Water Street Music Hall, which had been the most-significant club on the local scene since the late 1980s, is rising from the ashes of discord once again. The two-headed entertainment center announced its return Wednesday afternoon with a ribbon cutting ceremony at the red brick, turn-of-the-last century old warehouse tucked away off of Andrews Street in the St. Paul Quarter.

Owner Peter Sewell explains that the extensive renovations are working alongside a repurposing of the two rooms, a restaurant called Jack’s on Water Street and the larger music venue side, Water Street 2020.

A re-branding of Water Street was essential. Sewell says the venue’s nights of bad economic management and hip-hop brawls are over.

Bat McGrath died Tuesday night, in much the same way as he wrote and sang. With no drama, no fuss, quietly, at his mountainside home in Tennessee with his wife Tricia Cast, all on his terms.

A member of the Rochester Music Hall of Fame, the 73-year-old McGrath was diagnosed with cancer on Dec. 12. A suspicious colonoscopy result led to the discovery that the cancer had spread throughout his liver. With treatment, it was estimated McGrath might have another 1½ years to live. But these procedures would seriously compromise his quality of life, and McGrath and Cast made the difficult decision to decline treatments. A decision, they were told, that would leave McGrath with mere months to live.

He was a Southern black man who helped shape American music in the late 1920s. He moved to Rochester, gave up music and lived in obscurity for two decades before he was re-discovered during the mid-1960s blues and folk revival.

He resumed his career, touring and recording before his death. A few years ago, his life even inspired a musical.

That story is one we know well here in Rochester.

But I'm not talking about Son House, the iconic bluesman.

It is also Lesley Riddle's story.

Singer-songwriter Eddie Money has died after a battle with cancer at the age of 70. He died Friday in Los Angeles.

Money, who was one of the top selling rock stars of the 70s and 80s, was in Rochester early last year.

That’s because this was the location for the world premiere of his autobiographical show, “Two Tickets to Paradise: The Musical.”

After a six-year hiatus, the “Never-Ending Tour” will return to Ithaca this fall, when Bob Dylan and His Band perform at Ithaca College on Nov. 17. Tickets for the 8 p.m. show are $55-$85 and will go on sale here on Sept. 20. 

A project with a lot of star power behind it may soon be coming to the town of Macedon.

Grammy-winning singer and songwriter Alicia Keys and her husband, hip-hop recording arist and music producer Kasseem Dean, known professionally as Swizz Beatz, are in the process of buying a 100-plus-acre former industrial site on Route 31.

That's where they want to locate a music and art campus for up-and-coming musicians and artists.