-BAM
Irish rock band The Answer opening for AC/DC tonight in Oklahoma City
The Answer
From Wednesday’s Life section of The Oklahoman.
AC/DC’s opening act has The Answer
Frontman Cormac Neeson hopes eventually he won’t get so many questions when people learn the name of his band is The Answer.
The Irish blues-rockers have spent the last year getting priceless exposure as opening act for AC/DC’s worldwide “Black Ice Tour.” The tour will make a stop tonight at the Ford Center.
“Part of the experience is soaking up a few tricks of the trade from these guys that have been in the business for so long, and you combine that with obviously the exposure that The Answer’s getting by playing in front of these massive crowds, it’s just a perfect tour for us to be on right now,” Neeson said in a phone interview earlier this year from the road.
The tour has taken the hard-rocking quartet all over the United States (including an appropriately icy January date at Tulsa’s BOK Center), throughout Europe, back to the States, into Canada and back to America. Along the way, the band has played “Late Night With David Letterman,” put a song on “Guitar Hero: World Tour” and released a new album, “Everyday Demons.” The Answer is releasing this month “Comfort Zone,” the soulful new single from the album, its first full-length record to get an American release.
“It’s all coming together and all combining to really build up a strong momentum,” he said. “It’s our second album, so thus it’s the first album that we actually had to sit down and write over the space of three months as opposed to a collection of songs over the previous couple of years … so there’s a consistency there, there’s a kind of fluency in statement that we’re trying to make.”
Their globe-trotting trek started with the band’s formation nine years ago in Northern Ireland. Neeson, guitarist Paul Mahon, bassist Michael Waters and drummer James Heatley secured a U.K. record deal in 2005 and released their debut album “Rise” to keen reviews and solid sales.
Among others, the album captured the attention of Australian rock gods AC/DC, who handpicked The Answer for the hotly anticipated “Black Ice Tour.”
“I don’t whether it’s a case of them maybe seeing a bit of themselves in where we’re at at the moment — you know, a band (that’s) a native of Good Brit in the States — but luckily enough, they were willing to give it to us,” Neeson said.
“We were in the running with another 200 bands, and I think if it had come down to industry politics, we wouldn’t have been within a hope in hell of getting it. So, it’s quite refreshing to know that a band like AC/DC still has the humanity to give it to a band that really needs it and, we feel, deserves it.”
Though the influence of AC/DC, along with the likes of Led Zeppelin, Black Crowes and Free, echoes through The Answer’s music, Neeson said the band has deliberately steered clear on any rock-retro blues clichés and worked to establish a distinctively modern sonic identity.
“When kids listen to a band, they want a band that’s gonna sound fresh and something that they can really attach themselves to and be a part of,” he said.
The band’s winding journey with AC/DC is ending later this month, as the Irish lads embark Nov. 25 on their first headlining tour of the U.K. Along the “Black Ice Tour,” the group has played a few solo shows, including Tuesday night and back in January at Ardmore’s Two Frogs Grill.
“They’re the best live act I’ve ever seen at Two Frogs,” said owner Aubry Harris, whose venue recently hosted Bret Michaels and Vince Neil. “They’re a no-name in the States right now, but they’re smoking good. It’s only a matter of time before they hit big.”
In the event they become breakout rock stars, Neeson said The Answer will have some valuable insight into mounting a massive tour.
“It’s a lesson in how to pull off a tour of this magnitude. We (previously) spent 2 ½ years touring all around Europe and Japan and Australia and places like that. You know, we’re no strangers to life on the road, but … the sheer scale of the whole thing … you really have to pace yourself and come to terms with it as soon as you possibly can. You can’t let it kind of overawe you.”
In concert
AC/DC with The Answer
When: 8 tonight.
Where: Ford Center, 100 W Reno.
Information: (800) 745-3000 or www.okfordcenter.com.
-BAM
Carrie Underwood to play Bahamas concert
Oklahoma country music star Carrie Underwood will perform her first concert following today’s release of her new album at the Atlantis, Paradise Island resort in The Bahamas.
The Checotah native will play Dec. 5 at the resort as part of the Atlantis Live! concert series, according to a news release from the venue.
The reigning Academy of Country Music Entertainer of the Year and four-time Grammy winner with album sales of more than 10 million, Underwood’s placed her third album, “Play On,” in retail outlets today.
Atlantis, Paradise Island rates for the weekend of Dec. 6 begin at $269 per night, including concert tickets. Guests who stay for two nights will receive an additional $650 in complimentary signature Atlantis activities and dining experiences, such as dolphin interactions, sushi and sake at Nobu, access to the exclusive Cain at The Cove ultra-pool and the new Snorkel with the Mantas program.
The Atlantis Live! concert series is known for hosting many popular names in music, with previous artists including Miley Cyrus, Colbie Caillat, Fergie and the Jonas Brothers.
Packages can be booked by calling (800) Atlantis, or by booking online at www.Atlantis.com.
-BAM
Carrie Underwood featured on the cover of Country Weekly magazine
Carrie Underwood watches the Ottawa Senators take on the Tampa Bay Lightning in an NHL hockey game March 11 in Ottawa. The country star chats with Country Weekly magazine about her boyfriend, Senators star Mike Fisher, in the current issue. (Associated Press photo)
Country music star Carrie Underwood, who releases her new album “Play On” today, is featured on the cover of the Nov. 9 issue of Country Weekly, on sale now.
In a story titled “Carrie Underwood: What Makes Me Cry,” the Oklahoma native talks with the magazine about her beau, forgiveness, her new music, long-term goals and what makes her tear up.
She tells the magazine that her boyfriend, NHL hockey star Mike Fisher, exhibits the “cowboy” traits she likes in a man.
“When I think of cowboys, I don’t just go stereotypical hats and boots and Wranglers,” she tells Country Weekly. “I think of somebody who’s very strong, and kinda quiet and has this confidence about them. Something that’s very sexy and not overstated.”
Check out my feature on Underwood and review of “Play On” Friday.
-BAM
Video: Carrie Underwood kicks off series of TV appearances
Oklahoma native and country star Carrie Underwood kicked off a series of several TV appearances Monday night on “The Late Show with David Letterman.”
In the next month or so, Underwood will perform songs from her new album “Play On,” releasing today, on several shows. She also will be profiled in an episode of “Biography,” play two different awards shows and co-host the CMA Awards and host her first Christmas special.
Here is a list of her TV appearances:
Yesterday The Late Show with David Letterman
Today Good Morning America- live in New York
Nov 5 Live! with Regis & Kelly
Nov 10 Good Morning America- live in Nashville
Nov 10 “In The Spotlight with Robin Roberts: Bright Lights. Big Stars. All Access Nashville”- ABC Special
Nov 11 43rd Annual CMA Awards
Nov 12 A&E “Biography- Carrie Underwood”
Nov 16 The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien
Nov 18 The Ellen DeGeneres Show
Nov 19 Jimmy Kimmel Live!
Nov 22 American Music Awards
Dec 7 “Carrie Underwood: An All-Star Holiday Special” on Fox
If you want more TV news, check out Penny Soldan’s TV blog at http://blog.newsok.com/television.
-BAM
