The Pilgrimage Music & Cultural Festival has canceled its 2020 event, which had been slated for Sept. 26-27 at Franklin, Tennessee’s The Park at Harlinsdale Farms.

“With pieces in place, we were fully ready to accelerate preparations to host the festival this year. However, it became clear that the assurance for public safety would be difficult at best, and we needed to postpone until 2021,” said Brandt Wood, one of the festival’s co- producers. “We had sincerely hoped that Pilgrimage would serve its annual role to bring the community out to celebrate music and, particularly this year, to celebrate coming back together. Alas, the circumstances require us to look to next year for this.

“We couldn’t be more appreciative of the support provided by the City of Franklin staff and officials, as well as Friends of Franklin Parks over the years, and particularly over the past few weeks as we’ve worked closely together to assess the situation,” he added.

The cancellation is the latest music festival to cancel due to COVID-19 concerns, following the high-profile cancellations of CMA Music Festival, SXSW, and more. The festival’s organizers are already planning for the 2021 event.

“Our goal of becoming an annual cultural institution has been achieved and our desire to continue to evolve the Pilgrimage experience is undiminished,” added Wood. ‘There is simply no substitute for live music and the healing power it can provide. We know people will be more than ready to rejoice in this experience again when the climate improves.”

Those who purchased early bird tickets will have the option to transfer their tickets to the 2021 event or receiving a full refund, including all processing fees.

The show’s 2019 lineup had included Keith Urban, Foo Fighters, The Killers, Lauren Daigle, Better Than Ezra, Leon Bridges and more.

Taylor Swift sashayed into American living rooms Sunday night (May 17) with her televised concert special, City of Lover. Amid pandemic-related concert cancellations, it could be the only time fans get to see her perform this year.

The hour-long “release party,” as she called it, was recorded in September 2019 in Paris, marking the first time she had performed in public most of the songs from her latest studio album, Lover. She told the audience, “This album is about all different types of love.”

Opening with the self-empowering singalong “ME!,” the television special was comprised exclusively of music from Lover. Swift offered upbeat performances complete with back-up dancers, singers, and musicians in front of colorful video montages, while balancing those celebratory numbers with solo turns in the spotlight, alternating acoustic guitar and grand piano.

Missing were the large-scale theatrics and pyrotechnics of Swift’s previous stadium tour, but there were plenty of constants on display: her remarkable songwriting, enduring mutual fan/superstar adoration, and, of course, red lipstick.

As Swift’s music and life evolves, at her core remains the same songwriter who first visited the MusicRow offices as a teenager in 2006: confident, passionate and unafraid to bare the details of her life in song.

She told the audience in Paris, “With my songwriting I’ve always wanted to take a moment, like a snapshot of a feeling, and explore that feeling,” before singing the vulnerable “The Archer.”
Armed with only a black acoustic guitar, she performed “Death By A Thousand Cuts,” and current hit single, “The Man.”

Before segueing into “Cornelia Street” she shared that she wrote the song in the bathtub. “A lot of times I’ll write songs about nostalgia and memories…I use songs almost like photographs, so I can go back and remember a time and remember what it was like to experience it…and this is definitely one of those nostalgic ones.”

She also touched on the many facets of love explored through her album. “Love is chaos, love is madness, love is joy, love is…equality,” she said. “And anyone who disagrees with that, in my opinion, needs to calm down,” before singing… well you guessed it (“You Need To Calm Down”).

Closing with “Lover,” Swift said, “If I had to pick a song that is probably my favorite, I would have to say it’s [this one]. I got the idea alone in the middle of the night, and stumbled over to the piano…It’s moments like that in songwriting that keep it my favorite thing to do in the world, it keeps it magical and it keeps it mysterious.”

The City of Lover soundtrack dropped after the show. The televised special attracted a 0.5 rating among viewers 18-49, and 3.6 million viewers, besting NBC and CBS, according to Variety. The concert special is sure to score in streams, and is already available on Disney+ and Hulu.

With his new self-titled EP (which released Friday, May 15), Colton Dixon releases his first new music in three years—and his first for his new label home at Atlantic Records/Hear It Loud Records.
“It’s been a long time coming,” says Dixon. “It’s crazy to think you spend three years on five songs but we really believe in these songs.”

After competing on American Idol in 2012, Dixon signed with Capitol Christian Music Group’s Sparrow Records. He released four albums with Sparrow, before his deal came to an end nearly two years ago.

“When my Idol deal ended, that meant my label deal with Capitol ended as well, so it was very unexpected. We were going into the holidays thinking, ‘What do we do?’ As a musician, it felt like I lost my job.

“My wife was really helpful. We prayed a lot during that time, and then a few months later the Atlantic thing came about. We’ve just been waiting for the right moment. We wanted to announce it with music,” Dixon says. “But it started as a season of unknown for me.”

That season of unknown is what birthed the songs on his new EP, which finds him taking creative chances, infusing his arena-sized pop sounds with electro-pop and darker grooves, which underscore Dixon’s very personal lyrics of finding hope during challenging times.

Dixon recorded the new EP in Los Angeles, bringing several new producers including Robopop (Lana Del Ray) and Grant Averill into the fold.

“This project was a big experiment,” Dixon says. “It felt like I was journaling through the whole thing and getting out my thoughts on what I was facing. I feel like we’ve written enough for seven or eight full-length projects. That came out in the production as well because if you compare one song to another, it’s like, ‘Do these fit in the same world?’ I think somehow they do, but at first glance, maybe not.

“This is the first project where when I started writing, I didn’t have a vision for it. We just built it as we went. Normally, I’m very theatrical and I see it sometimes before I even go into the studio—I know what the album cover is going to look like.”

“Miracles,” a deft blend of precise percussions and ethereal sonic vibe layered around Dixon’s warm, conversational singing style, is the result of a collaboration with the late producer/songwriter busbee, whom Dixon first began collaborating with on his breakthrough hit, “You Are,” in 2012. busbee died of cancer in 2019.

“I remember texting him about an updated version of that song and that’s when he told me he was going through cancer. Stuff like that is no respecter of persons. There are few writers and producers who will take your vision and make sure that whatever they add to it is still true and faithful to the vision you brought in. He’s one of those people. I appreciate that as an artist. We were writing about taking a step back from the busyness of life to appreciate the little things in life that happen all around us every day that we take for granted. I consider them miracles.”

“Devil Is A Liar” brings in a dark, grainy, dancefloor-ready sound, while “Wanderer” offers a syncopated vocal over heavy drums and vibey synths.

“Can’t Quit You” is Dixon’s first attempt at penning a love song, written for his wife Annie. He co-wrote the track with Alex Tirheimer and Grant Averill.

“They can turn cheesy so quick so I tried to stay away from that for a long time,” he says. “That’s definitely one of those songs that I wouldn’t have gone down that rabbit trail but I’m so glad we did that.”
While “Miracles” has been a Top 25 hit at CCM radio, Dixon says other tracks on the EP could find a home on pop radio.

“As far as I know they are fans of ‘Can’t Quit You,’ and I think they will work that to mainstream radio at some point. There’s a song called ‘Not Goodbye’ that they like for synch stuff [for television or movies].

“My goal with music is always to leave people better than they were when they came, and leave them with some hope. At a time where so many more people are looking for answers, hopefully my music can be part of that journey.”