Link-O-Rama …

CD by France’s First Lady, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, shoots to the top of the charts in its first week of release – Reuters

Are you one of the millions who bought a new iPhone? Then you’ll need some music apps to go with it – Detroit Free Press

Have you ever wanted to conduct an orchestra? Through the magical technology known as “Wii,” Ravinia Music Festival offers the Virtual Maestro – Evanston Review

Blind Melon’s Christopher Thorn talks about getting the band back together – The Grand Rapids Press / Medium Fidelity / MiLive.com

Q&A with ABC’s Martin Fry – The Arizona Republic

And for those of you who like lists, here’s one music journalist’s list of Springsteen’s best attempts at doing other people’s songs – New York Daily News

Dates, Dates & More Dates …

It’s been a busy day, what with deliveries via phone, fax, e-mail, donkey and dog sled. Already we’ve processed hundreds of dates for thousands of bands. Hmmm … Or was it thousands of dates for hundreds of bands? No matter. Here’s a few highlights from the past couple of hours.

Toadies get off a decent update with new listings for October. New gigs include October 8 in Memphis, Tennessee at New Daisy Theatre, October 12 in Louisville, Kentucky at Headliners Music Hall, October 17 in Detroit, Michigan at The Majestic, October 18 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin at The Rave Eagles Club, October 21 in St. Paul, Minnesota at Station 4 and October 22 in Omaha, Nebraska at Sokol Auditorium / Underground.

The Bad Plus fine-tunes its European tour. New listings include Zurich on October 20, Vienna on October 29, Innsbruck on October 30 and Malmo on November 3.

Jazz guitarist Earl Klugh is on the Capital Jazz Fest Cruise scheduled to depart Baltimore on September 27. Other new dates include November 7 in Detroit, November 8 in Buffalo, November 28 in Playa Del Carmen (Mexico) and February 14 in Atlanta.

And we have a few new ones for Ladysmith Black Mambazo – November 8 (Cologne, Germany), November 17 (Rotterdam, Netherlands), March 31 (New York City), February 2 (South Orange, New Jersey), February 5 (New London, Connecticut) and February 12 (Roanoke, Virginia).

During the past couple of hours we also updated the schedules for Less Than Jake, Joshua Redman, Joe Lovano, Joe Bonamassa, Joan Baez, Jim Brickman, Dianne Reeves, Chris Potter, Devo, Cherish The Ladies, Amy Rigby, An Exclusive DJ Set By The Crystal Method, The Acacia Strain, Tab the Band and Trivium.

And that’s our story as we enter the second half of today’s adventure. Don’t miss Your Latest Update, coming up around 3 pm (PDT), from Pollstar.com!