It’s hard to believe 25 years have passed since Michael Jackson released Bad, the much-anticipated followup to his megahit Thriller. While it didn’t match Thriller’s record-setting sales, it sold 30 to 45 million copies worldwide and spawned five No. 1 singles.

A benefit Johnny Cash tribute concert, to be held April 20, 2012 in Austin, Texas, has confirmed appearances set for Willie Nelson and Sheryl Crow.

John Mellencamp and Stephen King’s dramatic “roots musical,” in the works for more than a decade, will finally debut this spring.

Jesus, seriously? I have a sense of humor but this is just absolute garbage. William Shatner’s 2004 project with rock piano great Ben Folds, Has Been, was actually an entertaining diversion — tongue fully in cheek, yet it had musical merit: serious fun. This is pure junk

Tony Bennett, 85 this year and still singing with great dimension and style, is set to release of Tony Bennett: Duets II, Sept. 20 on RPM/Columbia Records. Here’s an early preview of a key track

by Derrick Lord Old sayings get to be old sayings for a reason: There is usually a good bit of truth in them. I gave Sheryl Crow’s album C’mon, C’mon a spin based on the single “Steve McQueen” and I thought: “Yup, the apple didn’t fall too far from the tree.”

We’re reminded again on Ramble at the Ryman, a record both timeless and new, that Levon Helm was the loamy voiced, rail-jumping rhythmic center point of the Band, the yearning storyteller and gritty soul. Their records were drawn from continuity, bringing in dizzyingly diverse, age-old influences