After a decade-plus hiatus, Julian Lennon is making music again and on his own terms. The singer/songwriter is prepping a new album for spring 2010, and on Dec. 15, his company theRevolution will release a 4-track EP featuring the charity single "Lucy." The song pays tribute to Lennon's childhood friend Lucy Vodden, who also inspired the Beatles classic "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds."

Vodden, who died in September of complications from lupus, was famously depicted by Lennon in a watercolor painting that prompted his father, John Lennon, to write the surrealist "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" tune. Julian tells Billboard.com that his charity single came together immediately in the wake of Vodden's death, as he was laying down background vocals for a song by one of theRevolution's new artists, James Scott Cook.

"I learned of Lucy's passing during the actual process," Lennon recalls. "I'd reacquainted myself with her through friends and businesspeople about two years ago, so I knew of her plight and was actually helping her to hopefully have a little more comfort in life."

Coincidentally, the song Lennon was helping Cook record was entitled "Lucy." Within a day the artists had reworked the song's lyrics and arrangement to make it a duet that celebrated Vodden's life, as well as Cook's 89-year-old grandmother. "She's also suffered from lupus all her life, and her name is Lucy," says Lennon. "The song was done in an evening. We thought, 'If we're going to do this, let's do it now in memory of Lucy, while we're all here and we have the energy.'"

Proceeds from purchases of the single, available only at iTunes from Dec. 15-Jan. 1, will go towards the St. Thomas' Lupus Trust in Great Britain and the Lupus Foundation of America. The EP will be worked by RED Distribution at retail at radio. Its additional three tracks are an acoustic version of "Lucy," a song entitled "Sober" from Cook's upcoming album under theRevolution, and a track entitled "Beautiful," from Lennon's new album "Everything Changes."

"It's actually the slowest and most emotional track on the album," Lennon explains. "It was written about people I know and my friends know that have passed on in life.

"Everything Changes" will be Lennon's first album since 1998's "Photograph Smile," which came 7 years after "Help Yourself," his last release before parting ways with Atlantic Records. He's since spent the past 12 years focused on business pursuits and filmmaking (he produced the 2006 documentary "Whaledreamers"), but eventually he felt compelled to start writing songs again.

"I can't help it -- I just have melodies and lyrical ideas that just come into my head whether I like it or not," he says. "I'm almost plagued by it...so I figure, I've got to get it out my system."

While "Photograph Smile" was recorded with a full orchestra, Lennon says the instrumentation on his new album was put together in a more piecemeal fashion. "It was done mostly at home, in my own time and just by working closely with friends," he explains. "Whenever they'd pop by for a cup of tea, I'd go, 'Fancy putting a bassline on this or doing some cello or backgrounds?' It was a pleasant process for me."

Once he'd pulled together an album's worth of material, Lennon says it was crucial for him to come up with a new business model for releasing it. "I finished my album about a year ago, but with the demise of the labels and everything that was going on, I just didn't see anything I quite wanted to sink my teeth into," he says. "I felt like there were potentially other ideas out there."

With theRevolution, Lennon has teamed up with digital entrepreneurs Michael Birch and Todd Meagher to fund artists like himself and connect them with the music services like tour logistics, marketing and distribution. He says the company will provide most of these services through its subsidiary, the Artist Alliance, and its affiliates. "I'm hoping that it is revolutionary," Lennon says. "I think we have more maneuverability within the market than many other companies. Should we need to change something on the drop of a hat, we can do that."

Lennon adds that the type of artists that he'd like theRevolution to support are "damn good singer/songwriters...I'm still very much old school. I love an album that has its ebbs and flows and contemplates life."

Listen to the song on Billboard

Bachman-Turner Overdrive principals Randy Bachman and Fred Turner have reunited to record the title track of Bachman's next album, "Rock 'n' Roll is the Only Way Out," which the guitarist describes to Billboard.com as "really rootsy, really AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, really fun, eager, hungry rock 'n' roll. It sounds like we're in our 20s again."

Bachman and Turner plan to announce details of the album's release, which is expected in fall 2010, as well as tour plans at a press conference December 8 in Winnipeg, Canada, where both men reside.

They won't be joined by the rest of their bandmates, however; drummer Rob Bachman (Bachman's younger brother) and guitarist Blair Thornton have filed suit to prevent the duo from using the BTO name. But Bachman said that won't prevent him and Turner -- who reportedly are considering monikers such as Bachman-Turner and Bachman-Turner United -- from working together.

"We've been getting offers for the last five or six years," says Bachman, who served three separate tenures in BTO. "It started in 2000, with the reunion of the Guess Who. I went to see the Eagles, and the first thing Don Henley and Joe Walsh said was, 'How's Turner? Any chance you guys will do anything?' 'Why are you interested?' 'You're the last band of the '70s that hasn't gotten back together or put something out, that's why!' Mick Jagger said the same thing when we played the SARS show in Toronto (in 2003). So we'll see what happens when my CD comes out; the first cut people are gonna hear is this cut with me and Fred singing."

Bachman and Turner had been in contact for a while before he presented the "Rock 'n' Roll is the Only Way Out" track to him. "I said, 'Fred, pick whatever vocal line you want and scream your head off, just like the old days."

Bachman -- whose album also includes appearances by Neil Young and the late Jeff Healey -- adds that since then Turner has given the guitarist a few of his songs to work on as well.

During its run, BTO sold an estimated 20 million albums worldwide, topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1974 with "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" and scored Top 40 hits such as "Takin' Care of Business," "Roll on Down the Highway," "Hey You" and "Let It Ride."

Source reuters

Thanks to the United Nations, Stevie Wonder will be doing more than entertaining us with his music -- the Grammy Award winner has been appointed to be a U.N. "messenger of peace." In keeping with his success in spite of his blindness, Wonder's work will focus on people with disabilities.

"I recognize that he has consistently used his voice and special relationship with the public to create a better and more inclusive world, to defend civil and human rights and to improve the lives of those less fortunate," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said at a news conference. "Stevie Wonder is a true inspiration to young people all over the world about what can be achieved despite any physical limitations."

Joining the likes of actor George Clooney, cellist Yo-Yo Ma and actress Charlize Theron, Wonder will promote the U.N.'s efforts in helping improve the lives of people all over the world.

Wonder has been recognized for his work with various causes including the Children's Diabetes Foundation, Junior Blind of America and the President's Committee on Employment of People With Disabilities. He has also started the Wonder Vision Awards program as well as put on a yearly "House Full of Toys" concert, which has provided toys to families in need for the more than 10 years.

Source Spinner

Jimmy Buffett says he felt a greater level of engagement on his new album, "Buffet Hotel," than he has on many of his other recent efforts.

"With a band this good and with people this good around you, you kind of get in a routine," Buffett tells Billboard.com, acknowledging that previous "listening and fixing" was done primarily by Coral Reefer Band collaborators Mike Utley and Mac McAnally. But on "Buffet Hotel," Buffett says that "we got back to doing things like we did in the old days. Instead of doing it in the afternoon, I said, 'Let's go back like we did in the old days and do those red wine and reefer vocals...at midnight.' I'd get a little buzz on red wine and get my singing chops, get in that mood, and then I'd send 'em over the Internet to Utley and Mac and say, 'Alright, I know they were midnight. You got red wine vocals there. You can throw 'em away or tell me what you think,' and they'd go, 'Do more of those!' "

Buffett adds that ProTools also allowed him to keep the project going even while he was touring. "Mac and I could sit and discuss things in the hotel rooms and look in stuff that he was working on, and the I could work on 'em," he says. "I was totally involved at that level, just wanting to tweak little things...up to the end, but without beating it to death."

"Buffet Hotel" started life with the recording of the title track in Mali when Buffett attended the Festival in the Desert (and discovered the album's namesake, Hotel De La Gare Buffet, in the Bomako Train station). He also worked on the album's 12 songs in London, Nashville, Chicago, Long Island and Muscle Shoals, Ala., with songwriting contributions by Will Kimbrough, Roger Guth, Jesse Winchester and others, as well as a cover of Bruce Cockburn's "Life's Short." Buffett and company previewed several of the songs during his 2009 concerts, notably "Summerzcool" and "Surfing in a Hurricane," the first surf rock song he's ever written.

"Mac told me on the last night of the tour we'd done seven of the new songs off the album over the summer, and I'd never done that before," Buffett recalls. "Usually you're lucky to get one or two songs from a new album into the show, so it was a complete reversal."

Buffett is planning a full-scale "Buffet Hotel" tour for 2010 and intends to start the year in Australia and the Pacific Rim. He's toying with the idea of playing entire albums next year and hopes to play 1983's "One Particular Harbor" in Tahiti. He's also putting into motion into a special performance at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival with "Buffet Hotel" guests Sonny Landreth and Toumani Diabate. And while he says that he's "out of the movie business" at the moment, Buffett is working on a documentary about his trip to Mali with director Margaret Brown.

Buffett also has two books in the works, a collection of short stories set in the Pacific and "a rock 'n' roll novel" called "Mudbath" that is "based on a real-life adventure, but hopefully you won't recognize any of the characters."

Source Billboard

Alongtime bluegrass bass player and singer with Ralph Stanley's Clinch Mountain Boys has died. Jack Cooke was 72.

According to a press release Wednesday from Morris Public Relations, Cooke died Tuesday at a hospital in his hometown of Norton, Va., after collapsing at home.

He joined the Clinch Mountain Boys in 1970 and performed with the group until being sidelined by health problems early this year.

In 2002, he performed on the Grammy-winning album "Lost in the Lonesome Pines," a collection headlined by Jim Lauderdale and Stanley.

Survivors include three sisters and two brothers. Funeral services will be Thursday in Norton, with burial Friday in Wise County, Va.

Source Billboard

The Alan Parsons Project founder member Eric Woolfson has died aged 64.

Woolfson, who formed The Alan Parsons Project with Parsons in 1975, passed away in London on Tuesday (December 1), after suffering from cancer.

The Glasgow-born musician was largely a self-taught pianist and had been on the fringes of the music business for some years before finding fame with The Alan Parsons Project.

As a songwriter Woolfson was signed up by The Rolling Stones' producer Andrew Loog Oldham. He went on to pen songs for Marianne Faithfull, Chris Farlowe and Frank Ifield. He later turned to management and looked after Alan Parsons before the duo decided to make music together. They released ten albums together before splitting in 1990.

Speaking of his death, friend Deborah Owen praised Woolfson's talent.

"Eric was very much a self-made man. He couldn't read music but if you asked him to play anything he could do it straight away," she told BBC News. "He had an extraordinary gift."

Woolfson was the singer on many of The Alan Parsons Project's best-known songs, including 'Time' and 'Eye In The Sky'. After The Alan Parsons Project split, he moved into writing for musicals.

He is survived by his wife Hazel and the couple's two daughters.

Source NME