Etheridge Energized On 'Greatest Hits'
Led by her newly recorded cover of Tom Petty's "Refugee," Melissa Etheridge will on Oct. 4 release the retrospective "Greatest Hits: The Road Less Traveled." The Island collection will also include the new tracks "I Run for Life," "Christmas in America" and "This Is Not Goodbye," plus a cover of Janis Joplin's "Piece of My Heart."
"The Road Less Traveled" will be available with a bonus DVD featuring interviews with Etheridge about her battle with breast cancer and the inspirations behind such hits as "Come To My Window," "I Want To Come Over" and "I'm the Only One." Also included are a handful of music videos and live performances, a trivia game and song lyrics in the artist's handwriting.
Etheridge is expected to make a street date appearance on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," as well as visits to "Dateline NBC," "Good Morning America" and "The Late Show With David Letterman" on dates to be announced.
Meanwhile, Etheridge has signed on to host and perform at Lifetime's annual "WomenRock!" concert, which will be taped Sept. 29 at Los Angeles' Wilshire Ebell Theatre. Additional performers will join the artist for the show, which will debut Oct. 18.
Here is the track list for "The Road Less Traveled":
"Refugee"
"Similar Features"
"Like the Way I Do"
"Bring Me Some Water"
"You Can Sleep While I Drive"
"No Souvenirs"
"Ain't It Heavy"
"I'm the Only One"
"Come To My Window"
"If I Wanted To"
"I Want To Come Over"
"Angels Would Fall"
"Lucky"
"Breathe"
"Christmas in America"
"Piece of My Heart"
"This Is Not Goodbye"
"I Run for Life"
Fogerty Returns To Fantasy
Although his bitter legal battles with Fantasy Records are the stuff of music business legend, John Fogerty has signed a new deal with the label. Fantasy, which issued the entire recorded output of the Fogerty-led Creedence Clearwater Revival in the late 1960s and early '70s, was purchased in November 2004 by the Concord Music Group.
In celebration of the reunion, Fantasy will on Nov. 1 issue the first Fogerty career retrospective, "The Long Road Home." A live DVD, to be recorded Thursday (Sept. 15) at Los Angeles' Wiltern Theater, will be released early next year. A new solo studio album and other projects are also in development.
"I'm very happy to be back in touch with a part of myself," Fogerty says. "It's surreal. For 35 years, I never thought I'd be reunited with the music I wrote during the Creedence Clearwater Revival years... I'm happy to say that the new Fantasy is very enthusiastic about my body of work. All the people there have been delightful. They are honoring my songs that hold an important place in the history of American music. And, they are honoring me."
After CCR split in 1972, Fogerty released one solo album for Fantasy, a self-titled 1973 set of covers under the name the Blue Ridge Rangers on which he played all of the instruments. He issued one album on Asylum, 1975's "John Fogerty," before a nine-year studio lapse while legal disputes with Fantasy played out. He returned in 1985 with "Centerfield" on Warner Bros., and last year inked with Geffen for "Déjà Vu All Over Again.”
Throughout his solo career, Fogerty not only battled Fantasy, but also his former CCR bandmates Stu Cook (bass) and Doug Clifford (drums) to prevent them from using the band's name. The pair adopted the moniker Creedence Clearwater Revisited in the mid-'90s for their nostalgia act, which also included former Cars guitarist Elliot Easton and singer John Tristano. (Tom Fogerty, John's older brother and CCR co-founder, left the band in 1971 and died in 1990.)
Featuring 25 tracks, "The Long Road Home" will mix CCR classics with solo material, including live renditions of "Hey Tonight," "Bootleg," "Keep on Chooglin'" and "Fortunate Son" recorded while on tour earlier this year.
"I've always wanted to create a greatest hits collection that represented my entire career, but it was always painfully impossible to do so," Fogerty says. "Now I can combine the Creedence songs, all of which I wrote, with my solo material. It's great that I can finally document the various changes I've gone through musically over the years without having to follow any artificial lines."
Fogerty only recently began performing CCR songs again. During last year's pre-election Vote for Change tour, he played several each night, backed by Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band.
The artist has been on the road this summer with John Mellencamp, with shows remaining tonight (Sept. 9) in Dallas, tomorrow in Woodlands, Texas, and Monday in Bonner Springs, Kan.
Here is "The Long Road Home" track list:
"Born on the Bayou"
"Bad Moon Rising"
"Centerfield"
"Who'll Stop the Rain"
"Rambunctious Boy"
"Fortunate Son"
"Lookin' Out My Back Door"
"Up Around the Bend"
"Almost Saturday Night" (live)
"Down on the Corner"
"Bootleg" (live)"Have You Ever Seen the Rain?"
"Sweet Hitch-Hiker"
"Hey Tonight" (live)
"The Old Man Down the Road"
"Rockin' All Over the World" (live)
"Lodi"
"Keep On Chooglin'" (live)
"Green River"
"Deja Vu (All Over Again)"
"Run Through the Jungle"
"Hot Rod Heart"
"Travelin' Band"
"Proud Mary"
"Fortunate Son" (live)
Newman Sings 'Louisiana 1927' at Benefit
NEW YORK - With the flood waters of Katrina yet to recede, Randy Newman sang about a long-ago hurricane in "Louisiana 1927" to open a benefit program spread across dozens of television networks Friday.
Dr. John ended a show suffused with the spirit of a musical city singing a song that's only a wish now: "Walkin' to New Orleans."
The hour-long appeal was an echo of a somber event held four years ago to benefit victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack, with the same producer. This time, the telethon had more determination than shock and featured native jazz, gospel and swamp-rock sounds.
"Tonight let's show people on the Gulf Coast that they have friends all over the world, friends who care, who understand and are there to give them shelter from the storm," said comic Ellen DeGeneres, who was raised in New Orleans.
ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, UPN and the WB — the six biggest broadcast networks — aired it along with several cable networks. Viewers in nearly 100 countries were able to tune in.
Contributions were being solicited for the American Red Cross or the Salvation Army.
It's the most high-profile of several such televised benefits. BET was also appealing for help Friday for victims of a tragedy that struck the black community hard, and MTV planned its own concert for Saturday.
NBC stations televised an appeal last week, marked by rapper Kanye West's off-script comment that " George Bush doesn't care about black people."
The performers largely stuck to scripts Friday, including West, who sang "Jesus Walks" with a gospel choir. West's microphone wasn't working during the first few lines of his song, though, in what appeared to be a technical glitch.
Only an impish Chris Rock couldn't resist scaring producers, looking into the camera and saying, "George Bush hates midgets."
"We've all heard the question," Rock said. "Why didn't these people just leave when they had the chance? But now we realize that not everybody can just jump into their SUVs and drive to a nice hotel. These people depend on public transportation and these people can't afford a nice hotel, because some of them work there. Now it's your chance to help them."
Rock singer John Fogerty, who sang passionately about the Mississippi delta a generation ago, wasn't there but his music was: the Foo Fighters sang "Born on the Bayou" and Garth Brooks did "Who'll Stop the Rain."
Paul Simon, who was in Louisiana to help relief efforts this week, sang "Take Me to the Mardi Gras" with an extended coda from a jazz band.
Mariah Carey and Neil Young were also backed by gospel singers and Alicia Keys was joined by several gospel stars. U2 needed only one powerful voice, singer Mary J. Blige's, to enliven the rock band's anthem "One."
The BET benefit was hipper and more heart-breaking. It interspersed musical performances with film clips of Gulf Coast residents asking for help to locate missing relatives and friends.
Keys sang her hit "If I Ain't Got You," and Patti LaBelle sang the Pretenders song "I'll Stand By You."
It was also a little looser: Comic Steve Harvey introduced rappers Jay-Z and Diddy, only to be told they hadn't arrived yet. Fifteen minutes later they did and made it worthwhile, presenting a $1 million check to the Red Cross from the New York hip-hop community.
"There's been a lot of telethons," Diddy said, "but this is our telethon. These are our people."
Yearwood's Return As Gentle As 'Rain'
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A quick reality check for Trisha Yearwood's old boyfriends back in Jasper County, Ga.: Her touching new single "Georgia Rain"? It's not about you.
"There may be one or two who think it's about them," Yearwood laughs during a recent interview, "but it's not. It's not about anything I've been through."
It's easy to read too much into Yearwood's music. She doesn't write her own songs, but she's one of the best in Nashville at taking a tune and making it sound intensely personal.
With her recent engagement to superstar Garth Brooks, it seems natural to search for clues about her personal life on "Jasper County," her first album in four years.
The Monticello, Ga., native didn't intend to be gone so long. She says she meant to take only a year off, but she wasn't happy with the first batch of songs she recorded when she returned to the studio and decided to start over. Changes at her longtime record label, MCA Nashville, added to her time away, as did her move to Oklahoma to be with Brooks and his three daughters.
When she finally completed "Jasper County," she was careful about the first single.
"I thought 'OK, I've been off the radio for three-and-a-half years — what do I want people to hear first?'" Yearwood says. "I wanted the first thing people to hear to say, 'Oh, that's Trisha,' something that sounded very familiar."
"Georgia Rain" is certainly the kind of song Yearwood built her career on in the '90s — part country and part pop, with rich, emotional lyrics in the vein of one of her musical heroes, Linda Ronstadt.
Like Ronstadt's "Blue Bayou," "Georgia Rain" has an aching vocal, with the first two verses recalling a teen romance so strong that the Georgia rain "couldn't wash away all the love we made."
The third and final verse picks up many years later when the narrator returns to her hometown to find her old flame has made himself "a real good life." In the final chorus she reveals that she still pines for him, singing the Georgia rain couldn't wash away "the way I loved you to this day."
"That song is personal only in that it's about home," Yearwood says. "I really wanted to find a song about Georgia, and I love those great story songs."
Most of album's 10 remaining tracks touch on some aspect of relationship, from anger ("Who Invented the Wheel") to sorrow ("River of You") to bliss ("It's Alright"). Stylistically, there are shades of blues, pop and folk. "River of You" has the feel of an old mountain ballad with its mournful melody and lyrics: "Every tear adds to the water / That I keep swimming in."
For Yearwood, the most unusual song is "Standing Out in a Crowd," a declaration that it's OK to be different, that the things that make us different make us special.
"That's probably the most atypical song I've done," she says. "I don't really do anthem-type songs. ... But that song felt personal to me, especially now that I'm involved with a man with three children. I see on a daily basis how important those things are when you're a kid."
A week shy of her 41st birthday, Yearwood looks much as she did 10 years ago. She wears jeans and a black blouse with a Western floral design around the shoulders and neck. Her frosted hair is pulled back.
She laughs when asked if she and Brooks, one of the most successful recording artists in history, have a wedding date set.
"That's the funniest question people ask. If I had one, I wouldn't tell you," she says coyly.
Brooks, 43, who retired from performing in 2001 to raise his girls, proposed in May. The marriage will be his second and her third.
Yearwood was a demo singer when she sang backup on Brooks' 1989 debut album. She also appeared on his blockbuster follow-up, "No Fences," and the two have since recorded together sporadically.
She seems surprised their engagement drew the attention it did. She recounts her disbelief when friends phoned her to say they saw it on CNN.
"When you're a celebrity on your own there's a certain amount of acknowledgment. When two people who are both famous get together it becomes a bigger thing. It almost becomes bigger than the couple," says Yearwood, who had her first hit in 1991 with "She's In Love With the Boy" and continued a long successful run as a singer and, later, an actress, including a recurring role in the TV military drama "JAG."
But she's adjusting. She says they lead a relatively quiet life in Oklahoma, where Brooks is from, and she knows the limelight could be a lot brighter.
"I look at the things I see all the time on the fronts of the magazines in the grocery line and I think, 'If I'm Jennifer Aniston, I'd move to Australia.'"
Wayne Knight Says Typecast Is His Destiny
LOS ANGELES - It could be, Wayne Knight says, that he was born to play comically evil, pompous villains.
"Most people would say no, but the reality is when you get typecast like that there's got to be some germ of something in there," said the 50-year-old actor, best known for his role as the malevolent mailman Newman on TV's "Seinfeld."
"I think early in my life I may have been more explosive, internally, than I am now," Knight told The Associated Press in a recent interview.
"What happens, I think, is especially for comic effect you find something about yourself that you don't like. You exaggerate it, and it's funny."
He did just that as the traitorous scientist who gets eaten by a dinosaur in "Jurassic Park," as the voice of an unscrupulous businessman in the animated "Toy Story 2" and numerous other roles.
Knight is doing it again in his latest role, as the voice of a pompous, wealthy cat with his own human butler to boss around in the new animated TV show "Catscratch."
"Those characters are like my dark side magnified by a thousand," says Knight, letting loose with a Newman-like laugh. "Now I've mellowed in my older age, but I'm still playing that."
Knight added that he likes going back and forth between on-camera work in shows such as "Seinfeld" and "Third Rock From the Sun" and voice work in cartoons.
"It really is using a different muscle because you throw yourself into it completely," he said of the physical strain of working to achieve just the right vocal cadence for a cartoon character. "It's like doing a very sweaty radio play."
Katrina Benefit Telethon Won't Be Censored
NEW YORK - The producer of Friday's one-hour telethon to benefit Hurricane Katrina victims said no special precautions will be taken to edit out political statements — even though rapper Kanye West is on the bill.
But Joel Gallen, executive producer of "Shelter From the Storm: A Concert for the Gulf Coast," also doesn't expect any problems.
West, on last week's hurricane relief concert shown on NBC, departed from a prepared script to say that " George Bush doesn't care about black people." He's one of a dozen musicians scheduled to perform Friday.
Only a standard five- or seven-second delay will be employed to guard against any obscenities, Gallen said. He said he's spoken to all of the musicians and actors who will be appearing on the show about not detracting from the mission.
"I think people understand that politicizing this will certainly not be a smart thing to do as far as inspiring people to call in and rally around this cause," he said.
Sheryl Crow, the Dixie Chicks, Alicia Keys, Randy Newman, Paul Simon, Rod Stewart and Neil Young are among the other scheduled performers. Jennifer Aniston, Cameron Diaz, Ellen DeGeneres, Jack Nicholson, Chris Rock, Ray Romano and Sela Ward are also scheduled to appear.
The six main broadcast networks — ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, UPN and the WB — will all air the event live at 8 p.m. Eastern. Several cable stations including Bravo, Oxygen, TBS and USA have also cleared time for the commercial-free event.
Viewers will be asked to contribute to the American Red Cross or the Salvation Army.
The benefit concert will also be shown in at least 95 countries.
Gallen was the executive producer of "America: A Tribute to Heroes" shown shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. This year's program will be similar in tone, he said, complete with no introductions of the artists.
"When I did this show four years ago, which was a very intense and emotional experience for me, I felt like that was a once-in-a-lifetime experience — never thinking that four years later I would be asked to put something similar together again," he said.
On cable, BET is holding its own telethon Friday, although it will interrupt it for a simulcast of "Shelter From the Storm." MTV is showing a benefit concert Saturday night.
Sir Paul Turns Pitchman
At the rate he's going, Paul McCartney's fans will definitely still need him when he's 64.
The former Beatle, who turned 63 in June, is showing no signs of slowing down as he prepares to release a new album and supporting tour. He's working on his first children's book. He's among the A-list artists signed on to play MTV's hurricane benefit concert on Friday.
And on Thursday night, he made his debut as pitchman for Fidelity Investments, which is underwriting his tour.
The ad, titled "This Is Paul," aired during the first half of the NFL season opener between the New England Patriots and Oakland Raiders on ABC. The spot "takes viewers on a chronological tour of McCartney's life and notable accomplishments" using archival photos and footage, per a press release.
"I'm really pleased to be working with Fidelity Investments," says McCartney. "We have a lot in common--a commitment to helping people, a dedication to the arts, and a belief that you should never stop doing what you love."
Indeed, McCartney will keep on going through the fall. Next Tuesday, he will release his 20th post-Beatle endeavor, Chaos and Creation in the Backyard. A special edition of the studio set will include a bonus DVD packed with behind-the-scenes footage, as well as performances of new music.
A major sold-out tour in support of Chaos commences Sept. 16 at the American Airlines Arena in Miami. The fall jaunt, McCartney's first in over three years, includes a four-night stand at New York's Madison Square Garden in early October and wraps up with two nights at Los Angeles' Staples Center in November.
McCartney, who was among the headliners of June's Live 8 benefit concert, promises to dig deep into his catalog this time out. The "Silly Love Songs" purveyor will be playing Beatles tunes, Wings material and solo songs, "as well as songs that have yet to be or haven't been performed on American soil in nearly 15 years."
First, though, he will joins the likes of the Rolling Stones, Neil Young and Kanye West on MTV's ReAct Now: Music & Relief special, which airs Saturday at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
Howdy Ho! More "South Park"
Dave Chappelle may have called it quits, but at least Comedy Central's still got South Park.
The network announced Thursday that it had reupped the raunchy 'toon series for three more years, carrying Cartman and the gang though their 12th season on the air.
The new contract calls for 14 new South Park episodes a year through 2008, with creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone continuing to write, direct and edit the show.
"I was at Comedy Central when we launched the first season of South Park, and I am thrilled to see them continue through 2008," Comedy Central President Doug Herzog said in a statement. "Matt and Trey are creative geniuses and a huge part of the Comedy Central family, and we look forward to continued success."
Renewing the show was something of a no-brainer, seeing as the antics of foulmouthed foursome Cartman, Kenny, Kyle and Stan consistently pull in the network's highest ratings.
Since its inception in 1997, South Park has made a habit out of pushing the envelope on conventional limits, perhaps most notably with its season-five premiere in which the unbleeped S-word was uttered 162 times.
However, respite for the squeamish cartoon viewer is in sight, as a kinder, gentler version of the show is headed for non-cable airwaves in the near future. The series has been approved for syndication in markets including Los Angeles, New York and Chicago and cleaned-up episodes begin airing Sept. 19.
For those who prefer South Park in all its crass glory, the latest season of the show kicks off on Comedy Central on Oct. 19.
'The Outsiders' Cast 20 Years Later
The cast of "The Outsiders" was a rare assemblage of young, upcoming talent — in Matt Dillon's words, "everyone wanted to be cast in it."
The casting, led by Francis Ford Coppola and producer Fred Roos, was untraditional — an all-day affair on a sound stage with actors being rotated to read together. Ralph Macchio says the unusual experience is "now infamous," while C. Thomas Howell remembers it as "one of the most grueling processes that I've gone through as an actor."
More than 20 years later, the film's cast — most of whom weren't well known at the time — reads half '80s nostalgia, half contemporary A-list.
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C. Thomas Howell: Ponyboy Curtis, the lead in this ensemble cast, was Howell's breakout role. On "The Outsiders" DVD, Howell says, "I feel like I really owe my career to that project." He would go on to star in many of the movies likely to be mocked on a VH1 special, including, "Red Dawn," "Soul Man" and "Side Out."
Now living with his wife and three children in California, he has kept busy mostly with TV movies. During a reunion shown on the DVD, Coppola makes a disparaging remark toward "movies of the week," which Howell, now 40, defends: "Someone's got to do them."
Ralph Macchio: A year after "The Outsiders," Macchio would star in his career-making movie, "The Karate Kid." Since that trilogy, Macchio, now 43, has never managed to grow beyond Mr. Miyagi's tutelage, but did have a nice role in 1993's "My Cousin Vinny" as one of the "utes" falsely accused of murder. He also made a cameo as himself earlier this year on HBO's "Entourage."
Diane Lane: Lane had been an actress for much of her childhood, but her turn as the sweet, red-haired, drive-in dream in "The Outsiders" made her known. After some questionable choices through the'80s, Lane rebounded with the "Lonesome Dove" miniseries. Her career might be at its apogee right now: she was nominated for an Oscar in 2003 for "Unfaithful" and can carry a film herself ("Under the Tuscan Sun").
Matt Dillon: Like Lane, Dillon's filmography is checkered. After typecasting himself into troubled rebels — which culminated in Gus Van Sant's "Drugstore Cowboy" — he starred in "Singles," "Beautiful Girls" and "There's Something About Mary." This year, he has been lauded for his performance in "Crash."
Tom Cruise: Though he had a small part in "The Outsiders," no one has risen higher than Cruise. The future "Top Gun" star had made some noise two years earlier alongside Timothy Hutton and Sean Pean in "Taps." Even then, though, everyone on the set could see Cruise's serious and intense approach to acting. Roos says, "I think he saw where he wanted to be even from that age."
Rob Lowe: After Lowe's big screen debut in "The Outsiders," he was "left for years wondering why" most of his part was cut — but in the new edition Lowe has been restored. In between, the young actor, remembered by Roos as "incredibly pretty," starred in "St. Elmo's Fire" and "Youngblood." He has since mixed comedy ("Wayne's World," the "Austin Powers" movies) with Oval Office drama ("The West Wing").
Patrick Swayze: Swayze was as '80s as anybody thanks to movies like "Dirty Dancing" and "Roadhouse." After "Ghost" and "Point Break" in the early '90s, Swayze fell off for most of the decade, but had a small part in the cult hit "Donnie Darko." On "The Outsider" DVD, the 53-year-old tells Coppola, "After you, everybody in my life was a bozo." He recently produced his wife's (Lisa Niemi) directorial debut, "One Last Dance."
Emilio Estevez: While the '80s were good for Estevez ("The Breakfast Club," "Young Guns"), the '90s weren't bad either ("Mighty Ducks," "Judgment Night"). Though he's been MIA for years, the 43-year-old will soon direct "Bobby," a movie he wrote about the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. The recently announced cast includes Anthony Hopkins and Elijah Wood.
Sofia Coppola: The tiny part of Little Domino in "The Outsiders" was her first credited role. In her father's words, "Little Domino now is one of the more important woman directors in the country."