• 12 06,
• Live Your Life
• Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)
• If I Were A Boy
• Whatever You Like
• Hot N Cold
• Love Lockdown
• Just Dance
• So What
• Miss Independent
• Right Now (Na Na Na)

Billboard . Leavin'

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• Music Review: Rhonda Vincent

  Rhonda Vincent, "Good Thing Going" (Rounder)

  The title song of Rhonda Vincent's latest CD, "Good Thing Going," tells of a coupl

  e who offer thanks for the blessings in their lives, despite the occasional struggles. But the title just as aptly reflects this Missouri bluegrass singer's musical attitude.

  One of the most awarded artists in bluegrass in the last eight years, Vincent clearly plans to stick to straight-ahead, tradition-based mountain music. She eschews drums, letting her accomplished acoustic accompanists provide the drive and rhythm. And boy do they: When they cut loose on the opening "I'm Leavin'" or scale dramatic heights on the soaring "Scorn of a Lover," they set the bar for how powerful traditional bluegrass can still sound in the 21st Century.

  Vincent does throw a few new wrinkles into "Good Thing Going," her sixth album since signing with Rounder Records in 2000. She's writing more, and the five originals she contributes are among the album's best. She's just as good when updating the beautiful folk song, "The Water Is Wide," with help from duet partner Keith Urban. The same is true on the occasional sidestep, as on the gently swinging "World's Biggest Fool," where Vincent shows the sprightlier side of her sweet, clear-toned voice.

  CHECK THIS OUT: Vincent has a reputation for plucking hidden gems from the catalogs of bluegrass heroes, as she does with a barn-burning take on the late Jimmy Martin's "Hit Parade of Love." Vincent and her road band, The Rage, tear through it with a reckless force that Martin would have loved.

  ...(more) - 01 10 2008 8:19AM

• Music Review: Mary Gauthier

  Mary Gauthier, "Between Daylight and Dark" (Lost Highway): The title of Mary Gauthier's fifth album, "Between Daylight and Dark,"

  implies that the Louisiana-born songwriter will explore the tension between heading into the light and sinking into darkness. But this time out she focuses her concise, poetic lyrics on the midnight hours of desperate souls.

  The opening "Snakebit" sets the tone; the song's subject holds a suicide gun in her hand while acknowledging, "Everything worth holding slips through my fingers." Elsewhere, she portrays transient people fighting their impulses to run from love and trouble ("I Ain't Leavin'," "Before You Leave") as well as examining those who return to the same prison year after year to visit loved ones during the holidays ("Thanksgiving").

  Working for the first time with producer Joe Henry, who substitutes dusky atmosphere in place of the blue grooves of her past work, Gauthier keeps the arrangements more uniformly somber than on her previous albums. The flickers of grace and joy found on her previous album, "Mercy Now," as well as its moments of energy and fierceness, are missed on "Between Daylight and Dark."

  Nevertheless, Gauthier confirms that she's among the best singer-songwriters of her generation, especially when it comes to illustrating ramblers, derelicts and anyone who struggles with demons in the night.

  CHECK OUT THIS TRACK: On "Same Road," Gauthier candidly confronts a lover, saying she's been through the fire before but she's not planning on returning. Set to a slow, achingly beautiful melody, Gauthier sings, "I'll fight to keep you with me, but I won't let you take me back down."

  ...(more) - 09 19 2007 8:53AM

• Katy Perry, Rihanna lead U.S. singles chart

  NEW YORK (Billboard) - Katy Perry led the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for a fifth week on Thursday with "I Kissed a Girl,

  " while Rihanna's former chart-topper, "Take a Bow," was No. 2 for a third week.

  Chris Brown's "Forever" rose one to No. 3, swapping places with Lil Wayne's "Lollipop" featuring Static Major. Coldplay's former chart-topper "Viva La Vida" rebounded two to No. 5.

  Leona Lewis' "Bleeding Love" slipped one to No. 6, Natasha Bedingfield's "Pocketful of Sunshine" was also down one, to No. 7, and Lil Wayne's "A Milli" held steady at No. 8.

  Canadian rapper Kardinal Offishall scored his first top 10 hit with "Dangerous" featuring Akon, which jumped five to No. 9; the song was also No. 2 on the Billboard Canadian Hot 100. Jesse McCartney rounded out the top tier as "Leavin"' jumped one to its previous high of No. 10.

  Current Rolling Stone magazine cover boys the Jonas Brothers had the top debut with "Pushin' Me Away" at No. 16.

  Reuters/Billboard

  ...(more) - 07 25 2008 8:32AM