What better time for Usher to hit the road than towards the end of this year, when the success of his “Raymond vs. Raymond” release culminates after its most popular single, “OMG” has earned itself a reputation for being one of the fist pumping anthems of the year. As such, Usher’s forthcoming fall trek is dubbed as the “OMG” tour.

The R&B giant will be stopping by 25 North American cities throughout November and December, including stops in Seattle on November 10 which marks the starting point of the tour, St. Louis on November 26 which is one of the artist’s few Midwest stops, NYC’s Madison Square Garden on December 13, Boston the day after and Hartford, CT on December 18 to close the trek.

The complete list of dates, cities, venues and ticket prices can be viewed via the artist’s official website although a definite venue for Usher’s December 2 Detroit show is still yet to be known.

Jam icons Dave Matthews Band has just added nine more dates to their current tour before finally going on a much needed break from the road later this year.

The new slate of dates will have the band heading to the east coast in November which includes two day gigs both in NYC’s Madison Square Garden and in their home turf in Virginia as the tour’s last stop.

Meanwhile, the band will continue to hit the road tomorrow, September 10, in Woodlands, TX as they reach the homestretch of the west coast and Midwest leg of their tour, which will wrap up with a two-nighter in Chicago on September 17 and 18.

Barely two months since her latest studio effort, “Aphrodite”, came out in the market, international pop diva Kylie Minogue will be spending the last remaining months of the year prepping for more dazzling and entertaining shows for her upcoming 2011 European tour kicking off on February 19 in Denmark and wrapping up in London’s O2 Arena on April 8.

The spring European slate also includes multiple stops in Germany and the UK, with which each ticket for each UK show will be sold with no surcharge by the ticket agents listed on the artist’s official website, but only with a fixed transaction fee which will be more advantageous for group, bulk or multiple ticket orders.

Minogue promises her European fans a set of shows filled with a “euphoric journey of joy, excitement and glamour”, as she described through a statement released via her official website. Minogue can also expect her fans to respond positively to the upcoming tour especially that “Aphrodite” was well received in the continent especially in the UK where it peaked atop the Brit music charts upon its release.

Fresh from the success and her highly raved performance at the recently concluded Lilith Tour, critically acclaimed and Grammy Award winning musician Sarah McLachlan goes back on the road this fall for another bout of what seems to be a repeat of the Lilith Tour fashioning a different name, the “Sarah and Friends” tour. Just [...]

Fresh from his headlining gig at the 2010 Ozzfest tour with fellow rockers Motley Crue last summer, former Black Sabbath front man Ozzy Osbourne will be spending this season touring all throughout North America to back up his newest studio set, “Scream”.

The upcoming tour will be the first in the series of North American shows the heavy metal rocker is set to perform in till next year. The first leg of the said tour will kick off at the Memorial Centre in Victoria, BC on November 12 and will span 7 more Canadian cities till Osbourne is bound for the east coast for the tour’s last four stops in December. The tour wraps up on December 12 in Minneapolis’ Target Center.

After its successful run last March, the festival that pays homage to the music and the message of Jimi Hendrix’s works, Experience Hendrix, will be back on the road and his most loyal followers – professional musicians, music junkies and millions of fans – won’t have to wait for the turn of the new year to relive the power and influence of Seattle’s greatest contribution to the music industry.

Presented by Fender Musical Instruments Corporation and in part by Mapex Drums, Dunlop Effects Pedals and Marshall Amplifiers, the 2nd leg of the Experience Hendrix tour will kick off on October 26 in Pittsburgh and will cross the border to perform in three Canadian cities – Toronto, Quebec City and Montreal. After which they will be heading back to the east coast for the rest of the tour with the last five dates entailing performances in the Midwest, closing on November 20 in Indy’s Murat Theatre.

Joining this leg of the tour are the following: Sacred Steel’s Darick Campbell, The Slide Brothers, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble’s Chris Layton, Living Colour, Ernie Isley, Eric Johnson, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Steve Vai, Susan Tedeschi, Jonny Lang, Robert Randolph, and David Hidalgo and Cesar Rosas of Los Lobos. In the previous years, the tour has also featured other acclaimed musicians like Robby Krieger, Paul Rodgers, Joe Satriani, Buddy Guy, Hubert Sumlin and Carlos Santana.

The departure of Kara DioGuardi from “American Idol” has been made official by Fox. Meanwhile the rumor mill over Jennifer Lopez arriving as a judge continues to heat up. DioGuardi was an “American Idol” judge during the show’s eight as well as ninth season.

DioGuardi said in a statement that Fox issued, I feel it’s the best time for leaving “Idol” right now. I am looking forward to new challenges.

Show executives offered no reason for the departure of DioGuardi.

Things are just not going well for Axl Rose and the rest of Guns N’ Roses at the start of their European trek.

At the Reading and Leeds Festivals in UK a week ago, grunge rock legends Guns N’ Roses were welcomed with bottles plunging from the audience and a resonating “boo” after taking the stage an hour later than scheduled, or perhaps, an hour later than what was announced, whichever you would want to believe.

The unfortunate and chaotic scenario happened for the third time when the band graced the stage of the O2 in Dublin last night, September 1, once again an hour late. Apparently, GNR’s “Welcome to the Jungle” performance was perfectly suited for what was transpiring that evening, but lead singer Axl Rose was in no savage mood. “If you don’t want to have fun, all you’ve got to do is let us know. We’ve got no problem — we’ll go on our way”, Rose addressed the crowd and disappeared on the stage for a whole hour. The band returned 30 minutes before midnight to finish off their set.

R&B and Soul icon Mary J. Blige is trekking the road this fall to continue support for her new release, “Stronger with Each Tear” which came out late last year. The outing will also feature budding R&B artist Jazmine Sullivan who is also out to promote her second studio effort, “Love Me Back”, which is set to come out around the same time as the tour.

Kicking off the trek is a show in Mobile, AL on October 1, followed by a show in Chastain, GA the day after. Four more venues still need to be added to the tour’s 13-city slate and these are the venues for Raleigh, Chicago, Las Vegas and the tour’s final stop, Oakland on October 23.

Aside from Sullivan, EL Debarge and Miguel will also be tagging along as support acts for the entire US leg of Blige’s tour.

Looks like Jimmy Buffett is not alone in his efforts to help rebuild the local economy in the gulf area hampered by the disastrous oil spill.

Rock icons Bon Jovi and country music act Brad Paisley will both be heading south to Gulf Shores, AL to perform for free on two separate occasions to help revive the tourism industry in the area which is the bread and butter of the local livelihood in Gulf Shores.

Bon Jovi will perform on October 15 while Paisley is scheduled on the 17th. The two acts will be performing on the same stage where Jimmy Buffett performed two months ago for the same purpose.