Radiohead lead singer Thom Yorke is embarking on short tour with his band of well known musicians including producer Nigel Godrich, Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea, drummer Joey Waronker of R.E.M. and Smashing Pumpkins fame, and Mauro Refosco of Forro in the Dark. The tour will culminate when the group plays the Coachella Festival on April 18th. The group played a show in Los Angeles playing a multitude of tracks from Yorke’s 2006 album The Eraser. The super group has been named Atoms for Peace after one of songs of The Eraser. We shall see if this collaboration continues on after Coachella and if a new album is the result.

Two of today’s biggest living blues legends, B.B. King and Buddy Guy, are teaming up for a number of shows in 2010. B.B. King and his guitar Lucille are scheduled to play 27 dates this year with old friend Buddy Guy joining him for stretch of shows in February. The 12 show stint with the two blues-men will be a momentous occasion for music fans as it will be a rare opportunity to get to see two of the most influential guitar players in history. King, a innovator in the use of vibrato in electric guitar soloing, and Guy, famous for his unique Chicago blues playing, will likely jam together for a number of songs as the have done so in the past. The double headlined portion of the tour will start in Florida working its way up the eastern coast and eventually making its way to the Midwest where Buddy will play his last show at the Mid America Center in Council Bluffs, Iowa. B.B. King will continue on playing gigs in Chicago, New Orleans, and Los Angeles to name a few. The tour will be supporting King’s recent release, One Kind Flavor, produced by T Bone Burnett became the artist highest debuting solo album in his career when it was released in 2008.

When you see Sting in his new holiday show, you might be confused. He doesn’t seem like the pop icon Sting that you’ve come to know over all these years. His performance is of holiday music that you might not have heard recently. It’s a little bit unusual to hear this kind of music frequently at this time of year, avoiding all the reindeer, Santas and all that kind of thing. It’s an older traditional style of music and it’s very nice indeed. Have you heard Sting doing traditional music? He has been doing this more and more in recent years and he has shown his flexibility and dexterity through this new style. Hopefully he will keep doing shows like this, maybe for spring, in the future.

Billy Joel and Elton John have had a run of bad luck lately. First Elton was sick and so the pair had to cancel some concert dates. It might have been as many as half a dozen shows that were rescheduled or cancelled. Meanwhile, Billy Joel became sick almost immediately after it was announced that John was better. So a large part of their upcoming schedule was cancelled and rescheduled for the next little while. My understanding is that they will start up again in January of February and play some of the dates that they had to cancel and a fair number of new ones as well. While you might not like having to change your plans, it’s definitely worth the wait. These guys have some great music and they can make you really feel what they’re feeling each time!

When the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s conductor announced on Tuesday that his herniated disc would need immediate operation, they didn’t know what they were going to do. Daniele Gatti, the temperamental Italian conductor, was brought in, instead of going with a local Boston assistant, because the orchestra wanted someone special for the opening of the season. He was surprisingly good, considering he hadn’t practiced with the orchestra until just a couple days ago. The critics are pleased with the way the orchestra performed with him, and there were only a few points that they would have improved on first glance. Not bad for a 3 day rehearsal sequence. To be fair, the music was all familiar to the musicians and the conductor, so we don’t need to think that they were improvising. But still, getting everyone on the same page is very tough!

Now that the holidays seem to be on the way, there’s been a lot of talk about the Tran-Siberian Orchestra. Someone around my house today was trying to figure out what they do and asked “don’t they just do Christmas carols..no but funky.” That’s pretty true. They combine this cool exciting style of hard rock (and classical and jazz) with some great special effects, smoke machines and light shows. It all mixes together to create a fun experience for anyone. If you have been buying their CDs over the years, you have heard their music change a little bit over the year. Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert tickets will allow you to actually see the group, instead of just listening to them on a CD. It’s a huge show that has impressed audiences repeatedly over the years. Get yourself into a great concert this season!

When you see Steely Dan, you expect that they are going to be kind of quiet and a little bit difficult to get. They are very much their own characters and they aren’t much for audience interaction. They come in and they play their music. We shouldn’t think of them as being particularly friendly or anything. But their style is changing a little bit in recent years. They have played some request nights and more playing of full albums in their concerts. This makes them seem much more friendly to people in the audience. They have a small following, mainly among men, but it’s growing a little bit every year. They do limited tours about every year, so you have to be kind of lucky to catch them yourself.

When Pearl Jam comes up to your area this summer, it will be one of the best shows in recent memory. If there’s anything that rivals the strength of their music, it’s the fun of their show. Pearl Jam has been one of the most popular groups for many years and they are producing great music even now! Their upcoming new album Backspacer might be released in September this year. They debuted one of the main songs from this album on the Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien at the beginning of June. This year, during their tour, they will perform all across the country, including two shows in Chicago at the large United Center. We’re definitely looking forward to seeing them in person and I’m going to get my Pearl Jam tickets very soon!

Green Day has come a long way since their earlier years of basic punk music. It’s never been particularly easy to pigeon-hole this band and to make sure that we can understand them. The band is talented and they have written some of the most interesting music in the rock world in the last decade or so. Their album, American Idiot, has been well liked both in the US and in other countries and their newest album is also very good. It has many songs in that same vein, with songs about life in the suburbs and selling out in one’s life. They are trying to fashion themselves as “real artists”. It’s such a fun time to see what these people are writing now and their current concert tour has proven that they still connect with young listeners as they always did. Good job guys.

One of the biggest moments in the last month or so was the 90th birthday extravaganza for Pete Seeger. This is the man who made a lot of folk music what it is now, and influenced a generation or two in the world of rock and roll. One of the biggest brainchildren of Seeger is The Boss, Bruce Springsteen. He played at the birthday concert, with some striking renditions of the best songs. There were also a bunch of other musicians of that generation singing the songs. There were some younger singers too, like Dave Matthews, and it was a fitting way to honor one of the greatest musicians of the era. It was fun and energizing concert for everyone who was there!