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BRAD PAISLEY THE GUITARIST GETS HIS MOMENT [AP, 11/10/08]
At a recent concert, Brad Paisley closed his show with a song that most of his fans had never heard and probably never will on country radio. B.B. King flashed onto a giant screen behind him and the two began trading guitar licks on the blues workout "Let the Good Times Roll." The solos were loose and raw and the interaction between the men so flawless that it felt like King was in the house. As the band played a final coda, Paisley slapped a throng of hands thrust up from the crowd, unstrapped his Telecaster and walked off through a cloud of dry ice smoke. It was a rock star moment, but it underscored his love for the instrument that's been like an appendage to his slight frame since he was 8. The song with King is from Paisley's new album out this week, "Play," a collection of guitar-heavy tunes and instrumentals that has to be one of the most unusual releases by a top-of-his-game hitmaker. When Paisley isn't jamming on the disc with guitar greats like King, Albert Lee and James Burton, he's paying homage to a host of others from Les Paul to Eric Johnson. "If there's any part of my image or my artistry that goes unnoticed at this point, it may be the guitar-playing side," he said from the living room of his century old farm house, which is squeezed between two horse pastures just south of Nashville. "I've had people as recently as last weekend say, 'I had no idea that you could play guitar like that.' And I'm thinking that the quickest way to say that is to do a largely instrumental project. "In a nutshell you're trying to get as many people as possible to understand you either lyrically as a writer, or vocally, or guitar-wise. You want them to know where you're coming from and relate and enjoy it." Paisley, 36, has always included an instrumental track on his albums, and even his mainstream hits like "Alcohol" and "Online" have dazzling string runs. But "Play" is different. The guitar is front and center on most of the 15 tracks that span country, rock, jazz, blues, gospel and bluegrass. Only five songs have vocals — this from a guy who's been awarded male vocalist of the year by the Country Music Association and the Academy of Country Music. The original idea was to make an entire album of instrumentals, but he decided to include vocals on tracks with King, the late Buck Owens, Steve Wariner and Keith Urban, and add a re-recording of his recent No. 1 "Waitin' on a Woman" with actor Andy Griffith. "I didn't want it to be the kind of thing my fans buy and listen to a couple of times and then put it in their bookcase and leave it on the shelf. I wanted there to be things on there they'll like to hear over and over." The song with Urban, "Start a Band," an amiable country rocker with Paisley's trademark humor, has become a top 10 hit on Billboard's country charts. "I feel like it's a good time to do something like this," Paisley said. "The natural thing you'd expect for someone in my position would probably be a greatest hits album, but I don't like greatest hits albums. At a time when you can buy every song individually that you want, there's no real reason to do that sort of thing." Instead, he views "Play" as a chance to regroup before his next release, expected next year. "How do I do the fourth installment of what you'd call my normal records? I really want to take my time at getting that right and making sure it really is the next best thing. By doing this it buys you time and also cleanses your palate. It's a lot like ginger at a Japanese restaurant between meals." Still, Paisley is riding a remarkable streak (he's had a dozen No. 1 singles since 1999, including his last eight in a row) and instrumentals aren't exactly a hot commodity with radio. The first and last one to reach No. 1 on the country chart was Owens' "Buckaroo" in 1965. "It's probably been 30 years since there was even an instrumental that was a minor hit," remarked Wade Jessen, director of country charts for Billboard magazine. "But if you look at the history of people who have had success doing stuff that was off the menu, it's people who were already hot." The new disc is personal for Paisley. He invited several of his guitar heroes and friends to play on it. He wrote an instrumental called "Kim" for his wife, actress Kimberly Williams-Paisley, and another for his son, Huck, called "Huckleberry Jam." As he discussed the songs recently, he reached for an acoustic guitar. "I think 'Huckleberry Jam' is a great title. I thought, 'Let's do something that sounds a little like the energy my 20-month-old son has,'" he said and began playing the fast, bouncy solo. "With 'Kim,' I tried to come up with a romantic sounding instrumental piece that was simple and earthy. It sounds like her to me somehow, something about it. It has a minor section that is the dark part of her personality," he said, and fingered the melancholy notes. Joe Galante, chairman of Paisley's label group, Sony BMG Nashville, has had other stars on his roster do projects that don't lend themselves to radio hits. Alan Jackson cut a gospel album for his mother. Martina McBride did a record of old country standards. "People have a passion for something and I help them pursue it," Galante said. "It adds to their repertoire, and I think that's what we're supposed to be doing. Everybody who's done one of these projects with us says 'I don't know what this is commercially, but I want to do this because I feel the need to do it.'

EDWARD ASNER'S LIFE: THE GREATEST STORY NEVER TOLD [Reuters/Hollywood Reporter, 10/27/08]
One of the best Hollywood biographies has never been told and probably never will be. That would be the story of Edward Asner, who will star in "Generation Gap," a new Hallmark Channel movie that airs on Friday at 9 p.m. In the film, Asner plays a widowed grandfather and former military man who reluctantly agrees to reform his rebellious teenage grandson over the course of a single summer. Rue McClanahan and Alex Black co-star. "I feel very strongly I have not lost it," said Asner, who turns 79 next month. "I'm a better actor now than I've ever been, though I can't leap tall buildings." Even so, he is more than capable of giving an honest and convincing performance. "If you got me there to deliver the line and to demonstrate what I'm feeling and what I'm projecting in terms of dialog, you've got the right party," he said. Not that anyone should need convincing. No man has won more Emmys for performance than Asner, who has seven. It is not hard to make the case that, in the world of TV particularly, he has been the preeminent actor of his generation. So why can't we read about it, particularly since bookstore shelves overflow with the biographies of lesser lights? You'd think that Asner, the son of a scrap metal dealer who went on to star in one of TV's best comedies ("The Mary Tyler Moore Show"), one of the best dramas ("Lou Grant") and two of the best miniseries ("Roots" and "Rich Man, Poor Man") would have some great yarns to spin. Not only from his time in front of the camera but behind it. He has been a president of the Screen Actors Guild and a sometimes-controversial activist for social justice. It's come up, Asner said about a biography. "I had two feeble attempts earlier and they were not gratifying." The first time, he said, he couldn't convince publishers that the writer he had in mind was right for the book. The second time, the writer submitted a sample chapter to the publisher about Asner's spat with the late, right-leaning Charlton Heston. "The attitudes of the agents and publishers by this point had turned so much more conservative, half of them rejected it forcibly. Didn't want to hear about it." The writer became so depressed he suffered a nervous breakdown, Asner said. Maybe it's just as well no biography is written, he said. He would not want to tell half-truths, suppress his anger, harm innocent people or shy away from naming names. "It seems a waste of time to do a biography which, to me, is cheating."

PRINCE CONTINUES TO CHART HIS OWN COURSE [AP, 10/24/08]
At a celebration/concert for Prince's new book, late night had turned into early morning, the bar was closing and party organizers were deciding what decorations to pack up first. But Prince was still on stage — and still captivating the exclusive group of about 200 fans who had gathered in an intimate penthouse loft to hear him perform. Though he had taken about a two-hour break between sets, Prince was entering hour four in what would become a nearly five-hour musical extravaganza that not only included his own seminal hits like "Purple Rain" and "Little Red Corvette," but also interpretations of music from Jimi Hendrix, the Beatles, The Rolling Stones and even Janet Jackson and India.Arie for good measure. (Fans paid $1,000 for the first jam session and $300 for the second: Proceeds went to charity.) It's this kind of magic that Prince tried to capture with "21 Nights," a glossy coffee-table book published by Simon & Schuster that documents the glamorous rocker during his record-breaking, 21-night run at London's 02 Arena last year. The book not only steals glimpses of his onstage performances, but also behind-the-scenes moments of the star and his band during the unprecedented concert stint. "No one had ever sold out 21 nights in a row," said photographer Randee St. Nicholas. "So I thought, 'We should do a book surrounding this point in his life, because this is a great point in his life.'" While his three-decades-long career has been meticulously chronicled, Prince is quick to point out, "Not by me — never by me. That's someone else who's on the outside looking in." This time, it's Prince — with St. Nicholas — telling the story, through his own frame of reference. "This was a landmark event," says Prince, sitting on the rooftop with the Manhattan skyline as his backdrop during a break from rehearsals before the evening's musical marathon. "No one believed that it would do what it did. ... Everyone tried to talk me out of it." Of course, Prince is used to proving skeptics wrong. These days, he's regarded as a pioneer for artists' rights and known for releasing music over the Internet. But when he left his longtime label Warner Bros. nearly two decades ago after a protracted battle over his creative path, and abandoned major record labels to release music on his own, he left everyone — from fans to musician insiders — wondering if he had lost his mind. In recent years, he has re-linked with major record labels like Sony and Universal Music Group to release his albums, but isn't sure any record is worth putting out in this era of piracy and illegal downloads. Though the book includes a CD, it contains no new songs, just classic hits and other songs from one of his signature jam sessions. "Today, it's not realistic to expect to put out new music and profit from it. There's no point in trying to put new music out there and keep it from being (exploited)," he says. And he now has disdain for the way the Internet has, in his view, subverted artists' rights. "The powers that be are abusing the copyright infringement," he says. "You can't sample Steven Spielberg; you don't see his stuff up there, just old tapes of the Ohio Players, who can't afford to defend themselves." But while Prince exudes hints of frustration, he's hardly bitter: These days, serenity and good-natured fun seem to be his mantra. Though he professes shyness, the diminutive artist gives a warm hug as a welcome, and during his show — which had Spike Lee, Anderson Cooper and Dave Chappelle in the audience — he had fans laughing as he cracked jokes throughout (among his more memorable was referring to himself as Rihanna, an allusion to Internet gossip that the statuesque singer had been mistaken for Prince). St. Nicholas, a longtime friend, says Prince's conversion to the Jehovah's Witness faith several years ago has helped him evolve into a more spiritual person — and a more open one, in comparison with his reputation as a moody recluse. But Prince's public image has never been the real Prince that friends see behind closed doors, she adds. "He's shy. But he doesn't necessarily hide or shield himself and attempt this mysterious persona that he has," she says of the twice-divorced star. "You know children? You never know what they are going to do one minute to the next? ... That's very much how he is," she explains. "In a way it's very open, because if you can just hang in that moment with him, and just go for it — you're not worrying about the past." And at times, Prince isn't even consumed with the present. While he talked about biblical implications to the recent stock market plunge ("that's why I had to bring back this song," he says as his band rehearses "1999" in the background), when it comes to a recent milestone, he's decidedly nonchalant. "How old are we really?" asks Prince, who turned 50 in June. "It's about ascension. It's not the other way. There's nothing down about it. Everything is better." As an example, he points to the 21-night run in London: "I couldn't have sold out 21 nights in London in the peak of my career; it would have been an impossibility," he says. "I look forward to these years where everything is just open.

LEON JACKSON QUEST FOR MUSICAL RESPECT [BBC, 10/12/08]
A fashionable bar in east London is transformed into a smoky 1930s-style drinking den for the making of a lavish pop video. The set is adorned with stunningly attractive extras and a band which plays live with every painstaking take - but they are not the centre of attention. Star of the show is X Factor winner Leon Jackson, who is returning almost a year after his unexpected triumph to launch a new single and debut album. The mild-mannered 19-year-old singer says - in the middle of his own video set - he is just an ordinary guy. "I just went for lunch and someone was holding an umbrella for me, and I said 'Don't be daft, I'll hold it myself. It's weird people doing stuff for you." While Jackson secured last year's Christmas number one after winning The X Factor, he had to share the video shoot with three other finalists and admits to nerves at being the focus of attention. After the frenzy of The X Factor died down, the Scot dipped out of sight to make the new album and be matured for stardom. Jackson, serious and resolute beyond his years, insists that he has had a leading role in deciding his musical future. "I've watched the songs grow, seen the first guitars strummed on them and chosen takes," he explains, adding he had a hand in choosing artwork and track listings. "My ultimate dream is to be a really credible, respected musician - a songwriter as well as a singer and performer," adds Jackson, from Whitburn, West Lothian. Some of the teenager's predecessors in The X Factor winners' hall of fame withered on the vine after albums of questionable quality were rushed out. But last year's victor, Leona Lewis, was also given a period out of the limelight while her success was plotted. "She has shifted that whole stigma of winning The X Factor a wee bit," explains Jackson. "Only a couple of winners like Leona and Shayne Ward have broken through, so hopefully I can take the same route." He admits that Lewis, with her success at home and in the US, is a "rare find" and an "inspiration". "I don't compare myself to her because I'm totally different, in style, musical genre and backgrounds," says Jackson, pointing out that he entered The X Factor a musical beginner. He returns to the stage of his triumph at the weekend, with an appearance on the new series of the programme. Making the most of Jackson's inexorable X Factor link, his new song, Don't Call This Love, will be released digitally at midnight after Saturday's show, October 11, 2008.

PHISH REUNION SEEN AS A WELCOME SHOT OF ENERGY [Reuters/Billboard, 10/11/08]
Could the return of Phish spark a revitalization of the jam-band scene? After splitting in 2004 with a muddy sendoff at its Coventry, Vermont, festival, Phish will re-school in the spring for a three-night run at one of its favorite venues, the Hampton (Virginia) Coliseum. The prospect of the March 6-8 shows has been greeted with unbridled glee by loyal Phish-heads. According to the band's Web site, there will be additional tour dates for guitarist/vocalist Trey Anastasio, bassist Mike Gordon, keyboardist Page McConnell and drummer Jon Fishman throughout 2009. To what extent the band will tour remains a mystery. Chip Hooper, Phish's agent at Paradigm, offered only this: "We're contemplating a bunch of stuff. The key phrase is 'stay tuned.'" Phish once reigned atop the jam-band scene, racking up $175.5 million in concert grosses, with 5.8 million tickets sold to 475 shows reported to Billboard Boxscore between 1989 and 2004. The group's final year of touring grossed about $20 million, including about $10 million from the final Coventry, Vermont, concerts in August 2004. Coincidentally or not, once Phish called it quits, the jam-band scene as a whole softened up a bit from its late-'90s, post-Grateful Dead vitality. Genre mainstays like Widespread Panic and Dave Matthews Band remain solid draws, but linchpin festival Bonnaroo, while not completely abandoning its jam roots, expanded to include more mainstream rock acts like Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Elvis Costello and Beck, as well as harder-edged bands like Tool and Metallica. In the earliest incarnations of Bonnaroo, the idea of Metallica rocking the Tennessee hills was inconceivable. In reality, Bonnaroo is a direct descendant of Phish's one-band festival extravaganzas like Clifford Ball, It, Lemonwheel and Coventry. Given Phish's ability to draw a loyal, cohesive fan base from music lovers of disparate tastes, it could be argued that a certain live music movement came to an end when the band left the road. If nothing else, Phish's return to touring will rejuvenate that fan base. "We're very, very happy about this, it's something very special," Hampton Coliseum general manager Joe Tsao said. Asked how the show came together, Tsao said, "It's very simple: I got a call from the band saying, 'We want to come back,' and I said, 'Come on!'"

"HAPPY-GO-LUCKY"s SALLY HAWKINS GET OSCAR BUZZ [Reuters, 10/9/08]
Actress Sally Hawkins is relatively unknown in the United States but an acclaimed role in British director Mike Leigh's new film may find her on Hollywood's red carpets this awards season, a prospect she calls "gob-smacking." The London-born Hawkins, 32, has been gaining Oscar buzz from critics for her role as Poppy -- a jokey, infectiously optimistic schoolteacher in Leigh's touching comedy "Happy-Go-Lucky" that is released in the United States on Friday, October 10. Earlier this year she won the best actress award for the role at the Berlin Film Festival. More recently some film critics have named her as an Oscar contender for best actress while the Hollywood Film Festival just named her their breakthrough actress of the year. With several Oscar-worthy movies yet to be released in the United States, Hawkins said she was not holding her breath, but would be a "mess" if she ever made it on stage. But such modesty combined with a sharp wit and intelligence is what her admirers say is typical, including Leigh, who first cast her in his 2002 film "All Or Nothing." Leigh said Hawkins deserved an Oscar nomination, saying playing Poppy, whose carefree attitude belies a more astute and worldly perception, was more difficult than it looked. "Because there are lots of complex things going on, she really has to be on the ball about playing the character," Leigh said. "She always has to be in the moment, it's a completely organic performance." Leigh, 65, whose other films have won actresses Oscar nominations including Brenda Blethyn for "Secrets & Lies," said he cast Hawkins because "without question it was time to make a film that put her at the center." She said she borrowed her own philosophy on how to be happy from her parents, who were successful children's book authors and illustrators. "What I learnt from quite an early age was it doesn't matter whatever you are doing, as long as it makes you happy and as long as you are driven by it," she said. "And not trying to please other people because then you will end up in a dead end." She is not unknown to other directors, having appeared in Woody Allen's "Cassandra's Dream" and she recently finished filming on new movie written by British author Nick Hornby. But if her career does keep rising, is she afraid of losing her obscurity? "I do love my privacy, but unless you are an Angelina Jolie, well, I don't think I really have much to worry about," she said laughing.

FOLK LEGENDS COCKBURN, TAMBLYN RECORD TRIBUTE TO OTTAWA CABBIE [CBC, 10/5/08]
Bruce Cockburn, Ian Tamblyn, and other Canadian folk and blues legends have released an album that pays tribute to Ottawa taxi driver, poet and songwriter Bill Hawkins. The double CD Dancing Alone features songs penned by Hawkins but never recorded before he became a taxi driver 34 years ago. Hawkins wrote them for the Children, a band he played in with Cockburn, Sneezy Walters and David Wiffen in the mid-1960s when Hawkins managed the legendary Le Hibou coffeehouse. Artists once gathered at the venue, which was first located on Rideau Street, then Bank Street, then Sussex Drive, to take in the words and voices of poets such as Leonard Cohen and Irving Layton, as well as musicians such as Reverend Gary Davis, or Blind Gary Davis as he was called, and John Lee Hooker. Hawkins, now in his 60s, said he was filled with amazement when he heard his old songs on the new album, which features folk veterans and emerging local talents. "I can't say enough about the job that Ian Tamblyn did producing it. The idea for the album came from Harvey Glatt, former manager for the Children. Hawkins first met the musicians who would later perform as the Children while running Le Hibou with his then wife. At the coffeehouse, he first heard Wiffen sing, and said the "amazing instrument" of Wiffen's voice was in his head when he wrote many of the songs on Dancing Alone. Hawkins found himself partying with musical legends such as Joni Mitchell and Jimi Hendrix, who was carrying a big tape recorder one night when Hawkins picked him up at the Capital Theatre. Eventually, when Hawkins was in his late 20s playing rooms full of teenagers, he got the sense that he no longer belonged in the scene, and the band split up. "I took my then-wife and two kids down to Mexico. And when I returned, everyone else was famous," he said. Hawkins started another band, but became disillusioned with the business and found he was drinking too much. He tried jobs in television and the civil service. "But I'm just not used to working for other people, so I started driving a cab — been doing it ever since." Now, more than three decades later, Hawkins said he's getting back into music. He hopes to retire from taxi driving in a couple of years so he can spend more time on music and poetry.

YO-YO MA'S NEW ALBUM TAKES SPIRITUAL JOURNEY [AP, 10/4/08]
After musical trips to Appalachia, Brazil, Argentina, the Silk Road and baroque and modern Italy, Yo-Yo Ma has embarked on a spiritual journey. His next CD, "Songs of Joy & Peace," is being released this month, just in time for those holiday trips over the river and through the woods to grandmother's house. The 53-year-old cellist sees it as a musical house party with a wide variety of top artists jamming with Ma for the other guests. Even the audience gets an opportunity to join in the merriment. He felt the urge to record something that he hopes will bring people together during these dangerous times. "I wanted to do something that focuses on an idea rather than a place," Ma said in an interview. "Like Appalachian music or Brazilian or tango or the Silk Road, we were going to faraway regions. Some of the songs are wondrous, such as a jazzed-up version of the Gregorian chant "Concordi Laetitia" by Matt and Dave Brubeck. Others — like a duet with western Massachusetts neighbor James Taylor in "Here Comes the Sun" — are soothing. There's also the traditional — Alison Krauss' "Wexford Carol" — and the wild — Canadian Natalie MacMaster's jig and reel. Starting with the lonesome melody of "Dona Nobis Pacem" ("Give Us Peace") played by Ma, the song becomes thicker and thicker as more of his recorded cello voices are layered in. The 16th-century melody re-emerges time after time, played in a variety of styles by artists such as the Brazilian guitarists Sergio and Odair Assad, bluegrass bassist Edgar Meyer and mandolinist Chris Thile and Cuban-American clarinetist Paquito D'Rivera and Israeli jazz pianist Alon Yavnai. Other artists on the CD include Diana Krall and Renee Fleming. "When you play music with somebody else, you're in sync. When you're in sync there's a moment of trust in communication that is huge, huge. In the last song, "Dona Nobis Pacem" re-emerges with Ma playing the theme alone, but joined by trumpeter Chris Botti playing "Auld Lang Syne" as a countermelody. It's a poignant way to weave the song threads together into a soft snuggly rug in front of the fireplace. But, like the calendar, the music doesn't end. The audience gets its chance to participate by submitting its own creations of "Dona Nobis Pacem" on the Indaba Music social network site. Entries will be judged and the winner will get an opportunity to record with Ma.

PETE SEEGER STILL STRUMMING 'AT 89' [AP, 10/2/08]
At 89, folk music legend Pete Seeger still has more to say. His latest release, aptly titled "At 89," is Seeger's first record of new material in five years and by Seeger's own account it will be his last. He doesn't expect to be playing many more concerts, either. "My brain is definitely, definitely going," Seeger says at one point out of frustration during a phone interview from his Hudson Valley home in Beacon, N.Y. He often stops midway through a story, apologizing for not being able to remember the rest of it. Even so, both over the phone and on the new record, Seeger sounds strong and full of life. He still manages to chop trees and shovel gravel at his home in the woods that he shares with his wife of 65 years, Toshi. Before coming to the phone, he has to be summoned from out of the barn where he's repairing a washing machine. Seeger is happy to talk about everything from the new swimming pool in town, folk music history and his latest record. A number of friends, singers and musicians from Seeger's beloved Hudson River Valley join him on "At 89," a mixture of old and new songs. He turns over vocal duties on several songs, but contributes on nearly every track by playing guitar or banjo. He keeps up the folk music tradition on "Or Else! (One-a These Days)," singing about a future where schools get the money they need and the Navy has to hold a bake sale to build a battleship. Seeger says he hopes those who listen to the record, out Tuesday, will walk away with a message of hope. A singer since the Great Depression, Seeger is most known for the hits "Where Have All the Flowers Gone," "If I Had a Hammer" and "Turn, Turn, Turn." He's received the Presidential Medal of the Arts, the Kennedy Center Award, a Lifetime Legends medal from the Library of Congress and a lifetime achievement Grammy. He's also a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Seeger's committed to playing a handful of shows this fall including the annual Seeger and Guthrie Thanksgiving Concert on Nov. 29 at Carnegie Hall. "I always like to get people singing with me," Seeger says, recalling how when he was 8 he got his friends to sing along with him to the song "Sentimental Gentleman from Georgia." Asked to reflect on his legacy and how he will be remembered, Seeger says he considers himself a link in a chain of musicians from Woody Guthrie to Bob Dylan to Bruce Springsteen. "Can't prove a damn thing, but I look upon myself as old grandpa," Seeger says.

"RA RA RIOT", THEY ARE YOUNG, EXCITING AND FRESH [Reuters/Billboard, 9/27/08]
It's not an unusual feeling for any young band taking its first stab at a long-player to have, but Ra Ra Riot's album is like a journey. Every song takes you through that range of feelings that every person has in their life, but also specifically through things they experienced in the past year. There's sadness, and there's joy. There's a lot of celebrating, for sure. Ra Ra Riot's weight has been much heavier than most. A little more than a year ago, the band's original drummer, John Pike, drowned at 23. Aside from his talent behind the kit, Pike was also the band's primary songwriter and lyricist, and contributed vocals. Although "The Rhumb Line" was recorded after his death, his presence is felt throughout, with more than half of the album's songs having been co-written or co-arranged by him. "We did desire to make 'The Rhumb Line' a tribute to John," Wes Miles, lead vocalist for Ra Ra Riot said, "but mainly through celebrating good things. In remembering the things that make us happy, we continue to honor John's life and contributions." "Dying is Fine," a nuanced celebration of life written primarily by Pike, is a suitable centerpiece for "The Rhumb Line." With words taken from an E.E. Cummings poem of the same name, the song -- a first-rate example of the band's stormy, string-cushioned indie-pop -- embraces dying as part of living, even while the chorus determinedly declares, "I wouldn't like death / not even if death were good." Miles said that "the way the band works is kind of like a family -- there's a family dynamic of sticking together." And that's where, he says, Ra Ra Riot "took the strength from -- being in a group, being friends," to weather John's passing. He also stressed that the band's "main goal" has always been and still is "just to have fun. And that's exactly what we want for people who listen to the album or who come to our shows: we want them to be having fun, we want them to have a good time." Fans seem to be responding to that message by earning Ra Ra Riot its first chart ink. "The Rhumb Line" debuted at No. 3 on Billboard's Top Heatseekers chart four weeks ago and continues to stand firmly within the chart's top 10.

KINNEAR DOUBLES UP AS GHOST, OBSESSED INVENTOR [AP, 9/27/08]
When Greg Kinnear flashes his broad smile, you could be in for a pat on the back — or a knife in it. Kinnear showcases his ability to play lovable and loathsome with virtually the same demeanor as a sleazy dead guy in the romantic comedy "Ghost Town" and an honorable but fanatical inventor in "Flash of Genius." Though his roles have largely come in comedy-tinged films, Kinnear rarely plays things just for laughs. Beneath his deceptively boyish demeanor, Kinnear inhabits characters with a lot of dark corners his grin can never completely conceal. "I don't think they call me when it comes time to do a guy who doesn't have some prickly behavior. I don't seem to see a lot of those," Kinnear said in an interview at the recent Toronto International Film Festival, where both "Ghost Town" and "Flash of Genius" played. In the supernatural comedy "Ghost Town," which opened Sept. 18, he plays a smarmy, selfish spirit haunting and taunting a dentist (Ricky Gervais), Kinnear's ghost eventually finding the soul he lacked in life. In "Flash of Genius," opening Oct. 3, Kinnear stars as Bob Kearns, the inventor of intermittent windshield wipers, a decent family man who lets his home life fall to ruin by pursuing claims against automakers whom he accused of swiping his idea. Kearns, who died in 2005, obsessively spent decades on his legal battles, winning multimillion-dollar judgments against Ford and Chrysler but destroying his marriage along the way. As he did with the desperately optimistic dad in "Little Miss Sunshine" or doomed actor Bob Crane in "Auto Focus," Kinnear blends the good and bad so seamlessly that you never see where the light side of Kearns ends and the dark begins. "He's an actor who can play a real person in a way that doesn't turn you off and doesn't make you judge them," said Lauren Graham, who plays Kearns wife. "He plays him very truthfully, and he's full of surprises," said Alan Alda, co-starring as a lawyer who takes on Kearns' case. A dapper moment in Kinnear's real life gave "Ghost Town" writer-director David Koepp the look he wanted for the character. In the film, ghosts appear eternally in the outfits they died in, and Koepp happened to catch a TV show where Kinnear was in a tuxedo giving out an award. "I'd been looking for a visual idea for the main ghost to set him aside from everybody else. I toyed with, maybe he's in black and white and the rest of the movie's in color," Koepp said. "Then I saw Greg in this black-and-white tux, and I said, 'No, he's our host! He's the host of the film.'" So Kinnear's character parades around in formal wear through the entire movie. Playing host is nothing new for Kinnear, who studied broadcast journalism and got his first taste of celebrity poking fun at show business as the glib star of the TV entertainment show "Talk Soup" in the early 1990s. Kinnear later replaced Bob Costas as host of the late-night talk show "Later." He had dabbled in acting but was content to settle into a career interviewing stars when Sydney Pollack cast him as Harrison Ford's playboy brother in the 1995 remake of the romance "Sabrina." Two years later, Kinnear co-starred with Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt in "As Good As It Gets," earning an Academy Award nomination as a gay artist who suffers a savage beating. Kinnear has gone on to a mix of dark comedy such as "Nurse Betty" and "The Matador" and heavy drama like Mel Gibson's "We Were Soldiers" and the upcoming war-on-terror tale "Green Zone." The latter reunites him with Matt Damon, his partner in the Farrelly brothers' conjoined-twins comedy "Stuck on You." Back in the '90s, it was a fluke that Kinnear leaped from small-screen TV host to big-screen star in a single stroke. Nowadays, he figures there's a lot more give and take between media. "The lines are a hell of a lot more blurry today than they were.

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