First up, please read Elaine's "5 from Chase Rice." I completely blanked on Chase Rice's album when doing my top ten for 2025. Had I remembered it, he would have come in at number two minimum. He might have even made it to number one. I've added the following to "Kat's Korner: 2025 in music:"
*******Added January 10, 2025 -- as Elaine informed me yesterday (see her "5 from Chase Rice"), I had forgotten all about Chase Rice's ELDORA which I reviewed November 23rd. I'm so sorry to community members and to readers and to Chase Rice. It's a brilliant album. Had I remember it, it would have come in at number two or number one. So I'm adding this note and we now have a list of eleven and not ten. *******
Meanwhile, Jaeden Pinder (ROLLING STONE) reports:
The organization We Are Moving the Needle will present a starry awards event during Grammy Week. Honoring impactful female music makers, the 2026 Resonator Awards will recognize the Queen of Funk Chaka Khan, rockers St. Vincent and Haim, and songwriter Amy Allen, among other notable women working behind the scenes in production, engineering, and songwriting. Presenters include Olivia Rodrigo, Sia, Jason Isbell, Anderson .Paak, Laufey, and Addison Rae.
The Resonator Awards will be held on Jan. 27 at Los Angeles' famed Chaplin Studios (formerly known as Henson Studios), which was recently reopened under the ownership of John Mayer and noted filmmaker McG. It's the second year of hosting the event. We Are Moving the Needle was founded by Grammy-winning engineer Emily Lazar (Vampire Weekend, Coldplay) in 2021 as a response to severe underrepresentation by women in creative fields related to music. According to the 2025 Annenberg Report, only 5.9 percent of producers on the year-end Billboard Hot 100 chart are female.
Congratulations to shoe ladies. Ilana Kaplin (PEOPLE) reports on another event:
Dolly Parton unfortunately won't be able to attend her 80th birthday celebration at the Grand Ole Opry.
On Thursday, Jan. 8, the country legend shared a bittersweet message on the venue's Instagram page, sharing her gratitude and revealing she wouldn't be present at the event, which is set to take place on Jan. 17. (Parton will celebrate her 80th birthday on Jan. 19.)
"Well hey there Grand Ole Opry family," Parton, 79, began the message. "I just wanted to say how much it means to me that you're all coming together again this year to celebrate my big ol' birthday with some of my songs."
She continued, "Some of my favorite memories happened right here on stage at the Grand Ole Opry, and I wish I could be there in person but I'll be sending you all my love, for sure."
She's had some kidney stone issues recently and that's why she postponed a Vegas residency from last month to next September. Let's all she gets better and feels better soon. She's a legend and a national treasure, a true original. My favorite Dolly song today (I love tons of her music, and my favorite shifts from day to day) would be "Jolene" and "Think About Love." Neil Young is a North American original and singer-songwriter is calling out the Orange Menace. Paul Brannigan (LOUDER) reports:
Neil Young has called out US President Donald Trump for making America a "disaster", and called on US citizens to "rise up" in peaceful protests against his regime.
Young delivered his acerbic condemnation of Trump in an strongly-worded editorial piece on the Times Contrarian section of his website.
"Wake
up, people!" he writes. "Today the USA is a disaster. Donald Trump is
destroying America bit by bit with his staff of wannabes, people with no
experience or talent, closet alcoholic wife beaters, inexperienced
leaders who only know how to lie to keep favor with Trump’s falseness so
they can hold their unearned positions in his inept government, a
Congress full of Republicans acting like idiots with no conscience…He
has divided us. How did we elect these creeps who have no spin, no
values, no conscience, no way to save the USA.
"We need to take
Trump at his word," he continues. "Make America Great Again. It won't be
easy while he is trying to turn our cities into battlegrounds so he can
cancel our elections with marshal law and escape all
accountability…Something has to change this. We know what to do. Rise
up. Peacefully in millions. Too many innocence [sic] people are dying.
"It’s
ICE cold here in America. There was no ICE before Trump. No soldiers in
the streets before Trump. Every move he makes is to build instability
so he can stay in power.
"He knows nothing about love," Young
concludes. "He does not know you are. Use your love of life, your love
of one another, your love of children and theirs and ours. Peacefully.
Now
My two favorite Neil Young songs right now at this moment -- "After The Garden" and "Helpless." AP reports on someone I'm new to but who I strongly applaud:
Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Sonia De Los Santos is the latest performer to cancel an appearance at the Kennedy Center in Washington. She had been scheduled to give two concerts for young people on Feb. 7, followed by a “creative conversation” with the audience.
De Los Santos, a Mexican American whose 2018 release “¡Alegría!” received a Latin Grammy nomination for best children’s album, cited her background as a reason for calling off the shows.
“As an artist, I treasure the freedom to create and share my music, and for many years I have used this privilege to uplift the stories of immigrants in this country,” she wrote Thursday on Instagram. “Unfortunately, I do not feel that the current climate at this beloved venue represents a welcoming space for myself, my band, or our audience.”
It is The Kennedy Center. That's the legal name. There is no Trump Kennedy Center. Only Congress can change the name. It's the government created memorial to President John F. Kennedy. Good for all the artists refusing to take part in Chump's lies.
Lastly, John Mulaney did a good thing:
John Mulaney has postponed three upcoming shows in Minneapolis following the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer.
The comedian was originally scheduled to perform three shows — on Jan. 9, Jan. 10, and Jan. 11 — as part of his Mister Whatever tour at The Armoury, a concert venue in downtown Minneapolis. In an Instagram post on Thursday, Jan. 8, Mulaney announced that he would postpone all three performances in the aftermath of the shooting.
"What's
happening in your city is heartbreaking," Mulaney, 43, wrote. "I have
to postpone shows in a town going through such awful challenges and such
grief, because it feels unfair to the audience."
Mulaney added that he "didn't feel comfortable asking thousands of people each night to leave their homes, gather at the venue, and then make their way home when the situation is still unsafe."
The postponements come one day after Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old Minneapolis mother, was shot and killed by an ICE officer. The incident, captured on video by multiple bystanders, occurred as a group of people allegedly assembled to block ICE officers who were conducting an immigration enforcement operation.
Good for John. Closing with C.I.'s "The SnapshotL:
Protests have taken place in multiple US cities after a woman was shot dead by a federal immigration officer in Minneapolis.
Federal officials said Renee Nicole Good, 37, had tried to run over immigration agents with her car and that the officer had been acting in self defence.
The city's mayor, however, said the agent who shot her had acted recklessly, with other local officials saying Good had simply been "caring for her neighbours" when she was shot at close range.
A classmate of Minneapolis shooting victim Renee Good has paid tribute to her, a day after she was killed by an ICE agent.
Willo Schubarth and Good, then named Renee Ganger, attended Colorado’s Coronado High School together and were in the same graduating class, CNN affiliate KRDO reported.
Laying flowers at the site where she was killed, Schubarth told KRDO that Good was one of the first people to reach out to him when he joined the school.
Vice President JD Vance said today that Renee Nicole Good — a 37-year-old queer mother of three who recently murdered by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent in Minneapolis — was part of a “larger, sinister left-wing movement that has spread across our country,” NOTUS reported.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt also repeated the exact same language during a press briefing today. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has accused Good of “domestic terrorism.” Good’s mother said her daughter had never protested against ICE agents.
In a social media post, the president called Good “a professional agitator” who “viciously ran over the ICE officer.” He blamed the shooting on the “Radical Left.” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey called the administration’s version of events “bulls**t.”
Analysis of multiple videos showing Good’s murder (conducted by The New York Times and The Washington Post) showed that the agent was not in the path of Good’s vehicle.
Murray: “It is unquestionably an act of war to invade a foreign nation, kidnap a foreign leader, even a dictator, and leave dozens of bodies—including civilians—behind…This is the United States Congress. And we have a constitutional role to be a check on the President. Only Congress can declare war. And Congress did not authorize the use of force against Venezuela.”
ICYMI: Senator Murray Responds to Trump’s Illegal Military Operation, Address to the Nation
***WATCH: Senator Murray’s full floor speech***
Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, took to the Senate floor to denounce President Trump’s brazen act of war in Venezuela and slam the Trump administration for instigating regime change and military strikes in Venezuela without any legitimate justification, consultation with Congress, or any kind of long-term strategy to deal with the fallout.
Following her vote to advance a War Powers Resolution she cosponsored, S.J.Res.98—that would block the use of the U.S. Armed Forces to engage in hostilities within or against Venezuela unless authorized by Congress—Senator Murray urged her colleagues in Congress to assert their Constitutional role over the power to declare war and press forward to restrain Trump’s war-mongering and make sure he cannot put American boots on the ground without the approval of the American people and their representatives in Congress.
Today’s successful vote to advance this War Powers Resolution sets up further debate and amendments ahead of a vote on final passage, likely next week.
Senator Murray’s remarks, as delivered on the Senate floor today, are below:
“I am beyond outraged that President Trump would commit such a brazen act of war as he has done in Venezuela—with absolutely no notice—except to the oil companies they told and newspapers they leaked it to, no consultation with Congress, no legitimate justification for these unauthorized strikes, nor any kind of serious long-term strategy.
“It is unquestionably an act of war to invade a foreign nation, kidnap a foreign leader, even a dictator, and leave dozens of bodies—including civilians—behind.
“Would my colleagues still nod their heads and go along with it if a country tried to do this to American leaders? Of course not. So, we should stop playing dumb.
“Trump can’t just say magic words and pretend this wasn’t a major military operation.
“This is the United States Congress. And we have a constitutional role to be a check on the President. Only Congress can declare war. And Congress did not authorize the use of force against Venezuela.
“Now, I opposed the war in Iraq from the outset—and the parallels to what President Trump has kicked off in Venezuela are glaring. And I absolutely will not support any large-scale military conflict in Venezuela or a dangerous and expensive occupation.
“We have a President ignoring the problems he has caused in our own country, all to start a war no one asked for, with no legitimate justification, no concern for the servicemembers who are being put in harm’s way, and absolutely no long-term strategy.
“Seriously—the only thing that was clear after the briefing yesterday is that Trump has no serious plan. First, Trump was ‘just bombing alleged drug boats.’ Then, Trump was ‘just seizing oil shipments.’ And the next thing you know, this Administration is sending the military to abduct a foreign leader.
“So, I have to ask—what is next? And where is next? How far is this going to go? Because it is clear that this is not over.
“Not when Trump keeps saying we will run the country. What is Trump’s plan to ‘run’ Venezuela exactly? How long are we going to be there? How many of our people is he going to send? Who is even in charge? And how are we paying for this?
“There are no serious answers. The only thing we do know is why Trump is doing this—for oil. Because this clearly is not about ending tyranny and establishing a democracy, since Trump outright dismissed any possibility of helping the opposition party to build a true democracy.
“And it’s clearly not about drug trafficking—after all, not even a month before this, President Trump pardoned the former President of Honduras who was convicted of the same crime.
“But the real reason, it’s so painfully obvious this was always about the oil, why? Well, it’s pretty simple: Trump keeps saying it! He literally said, and I quote, ‘the difference between Iraq and this is that Bush didn’t keep the oil. We’re going to keep the oil.’ That was the President.
“Is this America First? Of course not! It’s Big Oil barons first. It is billionaires first. It is Trump first. First to rake in profits mind you—not first to put themselves in harm’s way.
“You can bet, when Trump says he’s not worried about boots on the ground—it’s because he’s not talking about his boots. He’s not talking about his kids—he is talking about yours.
“Congress cannot stand by and shrug our shoulders. We have a Constitutional responsibility here.
“It is important that a majority of Senators voted to rein in this President’s reckless actions. But if we want to put an end to this war-mongering—we need to keep pressing until we have a veto proof majority.
“Today’s vote is not the end of the line. So, I urge all my colleagues to join us in asserting our authority and continuing to send President Trump a simple message: no American boots on the ground. No trading blood for oil. No war.”
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