Here & There …

Grammy.com’s cynical poll – Los Angeles Times / Extended Play (registration may be required)

Is there an indie music glut? The McGill Daily

The record company biz is going to get worse before, and if, it gets better – Economist U.K.

In the world of copyright piracy, this guy could be Captain Jack Sparrow – CBS Channel 4, Miami / Ft. Lauderdale

Q&A with Baby Animals’ Suze DeMarchi – Melbourne Herald Sun

Is Guitar Hero the new Karaoke? Austin Daily Herald

Dates, Dates & More Dates …

Let’s start with why you’re here to begin with. Bay City Rollers have a Vegas residency at the Riviera where you can chant S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y all night long to your heart’s content starting February 26.

We have eight new listings for Avril Lavigne for Minneapolis, Atlantic City, E. Rutherford, NJ, Boston, Uniondale, NY, and Euro cities Dresden, Prague and Vienna.

New listings for Elton Hercules John include stops in Paris and Abu Dhabi, Gipy Kings schedule a show for Cerritos, California, Caceres, Spain, and Bratislava, Slovakia.

Cowboy Junkies add a Toronto gig; Look for Boyz II Men in Paris in March; Black Mountain has several new dates for February and March including Canada gigs in Moncton, Halifax, Montreal and Toronto, and U.S. shows in Louisville, Knoxville and Nashville and Hellyeah adds several February shows. Markets include Green Bay, Milwaukee, Spokane, Portland, Anaheim, Tucson and Fort Worth / Dallas.

During the past couple of hours we also updated the schedules for Katie Melua, Levy, Jean-Luc Ponty, James Taylor, The Australian Pink Floyd Show, Yamato Drummers and Donna Jean & The Tricksters.

But that’s only half of the story! More dates coming up in Your Midday Update, scheduled for around 3 pm (PST) from Pollstar.com!

This Day In Music History … (from Associated Press)

In 1948, future country star Loretta Lynn married Oliver “Mooney” Lynn.

In 1956, Elvis Presley began his first recording session in Nashville. Among the songs recorded were “Heartbreak Hotel” and “I Was the One,” which became Presley’s first single for RCA Victor. Artists-and-repertoire chief Steve Sholes had bought his contract from Sun Records in Memphis for 35-thousand dollars. The record became the first of Elvis’s more than 50 million-sellers.

In 1958, “Great Balls of Fire” by Jerry Lee Lewis became the number-one song in the U-S. Later in the year, many radio stations began banning his records because of his marriage to his 13-year-old cousin.

In 1968, Aretha Franklin received a gold record for her single “Chain of Fools.” The song was reported to be a great favorite of American soldiers serving in Vietnam.

In 1989, Michael Jackson’s “Moonwalker” video was released. Jackson played a superhero in the video, which included a lengthy fantasy segment set to the song “Smooth Criminal.”

In 1991, Clint Black joined the Grand Ole Opry.

In 2000, Melissa Etheridge and her partner, Julie Cypher, revealed David Crosby was the father of their two children by artificial insemination. Etheridge and Cypher are no longer together.

In 1943, singer Jim Croce was born in Philadelphia. His narrative songs, such as “Bad Bad Leroy Brown” and “You Don’t Mess Around With Jim,” were extremely popular in the early ’70’s. Croce and five others died September 30th, 1973 when their chartered plane hit a tree and crashed during take-off after a concert at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana.