Some good news about the Grammy Awards and their ilk: I’m hearing the new annual Grammy salute concert for Lifetime Achievement will be in Los Angeles this year on July 14th.

Being honored are Neil Diamond, Tina Turner, Queen, Emmylou Harris, the Meters and industry heavyweights like Sire Records’ founder Seymour Stein, composer John Williams, and the late great Bill Graham of Fillmore West and East fame.

The main thing is, Hal Blaine is getting a special honor. Hal Blaine is the most important drummer of the classic pop era, having played on hundreds– maybe thousands– of hits as part of the Wrecking Crew, the Phil Spector group that provided instrumentation for everyone from the Beach Boys to Ike and Tina Turner, the Fifth Dimension. When you hear that drum downbeat opening on “Be My Baby,” that’s Hal Blaine. Rolling Stone named him the 5th best drummer of all time. I’d put him right behind Ringo and Keith Moon on my all time list.

And think of it– Hal Blaine played on Neil Diamond records, Monkees records (Micky Dolenz) that Neil wrote, Herb Alpert and Tina Turner. There’s a lot of crossover.

Some of the performers being talked about for the show are Micky Dolenz, Herb Alpert, Emmylou Harris, and Ledisi with more name coming. The show will be taped for airing on PBS this fall. Last year’s show in New York was so spectacular I expect this one will be just as good if not better.

The Grammys are probably thinking of who should be in the next class of Special Merit recipients. A couple of names I’d like to see: Sam Moore of Sam & Dave; and the Fifth Dimension, certainly.

The Michael McDonald who is chairman of MusiCares is not the star who sings “What a Fool Believes.” (He’s a very nice guy anyway.)

This Michael McDonald is a former tour manager and member of the music industry community who battled his own demons once a long time ago.

He writes on the MusiCares homepage: “I was introduced to MusiCares as a client. About 18 years ago, I decided I needed to get sober,” says McDonald. “[I was] referred to someone at MusiCares, Neil Lasher. He connected me with free group therapy [and addiction counseling] twice a week here in New York City. … There was no paperwork, no nothing (laughs). It was that simple.”

McDonald sent out a message today to the troops of MusiCares to reassure them: the charity goes on despite recent accusations and scandals. I’m reprinting his message here because no matter what MusiCares (despite often seating me by the kitchen) is really important. They are the organization always there for musicians in trouble. They’ll survive this latest contretemps.

Read McDonald’s letter:

Dear Friends,

By now, you may have seen the headlines and heard the allegations made by a former MusiCares employee about the 2018 Person of the Year event and workplace harassment. With any charity, trust is earned and can never be taken for granted. That’s why I want to write you all—to address the rumors and clarify some important truths. 

First and foremost, I want to say that we take the allegations made by our former employee very seriously. Accordingly, I, along with Recording Academy Chairman John Poppo, have selected and hired the law firm Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP to conduct an independent investigation of these recent allegations. Needless to say, we welcome their findings and will act on their recommendations.

As you know, MusiCares provides a range of critical support for music people in need. With each passing year, our goal is to do more, to give more, and to serve a greater number of people. Our mission remains singular: to help music people in need.

• In the last fiscal year alone, MusiCares provided $5.9 million to 7,900 members of the music industry—the largest number of clients we’ve served and dollars we’ve distributed in a single year. 
• Thanks to the generosity of supporters like you who provide both your time and financial resources, we expect to do even more good this year, providing $6.3 million to nearly 9,000 music people. 
• This year, once again, Charity Navigator gave MusiCares a 4-star rating—the independent charity watchdog’s highest mark for financial health, accountability, and transparency. Less than 15% of all rated charities have achieved this honor four years in a row. MusiCares is among that trusted class. 

Finally, although I can only share so much on this topic due to legal and privacy issues, I also want to reiterate one key fact: The employment of our former staff member ended after a full investigation.
 
As a beneficiary of MusiCares’ services and someone for whom integrity is paramount, it’s been tough to see the integrity of an organization that has done so much good come into question as a result of allegations made by a single individual. While we work to investigate and address these allegations, please rest assured that MusiCares will continue to provide the best level of service possible to support our community—that will not change.
 
Sincerely,

Michael McDonald 
Chairman, MusiCares 

Kanye West is very happy right now, so I don’t want to burst his bubble.

So: released on Friday, his mini album “Ye” with seven tracks should sell, stream, and download a total of 175,000 copies by Thursday night. That’s an ok number, not great. By comparison, Post Malone’s current album, “Beerbongs and Bentley’s” debuted with a total 461K (with 153K CDs-downloads). A better comparison would be The Weeknd’s “My Dear Melancholy,” also an EP, which sold comparably to Kanye.

Most of “Ye” sales will be from streaming. Right now, all seven tracks make up the top 7 on Apple Music. Five of the top 10 streaming tracks on Spotify come from the album.

On iTunes, just two of the tracks are in the top 50. But the whole album is number 1.

Hitsdailydouble figures that of the 175K, 70K will be from paid downloads. (There is no actual physical CD.) A few sales will come from Kanye transmitting them through ugly sneakers into the souls soles of those who feel slavery is a choice.

At $7.99, the whole album is a bargain, I guess. It’s only 23 minutes long, so you can get the point pretty fast. The best “Song” on the album is a construct of two old songs sampled plus what sounds like a John Legend vamp, and then a small combo of a newish rapper and Kid Cudi.

This is not “What’s Going On” or “Songs in the Key of Life.” But it can’t hurt you.

There’s no way to compare the sales of “Ye” with anything else, especially Kanye’s last album. “The Life of Pablo” had a botched release, twice, and never really went anywhere.