Working For The Weekend …

Our weekend crew will be holding down the fort for the next 72-plus hours. Please treat them nice by reading the following items scheduled to post during the next three days. Oh, and please don’t feed them. That is, unless you want them to follow you home.

Saturday – Anything But Black & White – “Austin’s Best Local New Band” heads out spread the word to the rest of the country.

Breaking The Chains Of Chemical Dependency – Tantric and Hurt headline the annual Layne Staley Tribute and Benefit concert.

Sunday – Stockholm Jazz Fest’s Silver Anniversary – Van Morrison, Tower of Power and Patti Smith are just a few of the big names on the roster for the annual fest.

Brightman Lights Up The World – Sarah Brightman plots global conquest this fall with her Symphony World Tour.

Monday – Bringing Sexy To The States – Comedian and Pale Force member Jim Gaffigan brings his unique (and pasty) take on the world to U.S. audiences.

A Warrant To Rock – The reunited rockers soldier on with their tour despite the cancellation of their dates with Cinderella.

Our HotStar next week is Santogold

Link-O-Rama …

The Music Performance Fund is low on cash. Like many problems facing the music industry, illegal downloading is blamed for drop in donations – Los Angeles Times (registration may be required)

Fans exhale gigantic sigh of relief over R. Kelly acquittal – CBS Chicago

Related: Is R. Kelly the greatest escape artist in music? – Associated Press

There’s more to Bonnaroo than music – Associated Press

Alanis Morissette is the “smartest stupid person you’ll meet” – The Times Online U.K.

When Robert Plant sang, “I’m gonna send you back to schoolin’,” he wasn’t kidding. Last year’s Led Zeppelin concert results in college scholarship – WTOP / Associated Press

Danny Davis, the man who put horns in country music, dies at 83 – Reuters

Dates, Dates & More Dates …

Now this is the way to start a weekend. Just as we were getting ready to close down our main tour-date assembly line, a special courier appeared on our doorstep with the dates for the European Unholy Alliance Tour featuring Slayer and Trivium! October and November are the months and individual dates include October 27 in Manchester, October 30 & 31 in London, November 5 in Offenbachand November 11 in Paris.

Canadian treasure Gordon Lightfoot makes the final deadline with new dates for new October listings for the U.S. including October 22 in Flagstaff, AZ; October 24 in Phoenix, AZ; October 25 in Albuquerque, NM; and October 26 in Amarillo, TX.

We have three new Shooter Jennings dates for you tonight – August 16 in Raleigh, NC; August 23 in Owensboro, KY, and August 29 in Rochester, MN.

Finally, The Barra MacNeils update today with August 10 in Lexington, KY; August 14 in Indianapolis, IN; and September 25 – 27 in Pinellas Park, FL.

During the day we also updated the schedules for New Kids On The Block, The Blind Boys Of Alabama, The Hives, Backstreet Boys, Okkervil River plus thousands and thousands of artists and bands that we’d love to mention in this space. However, it is the weekend and life is short.

And that’s a wrap for the week. Have a great weekend!