Victoria Williams is an American singer, songwriter and musician, originally from Shreveport, Louisiana, United States, although she has resided in Southern California throughout her musical career. Diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in the early 1990s, Williams was the catalyst for the Sweet Relief Musicians Fund.
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1995.
Hootie & the Blowfish is an American rock band formed in Columbia, South Carolina, in 1986. The band's lineup for most of its existence has been the quartet of Darius Rucker, Mark Bryan, Dean Felber, and Jim Sonefeld. The band went on hiatus in 2008 until they announced plans for a full reunion tour in 2019 and released their first new studio album in fourteen years, Imperfect Circle.
Cracked Rear View is the debut studio album by Hootie & the Blowfish, released on July 5, 1994, by Atlantic Records. Released to positive critical reviews, it eventually became one of the highest-selling albums in the United States, and also one of the best-selling albums worldwide, with over 20 million units.
Darius Rucker is an American singer, musician, and songwriter. He first gained fame as the lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of rock band Hootie & the Blowfish, which he founded in 1986 at the University of South Carolina along with Mark Bryan, Jim "Soni" Sonefeld, and Dean Felber. The band released five studio albums with Rucker as a member and charted six top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100. Rucker co-wrote most of the songs with the other members of the band.
The dB's are an American alternative rock and power pop group, who formed in New York City in 1978 and first came to prominence in the early 1980s. Their debut album Stands for Decibels is acclaimed as one of the great "lost" power pop albums of the 1980s.
James Victor Chesnutt was an American singer-songwriter from Athens, Georgia. His first album, Little, was released in 1990. His commercial breakthrough came in 1996 with the release of Sweet Relief II: Gravity of the Situation, a charity record of alternative artists covering his songs.
The Bridge School Benefit was an annual charity concert usually held in Mountain View, California, every October at the Shoreline Amphitheatre from 1986 until 2016 with the exception of 1987. The concerts lasted the entire weekend and were organized by musicians Neil Young and Pegi Young. An annual Bay Area highlight, the concerts were billed online as the primary means of funding for The Bridge School; over both days, the reserved seats alone brought in well over a million dollars every year.
Tibetan Freedom Concert is the name given to a series of socio-political music festivals held in North America, Europe and Asia from 1996 onwards to support the cause of Tibetan independence. The concerts were originally organized by the Beastie Boys and the Milarepa Fund. The idea for a Live Aid-style concert for Tibet was conceived by members of the group during the 1994 Lollapalooza Tour.
"How the West Was Won and Where It Got Us" is a song by R.E.M. released as the fourth and final single from their tenth studio album New Adventures in Hi-Fi in 1997. It was released in Germany and Japan was the final R.E.M. single and music video to feature Bill Berry until "#9 Dream" in 2007.
Mark William Bryan is an American musician. He is a founding member, songwriter, and lead guitarist for the band Hootie & the Blowfish. In 1986, Bryan and his friend Darius Rucker formed a duo called the Wolf Brothers while attending the University of South Carolina. Eventually, friends Dean Felber and Jim Sonefeld joined the band, which led to the founding of Hootie & the Blowfish in 1989. Bryan has also released three solo albums: 30 on the Rail, End of the Front, and Songs of the Fortnight.
Dog's Eye View was an American rock band formed in 1994. The band is best known for "Everything Falls Apart", its 1995 hit single.
Live in the X Lounge is a series of albums released by Birmingham, Alabama's former alternative rock radio station, WRAX.
The 1996 MTV Video Music Awards aired live on September 4, 1996, honoring the best music videos from June 16, 1995, to June 14, 1996. The show was hosted by Dennis Miller at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.
"Raining on Sunday" is a song co-written by country music artist Radney Foster and Darrell Brown. It was initially recorded on Foster's 1999 Arista Records album See What You Want to See. Foster's version of the song features a backing vocal from Darius Rucker of the rock band Hootie & the Blowfish.
The Bridge School Collection, Vol. 1 is a downloadable audio collection of 80 selected acoustic performances, recorded between 1986 and 2006, from the Bridge School's Benefit Concerts. The 21 November 2006 iTunes distribution of the collection includes a digital booklet. All tracks are available for individual purchase except Neil Young's tracks which are by album only.
Rockin' the Corps was a 2005 concert designed to show appreciation to United States marines and sailors returning home from the Iraq War.
Sweet Relief II: Gravity of the Situation is a 1996 charity record that featured a variety of alternative rock bands covering songs written by quadriplegic musician Vic Chesnutt. Some of the artists were picked to give the album an international appeal to raise more funds for the Sweet Relief Fund, which assists musicians in need of health care.
The Garbage tour was the debut concert tour by American rock band Garbage, in support of their self-titled debut album (1995). It began on November 5, 1995, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and ended on December 18, 1996, in Inglewood, California. For the duration of the tour, Garbage's touring line-up was augmented by Daniel Shulman, who had previously been a session musician for Run-D.M.C., on bass guitar. Samplers and MIDI controllers helped the bandmembers to unleash on stage the varied sounds that augmented the studio versions of the songs. Despite all the members of the group having racked up years of touring experience between them prior to forming, Garbage had no initial plans to tour their debut set; they changed their mind when they found that they enjoyed themselves while filming the music video for their debut single, "Vow". Director Samuel Bayer had encouraged the group to play the song live as he filmed them, rather than playing along to a backing track.
