The Gershwin Prize for Popular Song recognizes artists for lifetime achievements in musical expression. The Gershwin Prize was created and first awarded in 2007. Past recipients have included:

2007- Paul Simon
2009- Stevie Wonder
2010- Paul McCartney
2012- Burt Bacharach and Hal David

Carole King First Woman To Receive Gershwin Prize For Popular Songview gallery

The evening included performances by King, as well as Gloria Estefan, Trisha Yearwood and Emeli Sandé who honored King with a performance of her song “Will You Love Me Tomorrow.”

The celebration will be aired on PBS on May 28th as part of President Obama’s “In Performance At The White House” series.

“The Jerry Garcia Symphonic Celebration” kicks off June 18 in Pittsburgh, where Haynes will be joined by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. The tour will continue with two bursts of dates throughout the summer, with Haynes being accompanied by local orchestras in each of the eight cities. (Full list of performances here.)

Haynes, of course, has a history with the Grateful Dead. He played in bassist Phil Lesh’s band, Phil Lesh & Friends, for years, and produced Lesh’s 2002 album There And Back Again. He also did some time in The Dead, which featured Grateful Dead members Lesh, guitarist/singer Bob Weir, and drummers Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann.

Haynes organizes some annual musical events — the Mountain Jam festival every summer and the Christmas jam in December — but he says this tour wasn’t his idea.

“We got a call from the people representing the Garcia Estate, saying they wanted to do a series of symphony shows doing Jerry’s music, and that they were going to have a few guest performers, and they wanted to know if I wanted to be the first guest artist,” he told Radio.com. “I was very honored.”

It turns out, Haynes had wanted to go the orchestral route for some time, but never had the right concept, until now.

“I’ve always wanted to do something with a symphony, but I never have, so it’s a really great challenge for me, and I was really psyched. I think it’s gonna be really amazing.”

Of course, a hallmark of both Garcia’s and Haynes’ music is improvisation. But how much can you improvise with an orchestra, particularly when you are performing with a different one every night?

“I felt like it was very important that we take the Grateful Dead spirit and to approach the symphonic production in a way that is different from the norm,” he explained. “I didn’t want it to be just like a symphony playing that music. We’re starting to figure out that there are ways to make it work. There are going to be certain windows that allow for improvisation. Other times, I have to keep my solos more part of the structure.”

Read more at Radio.com

– Brian Ives, Radio.com 

SUNNY Across Central Florida host Michael Rafferty spoke with program administrator Charlotte Melton about the Mental Health Association’s efforts to reduce the  stigma associated with mental health counseling. Charlotte talked about their referral service, which connects people with professionals in the mental health field. She also spoke about the Guardian Advocate program and its affiliations with universities through internship programs.

The MHACF is also involved with outreach programs for children. The Wrap Around and Orange You Happy programs are geared toward changing the perception of mental health issues into something positive.

For more information about the Mental Health Association of Central Florida, please visit their website at mhacf.org or call 407-898-0110.

Did you miss this morning’s “crusty”?   It appeared on the 1973 album Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only The Piano Player. It was written by John and his lyricist Bernie Taupin.   In the United States the song reached No. 2 on the pop charts and No. 1 on the adult contemporary charts for two weeks in the spring of 1973.   According to Taupin and John, the song was inspired by the events of the Vietnam War.

Today’s ‘crusty’ is “Daniel.”

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A spokesperson for Franklin said that the 71-year-old singer will reschedule her two dates from May 20th in Chicago and May 26th in Connecticut and pick up the remainder of her tour in July.

Franklin announced the canceled dates earlier this month to seek medical treatment under doctor’s recommendations for an unspecified health issue. This isn’t the first time the Queen of Soul had to postpone shows due to medical reasons in recent years. Franklin previously canceled a tour in 2010 to undergo surgery for a pain her side, which sparked rumors that she was seeking treatment for pancreatic cancer.

Though her health has posed some interference with shows in the past, Franklin has never been interested in divulging specific details of her health with the media. After her surgery in 2010, Franklin told Jet magazine that she doesn’t “talk about my health with anybody other than my doctors” and only revealed that “the problem has been resolved.”

Last week, Franklin appeared in good health when performing on the season finale of American Idol via satellite singing a medley of her greatest hits with the female finalists.

– Britt Bickel, K-EARTH Los Angeles

From the booth at Williamsburg, Brooklyn, nightclub Output, the 73-year-old spins a tale of recording “Love to Love You Baby” with Donna Summer, kicking everyone out of the studio and dimming the lights so she would feel inspired enough to moan just right.

And soon enough, he says the words that so many on the floor came to hear: “My name is Giovanni Giorgio, but you can call me Giorgio” (just slightly different than how he phrases it on the record). With that, the beat for Daft Punk’s “Giorgio by Moroder” drops, and the staggeringly brutal sound system at Output carries Giorgio Moroder into the future.

On the eve of Random Access Memories’ release, it seemed odd to be celebrating an Italian producer whose connection to the record was at most tangential, if influential. But his influence on disco and funk (and subsequently, Daft Punk) is undeniable, evidenced by the rousing cheers for his spin of the aforementioned Donna Summer classic.

The party that hosted Giorgio is called Deep Space, a Monday night jam hosted by Paradise Garage and Studio 54 veteran Francois K that’s become a fixture in Manhattan’s West Village. This particular event was put on by the Red Bull Music Academy, and the crowd skewed young — a room filled with twenty- and thirtysomethings gawking at a senior citizen who made the records their parents got wild to in the discotheques. The music had transcended generations.

Read more on Radio.com

SUNNY Across Central Florida host Michael Rafferty spoke to HOPE founder Krissy Goss and to Angela Iverson about HOPE Helps, Inc.’s  mission of helping the homeless in Central Florida. Krissy talked about how HOPE began when she befriended a family who had recently become homeless. She spoke about how services are limited and difficult to gain access to, especially for families. She also voiced the need to change the perception of homelessness and how it could happen to anyone.The services and programs that HOPE  provides include a thrift store, food pantry and classes.

Angela spoke about the BBQ Blowout that will take place at the Oviedo Mall on May 24th and 25th that will benefit HOPE Helps, Inc. The event will include professional grill masters as well as a performance by country music stars Steel Magnolia.

If  you would like more information about HOPE Helps, Inc. please visit their website Hopehelps.org or call 407-366-3422. For information on the BBQ Blowout please visit BBQblowout.com.

Last February, Bolder revealed that the recent surgery he had undergone was for pancreatic cancer, not for a heart attack, as originally speculated. Bolder seemed hopeful the surgery had done its job, and that after chemotherapy he would be able to return to work.

Bolder had been the bassist for Uriah Heep since 1983, following a stint with the hard rock band starting in 1976. Though Uriah Heep’s commercial success had lessened by the time Bolder joined the group, he was still a valuable member, even producing 1991′s Different World.

But Bolder may have been best known to audiences for his work in Spiders From Mars, David Bowie’s early backing band. The U.K. native joined the group in 1971 and appeared on Hunky Dory, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars, Aladdin Sane and Pin Ups, a stretch of four albums up until 1973 before Spiders From Mars were disbanded.

On his website, Bowie paid tribute to “a great man,” calling Bolder “a wonderful musician and a major inspiration for whichever band he was working with.”

“Trevor was a ‘World Class’ bass player, singer and songwriter, and more importantly a World Class friend,” said Uriah Heep’s Mick Box on the band’s website, where his death was announced. “He will be sadly missed by family, friends and rock fans all over the world. We are all numb to the core.”

-Kevin Rutherford, Radio.com

Crossfire Hurricane isn’t the first Rolling Stones documentary, of course. There’s been more than a few, from the recently-released documentary of their 1965 tour Charlie Is My Darling through the perennial favorite, 1972′s C***sucker Blues, and Martin Scorsese’s Shine A Light just from just five years ago. Though Morgen is a life-long Stones fan, he says that even he wondered if a new Stones film was necessary.

“At first I was a bit ambivalent, because there have been a dozen Rolling Stones documentaries,” Morgen told Radio.com. “And it sort of reeked of ‘Best Buy Presents: The Rolling Stones’ 50th Anniversary.’ Which I didn’t have any interest in. To the first point, I realized there was only one documentary that sort of traced the evolution of their story, (the 1993 film) 25×5: The Continuing Adventures Of The Rolling Stones, which has been out of print for years. That film was a completely different style from what I did… without saying anything bad about it.”

As for his vision, Morgen explained: “I don’t think that music documentaries should be history lessons. My goal is to make the film the embodiment of the subject matter.”

And Crossfire Hurricane does that. It uses lots of footage shot for C***sucker Blues, but is leagues more coherent than that film. And from the beginning of Crossfire Hurricane, it’s clear that this isn’t a Stones film that doubles as a promotional vehicle for their new album or tour. There’s an early scene where Mick strips naked backstage, and another where he clearly sniffs a powdery substance off of a knife blade. Jagger isn’t known for narcotic use as Richards, Wood and the band’s late guitarist Brian Jones, so it’s kind of a surprising moment.

Morgen says that he and Jagger discussed the latter scene quite a bit.

“One of the things I told him was that it was important that we had to create a covenant with the audience from the beginning; so they would know they were going to see a side of the Stones that they hadn’t seen before,” Morgen explained. “If you establish that up front, hopefully there will be a lot of good will to carry you through the rest of the film. That shot, which has been getting a lot of attention, wasn’t there just for exploitative purposes, it served a larger purpose in announcing the type of film we would be making.”

Another aspect of the film that has the been the subject of some discussion, is that the eighty hours of interviews that Morgen did with the band members propels the film. Yet, there’s no footage of those interviews in the final cut. You never see the current-day Stones until the credits roll (when footage from Shine A Light is shown). Morgen says that he recorded all of the interviews but didn’t actually film them. By keeping the interviews to himself, the interviewee and a microphone, there was a level of intimacy that couldn’t be reached with a film crew hovering around. Indeed, longtime Stones fans will be hard-pressed to find interviews where Jagger and Richards address such personal topics as their reactions to the disastrous Altamont concert or the death of Brian Jones.

At two hours, there’s only so much history that fit into the film, which ends in the early ’80s with the Tattoo You tour. There is an argument to be made, though, that the documentary could have extended at least through the end of the decade, with the group’s reunion and triumphant stadium tour. Morgen agrees.

“In the perfect narrative, we would have taken it to [1989 album] Steel Wheels. The problem was, getting from Tattoo You to Steel Wheels involves ‘World War III,’” he said, referring to the mid-’80s spat between Jagger and Richards. “And that would have taken the film in a whole different direction at a late point in the film. Towards the end, the film already starts jumping years rather dramatically. The reason I think Steel Wheels would have been a nice place to land is that the band were all sober at that point, and Mick was finally able to realize this vision of being able to put on this incredible show. That’s where he really wanted me to get to.”

However, Morgen points out that as the film’s director, he had the final call.

“In my narrative, which is about how the band goes from being outcasts to respectable, they’d arrived at that point in 1981,” he said.

So, not only does the film skip three decades of Stones history, it also gives very little screen time to Ron Wood.

“We talked about that as we started getting to the end of production,” Morgen said. “Maybe we should call this ‘Part 1.’  There was a lot of discussion of ‘Part 2.’ Now that it’s all said and done, I really do feel  that they need to do a ‘Part 2′ to give Ronnie his due.  Ronnie wants parts two, three and four! It needs to be done.”

However, he says that he won’t likely be the man to helm a sequel, though he hopes that the band produces it. Morgen’s next project is a documentary on the late Nirvana leader Kurt Cobain, which has been in the works for years. But he also may not be up for the challenge: “I feel the second part would be much more challenging in terms of locking down the narrative.”

– Brian Ives, Radio.com