Today, Country Music Hall of Fame member George Jones was admitted into a Nashville area hospital, where he will undergo testing and evaluation for a lingering upper respiratory infection. Concerts scheduled through June will be rescheduled, where possible.

No more details are available at this time.

Now, of all the canceled shows, the only one that was to take place here in Tennessee was The Possum's May 25 date at the Loretta Lynn Ranch in Hurricane Mills. See the rest of Jones' tour schedule here.

We at the Scene/Cream would like to of course extend our best wishes to Jones, who turned 80 last year. Get well, Possum. We hope you're back to spending time with your dog, your wife and your ATV soon.

By the time Summer hit the charts with the 1976 single "Love To Love You Baby" (a record reportedly inspired by the success of Serge Gainsbourg's "Je T'Aime ... Moi Non Plus"), disco had become a byword for ephemerality and shallowness. Starting early in the decade, producers and singers had begun to develop a hybrid music that drew upon just about everything: the good-time rock-soul of Sly Stone, the lush entreaties of Willie Mitchell's big-beat production work with Al Green, Ann Peebles and Syl Johnson, and the synthesizers and funny sounds of such European experimentalists as Can and Kraftwerk.

OK, no partying today, because sadly we just got a whole lot of bullshit over the newswire: Beastie Boys' Adam "MCA" Yauch has passed away after an extended battle with cancer. While there isn't a real strong local connection — the best I could find was the picture in the video above, taken at the Belle Meade Kroger when the Boys were in town for Bonnaroo '09 — as a dude in his 30s who writes about hip hop, I'd be remiss if I didn't give a send off to one of the most influential musicians of the last quarter century. Sure, the Beastie Boys are, in the simplest terms, a rap group. But their influence has been felt across all genres (rock, hip-hop, electronic, pop, jazz) and all media (film, television, recorded music). But I don't need to tell you that, because c'mon, it's the Beastie Boys — they defined the way we've partied and the way we've listened to music for more than a generation.

Also, if you've looked at Facebook at all today, then you've seen about a million-and-a-half pieces of Beastie minutiae that prove my point. Case in point: A couple of minutes ago, I posted a link to the song "Beastie Boys" from their very first EP, back when they were still a hardcore band. You know who clicked "like" almost immediately? A dude from a country-rock band and a dude from a hardcore hip-hop act. And you know who else has posted about the sad news? Everyone, from folk singers to financiers, graffiti artists to gangsta rappers and office workers — it's not a stretch to say that the man and his music were universally loved and respected. Yauch was an integral part of changing the American — and possibly the world's — music scene, and for that he will be sorely missed and fondly remembered.

OK, let's get onto the Irish wake portion of this post and watch some damn Beasties videos...

* Congratulations to Jack White! J-Dub’s solo debut Blunderbuss, which dropped stateside last Tuesday, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 Albums Chart this week. With first week sales of 138,000 copies, this is the third man’s first time as a bona-fide, first-place chart topper and — between White Stripes, Raconteurs and Dead Weather releases — his eighth time to crack the Top 10.

Continuing this week's trend of helping bands get things done — or TCB, as some might say — here's this: Local indie-rocking feel-goodnik ensemble Kopecky Family Band will be filming a music video for their tune "Heartbeat" this afternoon at Mercy Lounge's new addition, the High Watt stage, and KFB needs your help. You'll need to arrive, preferably via carpool, between 4 and 4:30 p.m. But all that and more is covered in the block quote (below), which was provided to us by the fine folks at the Lounge/Watt.

Free secret show and video shoot for Kopecky Family Band's "Heartbeat" at The High Watt stage at Mercy Lounge Wednesday 5/2 from 4:30-5:30. Band will be filming crowd footage for a live segment of the video, as well as playing a short set of Kopecky favorites, such as their hit cover of "Bed Intruder". Guests may arrive between 4:00 pm and 4:30 pm (NO EARLIER) and MUST make arrangements to park off-site. The lot between Mercy Lounge and Cummins Station will NOT be open; however, there is plenty of street parking nearby, as well as a pay lot directly in front of Cummins Station on 10th Ave near Demonbreun. Carpooling is recommended.

Will there be craft services? Free Kopecky merch and on-site massages? Will you be discovered by an agent, and will this "Heartbeat" video thus be the springboard to your success as a sought-after music video vixen or, um ... vixter? I can't answer any of those questions, I'm sorry. You now literally have all of the same information that I do. But if you'd like to get into character or in the right mood or what have you, have a look at the above video of the Kopecks performing "Heartbeat" at Loveless Cafe's Music City Roots back in January.

5/21 NASHVILLE @ THE END W/ TY SEGALL, WHITE FENCE
5/22 MEMPHIS @ HI-TONE W/ TY SEGALL, WHITE FENCE
5/23 LITTLE ROCK @ WHITE WATER TAVERN W/ TY SEGALL, WHITE FENCE
5/24 HOUSTON @ WALTER'S W/ TY SEGALL, WHITE FENCE, MIKEY AND THE DRAGS, PSYCHIC PALMS
5/25 AUSTIN @ THE MOHAWK W/ TY SEGALL, WHITE FENCE, RAYON BEACH
5/26 HELP!!! BEAUMONT,TX??
5/27 HELP!!! BATON ROUGE??
5/28 HELP!!! BIRMINGHAM???
5/29 HELP!!! ATLANTA???
5/30 HELP HUNTSVILLE
6/8 NASHVILLE @ THE END w/ THE HUSSY, WESTERN MEDS

CAN ANYONE FROM BEAUMONT, BATON ROUGE, HUNTSVILLE, B'HAM OR ATL HELP FILL IN THE MISSING DATES
THANKS!

The post also mentions that the Eaters have two forthcoming singles: "Malfunction" [listen here] and "Addicted to the Blade" [listen here]. While you mull over your Deep Southern booking connections and whether or not you can be of any assistance, check out the Eaters' unofficial video for "Zulu" after the jump. It features some clips from Eddie Murphy's Coming to America. Which, as we all recall, was awesome, if only thanks to this scene.

The corporeal existence of the singer who started out as a rockabilly madman doing such material as "Go! Go! Go!" and "Ooby Dooby" now seems as remote as the facts of Shakespeare's life, although we know Orbison liked motorcycles and seems to have been bemused by the use of his song, "In Dreams," during a particularly menacing sequence of David Lynch's 1986 Blue Velvet. Orbison wasn't a rockabilly artist in the same vein as Jerry Lee Lewis or Carl Perkin — the Texas singer was a natural romantic, and needed a soft cushion to support him.

Helm wasn’t exactly the leader, although it’s his voice on “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” the famous Civil War narrative that appears on 1969’s The Band. And while the others pitch in on Big Pink’s “The Weight,” it’s Helm’s mixture of unbowed arrogance and enormous good humor that comes through on that most celebrated of The Band’s songs. Helm came from the Delta region of the South, on the Arkansas side of the Mississippi River near Helena — flat, rich blues world, where Helm would take Robertson to meet a dying Sonny Boy Williamson in 1965. Robertson and the rest were Canadian, and desired to get hot farther South with rock 'n’ roll, jazz, soul, blues and country music.

Hey, it's Kickstarter day! In addition to Roy Ira's KS campaign, we also recently caught wind of an in-the-works project by the name of East Side of the River. The general premise should be old hat for locals: East Nashville's music community runs deep, and its flag-bearers — while they may have dipped their toes into the contempo-country pool in some form or fashion — by and large don't operate as part of the "Country Music Machine." Yeah, sure, we know all that. But will this film, this East Side of the River, truly dive in and tell the story of the exceptional talent East Nashville has seen over the years, from bands like BR549 and venues like Slowbar all the way up through punk outfits like PUJOL and events like The 5 Spot's dance parties, hoedowns and rock shows?

That, of course, remains to be seen. The trailer above — and also an excerpt from an interview with musician and Family Wash proprietor James Rubin, which you can see after the jump — don't tip East Side's hand too much. I get a distinctly "singer-songwritery" vibe from the trailer. But I hope, once the folks behind the documentary really dive in, they'll explore the diversity the East Side — and really Nashville at large, but whatever — has to offer. Punk. Americana. Metal. Hip-hop. Blues. Indie rock. Bluegrass. Soul. It's all there. If East Side of the River hits its goal and then does its job, we'll see it all. As with every Kickstarter project, there are tiered incentives — credits, parties, a book, a signed guitar — and you can see more at the project's official page. Their goal is $7,500, and they have to hit it by June 4. What do you think? Will they make it? Is this a worthy endeavor?

Familiar with Roy Ira? They're a Nashville-based Americana/indie-folk outfit that has been gigging around town for a good, hot minute, and they'd like to share their tunes with us in LP form. But in order to do that, they're going to need $2,200,000 $2,200. And what does an ambitious modern band do when they need to scrounge up some scratch for a project? They launch a Kickstarter campaign, naturally. In Roy Ira's obligatory KS video (see it above), frontman Keith Parish & Co. get a bit jocular with their presentation, before making an earnest appeal that should strike a chord with anyone who has a pulse and at least $2 in his or her pocket. There's also a cameo from Battle Tapes honcho Jeremy Ferguson — who knew the knob-twiddler was such a natch on camera!

As per usual, there's a tiered list of incentives that ranges from a free copy of Roy Ira's 2010 EP, One Day, all the way up to a personalized, choose-your-own-venue gig. And to kick your heartstrings into high gear, have a listen to all of the One Day EP below or via Roy Ira's Bandcamp page. If you enjoy the family tree from which sonic acorns including Deer Tick, Neutral Milk Hotel and Blitzen Trapper plummeted, then perhaps you'll enjoy Roy Ira.