James Lavelle, who together with Pablo Clements makes up Unkle, points out that the band’s new release, “End Titles…Stories For Film,” is not an album of new music but it functions as an album.
Ten of the album’s tracks were featured in the Abel Ferrara documentary “Odyssey in Rome,” “Broken” appears in “X Files: I Want to Believe” and “Trouble in Paradise” was featured in a BMW advertisement. Among their collaborators are Gavin Clark, South’s Joel Cadbury and Black Mountain. The album, already released digitally, becomes available at retail Sept. 2.
“It’s important to stay active with Unkle,” Lavelle told the Set List, partially explaining the existence of “End Titles.” “There’s no need to do a record every four years as if it’s a big statement that somehow will change the world.”
Lavelle formed the Mo' Wax label in his teens and essentially birthed trip-hop until an attempt to sell the label and still remain a recording artist turned into a giant mess. With Unkle, a band name he has used since the early ‘90s, the manner in which he works has changed considerably and he is starting to see how others function.
“We toured for a year and I want to take that energy into the studio. It’s a real way to write – about 99% of the bands do things that way – and we can make a record we can tour on. I just want to keep the momentum going. I don’t want to wait five years. We’re never going to be a hot new band. We’re self sufficient and at a creative peak. We should keep ourselves there.”
Lavelle is in the studio with his touring band, writing songs based on jams. The new way of working, last year's "War Stories" and the brilliance of Black Mountain were all subjects we discussed.

Q: On first listen I kept imagining a black screen with names scrolling by and tried to imagine what sort of film I had just seen. By using a title as suggestive as this, was there an intention to make all of the songs sound as if they were a resolution of some sort?
A: It was originally titled ‘Film Stories’ because I wanted to show a continuity with previous records. This was a collection of tracks from previous projects and for fun we added to the mix. The concern from a distribution element was that it would be seen as a B-sides record. Struggling with economic thinking, the title was geared toward the moving picture. It’s not too literal — it’s sort of a DJ mix of music for film. It’s name for a track on the ‘Blade Runner’ soundtrack. It has the sort of feel of a title of an Unkle album.

Q: The album does have a coherence to it — it all could come from one film.
A: A lot is about leaving it to the imagination. There’s an ambiguousness, creating your own picture. Right now we’re doing a version of the record that’s strings and ambient sounds and it’s much more cinematic. The record we have made is juggling two things — certain things are very specifically written for TV shows, trailers and games and people have heard them in that context. We also wanted to gather stuff we had sitting around — the soundtrack genre is pretty broad.

Producer/composer Yoav Goren is launching Imperativa with the release of “Trailerhead” by Immediate and “Epicon” by Globus. Physical copies will be available in online and physical stores beginning Aug.  26.
Among the tracks on “Trailerhead” are pieces written for the trailers of  “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest,” “Spiderman 2,” “The Fantastic Four” and “The Da Vinci Code.” “Onward to Freedom,” featured in NBC’s “XX Olympics: The Torino Games,” won an Emmy.
Globus, which features Goren as a member, performs music written for trailers with lyrics added.

Orchestral music featured in numerous film trailers will be released online Tuesday by a new record company Imperativa.

Keyboardist/producer George Duke will release his latest album, "Dukey Treats," on Aug. 26. Album is a throwback to the golden age of funk and soul and features bassist Christian McBride, percussionist Sheila E and trumpeter Michael “Patches” Stewart.
His label, Heads Up, issued a video interview:

Monterey Jazz Festival Records has come up with six titles for its second round of releases of concert recordings.The releases are slated for Aug. 5.
Four are year-specific recordings: Art Blakey and the Giants of Jazz/1972; Shirley Horn/1994; Tito Puente & His Orchestra/1977; and Jimmy Witherspoon featuring Robben Ford/1972. Two “best of” recordings are Dave Brubeck "50 Years of Dave Brubeck: Live at the Monterey Jazz Festival, 1958-2007" and Cal Tjader "The Best of Cal Tjader, Live at the Monterey Jazz Festival, 1958-1980."
Interesting tidbits: The  Blakey album includes Thelonious Monk on piano; among the performers with Brubeck are, of course, Paul Desmond on alto but also Gerry Mulligan on baritone saxophone; Puente performs with a 15-piece orchestra; and the Witherspoon disc includes a bonus track with Coleman Hawkins and Ben Webster from 1959.
At the 51st Monterey Jazz Fest in September, the Cuban flutist and singer Orlando “Maraca” Valle is slated to record a CD with special guests David Sánchez, Miguel Zenón, Ed Simon, Murray Low, John Benitez, Giovanni Hidalgo, Horacio “El Negro” Hernandez and the Monterey Jazz Festival Chamber Orchestra.

A recording of the Buena Vista Social Club's Carnegie Hall concert 10 years ago will be released by World Circuit/Nonesuch this fall.
The concert was a key part of Wim Wenders' 1999 documentary on the Cuban musicians brought together by Ry Cooder in Havana.
Included on the two-CD set are performances by Ibrahim Ferrer, Compay Segundo, Ruben González, Eliades Ochoa, Omara Portuondo, Cachaíto López and Guajiro Mirabal, musicians who were able to parlay the BVSC exposure into solo careers.
The Carnegie Hall recording of “Chan Chan” is being previewed at iTunes.

Story by Matt Kivel

There's been a lot of buzz going around about Franz Ferdinand's new material. The Scottish quartet has posted some samples online and announced that their first single will debut on EA sports' forthcoming mega-hit Madden '09. For the media, it's been an endless game of speculation with outlets offering various predictions as to what "new sound" Franz is likely to employ.

The new issue of Rolling Stone poses "afro pop" as a possibility, but it seems that publication is still suffering from a severe case of Vampire Weekend fever (glancing through the reviews page I spotted a suspiciously large helping of references to afro-pop and world beat) ... so the legitimacy is suspect.

In this situation, it's best to let the music do the talking ... so here's a video (with some iffy sound quality) of the soon-to-be Madden soundtracking "Katherine Kiss Me." It employs the same sort of tense-funk riffage that was Franz's bread and butter for their first two albums and sort of makes all the "new direction" talk seem silly ... though a few demos from the band's site surfaced recently, and those do mark some significant sonic changes in the group's sound ... I guess we'll just have to wait for the finished product.   

"Katherine Kiss Me" June 9, 2008 - London

Eddie Floyd is headed back to the future.
The soul legend known for "Knock on Wood" has recorded songs he wrote for other artists in the 1950s and '60s for his return to the Stax label.
Some date back to his years with the Falcons (“You’re So Fine,” “Since You’ve Been Gone”) and his earliest solo days (“Never Get Enough of Your Love”). Among the songs he wrote for other Stax artists but never recorded until now: “’Til My Back Ain’t Got No Bone” (William Bell); “I Will Always Have Faith In You” (Carla Thomas) and “You Don’t Know What You Mean To Me” (Sam & Dave). Also on the the disc is “I Don’t Want to Be With Nobody But You,” which Dorothy Moore recorded on her 1976 "Misty Blue" album.he also has a couple of new tunes.
Album, titled "Eddie Loves You So," will be released on July 29 on Stax Records.
Cool as that is, the powers that be should know the world will be a better place if they afford the same opportunity to fellow Stax vet William Bell, a man who still sings with the power and passion of a young man getting his heart broken.   

The Hal Willner-supervised soundtrack to Abel Ferrara’s “Chelsea on the Rocks” will be released by Atlantic Records.
The documentary will receive its world premiere Friday in a special screening at Cannes.
Film's score is by G.E. Smith, Tony Garnier, Robert Burger and Jim White with additional music by Sonic Youth, Love and Rockets and Ferrara.
Vintage music and archival footage of the Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin and Sid Vicious appear in the documentary along with actors Bijou Phillips, Jamie Burke, Adam Goldberg, Giancarlo Esposito and Grace Jones re-enacting events from the Chelsea Hotel’s past.
Soundtrack will include music featured in the film as well as songs inspired by it. Variety's reviewer enjoyed the film more than I did.

Neil Young's 10-CD set of never released recordings has a new lease on life.
Long rumored and long delayed, Reprise will release the collection of recordings from 1963-1972 on Blu-ray in the fall.   
Young, an audio fanatic who released his greatest hits on PCM 24/96 and recently assisted in an acoustic revamp of Red Rocks in Colorado, says “It is important for me that the user experience the high resolution music along with the archival visual material."
Through Blu-ray and Java technology, viewers will be able to navigate through Young's music, movies, videos, personal archives, memorabilia, photographs, letters, handwritten manuscripts and more while the high resolution 192/24 audio is playing. Announcement was made at the JavaOne conference in Northern California Tuesday.
"Previously, there was no way to browse archival material on a disc and listen to a song in high resolution at the same time" Young said in a statement. “Previous technology required unacceptable quality compromises. I am glad we waited and got it right.
"And here is something really new, we will be able to add content to already released Blu-ray Disc archive volumes by downloading it, whether it is music, film or vintage recording sessions, recently found photographs, or other archival materials that were located after the release of that volume. Users will be able to download any of these archival materials and they will automatically be assigned to their place in the chronology timeline.”
Java.com will be featuring the work with Neil Young and the archive project in a special Java + Neil Young segment. Java + Neil Young will include links to Young's appearance at JavaOne, as well as links to more information about the upcoming Blu-ray Disc package.

Neil Young, a longtime technology fanatic, will do a special demo of a new multi-media, interactive music project being introduced at the JavaOne confab next week.
Young will join Sun Microsystems executives during the opening keynote session of JavaOne at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.The JavaOne conference, which runs May 6-9, is mostly attended by software developers.

Bagging on Billy Joel used to be a fun sport and I practiced it as much as the next guy in the 1970s. All these years later I still don't understand the appeal of the music or the persona.
Legacy, the catalog division of Sony, differs in their opinion, believing you can never have enough of "The Stranger," the album that instantly put "Just the Way You Are" into the wedding band canon 30 years ago and made us jokesters wonder if "she" is not "always a woman," what gender is she. Album sold more than 10 million copies, but only reached No. 2 on the album chart.
There will be two packages of "The Stranger - 30th Anniversary" released on July 8. One is two CDs; the also includes a DVD of Joel's appearances on the U.K.'s "Old Grey Whistle Test" and a 48-page booklet.
Both editions will include a CD of a previously unreleased concert featuring Joel and his band at Carnegie Hall on June 3, 1977. Bonus package includes a DVD with two live promotional videos from "The Stranger" and his 60 minute 1978 appearance on the BBC2's "Old Grey Whistle Test."
Set list from the Carnegie Hall show:
Intro /  Miami 2017 (Seen The Lights Go Out On Broadway)
/ Prelude>Angry Young Man / New York State Of Mind / Just The Way You Are / She's Got A Way / The Entertainer / Scenes From An Italian Restaurant / Captain Jack / I've Loved These Days / Say Goodbye To Hollywood / Souvenir
A decade later, Joel was the first American allowed to perform in Russia. At Olympic Stadium in Moscow on July 27, 1987, he performed:
Prelude>Angry Young Man / Honesty / The Ballad Of Billy The Kid / She's Always A Woman /  Scenes From An Italian Restaurant / Allentown / Goodnight Saigon / Stiletto / Big Man On Mulberry Street / Baby Grand / An Innocent Man / The Longest Time

Gilberto Gil is taking a cue from the jam bands and embracing the tapers. Actually, he intends to tell audience members they may record and film whatever they want however they want when he goes on an 11-city tour of North America beginning June 18 in Ann Arbor, Mich.
Rather than greatest hits, he will be emphasizing material from his new CD “Banda Larga Cordel,” which Warner Music Latina will release in June.It will be his largest North American tour in nine years.
A long-time proponent of the Internet - he first posted a tune in 1996 and as Brazil's minister of culture has heavily promoted technology - he intends to track life in the road through a new blog. His PR materials even emphasize his longtime interest in technology, pointing listeners toward Tropicalia masterpieces such as “Cérebro Electrônica” and “Futurivel” from 1969, in addition to “Cibernética” (1974), “Parabolicamará” (1991) and “Quanta” (1997).
Gil's BroadBand Band features Arthur Maia on bass, Alex Fonseca on drums, Bem Gil on guitars, Claudio Andrade on keyboards, Gustavo di Dalva on percussion, and Sergio Chiavazzolli, also on guitars.
Tour dates after the jump. He's a pretty good performer in the kitchen, too

Nurse With Wound, which has recorded nearly every musical style known to man, is turning to space age bachelor pad music for their summertime release, "Huffin' Rag Blues."   
Steven Stapleton and Andrew Liles form the core of the band; singers Lynn Jackson and Freida Abtan channel Peggy Lee. The June release follows a string of reissues.

TRACK LISTING
1. Willy the Weeper
2. Groove Grease (Hot Catz)
3. The Funktion of the Hairy Egg
4. Black Teeth
5. Thrill of Romance...?
6. Livin' with the Night
7. Ketamineaphonia
8. Juice Head Crazy Lady
9. Wash the Dust from My Heart
10. Cruisin' for a Bruisin'
11. All of Me

"I, Flathead" will be the final album in Ry Cooder's California trilogy which began with 2005's "Chavez Ravine" and 2007's "My Name is Buddy." Nonesuch/Perro Verde Records will release the album and an accompanying novella on June 24.
Disc is an album of music by the fictional Kash Buk and his band the Klowns; novella tells the story of  Buk, Buk is  a salt flat racer and roadhouse musician, and his friend Shakey the alien. They venture into a  bygone era in California, taking in desert life, salt-flat racing,  seedy dance halls and amusement parks.
Native Angeleno Cooder, a musical alchemist whose travels have taken him from the Delta blues of Blind Blake and Alfred Reed to Timbuktu and Cuba and back to the Tex-Mex border, draws from country-Western music, popular mechanics magazines and science fiction films on "I, Flathead." The music includes a forbidden-race love song, a ghost drag racer tune, a circus story,  honky-tonk heart-ache ballads and an homage to steel guitar legends.
Cooder produced and wrote or co-wrote the songs. He sings and  plays mandolin, guitar, and bass. The musicians are: Joachim Cooder and Jim Keltner on drums; Rene Camacho on bass; Francisco Torres on trombone; Ron Blake and Jon Hassell on trumpet; Anthony Gil on bass sax; Flaco Jimenez on accordion, Gil Bernal on  tenor sax; Jared Smith on keyboards; Martin Pradler on electric piano and drums; and Juliette Commagere on vocals.
"I,  Flathead concerns change and disruption in a young, post-war do-it-yourself culture of outsiders. "Chavez Ravine," written about the area of town where the Brooklyn Dodgers built their stadium and displaced a Mexican-American community in the early '60s, examined loss of place and history. "Buddy," a cat, explored the loss of solidarity and unity.
Cooder won the  pop instrumental album Grammy in 2004 for "Mambo Sinuendo," a brilliant album with guitarist Manuel Galban, a member of the Cuban doo-wop act Los Zafiros from the early 1960s. He backed several members of the Buena Vista Social Club, which Cooder masterminded, when they made solo albums.

Looking at the possibility of starting fiscal year 2009 with a bang, EMI will release Coldplay's  fourth album, "Viva La Vida," in the third week of June, toward the end of the first quarter of the now private Brit conglom. Company is not likely to release year-end financials, which would reveal the costs of its massive restructuring.
Hits have been few and far between for EMI in Guy Hands' rookie season and the company's current representatives in the top 50 are a Trace Adkins hits compilation  and the B-52's first album in 16 years. The pressure will be enormous for  "Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends" - that's the full title - to perform at a level equal or better than its predecessor, "X&Y," which has sold 10 million copies worldwide since its release in 2005. (The RIAA, which certifies shipments, has "X&Y" at 3 million copies in the U.S.)
"X&Y" sold 737,294 copies in its first week of release back in 2005 and Coldplay-mania was so strong then that their first two albums, "A Rush of Blood to the Head"  and "Parachutes" rose to Nos. 1 and 2 on the catalog albums chart. "XX&Y" debuted at No. 1 in more than 20 countries.
During the Eric Nicoli years, EMI often blamed stock slumps on the lack of or delays in new Coldplay and/or Radiohead material, which meant the company had  to tout  Beach Boys, Dean Martin and Beatles packages along with front line  releases for signs of good news.
With EMI streamlined, the jury is still out as to whether they will be able to break new artists on the scale of Coldplay or even Norah Jones. But its reduction in size, however, may mean that a single record from a single band may be able to jumpstart a company.   
The album's 10 tracks are:

"Life in Technicolor"
"Cemeteries of London"
"Lost!"
"42"
"Lovers in Japan/Reign of Love"
"Yes"
"Viva La Vida"
"Violet Hill"
"Strawberry Swing"
"Death and All His Friends"

A year ago, I was bemoaning the fact that fans no longer seem to be concerned or fascinated by backing musicians - Wendy and Lisa with Prince, David Grissom with Joe Ely, the guitarists in Bob Dylan's band, what duo is fronting the Allman Brothers, the guys in Steely Dan. It seems like the members of any given edition of Bright Eyes or Beck's band are hardly driving interest the way they did back when.
One of those guys was Chuck Leavell, who played the still enthralling piano solo on the Allmans' "Jessica," the keyboards on Eric Clapton's "Unplugged" and, for the last 20 years, with the Rolling Stones.
He has a solo album coming out May 13, "Live In Germany: The Green Leaves and Blue Notes Tour" on Evergreen Arts.
Leavell did the “Green Leaves & Blue Notes Tour” in Europe after the Stones' "A Bigger Bang" tour ended, recruiting some German musicians to accompany him. Performance on the album was recorded on Sept. 14 for the German radio station HR1. Classics on the album include “Jessica,” “Statesboro Blues,” “Honky Tonk Woman,” “Rip this Joint,” Les McCann and Eddie Harris’ “Compared to What,” “Georgia,” “Here Comes the Sun” and “Route 66.”

The soul-enriching "Imaginational Anthem" series of instrumental acoustic guitar albums will add a third edition on April 8 when the Tompkins Square label issues a disc containing work by young talent Cian Nugent, Ben Reynolds and Shawn David McMillen. On the same day, Tompkins Square will issue a box set of the first three compilations. "Vol. 2" hipped me to the great James Blackshaw.
Also on the disc are unsung heroes from the past,including banjo player/Federal Duck founder George Stavis, Richard Crandell and Mark Fosson, whose lost 1977 Takoma album was recently issued.

Track listing for Imaginational Anthem Vol. 3 :
1. Richard Crandell   - “Zocalo”
2. Ben Reynolds  - “Here Toucheth Blues”   
3. Greg Davis - “Sleep Architecture” 
4. Nathan Salsburg -  “Bold Ruler's Joys”   
5. Steffen Basho-Junghans   - “Blue Mountain Raga II”
6. Cian Nugent -  “When the Snow Melts And Floats Downstream”
7. Matt Baldwin -  “Sean Cycle”   
8. Mark Fosson -  “Another Fine Day”
9. George Stavis – “Goblins”
10. R. Keenan Lawler - “High Tower Bells For Loren Connors” 
11. Shawn David McMillen -  “Texarkana 1971”

  Al Green is back to singing about love on his next Blue Note album, "Lay It Dow," which is set for a May 27 release.
Green has recorded duets with John Legend, Corinne Bailey Rae and Anthony Hamilton and headed to Brooklyn instead of Memphis for his horn section, the Dap Kings. ?uestlove from the Roots produced the album.
It was ?uestlove who got the ball rolling on the album, asking Green if he would work with the soul legend. The two did a marathon session at Electric Ladyland in N.Y., which yielded eight song sketches.

Hollywood’s haven for singer-songwriters, the dimly lit and intimate Hotel Cafe, is expanding its brand from live music to recordings with the release this week of Jim Bianco’s “Sing.”
The disc, distributed by Rykodisc, hits stores just weeks after a remote edition of the venue operated during the Sundance Film Festival and just days before the third edition of the Hotel Café Tour hits the road. The 16-concert tour, which features Bianco and other Café regulars such as Ingrid Michaelson, Cary Brothers and Sara Bareilles, opens March 6 in San Diego and runs through April 12 at L.A.’s Music Box at Henry Fonda Theater.
The entourage will also perform March 9 at the Café itself and has a major showcase lined up for SXSW in Austin next week. Shows on the tours have been anything goes affairs with musicians alternating lineups, jamming together for finales and keeping the evenings wide open, much like the Hotel Café has been during its seven years of existence – and one remodeling 
“We all needed a scene, a place to go” says Bianco, who moved to L.A. from New York eight years ago and found a local club scene very set in its ways. “It was very unintentional, but great that it worked out this way.”
Bianco has been a mainstay at the Café and on the tour, appearing on all three and remaining enthused by the collaborative nature of the shows. The venue, meanwhile, has become something of a workshop for him: he has tried out theatrical ideas involving catwalks, found new musicians to work with and even written songs on the a piano tucked away in the venue’s front room.
“At least a part of every song on the album was conceived on the piano at the Hotel Café,” Bianco says, apparently surprising himself as he comes to that realization as he connects the dots between his first two discs and the new one. “The heart opens a little more on ‘Sing.’ “The last record had lots of sex. This has some loss, some love and some sex.”
Sex, or at least the libido, produces some of Bianco’s best lines. “Sing’s” “Painkiller,” for example, offers a lecherous twist: “Your skirt blew up high enough that I could see your skin/It appeared as though I was owed a favor by the wind." Love and commitment is there,too: "To hell with the devil/ I'm selling my soul to you.”
Intriguingly, Bianco is hardly a standard HC character: He’s more rambunctious and less in touch with his inner-Laurel Canyon than his peers. His songs have elements from European cabaret, South American dances, Chicago blues and wrong-side-of-the-tracks authors. And he does not possess what anyone would call a mellifluous voice.
Since everyone listening to Bianco is familiar with the raspy tone of Tom Waits, he gets that comparison. Some of that owes to the lyrical content, but his voice never even threatens to go as deep as Waits; it’s not a failed impersonation. His vocals, to my ears, are actually much closer to Fats Waller with a hint of gravel; it’s the hacking voice of a hangover, one that be tolerated. It suits the control clatter behind him just fine.
“I’ve always been a huge fan of (people) with weird voices – Tom Waits, Muddy Waters, Billie Holiday. I have yet to truly find mine but the more I do, the more comfortable with it I become.”
Bianco held his record release party Tuesday at the Hotel Café and performs today (March 5) at 7 p.m. at Amoeba Records in Hollywood.

Gnarls Barkley, the last band to create a song that took over the world, returns April 8 with "The Odd Couple." First single "Run" has been rushed to iTunes, making this the third significant April release with a single available nearly two months early. (Mariah Carey and R.E.M. are the others.)
Danger Mouse and vocalist Cee-Lo Green, the duo behind Gnarls, are saying "The Odd Couple"  " explores the forbidden underworld of popular music and human psychology, starting at the intersection of pulsating hooks and pure emotion."
"Run" has been tagged as  psychedelic soul stomper and a video is in the works. Intriguingly, work has already begun on the second video for the song "Who's Gonna Save My Soul."
Part of the strategy on the first GB album was use "Crazy" as a universal calling card and not let any other track distract radio or video programmers with a second choice. "Crazy" made it into seven or eight radio formats over the course of more than eight months before "Smiley Faces" and "Gone Daddy Gone" were put into the marketplace as singles.
Currently, the band is commissioning emerging filmmakers to produce clips.
A summer tour includes a gig at the Hollywood Bowl on July 27; they are also looking into appearing at several  American and European summer festivals. Perhaps they'll headline one of the Liberty Park gigs in New Jersey in early August.

Idolator found the news first on Portishead's website:

23 Jan 2008

We're pleased to announce that we'll be releasing our album, titled THIRD. on April 14th 2008.

The album has 11 tracks and is 49 minutes 13 seconds long.

Fed up with the assistance New Orleans has received since Hurricane Katrina, Dr. John has put his concerns in song for his next album.
Savoy Label Group’s 429 Records has penciled in a May release date for the tentatively titled “The City That Care Forgot,” which features songs Dr. John has written with Bobby Charles (“See You Later, Alligator,” “Walking to New Orleans”), Reverend Goat (who once ran for president with Joe Walsh), journalist Chris Rose and artist Mina Bellavia.
“Saddest part of this record is that it could be a continual project for the rest of my life,” Dr. John says. “It’s just the start of something.”
“The City” is a song cycle “to make people aware about the stuff,” says Dr. John, aka Mac Rebennack, concerned that after an initial wave of some assistance, the city has been cut off and abandoned and is suffering from government red tape. “It’s tragic, the lack of help, the places people are living. This has affected every area of New Orleans across the board. … This is definitely racist and definitely an ugly thing.”

On the heels of the Van Morrison reissue project comes the announcement that an album of all new Morrison recordings will be released March 11.
"Keep It Simple" will feature 11 Morrison songs composed specifically for the album. (He has not done that in awhile).
It's VanMo's first disc since 2005's impressive collection of country covers "Pay the Devil." (One exception: He did write the title track).
Having not heard a single note, here's the rundown from the record company, Lost Highway:
All of his influences show up: jazz, folk, blues, Celtic, country, soul and gospel;
No big horns or string arrangements;
and the creation of a new word, “Entrainment.”
Any tour dates will have to follow his current spate of dates in Europe, where he is booked through early May.

Randy Jackson has rounded up friends, clients, "American Idol" contestants and the woman who occupies the space next to him on "AI" for his Quincy Jones-styled "Dance Like There's No Tomorrow."
Album will be released March 11, right about the time "Idol" will be creating its final 12. Could they have Dogg Night in which this year's crop of contestants pay tribute to Randy's album (12 songs/12 singers) or  his production and bass-playing skills. And after looking at who appears on this album, is this a sign that he doesn't pal around with Bruce Springsteen or Journey anymore?
The one thing Jackson could do for America, despite the apparent conflict of interest, is expose them to Van Hunt, a performer who covers the territory between Sly Stone and the Stooges and does it admirably.
The songs and the singers on "Dance Like There's No Tomorrow" after the jump. And don't forget that crazy Super Bowl rumor.

Nick Cave has regrouped the edition of the Bad Seeds that made "Abattoir Blues/ The Lyre of Orpheus" four years ago to create
"Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!," which Anti- will release on April 8.
Cave recorded most of the songs on organ while Warren Ellis has switched from violin to guitar, 12-string lute, and electric mandolin. Album also features Mick Harvey on guitar, Thomas Wydler on drums and percussion, Martyn Casey on bass, Conway Savage on piano and vocals, Jim Sclavunos on drums, percussion and vocals, and James Johnston on guitar and organ.
Check out the Ouija board action at their website not to mention their new video.

Interpol is revisiting its indie roots, releasing today a six-song live collection via thinkindie.com.
Thinkindie.com services independent music retailers with exclusive items  not available at major chain and big-box stores.
The six-song "Interpol Live" EP features two tracks from the 2002's "Turn On the Bright Lights" ("Obstacle 1," and "Stella Was a Diver And She Was Always Down") and four tracks from their current Capitol Records album "Our Love To Admire" ("Pioneer to The Falls," "Mammoth," "Rest My Chemistry," and "The Heinrich Maneuver").
Tracks were recorded at the Astoria club in London on July 2.

DeVotchKa, whose profile was upped when they scored "Little Miss Sunshine," has signed with the L.A. label Anti-. Their label debut - and their first release in nearly four years - for the imprint is due in March. Now 10 years old, DeVotchKa is the rare indie rock entity based on tubas, accordions and violins; Anti- is the home of Tom Waits and Antibalas. Video is from a great show at the Troubadour.

Radiohead's "In Rainbows" has secured a worldwide release date and a label in the U.S.
The date: Dec. 31
U.S. label: TBD, an imprint owned by ATO that was formerly called Side One
Japan label: Hostess
Rest of the World: XL
First single: Jigsaw Falling Into Place
Release to radio: Jan. 14

It's that time of year folks, when record companies figure the time is right to sell music fans music they already own along with some bonus material. Hence, the beginning of the Deluxe Edition bonanza.
There are, of course, artists doing the bonus packages simultaneously with the standard release; count Duran Duran, Backstreet Boys, Daft Punk, Andrea Bocelli and Annie Lennox in that crew.
Paul McCartney is among the first entries in the Deluxe sweepstakes looking for bonus income from holiday shoppers and Aly & AJ will be among the last. Apparently Hollywood Records believes there will be a 12th Day of Christmas gift certificate rush and, come Jan. 8, the deluxe edition of "Insomniac" will be the freshest looking item on the store shelves.
Here's a look at a few "Bonus Babies" (tangent: remember that Don Drysdale-Greg Brady conversation when that term came up?) and the "deluxe" elements:

ALBUM:U2 - Joshua Tree
RELEASE DATE: Nov. 20
BONUS: A CD features B-sides and rarities from the "Joshua Tree" sessions, a 36-page book featuring liner notes by Bill Flanagan with a special essay by The Edge, previously unseen photos by Anton Corbijn and handwritten lyrics by Bono. A special deluxe edition includes a DVD.
WRAP IT UP FACTOR: Celebrating the 20th anniversary of one of the most popular and landmark albums ever, figure at least 50% of the copies sold will appear under Christmas trees with the words "To Dad" written on them. 
   
ALBUM:Justin Timberlake - Futuresex/Lovesounds
RELEASE DATE: Nov. 27
BONUS: Three additional tracks on the audio disc, "Until The End Of Time" with Beyonce and new versions of "Sexyback" and "Sexy Ladies" and a bonus DVD with music videos for "Sexyback," "What Goes Around" and "Lovestoned" along with the "Making of's" and live performances.
WRAP IT UP FACTOR: Timing is perfect for desperate moms and last-minute gift-buyers looking for a final trinket. All the "future Mrs. Timberlake's" will be buying the thing in its first two weeks.   

ALBUM: Pink - I'm Not Dead
RELEASE DATE: Dec. 4
BONUS: Undetermined
WRAP IT UP FACTOR: This will require some true marketing genius to avoid stacks of returns.

ALBUM: Paul Weller - Wild Wood
RELEASE DATE: An import probably available now
BONUS: Personally overseen by the former Jam and Style Council leader Weller and producer Brendan Lynch, his 1993 solo album is augmented with B-sides, demos, alternate versions, BBC session tracks and previously unreleased songs from the album's original promotional campaign, plus a 32-page booklet with new liner notes and interviews with Weller and others.
WRAP IT UP FACTOR: The ultimate gift for any Britpop fan to show that the buyer is willing to put in a bit of extra effort. It won't be making any sales charts. but it's a delight knowing that it exists.

ALBUM: NRBQ - Christmas Wish
RELEASE DATE: In stores
BONUS: Fan club-only "Christmas Wish" EP has been expanded and made commercially available for the first time. Originals and unique arrangements of Christmas classics recorded in studios, at concerts and at home between 1969 and 1999.
WRAP IT UP FACTOR: No band was more fun while U2 was getting famous for being serious and today their cult remains just as devoted as Bono's fans. This one will get considerable play in the Gallo household.    

  Joe Jackson's original band has made three fantastic albums and one good one. It would have been nice if two entire decades didn't pass in between albums three and four and we had not been subjected to his pseudo jazz, pseudo classical and even pseudo Joe Jackson Band efforts.
Still, open arms should greet "Rain," which Rykodisc will release on Jan. 29. Joe continues to work with the "Sunday Papers"/"I'm a Man" crew of bassist Graham Maby and drummer Dave Houghton. Album was  recorded in Berlin, where Jackson now lives. Their last album, "Vol. 4," earned strong reviews as did the shows that supported it.   
Joe's quote on the four-year break between albums:  "I wasn't in a hurry to make a new album. I promised  myself  that  I  wouldn't  make a record until I had an album's worth of songs that were the best  I could do. I think  several  of  these  songs  are  the  best  songs  I've ever written, and I wanted to have 10 or 12 songs that I felt that  way about before I put out another album. I used to be a bit of a  workaholic, but I am now much more patient. The quantity has gone down, but the  quality has gone up."
Band will tour shortly after the album's release date; they already have five dates booked for March in Europe.
I remember Jackson's first U.S. tour quite well. With my buddies Eddie and Don, we rushed the stage at the Barn at Rutgers U and Jackson even gave me the mic to sing "Ain't That a Shame" during the encore. I missed my spot to enter and he actually held the mic until the music came around and I got to bellow.
His set that night was rather similar to the one he played on Oct. 20, 1979 at Park West in Chicago:

Look Sharp! / On Your Radio / The Band Wore Blue Shirts / Sunday Papers / One More Time / Friday / It's Different For Girls / Is She Really Going Out With Him? / Baby Stick Around / Don't Wanna Be Like That / Happy Loving Couples / I'm The Man / Got The Time / I Can't Give You Anything / Ain't That A Shame

Most tribute albums play into the obvious strengths of the interpreter. Barry Manilow’s vision of the 1960s, for example, may be far different from Rush’s collection of tunes from the same decade, but neither album was a stretch.
But a stretch for an audience isn’t necessarily a stretch for a performer.
Dion DiMucci, the do-wop progenitor turned folkie turned master interpreter of Bruce Springsteen’s “If I Should Fall Behind,” has found a starting point in the Mississippi Delta of the 1930s to create “Son of Skip James.” Verve Forecast will release the disc on Nov. 6. Dion describes the appeal of Skip James in a note on his website.
besides James' "Devil Got My Woman," Dion covers Chuck Berry's "Nadine," Bob Dylan's "Baby I'm In The Mood For You," Junior Wells' "Hoodoo Man Blues" and the Robert Johnson tunes "Preachin' Blues" and "If I Had Possession (Over Judgment Day)." Dion also contributes a pair of originals.
"A lot of people think I grew up with rock 'n' roll, but I didn't. When I was growing up, there was no rock 'n' roll," shares Dion. "I grew up on Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed and Hank Williams. I couldn't wait to get out of school so I could sit on the stoop with Willie Green, who was the superintendent of one of the tenement buildings in my neighborhood, and listen to his John Lee Hooker records."

Traveling into the wilds of central New Jersey prior to arriviing in New York caused some bits of news to be overlooked, most notably that Ray Davies is going the newspaper giveaway route, following in the footsteps of Prince this Sunday. And just as Bruce Springsteen did with "Radio Nowhere," Davies is offering his first single as a download. Unfortunately, Davies' disc has no U.S. distributor at this time.

Naturally, the newspaper reports that come out of this Jive Records announcement will land on Jay Leno's "Headlines." The "Tonight Show" writers are probably already working on a  punch line that involves underwear. The news: Britney Spears' "Blackout" will be released on Oct. 30 instead of in the middle of November.

Years ago, when the suggestion first arose that the Internet would level the playing field among musicians and labels, I figured one of the true beneficiaries would be jazz musicians. The majors are no longer interested in the music, European labels can't guarantee distribution and outside of specialty shops like Downtown Music Gallery in New York and Jazz Record Mart in Chicago, where might a jazz artist get their indie CD heard?
Besides, as the Knitting Factory label learned in the 1990s, indie jazz records do most of their business (about 80%) within a few miles of where the performers/performance space is based.
Palmetto Records, the fine Philadelphia label that has released superb discs by Ben Allison, Andrew Hill and Orrin Evans among many others, makes its first venture into the digital-only realm with the band Slow Poke.
Slow Poke, a popular downtown New York quartet, comprises slide guitarist David Tronzo, saxophonist Michael Blake, bassist Tony Scherr and percussionist Kenny Wollesen. Their album "At Home," which is available at the label's website, was recorded at Scherr's house in Brooklyn. Band's first album, recorded after "At Home," was "Redemption."

With a soft spot in my heart for former teenage Southern California bluegrass musicians (yup, I was one), musicians who develop their act at L.A.'s Largo and the tremendous catalog of Nonesuch Records, the latest Nonesuch signing is a fine one: former Nickel Creek mandolin virtuoso Chris Thile.
Album from Thile's band the Punch Brothers - featuring  Chris Eldridge on guitar, bassist Greg Garrison, Noam Pikelny on banjo and Gabe Witcher on fiddle -  will be released Feb. 26. The new album will include Thile's four-movement composition, "The Blind Leaving the Blind," which the band performed at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall earlier this year as part of John Adams' In Your Ear festival.
IN addition, Thile's solo records and collaborations will be released by Nonesuch, beginning with an album with composer/bassist Edgar Meyer later in 2008.
Thile formed the band  for his 2006 Sugar Hill record, "How to Grow a Woman from the Ground."

Imagine the pressure to have your debut album perform on par with Miley Cyrus.
Now that Disney has the hang of turning TV shows into top-selling albums  with Hannah Montana and the High School Musicals, Nickelodeon is taking its highest profile leap with the Naked Brothers Band. (It is actually safe to Google). The  debut CD from the latest made-for-'tweens musical act  is being released today. Last week, a pre-release signing attracted 2,000 to the Times Square Virgin Megastore.
Their TV movie, "Battle of the Bands," was the No. 1 show for the week of Oct. 1 in all key kid demos and a new Halloween episode of the Naked Brothers Band, titled "Alien Clones," will premiere on  Oct. 20. A Battle of the Bands online event totaled more than 1.6 million streams of content on TurboNick for the week of Oct. 1.
Perhaps someday Disney will put their musical best up against Viacom's best and have the "Not-So Carefully Diusguised Corporate Battle to Win the National Temporary Undying Affection of 10-Year-Old Girls." Sell 'em as much stuff as possible before they discover boys. That's the spirit.   

A day after word got out that "Nirvana: MTV Unplugged" will make its DVD debut Nov. 20, Universal Music Enterprises announced that it would release the Oasis documentary tour film "Lord Don’t Slow Me Down" on Nov. 6.
The two-DVD Oasis set will feature stereo and surround sound; audio commentary from Noel, Liam, Andy and Gem; a Noel Gallagher Q&A session with fans alongside out-takes from the film; and a film of a concert at City of Manchester Stadium on July 2, 2005. Bonus disc also features footage and pictures sent in by fans who attended the concert.

In the first of what should become a regular series, the Set List will dissect the credits that fill page after page in the booklets of R&B albums. One after another, R&B albums are the result of assembly lines -  the Berry Gordy idea pushed to extreme.
And with R&B albums resembling the K Cars of the 1970s - that translates to generic and unreliable - there is little sign that R&B will be reclaimed by artists or anyone with their eye on anything except feeding the radio pipeline.
We start with Jennifer Lopez's "Brave," a collection of tracks in which she and her army attempt to make music that sounds something like the work of Beyonce and Shakira. Her voice consistently quivers - there's little command in evidence here - and her talk-sing style gets old quick. (The key credit on the album, and it appears on all 12 songs, is "additional vocal production" by Cory Rooney).
But even with Mr. Rooney enhancing and getting J.Lo's voice in key it takes a village to conceptualize a record. On "Hold It Don't Drop It," for example, the melody and rhythm are supplied by a sample of the rhythm guitar from Tavares' "It Only Takes a Minute," meaning it took seven people to come up with the lyrics and beats. Ouch.

Radiohead is making history, or at least writing another chapter in artists taking control of their work. Off the top of my head, some landmarks:
In 1951, Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball created Desilu to produce and own “I Love Lucy” instead of CBS, thereby inventing the Hollywood filmed TV business..
In 1959, Ray Charles tells Ahmet Ertegun he wants to own his own master recordings and the publishing. When Ertegun’s Atlantic Records stands firm with its no, a desperate ABC-Paramount sign him to a deal, giving in to all his wishes. Any act that doesn’t follow that pattern ultimately regrets it.
The  Beatles create Apple Records in 1968 and soon thereafter the Rolling Stones follow suit. No act has as firm a control on their catalog as those two.
Ani DiFranco creates her own label, Righteous Babe Records, in Buffalo, N.Y., and after she releases about seven albums — 1997 or so — her name gets bandied about not because she has built a fan base or makes artistically brilliant music. She  was in the news - and pissed off by it - because she was seeing a profit of nearly $5 per CD sold, a rate that dwarfed the amount made even by major stars. In the dot-com era, CDbaby.com has made a living selling music by the folks following her model; Pitchforkmedia.com has become a critical clearinghouse writing about those acts.
On Oct. 1, Radiohead announces that its next album will be released in three stages, beginning with a digital download version for which each consumer decides what they will pay. Cost of recording, marketing and distribution are covered by the band. It’s a risk, but it eliminates a collection of steps. This is a true downsizing of the business, but one that, if navigated properly, brings fans closer to the artist. The music website Stereogum, which has been around about half as long as Radiohead, declared it the coolest thing a band has ever done.
As much as the Radiohead news was greeted with praise for its decision to go DIY, they have not truly created a model for the future. This is an enormously popular band that only continues to grow commercially. And as they have done in the past, Radiohead is controlling the way their music gets leaked; years ago, the band sent out review cassettes in a Walkman that had been glued shut.
The band has an enormous fan base  that buys into everything the band releases – and that’s the true rarity. (Just thinking out loud: could Beck pull this off? Is this a better option than what Starbucks offers acts? If you're establish and flush, how soon does one need to recoup their investment?)
Radiohead struck at the right time — when fans are still clamoring for new music and musical heroes are few and far between. And in contrast to the major labels and the RIAA, which got a jury to rule Thursday that a woman owed them $200K for making her music collection available online, they look like the good guys. They’re there for the fans.
The move, though, does not herald the imminent decline of the music labels as we know them. Radiohead is in a unique place. And while much of that is based on music, there has been a corporate outfit – EMI’s Capitol Records – marketing, publicizing and selling their six albums. Radiohead did not happen overnight and there is no act that has ascended to similar heights in the last 30 years without a major label behind them.
Not that I am jumping on some pro-EMI bandwagon here. Sold recently to a private investment house whose leader blamed  EMI’s troubles on its seven-year focus on a merger with Warner Music rather than releasing and supporting top-notch music, EMI has been cut to the bone in staffing. Leadership is an important commodity at a label: Capitol broke Radiohead and Coldplay in the boyband era; it is struggling with Interpol (200,000 in sales from a July release) in an age when everyone is thirsty for great indie rock.
Radiohead’s move is about half as significant as that of Brother Ray and if it becomes a future template for the music business, we will forever wallow in a sea of Pussycat Dolls imitations, novelty rap and variations on whatever last year’s surprise hit might have been. Once a year, we’ll have a Kanye vs. 50 type square off and everyone will lament that they don’t make music like they used to  and long for the days of Blues Traveler and Hootie.
Radiohead's move will be an exception to the rule and labels may grow increasingly reticent to sign bands looking forward to the day they become free agents.
The windows for bands like Radiohead to get signed and receive support while they develop seem to close at every turn. Rap, R&B, country — the acts that get signed in those genres are the ones that look ready to make hits, not someone who is three albums and five years away from a hit.
During rock’s album heyday — “Highway 61 Revisited” through “OK Computer” — labels had two agendas: Create catalog titles and create stars. As it shifts back to a song-driven business, as it was from 1900s to the late ‘50s, there is little motivation for labels to attempt to develop an act like Radiohead from the ground up. It used to be a Warner Music specialty; now it has been virtually abandoned at the music group.
Countless acts have experimented in the way Radiohead is now – expecially with live albums. But having to watch over the business and finance a recording can be a burdensome task. They eventually return to the label old even if it means the indie route.
Nearly four  years ago, Peter Gabriel and Brian Eno announced the creation of  Magnificent Union of Digitally Downloading Artists at the Midem conference in Cannes.
"Unless artists quickly grasp the possibilities that are available to them, then the rules will get written, and they'll get written without much input from artists," Eno said at the time.
What Gabriel and Eno envisioned was star artists stepping out of the album format and releasing EPs, demos, single songs, even sketches of songs. At the time they said this was not an alternative to label deals, just a way for musicians to take control and release music they way they see fit.
But it is obviously easier said than done: We’re still waiting for Gabriel and Eno to take advantage of digital possibilities — beyond quietly using their own websites. Radiohead will get the nod as the innovator.

Forty years ago, before anyone was thrilled/appalled by "Cats," a 19-year-old Betty Buckley
went into a Ft. Worth, Texas, studio with, of all people, T Bone Burnett as her engineer. The album, recorded two years before she made her Broadway debut in "1776," was never released.
Sony BMG’s Playbill Records has signed Buckley and will make her debut recording - the one she made four decades ago - available starting Oct. 16. Album, which features “Bye, Bye Birdie’s” “One Boy,” “They Can’t Take That Away From Me,” “Call Me” and the divine “Where is Love?” from "Oliver," will be pressed on limited-edition vinyl LPs and offered at Playbill's website.
A new Buckley recording, “Quintessence,” will feature the singer with a quintet led by pianist Kenny Werner. Among the tunes are “Amelia,” “I've Grown Accustomed to His Face,” “Cry Me a River,’ “No One Is Alone” and “So Many Stars.”
Buckley, whose first released album was 1993's "Children Will Listen," made her  will make her debut at New York’s Town Hall on Oct. 20.

Shelby Lynne has posted tracks from her album of Dusty Springfield material, "Just A Little Lovin'," which Lost Highway will release on Feb. 5.
Lynne will be making club appearances this month and next, beginning with a gig at the Ivar in L.A. on Oct. 30.

Elvis Presley's guitarist Scooty Moore is out to take his name off the list of musicians with only one solo album.
Moore has created an album of blues standards titled "Scotty Moore Presents The Mighty Handful, Volume I" that is currently being sold through CDbaby and scottymoore.net. Volume II will be released next year.
Moore performs with Billy Swan ("I Can Help") on vocals, Bob Moore on bass, Buddy Spicher on fiddle,
Bucky Barrett on guitar, Steve Shepherd on keyboards, Fred Satterfield
on drums and Boots Randolph on the sax.
Moore's first solo album, "The Guitar That Changed the World," was released by Epic in 1964. (Moore and Randolph appear on that album, too).
It took 33 years for Moore to follow up that disc and even then he went about it as a joint operation with Presley drummer D.J. Fontana. ("All the King's Men" was released in 1997).

Mick Jagger will appear on Tuesday's "Today" show to talk about "Too Many Cooks (Spoil The Soup)," a previously unreleased collaboration with John Lennon.
It was during Lennon's "Lost Weekend" period and he and Jagger were hanging out, getting stoned and jamming with other musicians on blues changes.
"Nothing would really come out of it," Mick tells Matt about the sessions.
Then John pulls out the tune.
"We were very happy to have something to focus on.  And then we all learned it very, very quickly.  And John was so impressed we all could learn it. And I always thought when I went back to these sessions that John was playing guitar on this.  But  the engineer said 'He wasn't playing guitar.  He was producing.'"
Track is on "The Very Best of Mick Jagger" (Atlantic/Rhino), which  will be released Tuesday.

Evan and Jaron are now billed as a pop/rock duo but back when they were one-hit wonders they capitalized on an odd Jewish, teen brothers heart-throb vibe, augmented by the then-impressive fact that they appeared  to be in charge of their music.
On Sunday, they will begin the musical equivalent of Suzan Lori-Parks' theatrical bonanza "365 Plays/365 Days," releasing a new song every Sunday for a year via their SNOCAP MyStore.
Tracks will be available here and their own website.
A tune described as "an up-tempo rocker," "You Put Your Beautiful in Me," is their first release.
SNOCAP MyStores allow artists sell content directly from any site that allows html embedding.

L7 leader Donita Sparks started her first solo tour last week, opening for the Donnas. Five week national tour will be followed by solo dates in Brazil and more U.S. dates at the end of the year.
Sparks will be releasing her first solo album, "Transmiticate," on Jan. 22. Her band, the Stellar Moments, includes former L7 drummer Lady Dee Plakas.

9/24    Avalon Theater, Salt Lake City, UT
9/25    Marquis Theater, Denver, CO
9/27    Sokol Underground, Omaha, NE
9/28    Varsity Theater, Minneapolis, MN
9/29    Double Door, Chicago, IL
9/30     Beachland Ballroom, Cleveland, OH
10/2    The Basement, Columbus, OH
10/3    The Mod Club,  Toronto, ON CANADA
10/5    Tralf Music Hall, Buffalo, NY
10/6    The Ottobar, Baltimore, MD
10/7    Paradise Rock Club, Boston, MA
10/8    World Café Live, Philadelphia, PA
10/10    Highline Ballroom, New York, NY
10/12    Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro, NC
10/13    The Earl, Atlanta, GA
10/14    The Bottle Tree, Birmingham, AL
10/16    House of Blues, Dallas, TX
10/17    The Meridian, Houston, TX
10/18    The Parish, Austin, TX
10/20    The Brickhouse, Phoenix, AZ
10/27    The Roxy, Los Angeles, CA

Sparks will alos perform with Social Distortion at the L.A. House of Blues on Dec.23.

Collectors’ Choice has ventured into the vaults of the underrecognized heart and soul of the Byrds and a founder of country rock, Gene Clark. Label will release on Oct. 30, a collection of ‘80s and ‘90s recordings titled "Gene Clark With Carla Olson: In Concert."
The first disc in the two-disc package contains seven unreleased tracks from a Clark solo concert recorded for the public radio show "Mountain Stage" and three live tracks from Clark and Carla Olson’s studio album, "So Rebellious a Lover," recorded in Los Angeles and issued in 1986 on Rhino Records.
Second disc the entire Clark and Olson Feb. 3, 1990 performance at McCabe’s Guitar Shop in Santa Monica. It was released overseas on Demon but never in the U.S. Clark and Olson were backed by Duane Jarvis on guitar and David Provost on bass.
Many of the McCabe’s songs were intended for a follow-up studio album that was never to be. Clark and Olson would appear together at the Palomino in North Hollywood, and at the Cinegrill in Hollywood a month before his death in 1991.
As solo artist, Clark created one of the greatest SoCal singer-songwriter albums ever, "White Light."

Cabler CMT will devote six straight hours Thursday to Carrie Underwood’s first video, for the single "So Small," from her second album, "Carnival Ride." “Carrie Music Television” debuts at 6 a.m. The iTunes Store will simultaneously offer the video for sale.
CMT proudly says this is its first ever stunt like this. Network figures it will run the video 66 times within the six-hour span.  (Isn't that 66/6? Is Carrie doing the devil's music here?)
Video was directed by the man who helmed “Before He Cheats,” Roman White. "So Small" is the No. 1 tune at country radio.
19 Recordings/Arista Nashville will release "Carnival Ride" on  Oct. 23. 

Stevie Wonder is predicting a January release date for his next album, "The Gospel Inspired by Lula," which he says will include various languages and exotic instruments.

A little more than three years ago, a publicist called to say Aretha Franklin wanted to be interviewed by me (I think they meant Variety but were trying to make me feel good about it) before her first L.A. show in 21 years.
It didn't matter that Variety didn't do profiles or concert previews or that Aretha's biographer David Ritz had told me that she is not very forthcoming. I figured, how often do I get a chance to speak with Aretha Franklin, the single greatest female voice of the rock 'n' roll era?
Now, of course, since this is Aretha and she obviously plans her life out months in advance - the reason for not playing L.A. for so long was because of the drive - there was only one 20 minute slot that she would have available. That day, however, was not a good one: I would be in New York on a trip to a half-dozen baseball stadiums with my daughter (her brilliant idea, not mine) and who knew if I would be in a position to do the interview.
A week or two passes and no confirmation call or email arrives. Nothing. Far as I'm concerned it isn't happening, which meant time for quick nap before that evening's Mets-Astros game.
Phone rings. At the appointed time. It's Miss Franklin. She's an absolute delight and as long as the conversation stays on upbeat and positive topics, she willingly talks up a storm. Just don't try to talk about anything that might force her into having a cross word about someone.
Interview produced two news tidbits: She was forming her own label and she was doing a duets album. When she said "next" album, I thought she meant Christmas. As in 2004.
Well, lo and behold, the album exists, it has a title and a release date.
"Jewels in the Crown: All-Star Duets With the Queen" will be released Nov. 13 on Arista Records.
The lead single is “Put You Up On Game” with Fantasia, which is being released to radio on Oct. 1.
Franklin duets with Whitney Houston (“It Isn't, It Wasn't, It Ain't Never Gonna Be”), John Legend (“What Y’All Came To Do”), Luther Vandross (“Doctor’s Orders”), Annie Lennox (“Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves”), Keith Richards (“Jumping Jack Flash”), Elton John (“Through The Storm”) Frank Sinatra (“What Now My Love”), George Michael (“I Knew You Were Waiting”), Michael McDonald (“Ever Changing Times”), George Benson (“Love All The Hurt Away”), Mary J. Blige (“Don’t Waste My Time,”“Never Gonna Break My Faith”), Bonnie Raitt and Gloria Estefan (“A Natural Woman") and Mariah Carey (“Chain Of Fools”). 
Album also features her performance of Puccini's “Nessum Dorma.”

In addition to longtime collaborator Kerry “Krucial” Brothers, Alicia Keys works with songwriters Linda Perry, John Mayer, Harold Lilly and Sean Garrett plus producers Mark Batson, Dirty Harry, Swizz Beatz and Jack Splash on her next album "As I Am."
Keys appears tonight on CBS’s "Fashion Rocks," performing the new tune “The Thing About Love” and dueting with Carlos Santana on  “Black Magic Woman.” Keys performs her single “No One” on Sunday's  MTV Video Music Awards.
Album is set for release on Nov. 13 on J Records