JONATHA BROOKE CO-WRITES AND SINGS ON NEW KINGZ SINGLE:

One of my all-time favourite singer/songwriters Jonatha Brooke is featured vocalist on British MC/producer Kingz new song "Here We Go". The song is supposed to be up on iTunes very soon, you can hear it via YouTube below. It appears that Jonatha co-wrote the song with Kingz and I have to say I really like it a lot.

GAIL ANN DORSEY TO PLAY IN JONATHA BROOKE'S BAND:













Photo Courtesy Jonatha Brooke

The amazing Gail Ann Dorsey (solo, David Bowie, Tears For Fears) is currently rehearsing with Jonatha Brooke for her upcoming European tour dates in February. Jonatha blogged about it and included the picture above of her band. I hope Gail also plays some North American dates with Jonatha, would definitely be worth a trip to see them on stage together.

European Dates:

Brewery Arts - Kendal, UK
02/17/2010, 8: 00 PM

St. Bonaventure's - Bristol, UK
02/18/2010, 7:30 PM

Bush Hall - London, UK
02/19/2010, 7:30 PM

Band on the Wall - Manchester, UK
02/20/2010, 7:30 PM

The Stables - Milton Keynes, UK
02/21/2010, 8:00 PM

Musik og Teaterhojskolen - Toftland, Denmark
02/24/2010, 8:00 PM

Train - Aarhus, Denmark
02/25/2010, 8: 00 PM

Jazzhus Dexter - Odense, Denmark
02/26/2010, 8:00 PM

Lille Vega - Copenhagen, Denmark
02/27/2010, 9:00 PM
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TEITUR AND JONATHA BROOKE WORK ON NEW NOLWENN LEROY ALBUM:

After reading Jonatha Brooke's recent journal entry I am eager to hear the third album by French singer Nolwenn Leroy. According to Nolwenn's website it is due for release on December 7th, not sure what countries it will be out in. She has been working with Teitur and Jonatha Brooke (two of my all-time favourite singer/songwriters) as well as producer extraordinaire Rupert Hine. Jonatha was over in Sweden recently working on the record, below is a photo of Jonatha with Teitur and Nolwenn from Jonatha's journal. I had hoped to travel from New Brunswick to Maine this weekend to see Jonatha Brooke in concert but was unable.


Photo Credit: Jonatha Brooke






























Speaking of Teitur he is releasing a best of collection on October 5th in the U.K. titled "All My Mistakes" (order here, reviewed here) with tracks from his previous albums, and has made a video for the song 'Hurricane' that you can watch here. Another interesting article on Teitur at 'The Quietus' website .

NEW IMOGEN HEAP - "SONGS FOR TIBET" CD AVAILABLE ON iTUNES:














The new 2 cd set "Songs For Tibet - The Art Of Peace" is now available for download on iTunes. I've just bought the Imogen Heap reworking of her song "Hide And Seek" titled "Hide & Seek 2" and it is a nice new version of the song. She talks about it in her most recent vblog. The album also contains a new Jonatha Brooke track from her forthcoming album "The Works" titled "Madonna On The Curb", this version is called the 'Peace Mix', not sure how it differs from the album version. The cd contains a variety of songs from some big names in the music industry, see the track listing below (I hope to buy the actual physical cd set once it is released). Congratulations to legendary producer Rupert Hine for putting this all together for such a good cause, check the foundation's website for more details.

Disc: 1
1. Hide & Seek 2 (Imogen Heap)
2. Send Your Love - Art of Peace Remix (Sting)
3. Versions of Violence - Recorded in dressing room in Cologne, Germany (Alanis Morissette)
4. Belief (John Mayer)
5. Better (Regina Spektor)
6. We Are All Made of Stars - 2008 (Moby)
7. Making Noise (Damien Rice & The Cheshire Project)
8. More Than This - Campfire Take (Vanessa Carlton)
9. Nothing Fades- Kosen Rufu Version (Duncan Sheik)
10. Where Are You Going - Live in Barcelona (Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds)

Disc: 2
1. Song Of Sand - Great City Version (Suzanne Vega)
2. All The Good In This Life (Garbage)
3. Hope - Live for The Art of Peace (Rush)
4. Madonna On The Curb - Peace Mix (Jonatha Brooke)
5. In These Times - the Concord Mix (Joan Armatrading)
6. All My Mistakes - Featuring Tarira (Teitur )
7. Alive In The World (Jackson Browne)
8. Better Way - Live in Six Fours les Plage (Ben Harper)
9. The Heart Of The Matter Underlying Mix (Rupert Hine)
10. To Heal - and Restore Broken Bodies (Underworld)
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VARIOUS BITS AND PIECES:

Darren Hayes is about to release his new live concert DVD 'The Time Machine Tour" next week, and Amazon has it right now with a pre-order price of $10.99 so if you were thinking of purchasing the DVD order now while that price is still valid. It sounds like it was an amazing concert so I look forward to checking it out (since he didn't bring this show to North America). He is selling an expensive limited edition version of the DVD at his website if you feel like spending a lot more of your hard earned cash. I reviewed his Toronto gig back in June of 2007 here.



Fave Jonatha Brooke is set to release her new cd "The Works" on August 26th, 2008 and you can pre-order it at her website now. This is Jonatha's new album using Woody Guthrie's unpublished lyrics from his archives.
Jonatha also has some new concert dates coming up this October, November & December, some are a double bill with Glen Phillips formerly of Toad The Wet Sprocket fame who does a duet with her on the new album.

Jonatha has also been working on writing new songs with Nolwenn Leroy, the French winner of "Star Academie" with Rupert Hine producing (who's Tamboo website seems to be no longer), looking forward to hearing the results of those collaborations.












Track listing for "The Works":
1. My Sweet and Bitter Bowl
2. You'd Oughta Be Satisfied Now
3. All You Gotta Do Is Touch Me (with Keb Mo')
4. My Flowers Grow Green
5. Madonna On The Curb
6. There's More True Lovers Than One (with Eric Bazilian)
7. Sweetest Angel (with Glen Phillips)
8. My Battle
9. Little Bird (lyric by Jonatha Brooke)
10. Taste of Danger (lyric by Jonatha Brooke)
11. New Star (with Derek Trucks)
12. King of My Heart

Imogen Heap has a new video blog up on You Tube (#26), she mentions the song titles she's already planning to put on her follow up to "Speak For Yourself". She also plays a snippet of the song "First Train Home" and talks about changing it because as many people pointed out to her the chorus was very like the Donna Lewis song "I Love You Always Forever". If her webmaster could only get around to changing the audio player from saying "forthcoming album" when it plays tracks from SFY, the album has been out for over three years now.

One half of Tears For Fears, Curt Smith has recently released his latest solo offering titled "Halfway Pleased", ordering information at his website.

Rumour is that Green Gartside is currently working on a follow up to his Scritti Politti cd "White Bread Black Beer", no word if this involves former bandmates David Gamson and Fred Maher

Canadian 80's new wave rocker's Blue Peter are scheduled to play at The Blue Olive in Saint John New Brunswick at the "Pop Goes The City" festival on August 23 or 24, check their website for confirmation of the dates.

The new Antigone single "More Man Than Man" (produced by Justin Shave who produced Darren Hayes last cd) is a decent pop/dance song, not sure if it is worthy of all the blog hype it has been getting but enjoyable none the less.

Nick over at #1 Hits From Another Planet has a post with an interesting electro-pop song called "By The Way" by a Swedish band called "Kitty & The K" definitely worth downloading.
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