Keith Urban To Tour Behind New Album

Keith Urban will tour North America next spring in support of his as-yet-untitled new album, due March 31 from Capitol Nashville. Dates are not confirmed, but the trek is expected to begin in May and run through the summer.

Sugarland, Taylor Swift, Dierks Bentley, Glen Campbell, Lady Antebellum and the Zac Brown Band will support on various dates. Tickets will go on sale early next year.

Urban’s new single, “Sweet Thing,” has sold more than 64,000 downloads in its first two weeks of release, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The track recently scored Urban his first top 50 debut on the Hot 100 at No. 43.

Kidz In The Hall feat Estelle - Love Hangover

Sick Track! 9/10

Click below to listen (not the original video)

Q-Tip - Move

Looks like it’s Q-Tip’s second try at a decent single off his comeback album. He’s back to original style and has a decent track here. Although Q-Tip was underrated in his day, I don’t see this track doing well on the radio, however should do well underground. I still like it. 7/10

Click below to listen (not the original video)

Slim feat Ryan Leslie & Fabolous - Good Lovin

Slim is one of the guy’s from 112, and he’s got a decent single here. 7/10

Click below to listen (not the original video)

Slique - Your Body

Not really my style. Too slow R&B for me, but maybe you’ll dig it. N/A

Sorry no video / preview on YouTube.

Eric Durrance - Angels Fly Away

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Eric Durrance - Angels Fly Away

“The solo debut from this former lead singer of contemporary Christian act Big Dismal is the tale of two producers. There’s a distinct difference between the tracks produced by Mark Bright (smooth and polished) and Teddy Gentry (raw and ragged). Both approaches work, but there’s a freshness to Gentry’s hand on the controls and it’s in those moments that Durrance comes across as an original. Gentry-produced songs like “This Side of Sober” and “Wait Till I Get There,” about the impending death of a loved one, will hit home with the country audience. The driving “Turn It Off” decries today’s instant-communication era, and “Someone I Can’t Live Without” features a relatable lyric surrounded by production that echoes the best of the Eagles and John Mellencamp. —Ken Tucker”

Jeremy Camp - Speaking Louder Than Before

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Jeremy Camp - Speaking Louder Than Before

“In six short years, Camp has earned three gold albums and five Dove Awards, becoming one of the industry’s most respected talents. He once again proves why on this latest disc. Working for the first time with Brown Bannister, Camp has never sounded more passionate. His vocal texture and intensity drive high-energy tracks like “Slow Down Time,” which combines rock and reverence in equal measure. Already a hit at Christian radio, first single “There Will Be a Day” is a gorgeous ballad with a poignant, hopeful lyric about better times to come. More riveting is the simple, eloquent closer “Surrender,” exemplifying Camp’s multiple talents. He’s barely 30, and this is his best work yet. —Deborah Evans Price”

Keri Hilson feat Lil Wayne - Turning Me On

Lovin the beat, and the song is decent. For a guy who doesn’t usually like Lil Wayne, he’s fantastic on this. I can see this doing well. 7/10

Click below to listen (not the original video)

More on The Grammy Nominations

Already on track to have the best-selling album of 2008, rapper Lil Wayne leads the nominations for the 51st Annual Grammy Awards with eight, including album of the year and best rap album for “Tha Carter III,” best rap song for “Lollipop” and best rap/sung collaboration for “Got Money” featuring T-Pain.

Other leading artists are Coldplay, who earned seven nominations, and Jay-Z, Ne-Yo and Kane West, who each scored six.

In album of the year, the nominees were: Coldplay for “Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends,” Lil Wayne for “Tha Carter III,” Ne-Yo for “Year of the Gentlemen,” Robert Plant and Alison Krauss for “Raising Sand” and Radiohead for “In Rainbows.”

For record of the year, the nominees were: Adele for “Chasing Pavements,” Coldplay for “Viva La Vida,” Leona Lewis for “Bleeding Love,” M.I.A. for “Paper Planes” and Plant & Krauss for “Please Read the Letter.”

Song of the year nominees include: “American Boy,” by songwriters William Adams, Keith Harris, Josh Lopez, Caleb Speir, John Stephens, Estelle Swaray and Kanye West; “Chasing Pavements” by songwriters Adele Adkins and Eg White; “I’m Yours” by Jason Mraz; “Love Song” by Sara Bareilles; and “Viva La Vida” by songwriters Guy Berryman, Jonny Buckland, Will Champion and Chris Martin.

Two of West’s nominations came for his production on “Tha Carter III” and “American Boy.” He is also up against himself in the best rap performance by a duo or group category, for “Swagga Like Us” with Jay-Z & T.I. and featuring Lil Wayne and “Put On” with Young Jeezy. Jay-Z also faces off against himself in that category, with “Swagga” going up against his collaboration with Wayne on “Mr. Carter.”

In the best new artist category, Adele, Duffy, the Jonas Brothers, Lady Antebellum and Jazmine Sullivan received nominations.

In the best pop collaboration category with vocals, the nominees were: Alicia Keys and John Mayer for “Lessons Learned,” Madonna, Justin Timberlake and Timbaland for “4 Minutes,” Plant and Krauss for “Rich Woman,” Rihanna and Maroon 5 for “If I Never See Your Face Again” and Jordin Sparks and Chris Brown for “No Air.”

Brooks & Dunn’s “God Must Be Busy,” Lady Antebellum’s “Love Don’t Live Here,” Rascal Flatts’ “Everyday,” the SteelDrivers’ “Blue Side of the Mountain” and Sugarland’s “Stay” are up for best country performance by a duo or group with vocals.

Danger Mouse, Nigel Godrich, Johnny Karkazis, Rick Rubin, and will.i.am are nominated for producer of the year, non-classical.

For the first time this year, the Recording Academy unveiled nominations in the top categories via a primetime concert special on CBS. Co-hosted by Taylor Swift and LL Cool J from the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, it featured performances by Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, Mayer and B.B. King and the Foo Fighters, all singing their favorite songs that have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Proceeds will benefit the Grammy Museum, which opens Dec. 6 at the L.A. Live complex in downtown Los Angeles.

Grammy ballots will be mailed Dec. 17; they are due back on Jan. 14, 2009. The 51st Annual Grammy Awards will be held Feb. 8, 2009 at Staples Center in Los Angeles and again broadcast on CBS.

Grammy Nominations: 10 Things You Didn’t See On TV

** Overheard in the bathroom: “Green tea drop to Christina Aguilera has been done” (security guard). “We’re missing Dad!” (a Jonas Brother outside the bathroom).

** Kathy Griffin revealed that, like the Jonas Brothers, “I am not ready to lose my virginity. I am looking for the right girl, just like them.” Griffin, who was wearing Dave Grohl’s sweatband around her wrist, got a Grammy nomination for Best Comedy Album with “For Your Consideration” — a set she specifically recorded and released to GET a nomination.

** Does anyone care about the Grammys anymore? Not surprisingly, five-time winner John Mayer does. “I’d be worried without the Grammys because without the Grammys, there’s no other true way to gauge merit,” he said.

** “Wayne’s World” actress/babe Tia Carrere got a Grammy nomination for Best
Hawaiian Music Album.

** The Foo Fighters got a standing ovation for their performance of Carly Simon’s “You’re So Vain,” but the night’s best-received performance by those in attendance at Nokia Theater was Mayer’s and B.B. King’s. An emotional King said backstage of Barack Obama’s election, “I never thought I’d live long enough to see a black President-elect in my lifetime. But I believed all my life that someday, like Dr. King once said, that people would be thought of and loved for what they did and not their color. America has grown up. Not enough yet, but America has grown up.”

King said he’d been invited to the White House by every President since Gerald Ford. With Obama in the White House, “should I be invited, I’d take a plane in a hurry.”

** Seconding that notion, Ne-Yo’s favorite thing that happened this year, besides being nominated for six Grammys? “I think Barack Obama becoming President.”

** The beans were spilled on several nominations hours before the show. TV monitors in the print press room, which allow reporters to watch the nominations ceremony, showed a run-through of nominees’ album covers being flashed up on a screen inside the hall — albeit not in the proper categories.

** Lindsey Buckingham on the upcoming Fleetwood Mac tour, which kicks off Mar. 1 in Pittsburgh: “If I knew what to expect, I would tell you. It’s been a little convoluted emotionally. We have some work to do.” Only 16 dates have been announced so far, but Buckingham said there would be about 40 in the U.S. As to who might put out a Fleetwood Mac album after the tour, Buckingham said nothing was set in stone, but that “we have a strong relationship with Warner Bros.”

** iTunes will release a compilation of songs by independent artists Dec. 15 that will be free to the first 150,000 customers, according to ex-OneRepublic member Tim Myers, who says he has a song on the comp. The singer/songwriter is working on a solo album for release in April. “I would love to do it indie. I love being in control of my own music,” says Myers, who has already had songs licensed for Target, Saturn and Google Chrome ads, as well as for the DreamWorks/Nickelodeon movie “Hotel for Dogs.”

** On announcing the Grammy nominations in a televised concert, Recording Academy chairman Neil Portnow called the untested idea “the Wild Wild West,” but one that could give the music business a badly needed boost in the fourth quarter. “I think it’s very important to always try to raise the bar of what you’re doing.” And unlike the Oscar or the Emmy nominations, “we have the unique ability to make a concert out of it.”

Is he looking for a certain ratings share to judge the night’s success, given the disappointing ratings of the Grammys’ 50th anniversary awards last year? “I don’t view this as an evaluation that could be simply codified by ratings numbers,” says Portnow, attributing poor ratings last year to lowered TV viewership overall because of the writers’ strike.

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