Sheryl Crow talks love & war
Sheryl Crow's new album Wildflower, due in stores Tuesday, is a return to form for the 43-year-old singer-songwriter, says The Toronto Sun.
Following 2002's overly commercial C'mon, C'mon and 2003's greatest hits collection, Crow has delivered one of her best records yet: Intimate, stripped-down, melodic songs with upfront vocals and string accompaniment.
"I definitely featured my voice more," said Crow, down the line from London, England, recently in a Canadian newspaper exclusive with the Sun.
"I think the thing that's always gotten my attention is that people will come up to me after seeing me play live and say, 'Wow, you are so much better of a singer than you are on your records.' Part of that is just, as producer, I haven't really been that concerned with my own vocals because for me I've always more gotten off on the musicianship and the arrangements and the songwriting. And this record, although it sounds big because of the string arrangements, it's pretty based on sparse production. My original intent was to do a very acoustic-feeling record like (Neil Young's) Harvest, but put strings on it."
Crow, who has spent most of the last year and a half living in Europe, co-produced Wildflower with longtime collaborators John Shanks and Jeff Trott.
The new songs detail both her great love affair with 34-year-old cyclist Lance Armstrong -- the two got engaged earlier this month and a spring wedding is expected -- and her relationship with the increasingly troubled world at large.
But the so-called "Lance Factor" is obvious.
"I've never had anybody be so completely positive that I'm the person they want to be with," Crow told the television news program 20/20 in an interview with Armstrong that aired last week. "That's helped me to express who I am, and who I can be."
More universal themes explored on Wildflower can be heard on new songs like Sending A Letter To God or Where Has All The Love Gone.
"Sending A Letter To God speaks to the move toward the religious right in our country," Crow said, "and how, in my mind, even though I consider myself a Christian, the radical religious conservatism ... has started to inform how our government makes its decisions, which was not what the country was based on. And also that there's a judgmental attitude, a very moralistic attitude in our country that's based in that sort of fanaticism. And on the flipside of that, with regard to Where Has All The Love Gone, you have such a strong belief in God all over the world that we're in a war now where we're sort of fighting over whose God is the right God. And you know you have the jihad and the religious right movement in America and to me if you define God as love, then it's kind of difficult to figure out what we're all fighting about."
In recent years, Crow wore a T-shirt that said "War Is Not The Answer" at the American Music Awards and a guitar strap with the word "Peace" on it at the Grammys.
Both moves were considered risky given the backlash that the Dixie Chicks had to endure when they spoke out against U.S. President George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq. But Crow says she was well ahead of the Chicks on that curve.
"I had worn a T-shirt, before we went to war, well before the Dixie Chicks, on Good Morning America, that said, 'I don't believe in your war, Mr. Bush' and that really got me in trouble -- big time," Crow said. "Just people expressing their disagreement with that, and death threats and stuff like that. It's funny because after the Dixie Chicks thing our whole country really suffered a campaign that said if you spoke out, you were considered anti-American. It was kind of a dark time in our history. I think more people are coming around to the viewpoint that this war is not completely definable and we're not really sure how we got into it. People (are) trying to figure out, do we really have a plan ... and when are our kids coming home?"
In fact, Crow was so prolific as a songwriter recently there had been reports of her releasing two albums this year.
"I had decided, originally, it would be really cool to release a double record," she said. "And have one record be what we were calling 'the art' record, or record that was more stripped down and more genuine and more introspective. And then have a record that was based on the 31/2-minute pop song. But it didn't make sense in the end to release both at the same time because it kind of undermined the power of both records. So I think toward the end of next summer or fall, we'll have the other record come out."
At the time of this interview, Crow was about to rejoin Armstrong just before he would go on to win his seventh straight Tour de France.
"It's very nervewracking," said Crow of her experience last year on the road with Armstrong. "And clearly for him, it starts well before the tour. He does a lot of races up to that point to sort of assess where he is in his conditioning. So I've definitely been involved in the lifestyle of the training and eating right and getting good sleep and, also, for me the tour is a great outlet. It's likely finally getting to do the gig after you've rehearsed for weeks and weeks and weeks."
Some fans questioned Crow putting her own career aside for the past couple of years to follow Armstrong around.
"There are people who still think I'm nuts," Crow told 20/20. "I mean, I have a massive feminist following and a lot of those people are mad. They're like, 'Why would you quit everything for a man?' I really gave myself the gift of just saying, 'I can follow this person around and just wash his bike shorts if I want.' "
But she told the Sun: "It's very exciting, particularly when he's in the yellow jersey. For the most part, it's been really a good experience getting to support somebody else and getting to sort of sit back and decide what kind of record I wanted to make and to really just embrace writing about what was going on around me. Not just about our lifestyle but what's happening in the world -- and I think ... I've gone through that period of trying to figure out how to maintain a modicum of peace in the middle of just total, total chaos out there, particularly as an American."
The tables will be turned next month when Armstrong travels with Crow as she begins her Wildflower tour with eight dates in the U.S followed by two dates in London in November.
"He likes to sing!" Crow said.
In addition to her four-piece band, Crow is touring with a 12-person string section conducted by David Campbell, but she doesn't expect to play any Canadian dates until next year.
Will the bride wear yellow?
Lance Armstrong told talk show host Oprah Winfrey that he popped the question to Sheryl Crow by taking her out on a fishing boat on a lake in Sun Valley, Idaho. Then the motor ran out of gas.
"And so, I thought, 'We're stuck here, I might as well ask her now,' Armstrong told Winfrey on her TV show this week. "I felt bad, I didn't have the ring with me. But it was too perfect, too beautiful."
Until her engagement to Armstrong, Crow has had her share of romances, including one with actor Owen Wilson and a rumoured affair with Eric Clapton, who may or may not be the subject of her song My Favourite Mistake.
Crow, who was on tape in New York City during Armstrong's Oprah appearance, showed off her six-carat diamond ring, and described the proposal.
"He definitely pulled out all the stops," Crow said. "He was being really romantic. And then he said, 'I have something to ask you. I'm really nervous.' He asked me if I would get married to him and I said, 'Yes, of course.' And then I said, 'I can't believe you were nervous. You knew I would say yes.' "
Crow met Armstrong -- the father of three kids with ex-wife Kristin -- at a charity event in Las Vegas in 2003.
"There are too many things to name that I love about him," she told Oprah. "He's gorgeous and he's funny and he's smart and he's a fantastic dad. Gosh, I just love him."
And his three kids.
"It's been fun for me and a new thing, to not be in my little selfish 'me' world," Crow told 20/20.
As for having her own children, she told 20/20,
"I would love to have my own kids and I think that I will."
Robertson charts the Band's musical journey
LOS ANGELES (Billboard) - If Robbie Robertson had his way, every owner of "Across the Great Divide," a three-CD retrospective of the Band issued in 1994, would toss that collection in the garbage and replace it with "The Band: A Musical History."
The new set, which comprises five CDs and one DVD and includes more than 100 tracks, comes out September 27 on Capitol/EMI. Robertson spent years curating the collection.
"That (1994) set was completely inaccurate. I think they were just guessing," the Band's guitarist says. "This one is absolutely true. Forget the 1994 one ever was."
The new collection starts with a 1963 recording of "Who Do You Love" by Ronnie Hawkins & the Hawks (the Band's earliest incarnation) and ends, as it must, with tracks from "The Last Waltz," the Band's star-studded farewell performance, captured on film by Martin Scorsese.
While the highlights are too numerous to mention, many fans will considerthe previously unreleased live material -- including sets with Bob Dylan (whom the Band backed from September 1965 until May 1966) -- the set's standout.
For Robertson, who had not listened to much of this material in years, if ever, one of the most pleasant surprises was "the musicality of the journey." But, as he stresses, he and his Band mates were hardly a "group who got guitars for Christmas and decided we wanted to get a record deal."
DIGGING ROOTS
Indeed, by the time "Music From Big Pink," the Band's legendary 1968 album came out, the group had been together for years and had absorbed musical influences from across America's vast landscape.
"When that album came out, people acted like, 'Where in the world did this come from?' like it was so unusual," Robertson recalls. "And we were like, 'These are all the musics that we know. There are the flavors we know. It was that simple. We're bringing them with us when we come."'
While there was joy in putting together the boxed set, Robertson says there was also great sadness for people lost along the way. "The painful part of all this was losing Rick Danko and Richard Manuel. The sounds of Richard's voice or Rick's voice, it would just tear my heart out." Danko died in 1999 and Manuel in 1986.
The set's release puts an end to the Band ... for now. "I keep saying, 'Now I'm done with the Band,"' Robertson says. "I'm just not keen to be going back up into the attic and going into the trunks. I'm more interested in tomorrow."
Still, he admits he may go back to the well one more time. "I just have to write a book on it, and I'll be all caught up. As soon as I get some time, I'm going out to that little cabin in the woods (and write). I like telling stories, as one might figure."
But there has never been a moment when Robertson considered reuniting with the Band's surviving members. "It never crossed my mind. Things happen a certain way. It's in some higher power's hands. You can't do something if it won't bend that way."
Madonna In The Mix On New Dance Album
Madonna has finalized the track list for her new album, "Confessions on a Dancefloor." Producer Stuart Price tells Billboard the 12-track set, due Nov. 15 via Warner Bros., is continuously mixed and that closer "Like It or Not" was the perfect choice to conclude the album.
"Basically, it's Madonna saying, 'This is who I am. This is what I do. Take it or leave it,'" Price said of the track during a Q&A earlier this week at the 12th annual Billboard Dance Music Summit in New York.
Price -- who was the musical conductor on Madonna's Re-Invention tour -- said the entire album, including the vocals, was recorded in his home studio in London. Apparently, he has a female neighbor that cries throughout the day and night. So, if you listen closely, "you may hear her on background vocals," Price said with a laugh.
The album's first single, "Hung Up," is currently featured in ads for the new Motorola/iTunes phone. The cut is available as a ringtone via MTV.com and VH1.com. Its accompanying video was to directed by photographer David LaChapelle, but he and Madonna reportedly had creative differences over its concept. It is unknown who has come on board to complete the clip.
Here is the track list for "Confessions on a Dancefloor":
"Hung Up"
"Get Together"
"Sorry"
"Future Lovers"
"I Love New York'
"Let It Will Be"
"Forbidden Love"
"Jump"
"How High"
"Isaac"
"Push"
"Like It or Not"
McCready OD's Again
For the second time in two months country singer Mindy McCready has been hospitalized for a drug overdose. And like before, the Friday morning incident appears to have been a suicide attempt.
According to police reports, the "Guys Do It All the Time" singer was admitted to a Nashville hospital after ingesting more than two dozen antidepressants following a fight with the father of her unborn child.
McCready was listed in fair condition as of late Friday and is expected to make a full recovery. No immediate word on the condition of the fetus.
Per police reports, the troubled 29-year-old and her on-again, off-again boyfriend, William McKnight, were engaged in a heated spat over the phone regarding McKnight's financial commitment to McCready and their child.
Unhappy with his level of support, the singer reportedly proceeded to ingest around 30 pills.
Knowing his girlfriend's past behavior, the 38-year-old McKnight called authorities.
His call may have saved McCready's life. Paramedics apparently found the overdosed singer around 4 a.m. Friday at her Tennessee home.
Just this past Monday, the onetime country chart-topper revealed she tried to commit suicide earlier this summer because she found out she was pregnant.
McCready was in court to explain a string of behavior that left her in the hospital and then in jail, and to appeal the terms of her bail.
She was arrested in Florida after officials in Williamson County, Tennessee, issued a warrant last month. According to the warrant, McCready left the state without permission and failed to contact her probation officer during the month of July.
McCready said she went to Florida to be with her family after months of trouble.
Her decline from country star to police-blotter material becan a year ago, when she was charged with fraudulently obtaining the painkiller OxyContin.
McCready, who claimed she was trying to score the pills for a friend, eventually pleaded guilty and was slapped with a $4,000 fine, sentenced to three years of supervised probation and ordered to complete 200 hours of community service.
On May 6, the former Nashville darling was stopped for speeding and wound up being charged with drunken driving and driving with a suspended license, which earned her first probation violation.
Two days after her DUI arrest, McCready was beaten and almost choked to death by McKnight, who allegedly ambushed the singer in her home. He was later charged with attempted murder as a result of the altercation.
Within a month, she was charged in Arizona on counts including unlawful use of transportation, unlawful imprisonment and hindering prosecution stemming from an incident involving a stolen pickup truck. She claims she was duped by a con man and mistakenly charged.
By the end of June, she learned she was with child, and that's when she took off to the Sunshine State. "I attempted to commit suicide after I found out," she told Judge Jeff Bivins, per the Nashville Tennessean. "I had just been through a horrible ordeal."
The father is said to be McKnight, who was in Florida at the time of her suicide attempt. He told police the couple had reconciled since the alleged assault. He also handed over her suicide note.
McCready was arrested and jailed in Florida on Aug. 26. She was transferred to a Tennessee lockup a week later and was allowed out on $50,000 bond a week ago. Prosecutors said one of the reasons she was permitted to leave jail was because of complications in her pregnancy.
The singer has already missed two court dates in Arizona due to her hospitalization and subsequent jailing. A judge has rescheduled her arraignment for Oct. 3, but it's not clear if McCready will be permitted--or physically able--to leave Tennessee.
She's due back in Williamson County court Nov. 14 to face her probation-violation charges.
Music biz explores wireless frontier
SAN FRANCISCO (Billboard) - And so it begins. Wireless operators and record companies are starting to let mobile subscribers buy and download full songs over wireless networks directly to mobile phones capable of storing and playing music.
As a big first step, Apple Computer and Motorola have partnered to create an iTunes-compatible mobile phone, dubbed the ROKR, capable of storing 100 songs and currently offered by Cingular.
Will the result revolutionize both industries or just be another wireless hype machine met with tepid response and consumer apathy?
"We're heading into areas where there is no market research," says Andrew Seybold, a veteran wireless industry consultant. "The only way we're going to find out what consumers will buy is to try various things and see what sticks."
The opportunity is clear. There are 180 million mobile phones in the United States, most of which can be used to access the Internet and buy products with charges added to the user's monthly phone bill.
The result is an on-demand, impulse-buy capability accessible to all age ranges that the still-struggling music industry sees as a lifeline out of the doldrums. Wireless carriers, meanwhile, hope access to music will be the application that compels subscribers to migrate to the new high-speed networks they have spent billions on developing.
HURDLES AHEAD
Research group IDC expects 1.8 million U.S. wireless subscribers to download music wirelessly by the end of the year once carriers launch their stores. It forecasts the market will grow to 50 million users and $1.2 billion by 2009.
Yet for all the opportunity, fully realizing it requires solving significant challenges, which is expected to take several years.
The leading question is cost. By all accounts, downloading a song to a mobile phone will cost twice the typical rate of 99 cents online. For many, this is a doomed strategy.
"To pay double or treble the amount of what you would be paying for the same track online is not going to receive the traction they're looking for," says Nick Holland, an analyst at Pyramid Research. "They will probably start off with a price point that is high and then discount it quickly as they realize that demand is not as anticipated."
Record labels argue that music accessed wirelessly carries greater value than music accessed online, where the 99 cent per-track rate was set arbitrarily because of the threat of free peer-to-peer file sharing.
In addition, wireless consumers have been conditioned to pay for content, as reflected in the $2 or more they pay for master ringtones.
Wireless operators admit the price issue is something that they must overcome, but they're betting subscribers will find the convenience of mobility worth the extra cost.
"There is a premium that a customer is willing to pay for the spontaneity of being able to download over the air a song right there on your mobile phone," says Paul Reddick, VP of business development and innovation management for Sprint Nextel.
NO COMPARISON?
The main point that record labels and wireless carriers stress is that the wireless music experience is not meant to be compared with the online music experience, in either price or service. To get music fans to buy music wirelessly and pay more to do so, mobile music must be sold differently than ringtones and online downloads.
"Just thinking of mobile as a portable version of online is going to take you down the wrong path," says Michael Nash, senior VP of Internet strategy for Warner Music Group. "We really have to think carefully about what consumers want, what's unique about mobile and where we're going to create propositions of value."
The leading school of thought in this regard is to treat wireless as an early-release platform on which fans can get early access to new hit music that otherwise is unavailable elsewhere. Another is to use mobile distribution to test-market emerging acts by releasing their music via mobile before placing larger bets on physical distribution via CDs.
The concern, however, is that a high cost of entry teamed with an unfamiliar interface and confusion over how the service works will keep wireless subscribers from experimenting with wireless music services.
"There's a lot of silliness going on between carriers and the labels," Yahoo Music VP and general manager David Goldberg says. "They're being overly greedy about things. Let's figure out how to build the market and then worry about how to split the money up."
USER-FRIENDLINESS
Ease of use is the albatross that has weighed down many new wireless initiatives in the past. Wireless operators are known for making bold claims about new services that ultimately fall flat because consumers do not understand how to use them. But carriers also have great resiliency, often relaunching services several times until they find the right fit.
"Most of the stuff they've tried out of the box (has) not been very successful," Seybold says. "Look at the first attempt to get on the Internet. That was a terrible disaster."
The music industry is not one to turn to for help either. Labels completely missed the boat on the digital revolution by ignoring P2P file-trading services that music fans were flocking to behind their backs.
The biggest point of contention is interoperability: Will a track downloaded to a phone be accessible on the PC as well and vice versa? The early solution is to operate what is called a "dual-delivery service." For each wireless song purchase, two files are sent: one formatted for over-the-air delivery to the phone and another formatted for Internet delivery to the user's computer.
While this satisfies the labels' security concerns, it could prove a difficult concept to communicate to customers. It also limits the ability of users to share music wirelessly with their friends. At least initially, only wireless subscribers using the same carrier will be able to share music clips.
The main reason wireless text messaging was so slow to develop in the United States was because of the same lack of inter-carrier interoperability. Once users could send text messages to their friends on other networks, usage skyrocketed.
The idea of buying music digitally remains on the periphery of consumer consciousness, and doing it with wireless devices is even more so. As such, carriers and labels have a marketing and education job to do if this market is going to flourish.
The prevailing view is that the music industry needs wireless music to work more than wireless carriers do, and as such should be doing the legwork to promote these services.
"We should take more responsibility for the future of our business," Universal Music Mobile VP and general manager Rio Caraeff says. "We need to start putting our money where our mouth is and start marketing this. (Carriers) are not good at music merchandising. You don't want Con Edison marketing 'Desperate Housewives."'
Three rare tracks on new Nirvana compilation
NEW YORK (Billboard) - Three previously unreleased tracks will see the light of day on the Nirvana compilation, "Sliver: The Best of the Box," which will arrive November 1.
In addition to "Spank Thru" from the famed 1985 "Fecal Matter" demo tape, the 1990 studio outtake "Sappy" and a pre-"Nevermind" rehearsal recording of "Come as You Are," the Geffen Records release boasts 19 tracks drawn from the 2004 boxed set "With the Lights Out."
Here is the track list for "Sliver: The Best of the Box":
"Spank Thru" (previously unreleased, 1985 "Fecal Matter" demo)
"Heartbreaker" (live, 1987)
"Mrs. Butterworth" (undated rehearsal demo)
"Floyd the Barber" (live, 1988)
"Clean Up Before She Comes" (undated home demo)
"About a Girl" (undated home demo)
"Blandest" (studio recording, 1998)
"Ain't It a Shame" (studio recording, 1989)
"Sappy" (previously unreleased)
"Opinion" (solo acoustic, 1990)
"Lithium" (solo acoustic, 1990)
"Sliver" (undated home demo)
"Smells Like Teen Spirit" (rehearsal recording, 1991)
"Come As You Are" (previously unreleased rehearsal recording, 1991)
"Old Age" ("Nevermind" outtake, 1991)
"Oh the Guilt" (split single w/ Jesus Lizard, 1992)
"Rape Me" (acoustic home demo, 1992)
"Rape Me" (studio recording, 1992)
"Heart Shaped Box" (studio recording, 1993)
"Do Re Mi" (home demo, 1994)
"You Know You're Right" (home demo, 1994)
"All Apologies" (home demo, 1994)
Foster's 'Flightplan' Propels Box Office
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Jodie Foster piloted "Flightplan" to a No. 1 debut, her airborne thriller taking in $24.6 million to land ahead of " Tim Burton's Corpse Bride," the runner-up with $20.1 million.
The weekend's other new wide release, rapper Bow Wow's rollerskating romp "Roll Bounce," opened at No. 4 with $8 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.
With two movies topping $20 million at a traditionally quiet time in theaters, the box office surged. The top 12 movies took in $89.2 million, up 51 percent from the same weekend last year.
The upswing extended a September rally for Hollywood, which has seen revenues slump most of the year. Receipts are running 6 percent behind 2004, and with higher ticket prices, movie admissions are down 9 percent.
"This fall season has been in a word, spectacular," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations. "We'd been so fixated on the box-office slump, and here we are in a fall boom. This is terrific for the industry and bodes well for a very strong holiday season."
David Cronenberg's "A History of Violence," starring Viggo Mortensen as a family man whose tranquil life is shattered by intrusive mobsters (Ed Harris and William Hurt), opened strongly in limited release with $504,000 in 14 theaters. The movie expands to about 1,200 theaters Friday.
Also debuting solidly was Roman Polanski's adaptation of Charles Dickens' "Oliver Twist," featuring Ben Kingsley as pickpocket mentor Fagin, which took in $69,000 at five theaters. The film will be shown in about 800 theaters Friday.
"Flightplan" was the first No. 1 debut in almost five months for distributor Disney, historically one of Hollywood's steadiest hitmakers.
"Long time coming. You never expect that. We're usually more consistent," said Chuck Viane, Disney head of distribution.
"Flightplan" stars Foster as a widow whose 6-year-old daughter vanishes on a trans-Atlantic trip, prompting panic from the girl's mom and skepticism from the crew and passengers, who have no record or recollection the child was ever on board.
After a strong premiere for "Corpse Bride" in five theaters the previous weekend, some industry observers had expected the animated tale to hold the top box-office spot this weekend.
"Corpse Bride" features the voices of Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter in a musical fantasy about a jittery groom whisked to the underworld after he's inadvertently wed to a decomposing cadaver. It's the second stop-motion animation flick for co-director Burton, following 1993's "The Nightmare Before Christmas."
Dan Fellman, head of distribution for "Corpse Bride" backer Warner Bros., said the studio had not expected a No. 1 showing and that the movie had the best results ever for an animated film in September.
"There's always those in the industry making predictions outside our company, but we knew the strength of our movie," Fellman said, "we're nothing but thrilled."
Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc. Final figures will be released Monday.
1. "Flightplan," $24.6 million.
2. "Tim Burton's Corpse Bride," $20.1 million.
3. "Just Like Heaven," $9.8 million.
4. "Roll Bounce," $8 million.
5. "The Exorcism of Emily Rose," $7.5 million.
6. "Lord of War," $4.9 million.
7. "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," $4.3 million.
8. "The Constant Gardener," $2.2 million.
9. "Transporter 2," $2.15 million.
10. "Cry Wolf," $2.1 million.
Gulf storms strike chords in popular music
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Chuck Berry yearned for Baton Rouge, The Band headed for Lake Charles and Glen Campbell was homesick for Galveston when he cleaned his gun.
Pick a place pounded by the twin hurricanes that ravaged the U.S. Gulf Coast over the last month, and there is probably a popular song to go with it.
That is a reflection not only of the storms' broad reach, but also of the rich influence exerted by the Gulf region -- with its swampy mix of jazz, rock n' roll, Cajun music, country and blues -- on American music.
The jazz city of New Orleans, which was flooded by last month's Hurricane Katrina and again by Hurricane Rita over the weekend, has long been enshrined in song.
"House of the Rising Sun," about lost virtue in a brothel, is among the most famous. The traditional tune with a 17th century British melody was first recorded in 1928 by blues singer Texas Alexander. It became a folk music staple and was put on the rock map by the British band "The Animals."
Galveston, Texas, wiped out in the deadliest U.S. hurricane ever in 1900 but spared when Rita changed direction, sparked the imagination of Jimmy Webb when he wrote what became one of Glen Campbell's biggest hits.
"I still hear your sea waves crashing, while I watch the cannons flashing, I clean my gun and dream of Galveston," Campbell sings.
Chuck Berry listed Baton Rouge, Louisiana's capital, buffeted by Rita, among the places he yearned for in a 1959 homecoming song, "Back in the U.S.A." The song inspired The Beatles' political parody, "Back in the U.S.S.R."
"Looking hard for a drive in, searching for a corner cafe, where the hamburgers sizzle on an open grill night and day," Berry sang of his American vision.
Janis Joplin sang of being "busted flat in Baton Rouge," in "Me and Bobby McGee," a traveling song written by Kris Kristofferson and Fred Foster. Joplin was born in Port Arthur, Texas, a town smack in Rita's weekend path.
The Band, a Canadian-American group, scored its biggest hit with "Up on Cripple Creek," in which the singer vows to travel down the Mississippi River to find a tempestuous charmer, "little Bessie," in Lake Charles, Louisiana. The town was one of the hardest-hit by Rita's blast.
Finally there is Randy Newman's 1974 tune, "Louisiana 1927," which recalls an earlier flood with a poignant chorus that has become a widely used theme for this year's calamities: "Louisiana, Louisiana, they're trying to wash us away, they're trying to wash us away."
Demi Moore, Ashton Kutcher wed: reports
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actors Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher were married on Saturday, capping their celebrated two-year-long older woman, younger man relationship, two celebrity magazines reported on Sunday.
Representatives for Kutcher, 27, and Moore, 42, could not be immediately reached for comment, but both Us Weekly and People magazine reported on their Web sites that the couple were married in Los Angeles area on Saturday.
Us Weekly, which first reported the wedding, said about 100 of the couple's friends, including Moore's second husband Bruce Willis, attended it. Also at the wedding were actress Lucy Liu and Moore's three daughters from her marriage to Willis.
Moore, who starred in "Ghost," "G.I. Jane" and "Striptease," first began dating the younger Kutcher in 2003, just as she was making a highly publicized return to the screen as a high-kicking villain in "Charlie's Angeles: Full Throttle."
Kutcher, whose break came as a star in television's "That '70s Show," is co-creator of the MTV reality show "Punk'd." His films include "Guess Who" in 2005 and "Dude, Where's My Car?" in 2000.
It was the first marriage for Kutcher and third for Moore. She was married from 1980 to 1984 to rock musician Freddie Moore and from 1987 to 2000 to Willis.
People Magazine said Kutcher and Moore met at a dinner in New York City in 2003. After Kutcher began dating Moore, the magazine said "he quickly carved out a place in the lives of her three daughters by Willis -- Rumer, 17; Scout, 14; and Tallulah, 11 --who came to embrace Kutcher as a third parent, affectionately calling him MOD, short for 'My Other Dad."'
The relationship between Moore and Kutcher has been seen by some in Hollywood as evidence of a liberating new trend in which older American women are dating younger men, challenging the traditional convention of May-December romances.