By Keith Spera, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
11/29/12 at 7:07 AM

Dr. Dre, the rap producer who largely defined the West Coast sound in its early ‘90s heyday, topped the list by earning an estimated $110 million between May 2011 and May 2012, the time period considered for the list. But the bulk of that cash wasn't from his producer's fees, songwriting royalties or performances. Dre made around $100 million, writes Forbes' Zack O’Malley Greenburg, when he sold a 51 percent stake in his Beats by Dre line of  headphones to Taiwan-based mobile device maker HTC Corporation.

Roger Waters, the former Pink Floyd bassist and lyricist, came in second on the overall musicians' list with $88 million. The concert industry magazine Pollstar reported that Waters grossed $158 million from 63 performances in 2012 of his The Wall Live tour, which launched in 2010. Elton John came in third with $80 million from 100 shows over the same time period.

U2 is in fourth place, scraping by on $78 million split between the four musicians. British boy band Take That – which barely has any presence at all in the United States – rounded out the Top 5 thanks to $69 million grossed during the group’s reunion tour. That tour included an unprecedented eight shows at London’s massive Wembley Stadium.

Elsewhere on the list, country star Toby Keith and teen heartthrob Justin Bieber tied for 10th place with $55 million. Keith, Forbes said, made much of his money from his longrunning Ford sponsorship and his I Love This Bar and Grill restaurant chain. Bieber, meanwhile, oversees a growing portfolio of investments as a budding venture capitalist; he earned his own Forbes cover story earlier this year.

By: Michael Farrar- Special Correspondent to theadvocate.com

When Thomas Johnson was a boy growing up in Baton Rouge, his mother taught him to play the piano. However, it wasn’t until his father picked up a guitar to play a blues song that the young Johnson was really hooked on music.

“Honestly, I probably got into playing guitar because I saw him play “Stormy Monday” one time when I was a kid and I thought it was the coolest thing ever,” Johnson said.

Thomas Johnson and the People will be playing Chelsea’s Cafe on Friday, Nov. 23, but don’t expect a social media campaign about the event. Johnson said he prefers to focus more on the actual show.

“I’m totally addicted to playing live music, but I don’t like spending the time pushing it,” Johnson explained. “I’m not even on twitter. It probably hurts me in some degrees, but you can get consumed trying to put your music in people’s faces all the time.”

With that said, Johnson has posted quite a few live performance videos on his website, http://thomasjohnsonmusic.com. The site also has a trio of releases by Thomas Johnson & the People, which include the 2010 “Living Room” EP, the 2011 “Beneath the Trees” album and their most recent effort, the 2012 “It’s Okay, I’ll Die Too” album. Throughout those albums, Johnson’s music has grown from a polished studio sound to a low-fidelity approach with mostly acoustic arrangements recorded in a home studio.

“When I go back to hear my recorded music, I enjoy the recordings made in the house in Lacombe more than the ones that were in the studio. I guess I can get more personal in my own space,” Johnson said.

Another space that Johnson appreciates is the great outdoors, which feeds into his music.

“I enjoy writing songs in a quiet outdoor environment,” Johnson said. “I like to go on long trail runs and I can usually clear my mind when I’m in nature.”

Following his love of nature, Johnson took a demanding job on the sunny west coast after studying history at LSU.

The explosive duo who comprises Crushed Out will bring their early American rock and roll sound to Baton Rouge and New Orleans next weekend. The band, formerly known as Boom Chick, will make stops at the Hartley/Veh Theatre in Baton Rouge, and at both Tulane University and The Howlin' Wolf in New Orleans.

Crushed Out is the musical brainchild of vocalist and guitarist Frank Hoier and drummer Moselle Spiller, but don't let the short roster fool you — this band brings the noise.

Much like the wall of sound created by Ohio's blues-rock duo The Black Keys, Hoier and Spiller know just what buttons to push to amplify their signature surfer rock and roll.

"We really try to whip ourselves up to maximum energy. We're trying to put out ridiculous, joyous noise to get people moving and dancing," Hoier told NOLA.com during a stop in Phoenix on Nov. 19.

Hoier said his 1960s-era guitar amps offer up a big, bass-filled sound he hopes keeps listeners from missing a bass player.

By Alex Temple-MSTv

The Korean pop sensation and Gangnam style king, Psy had his coming out party at the American music awards last night.  But whether you or the audience there weren't familiar with his worldwide hit, by the time he hit the stage, you were a fan and dancing to the beat.

Now, as if Psy's crazy song wasn't catchy enough, just when you thought his performance was done, he got an old school assist by a rap/hip-hop legend--M.C. Hammer.

Hammer has been outta the public eye and off-stage for over almost 2 decades.  But, this didn't stop the 50 year old from keeping up and kicking it Gangnam style with Psy.

Then just when you think this dance set couldn't get any more intense,  the duo drop back to the Hammer hit, "Too Legit to Quit"  and continued to tear up the floor.   And once it was over, all one could hope for was an encore and that we'll be seeing more "Hammer time" in the future. 

By Jim Derry, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune

The overflow crowd was upbeat Saturday night as Sunpie Barnes evoked a chuckle while he explained the reason he was a few minutes tardy for the third of four sets at the Abita Springs Opry. "Y'all feeling all right? Y'all look good, but I left my glasses in the car. In fact, that's why I was late. I ran over a possum right round the corner, and it is close to Thanksgiving, so you know ..."

He then fired up his accordion, and his band began to play Zydeco music.

Six times per year -– three times in the spring and three in the fall -– residents from all over the north shore and the metro area travel to the 109-year-old Abita Springs Town Hall to hear traditional music that has been playing across southern Louisiana for nearly a century. On Saturday, the Opry held the last event of its 10th anniversary season with 2 1/2 hours of bluegrass, jazz, gospel, and yes, Zydeco.

Barnes, Cori Walters and her New Orleans Dixieland Jazz Band, the Zion Harmonizers and the Pot Luck String Band strummed and sang to the jam-packed audience of more than 400 with a handful more who couldn't fit inside the wooden building watching and listening on television outside in 48-degree weather.

Bob Baker of Lacombe has been attending the Opry on a fairly regular basis for about five years, and said the music makes him feel as if he has gone back to a time long ago. Even though he is a native Tacoma, Wash., and his wife, Elsa, is from Cuba, he feels as if Louisiana music is something that needs to be kept alive.

"We love this. We especially love New Orleans jazz," he said. "We just feel at home, and the people respect the show. They don't cut up, and really, it's almost like a religion. This might be a dying thing. I was just thinking as that trumpet player was playing, 'Are there going to be enough people to keep this tradition going?' I sure hope so."

One didn't need to poll the musicians to know their experience added up to several centuries. One gospel musician, Joseph Warrick, has been a part of the Zion Harmonizers for 55 of the group's 73 years of existence. He has traveled with them to countries "I'd never have been able to see otherwise," such as Italy, Switzerland, France and Germany.

West Coast stoner-rappers Cypress Hill, who made a splash with 1993’s No. 1 hit “Insane In The Brain,” will play the House of Blues on Sunday, Nov. 18. Besides standing as champions for heavy marijuana consumption, the group was the first Latino hip-hop act to cross over into the mainstream; their music is characterized by innovative samples and creative collaborations which, judging by a recent track recorded with Rusko and Damian Marley, haven’t stopped. 

I talked to rapper Sen Dog about metal, Cuba, and the fight to legalize weed in the U.S., below:

Lately, you’ve been collaborating with electronic dance music artists like Rusko and Deadmau5. That seems like kind of a departure.

Musically, I don’t think anyone really knows me except the guys in the band. We’re just so into music -– stuff that’s recorded in a quality way, we become fans of it whether it be hip-hop, rock and metal or R&B, drum and bass, house, whatever. I’ve been listening to a lot of pretty cool electronic stuff and dubstep, you know, and we thought it would be a good idea to go that way, as long as we didn’t compromise our integrity and not sound like Cypress Hill. I think with Rusko we did a really good job of that, to the point where performing it is nothing different in the energy, it feels like I’m just doing hip-hop.

What are you listening to right now?

Right now I’m in a heavy metal phase. I’m playing a lot of old-school Pantera stuff, I like Lamb of God, Slipknot –- and some Motorhead in there. I go through phases, I’m in a metal phase right now.

By John Wirt Advocate Music writer


Brantley Gilbert, the country singer, songwriter and recording artist who composed two Jason Aldean hits, “My Kinda Party” and “Dirt Road Anthem,” didn’t believe it when his booking agent told him he’d be touring with three tour buses, three semi-trailer trucks and three supporting acts.

“I was like, ‘What’s the  deal?’ ” the traveling Gilbert said from Fayetteville, Ark., two weeks into his Hell on Wheels tour.  But the tour’s approach isn’t so different from the step-by-step approach Gilbert has applied to his career since he was teenager. He’s still moving into new markets, just doing so bigger than usual.

“So we got shows with 2,600 people and some shows with 6- or 7,000 people, sold out,” Gilbert said. “And these smaller towns and cities we’re going to, we’ll be able to go back in a few months. So there’s a method to the madness.”

In concert, Gilbert sings his own No. 1 recordings, “You Don’t Know Her Like I Do” and “Country Must Be Country Wide,” as well as the Aldean hits that he’d originally written for himself.

“The people who I’d written ‘My Kinda Party’ and ‘Dirt Road Anthem’ for, they can still hear me sing those songs on stage and on my record,” Gilbert said. “So it’s not like I gave my song away or sold it. But Jason, he did his thing with them and that’s definitely an honor.”

The Hell On Wheels tour is the first headlining tour of Gilbert’s career. Everything about it is bigger than a club tour or being an opening act, for instance, for Toby Keith or Eric Church.

“We’ve got a whole new lighting rig and stage set,” he said. “I’m still trying to figure out how to work my way around the stage without tripping over anything. But it’s really cool and the light show is great.”

Like his friend and co-writer for “Dirt Road Anthem,” Colt Ford, Gilbert is a Georgia native. Ford is from Athens, home of the University of Georgia. Gilbert is from a nearby small city, Jefferson.

When Gilbert performed for a sold-out show at the Georgia Theatre in Athens at 19, he thought he couldn’t ever top it.

“Everybody, the B-52s, R.E.M., Widespread Panic, anybody who was anybody, played that venue,” he said. “I thought that was as big as it was getting. I’d made it. I could make a living playing music in Georgia, in the Southeast. I didn’t want a label or nothing like that.”

But Gilbert, having worked himself up from a praise-and-worship band and solo acoustic gigs shared with another Georgia musician, Corey Smith, soon saw more potential for his talent.

“As it grew, I realized that I needed a manager, booking agent, a record label, all those things,” he said.

All of which came to pass, in a big way. Gilbert’s label, Big Machine Records, is also home to Taylor Swift, the Band Perry, Tim McGraw and more established and rising stars.

And now Gilbert is on the biggest tour of his life.

“The other day I was talking with my drummer about it,” he said. “Every day we’re finding ourselves making new goals and new dreams, because these things we’ve worked on for so long are coming true.

“It’s crazy, but we’re rolling with the punches and enjoying every minute of it, man. It’s been one heck of a blessing.”

The South Korean pop star, who became a UK number one sensation in September, was invited to address the Oxford Union, to speak about his musical philosophy and the reasons for the success of the much imitated "Gangnam Style."

The union, which exists independently from Oxford University and its students' union, has previously welcomed high-profile figures from Jimmy Carter to Michael Jackson to speak to its members.

Psy asked Union members in academic gowns to gather around him at the end of his talk to teach them his signature horse-riding dance routine which has been watched 665 million times on YouTube.

The energetic 34 year old hinted that there was another Gangnam video coming: “The next one’s
going to be successful because of me; I’m going to be more ridiculous,” he told the students,
adding that it will be “half in Korean and half in English so maybe you will understand the
lyrics more”.

If you're unfamiliar with the song, check it out below.