Away Team

Chris Cornell gives fans the up-close-and-personal opportunity with his first-ever solo acoustic tour beginning in April.

One doesn’t usually associate the phrase “solo acoustic” with the man who gave voice to Soundgarden, Temple Of the Dog and Audioslave. But Cornell received raves when he played his first acoustic “Songbook” show in front of a sold-out audience in December 2009 at Los Angeles’ Hotel Café. Now fans in the U.S. and Canada get to experience Cornell’s acoustic side when he embarks on the two-month “Songbook” tour beginning April 1 in Austin, Texas, at the Paramount Theatre.

SONGBOOK VOLUME 1 dates:
April 1 Austin, TX Paramount Theatre
April 2 Houston, TX House of Blues
April 3 Dallas, TX House of Blues
April 5 Atlanta, GA Center Stage
April 6 Asheville, NC The Orange Peel
April 8 Bridgeport, CT The Klein Memorial Auditorium
April 9 Boston, MA Berklee Performance Hall
April 10 Glenside, PA Keswick Theatre
April 12 New York, NY Town Hall Theatre
April 15 Atlantic City, NJ Borgata Hotel Casino
April 16 Montclair, NJ Wellmont Theatre
April 17 Washington DC Sixth & I Historic Synagogue
April 19 Poughkeepsie, NY Bardavon
April 20 Toronto,ON Queen Elizabeth Theatre
April 22 Chicago, IL Vic Theatre
April 23 Milwaukee, WI Pabst Theater
April 24 St. Paul, MN Fitzgerald Theatre
April 26 Edmonton, AB Winspear Centre
April 27 Medicine Hat, AB Esplanade Arts & Heritage Center
April 29 Victoria, BC Royal Theatre
April 30 Coquitliam, BC Red Robinson Show Theatre
May 1 Seattle, WA Moore Theatre
May 3 San Francisco, CA The Fillmore
May 4 Los Angeles, CA John Anson Ford Amphitheatre
May 6 San Diego, CA Humphreys Concerts by the Bay

For more CHRIS CORNELL click here.

Slim Jim’s Top Ten of 2010

SHOOTER JENNINGS – Black Ribbons
The 70’s big classic rock – ball trippin’ – brain smokin’ – ear melting heavy tuneage of old is not dead. Shooter Jennings has created the heaviest album of 2010. In pure sonic fury, huge epicness, and massive songwriting. This isn’t Outlaw Country, This isn’t your daddy’s classic rock, this is Shooter Jennings and Hierophant (his band) racing along your brainwaves, fucking with all you thought you knew about music, and tainting what may come in the future. Take a little WHITE STRIPES, sprinkle some MUSE, add a dash of BLACK KEYS, smoke it with some Pink Floyd and dose repeatedly with Shooter himself, and you’ll get Black Ribbons. While the music will kick your ass, the lyrics will fuck with your brain, and the whole experience will make you think this whole fucked up industry could simply be saved if they’d just put out more solid music like this. This album should propel Shooter into Arenas and onto your grid faster than the clap takes hold of your sad tiny withered cock. But it seems the world would rather listen to the likes of sluts like Ke$ha, or 16 year old pubescent boys like Beiber than embrace the monster that is Shooter and Hierophant. WAKE UP people… If you haven’t experienced Black Ribbons… GO NOW. Do it here. You’ll thank me later. Oh, yes, Don’t Feed The Animals… And… FUCK YOU I’m FAMOUS. Did I mention there are 20 songs on this disc? 20! All of them will fuck with you, tie you in psychedelic knots and drip musical ecstasy semen out of your earholes. And don’t forget the indelible STEPHEN KING. Oh yeah, how could I forgot the title track Black Ribbons? It is quite simply the best Bruce Springsteen song that he never wrote.

ELEPAHNT MOUNTAIN – The Last Days of Planet Earth
Joe Altier and Slider from BRAND NEW SIN reunite to form ELEPHANT MOUNTAIN. The best Southern tinged Hard Rock album of the last year or three, and they hail from SYRACUSE, NY! If you’ve heard of BRAND NEW SIN, and have heard their first two records, then you’ll know exactly what ELEPHANT MOUNTAIN sounds like. And you’ll love it. You can spread the herd here.

THE BLACK KEYS – Brothers
Raw. Stripped. Deeper grooves than the ones fading on your wrist. Monochromed Stereophonically challenged. Bluesier than 20 quarts of Papa’s Jambalaya. More soulful than the most devout Methodist. The more I listen to this the more I want to go find all my ex’s. And slap the unloving chaos addicted shit out of them. The ultimate break up album. As it spins right now, I’m thinking it should move UP my top ten list. Fuck it. Ten Cent Pistol just reinforced the fact. And this is now my #3 best album of 2010 (As I originally wrote this, it was set at 7). You can join the Brothers here.

FILTER – The Trouble with Angels
An amazing return for FILTER. Raw, punishing, beautiful. Read my original review here.

ACCEPT – Blood of the Nations
Another reunion of sorts for ACCEPT. A new singer and a new lease on life. A great album that reminds us all why ACCEPT are Fast as a Shark. Read my original review here.

DISTRUBED – Asylum
More melodic than the past albums. More straight forward guitar solos than before. And more David Draiman. What more could you ask from a DISTURBED album? You can join the Asylum here.

SLASH – Slash
Slash gets a bunch of singers to sing on his album instead of going around singing on theirs. Great songs, great singers like Myles Kennedy (ALTER BRIDGE), Lemmy (MOTORHEAD), Ian Astbury (THE CULT), Ozzy, Chris Cornell (AUDIOSLAVE, SOUNDGARDEN), and many more. The most notable standout track and singer is Fergie (FERGIE, BLACK EYED PEAS) on the track Beautiful Dangerous. The woman should be singing balls out Rock N Roll all the time, not this pop pap shit with BEP. She has a great voice and holds her own amongst the more traditional and legendary vocalists on this album. You can get Slashed here.

AVENGED SEVENFOLD – Nightmare
Never a big A7X fan. But after seeing them this year at the Rockstar Uproar Festival with Disturbed I found a new respect for them as a live band. I figured out my problem with the band. M. Shadows has a good voice, but as he sings about dark lyrics, and leads the crowd into chants of ‘fuck you’ his voice has a rather high range to it. Making the music seem lighter and more lilting than the lyrics therefore belying the heaviness of the music. At times making it seem rather jokish or tongue in cheek. However after seeing their amazing performance live, I now get it. And can move past the vocal issue. The album is their best by far. Blazing guitars you’ve come to expect, full stream riffs crunch and chunk along getting your head and feet involved tapping along. Definitely deserving of anyone’s top ten list. You can become the Nightmare here.

EXODUS – Exhibit B: The Human Condition
EXODUS simple continues to pummel you into submission with their latest album. It is the fourth album in their return that does not fail to impress. The one drawback may simply be Rob Dukes‘ dry vocal style. But the brutal beating that you endure while listening to the album more than makes up for the lack of dimensions in his voice. Albums 6 – 10 will continue to beat the ever loving fuck out of your brain and spleen. I have no doubts about this. The band has never sounded better, tighter, or more focused than here. Which can only mean great things on the horizon for us fans. You can witness the Human Condition here.

DEATH ANGEL – Relentless Retribution
Any year is a good year when DEATH ANGEL releases a new album. The most important part of this is that the band promises to tour endlessly for this release. So that means we get more live Death Angel than ever before. And this boys and girls is a good thing. You can read my original review here.

The Deluxe Edition of SLASH‘s (VELVET REVOLVER, ex-GUNS N’ ROSES) latest solo record was released on September 28th in the US and will be issued October 19th in Canada via Universal.

Ultimate-guitar.com is streaming three exclusive tracks from the reissue – ‘Sweet Child Of Mine‘ Live, ‘Baby Can’t Drive‘ and ‘Mean Bone‘.

The two CDs/one DVD features a limited-edition guitar pick designed by Ralph Steadman and Slash and an exclusive 3′ x 3′ fan-contributed-photo-mosaic-poster of Slash that is available for fans to interact with four weeks prior to and after release date and is redeemable online to everyone that buys the Slash deluxe edition.


The deluxe edition features the following tracks:
Disc 1
Ghost (Ian Astbury of THE CULT)
Crucify The Dead (OZZY OSBOURNE)
Beautiful Dangerous (Fergie of THE BLACK EYED PEAS)
Back From Cali (Myles Kennedy of ALTER BRIDGE)
Promise (Chris Cornell of SOUNDGARDEN/AUDIOSLAVE)
By The Sword (Andrew Stockdale of WOLFMOTHER)
Gotten (Adam Levine)
Doctor Alibi (Lemmy Kilmister of MOTÖRHEAD)
Watch This (Dave Grohl/Duff McKagan of FOO FIGHTERS/VELVET REVOLVER )
I Hold On (KID ROCK)
Nothing To Say (M Shadows of AVENGED SEVENFOLD)
Starlight (Myles Kennedy of ALTER BRIDGE)
Saint Is A Sinner Too (Rocco De Luca)
We’re All Gonna Die (IGGY POP)
Disc 2
Sahara (English) (KISHI INABA)
Paradise City (CYPRESS HILL/Fergie)
Mother Maria (BETH HART)
Baby Can’t Drive (ALICE COOPER, NICOLE SCHERZINGER)
Sahara (Japanese) (Koshi Inaba)
Beautiful Dangerous Radio Mix (Fergie)
Demo #4
Demo #16
Back From Cali (Acoustic) (Myles Kennedy of ALTER BRIDGE)
Fall to Pieces (Acoustic) (Myles Kennedy of ALTER BRIDGE)
Sweet Child O’ Mine (Acoustic) (Myles Kennedy of ALTER BRIDGE)
Watch This (Live) (Myles Kennedy of ALTER BRIDGE)
Nightrain (Live) (Myles Kennedy of ALTER BRIDGE)

DVD:
Making Of The Album
Back From Cali – Live From The Roxy
By The Sword – Music Video
By The Sword – Behind The Scenes
Starlight – Live From MTV Classic Launch
Mean Bone – Live From MTV Classic Launch









For more SLASH click here.

Carlos Santana was initially intimidated by mentor Clive Davis‘ pitch for his next album — another “Supernatural“-style all-star collaboration, but this time on a collection of iconic rock songs by the likes of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC and others.
“I was like, ‘No, I don’t know if I want to do this one, Clive. This one’s a little challenging,‘” the guitarist and bandleader told Billboard.com.
“And he would stay on the phone for at least 45 minutes to an hour, three times in one year, and I was like, ‘Oh, lord…’ But then I started realizing that someone with that intense passion of commitment couldn’t be wrong, so I had to trust him. And it was incredible.”

The album — Santana‘s first since “All That I Am” in 2005 — is due out in September and is not yet titled. The track list is being finalized as well, but during sessions Santana reunited with “Smooth” partner Rob Thomas on Cream‘s “Sunshine of Your Love” and worked with Joe Cocker on Jimi Hendrix‘s “Little Wing,” Scott Weiland on the Rolling Stones‘ “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking,” Chris Daughtry on Def Leppard‘s “Photograph,” Soundgarden‘s Chris Cornell on Led Zeppelin‘s “Whole Lotta Love,” Papa Roach‘s Jacoby Shaddix on Deep Purple‘s “Smoke on the Water” and rapper Nas, who lays down rhymes on AC/DC’s “Back in Black.”

Santana chose half of the songs while Davis, Sony Music‘s chief creative officer, picked the other half. Davis, who originally signed Santana in the 1960s, masterminded his 1999 comeback “Supernatural,” a worldwide smash that also garnered nine Grammys.
“What I brought to the table is my heart, knowing that I complement, I don’t compete,” Santana said of the recording sessions. “I brought my heart, trusting that there’s enough in me of purity and innocence and genuineness that I couldn’t possible, excuse the expression, fuck it up. I know Eric (Clapton). I know Jeff Beck. I know Jimmy Page. And they know me. I have supreme certainty and confidence that they’re going to say, ‘Hey man, I love what you did with my song.”
While he considers every song “incredible,” Santana said his very favorite is the Beatles’ “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” which he recorded with India Arie and cellist Yo Yo Ma.
“I sent the song to George Harrison‘s widow, Olivia, and I got back an email that says, ‘Carlos, I listened to the song and I started crying and jumping with joy at the same time. And I want you to know that George really loved you, because he understood your passion for compassion.’ And I was like, ‘Bam!’ that’s like George Harrison himself, through his beautiful wife, validating my existence and what I did with that song.”
Santana plans to preview some of the covers during his upcoming summer tour with Steve Winwood, which gets under way June 30 in Saint Paul, Minn. He also plans to have Winwood “join my band” for collaborations he hopes are “totally different” than what fans might expect.
“I would prefer not to do Steve Winwood or Santana songs with him,” Santana explained. “I would like to go to the Bob Marley repertoire or Marvin Gaye or African music by King Sunny Ade or really, really obscure other-side-of-the-tracks. So I’m crossing my fingers.”
After the summer tour with Winwood, Santana is returning to Las Vegas in August for his second residency at the Hard Rock Hotel. Santana is touring Europe in September and October, including a stop at London’s O2 Arena.
Santana has another album ready to go as well, an all-instrumental set called “Shape Shifter,” which he recorded with his band and he plans to release after the next album has run its course.

Current SANTANA dates:
5/25/2010 Tuesday Pavilhão Atlântico, Lisbon
5/28/2010 Friday Le festival MAWAZINE Rythmes du nde, Rabat, Morocco
6/30/2010 Wednesday Xcel Energy Center, St Paul, MN Steve Winwood
7/1/2010 Thursday Summerfest, Milwaukee, WI Steve Winwood
7/3/2010 Saturday Saturday in the Park Festival, Sioux City, IA Steve Winwood Free Festival
7/4/2010 Sunday Starlight Theatre, Kansas City, MO Steve Winwood
7/6/2010 Tuesday Riverbend Music Center, Cincinnati, OH Steve Winwood
7/7/2010 Wednesday Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre, Indianapolis, IN Steve Winwood
7/9/2010 Friday Midwest Bank Amphitheatre, Tinley Park, IL Steve Winwood
7/10/2010 Saturday DTE Energy Music Theatre, Clarkston, MI Steve Winwood
7/11/2010 Sunday Molson Amphitheatre, Toronto, ON Steve Winwood
7/13/2010 Tuesday Quebec City International Summer Festival, Quebec City, QC Steve Winwood
7/14/2010 Wednesday Lebreton Flats, Ottawa, ON Steve Winwood
7/15/2010 Thursday Bell Centre, Montreal, QC Steve Winwood
7/17/2010 Saturday Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, Bethel, NY Steve Winwood
7/18/2010 Sunday Nikon at Jones Beach Theater, Wantagh, NY Steve Winwood
7/20/2010 Tuesday PNC Bank Arts Center, Holmdel, NJ Steve Winwood
7/21/2010 Wednesday Mohegan Sun, Uncasville, CT Steve Winwood
7/23/2010 Friday Comcast Center, Mansfield, MA Steve Winwood
7/24/2010 Saturday Trump Taj Mahal Casino/Hotel- Etess Arena, Atlantic City, NJ Steve Winwood
7/25/2010 Sunday Jiffy Lube Live, Bristow, VA Steve Winwood
7/27/2010 Tuesday Verizon Wireless Virginia Beach Amphitheatre, Virginia Beach, VA Steve Winwood
7/28/2010 Wednesday Time Warner Cable Music Pavillion, Raleigh, North Carolina Steve Winwood
7/29/2010 Thursday Chastain Park Amphitheatre, Atlanta, GA Steve Winwood
7/31/2010 Saturday 1-800-ASK-GARY Amphitheatre, Tampa, FL Steve Winwood
8/1/2010 Sunday Cruzan Amphitheater, West Palm Beach, FL Steve Winwood
8/25/2010 Wednesday The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas, NV
8/27/2010 Friday The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas, NV
8/28/2010 Saturday THe Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas, NV
8/29/2010 Sunday The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas, NV
9/1/2010 Wednesday The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas, NV
9/3/2010 Friday The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas, NV
9/4/2010 Saturday The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas, NV
9/5/2010 Sunday The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas, NV
9/29/2010 Wednesday O2, Dublin, Ireland
10/1/2010 Friday O2 Arena, London,UK
10/2/2010 Saturday MEN Arena, Manchester,UK
10/3/2010 Sunday Newcastle Arena, Newcastle,UK
10/5/2010 Tuesday Gleredome, Arnhem, NL
10/6/2010 Wednesday Sportpaleis, Antwerp, BE
10/7/2010 Thursday König-Pilsener-Arena, Oberhausen, Germany
10/9/2010 Saturday Hallenstadion, Zürich, Switzerland
10/10/2010 Sunday Zenith, Dijon, FR
10/12/2010 Tuesday Bercy, Paris, France
10/13/2010 Wednesday SAP-Arena , Mannheim, Germany
10/15/2010 Friday O2 Arena, Prague, CZ
10/16/2010 Saturday O2 World, Berlin, Germany
10/17/2010 Sunday Olympiahalle, Munich, Germany
10/19/2010 Tuesday Mediolanum Forum, Milan, Italy
10/20/2010 Wednesday Rothaus Halle , Friedrichshafen, Germany
10/23/2010 Saturday O2 World, Hamburg, Germany
10/25/2010 Monday Arena Fyn, Odense, DK
10/27/2010 Wednesday The Globe, Stockholm, SE
10/29/2010 Friday Vestlandshallen, Bergen, Norway
10/30/2010 Saturday Vikingaskeppen, Hamar, Norway

For more information visit Santana‘s website here.

Source: Reuters.com