Josh Groban - Illuminations Cover, Release Date & Tracklisting!

Its here, finally! Josh Groban's long awaited new album, Illuminations will drop on November 15! Its been 4 years since Awake and the album is produced by the legendary Rick Rubin. The first single, Hidden Away is available on itunes so make sure you go pick it up if you haven't already.


Tracklisting

Wandering Kind (Prelude)
Bells of New York City
Galileo
L'Ora Dell'Addio
Hidden Away
Au Jardin Des Sans Pourquoi
Higher Window
If I Walk Away
Love Only Knows
Voce Existe Em Mim
War At Home
London Hymn
Straight To You

Ryan Star - Head Like a Hole - Billboard.com Mashup Mondays

Check out Ryan Star's acoustic cover of Nine Inch Nails hit Head Like a Hole. It was featured on Billboard.com's Mashup Mondays. I've heard this live before - it was fantastic. I'm kind of hoping it might eventually get recorded!

Jimmy Gnecco & Lukas Rossi - I'm a Monster, Nashville 9.22.10

Last night in Nashville, Lukas Rossi, who won Rockstar Supernova in 2006 joined Jimmy on stage at Mercy Lounge to sing I'm a Monster. To be honest, that's not a song of Jimmy's that I loved immediately -  it took some time to grow on me. But hearing Lukas join him and for them to sing it together was fabulous. It gave it an entirely new dimension, which is one thing I love about Jimmy's music - the more I listen to it, the more layers are uncovered. I'll be seeing Jimmy next Tuesday the 28th in Boston at the Hard Rock and next Saturday, October 2 at Don Hill's in New York City, so expect recaps with pictures and more than likely video from both of those. In the meantime, here's the video of I'm a Monster!






Thanks to John, who was in Nashville last night, for this!

MWK News!

For those of you who don't know who MWK are, they're the band that Neal Tiemann and Andy Skib played in with David in Tulsa. Anyway, Neal told us on twitter a few days ago that there would be an announcement regarding MWK coming by Friday, 5pm pacific time. This is what we got.

Just announced on Twitter:

@nealfingtiemann: Live, uncut, instudio, acoustic session release from MWK coming soon! More info to come. #MWK
6 minutes ago via Twitter for iPhone


From nealtiemann.com:

17 September 2010
Neal and Andy to Record a Collection of Live, Acoustic MWK Songs
News

In some extra time Andy and I have from our main gig, we are going to be hitting the studio for a live session. We’ll be playing a batch of songs acoustically that span our MWK career. You may already know the titles of the songs, but we’re going to throw in some twists and turns that I know no one (not even me yet) has heard. And, for those still not satisfied, we will do early versions of some new material we’ve been working on for future, full-band releases. This session will be available soon in some form – we’re still discussing that part. There will also be music from this that will be streaming exclusively on nealtiemann.com and myspace.com/mwkmusic. I hope everyone will get as excited for this as we are to release it!


-Neal

Thanks to @honestys_easy on twitter for the picture. :)

David Cook - America The Beautiful, US Open Men's Final, 9.13.10

David Cook sang America the Beautiful at the US Open Men's Final in NY today. The match was postponed from yesterday due to weather, but it didn't seem to matter if he sang yesterday or today. I thought he did a great job - it was beautiful stripped down and acoustic.

Check out the video!

Josh Groban - New Single - Hidden Away

Josh Groban's new album, Illuminations is dropping in November and Hidden Away is the first single off of it. Upon first listen, I'd forgotten how much I love his voice and why I fell in love in the first place. I really love how it's just him and the piano - a little bit of falsetto, a lot of soaring baritone. Its the simplest things that I love in a song. This song live will be amazing - whether he adds strings and full band into it, or just keeps it simple with the piano - its going to be gorgeous.

Check it out and let me know what you think! Once the album drops, I'll definitely do a first reaction blog, so keep an eye out!

Download Hidden Away

Kris Allen & Keith Urban 9.5.10 Oakdale Theater, Wallingford CT

Sometimes the best things and times in life are the unplanned, spontaneous ones. Yesterday was one of those days. It was the last show that Kris was doing with Keith, and the end of his summer tour, so on a whim, a friend of mine and I decided to go to Wallingford. I'm not a huge Keith fan at all, but I wanted to see Kris since the last time I had seen him was in December. Needless to say, it's one of the best concerts I've been to - ever.

Reenie and I arrived early and I texted Mer and Kathy, as they were coming to the show as well and we'd discussed dinner. We ended up meeting up with everyone at a great little place in town - out of everyone, I'd only met Mer before, and it was awesome to see her again and to meet Kathy, Barry, Emjay, Laura and Erin. After dinner, we headed back to the venue, and after a few wrong turns and sitting in traffic, we managed to get into our seats at 7:20, and at 7:30, the lights in the theater went down and the show started on time.