Link-O-Rama …

Rascal Flatts guitarist Joe Don Rooney rolls up his sleaves and pitches in to help his hometown recover from devastating tornado – The Oklahoman

Madonna to build girls school for underprivileged children in Malawi – Reuters

Michael Jackson’s Thriller and Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters added to the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry – Associated Press

Paul McCartney criticized for size of his carbon footprint – Associated Press

100 essential jazz albums, according to The New Yorker

Tips on keeping your gadgets dry in the summer – MSNBC

Dates, Dates & More Dates …

Award-winning Brit mezzo-soprano Katherine Jenkins is moving up to arenas in the United Kingdom. New Decemeber dates shows the classical singer playing the Brighton Centre on December 15, the Manchester Evening News Arena on December 18 and Cardiff International Arena on December 22. Other new stops include U.K. dates in Glasgow, Newcastle, Preston, Oxford, Bournemouth, Nottingham and Harrogate.

Everclear updates today with new dates for Hawaii and Wisconsin. Look for the band in Kaneohe Bay on July 6 and Maui on July 9. Wisconsin dates include July 18 in Waukesha and August 28 in Marshfield. The band also lands at Gitmo on May 26.

You’ll find Dax Riggs in the clubs come June. New dates include June 11 in San Diego at The Casbah; June 17 in Seattle at Sunset Tavern and June 28 in New Orleans at One Eyed Jacks.

And Lucinda Williams fills in a few July openings and adds an August date today. New show listings include July 2 in Washburn, WI (across the bay from Ashland), July 12 in Lowell, MA; July 25 in Atlanta, GA; and August 28 in Jacksonville, OR. Ms. Williams also adds a performance for Bend, OR, for September 2.

During the past couple of hours we also updated the schedules for Los Lobos, Jennifer O’Connor, Passafire, Meat Puppets, Los Lonely Boys, Patrice Pike, Steve Earle, The Belleville Outfit, Wishbone Ash, Jonathan Richman, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, James McMurtry, Gavin DeGraw, Guy Forsyth, Carolyn Wonderland and Brandi Carlile.

And that’s the way it is at the halfway mark. More new stuff coming up in Your Latest Update, scheduled for around 3 pm, from Pollstar.com!