Whilst in the UK the British Oscars (the Baftas) have been award the US have been celebrating music with the Grammy’s. It looks like Amy Winehouse has cleaned up pretty well with (ironically) Rehab (from the Back to Black album). Its good to see that Alison Krauss and Robert Plant also picked a gong for their work together – a stunning album in the form of Raising Sand.

On the Baftas side, again music inspired films did well with gongs going to La Vie En Rose (also called La Mome) which is about the life of Edith Piaf – a little justice after having part of the film slaughtered for a mobile phone advert. Plus Control the bio of Ian Curtis of Joy Division.

Full the full list of nominees and winners in 110 categories go to http://www.grammy.com/GRAMMY_Awards/ and for the smaller number of Baftas here.

Exciting news! The Delays third album and first for Fiction records will be ‘Everything’s The Rush’, out 28th April. The first single from the album is ‘Hooray’, out 21st April.

It must be a slow news day, as the following new item about differences in music preferences have a geographical factor made the main news bulletin.  The BBC news site has the details at ‘Music ‘beats faster’ in the north‘.

Jesse Malin is following Cat Power with a Covers record called "On Your Sleeve" to be released through One Little Indian in April. The CD will have 14 tracks with three more via iTunes.

Jesse will be on the road again in the coming months to promote the album as well.

More info about Jesse Malin on his website or MySpace.

Matthew Ryan is releasing a new album world wide on April 1st, according to his blog on MySpace it will be called MRVSS.  There is also video material to go with it as you can see below

Links:

• http://www.indian.co.uk/matthewryan/
• http://www.myspace.com/matthewryan

When I first started hearing about reunions such as The Police and The Eagles I didn’t see this as a bad thing, in fact I have to admit I found the idea exciting, particularly given that all the musicians concerned are successful in their own right.  Then came the Spice Girls – and my feelings where ho, hmm, what ever floats your boat.  But recently we’ve heard of Yazoo reforming and now according to Idolator, New Kids On The Block are due to announce that they to will get back together.

This leaves me feeling that the record companies are adopting the same approach as the mid-80s when CD came out falling to the easy thing – recycling old material/artists rather than investing new artists and records.  Now they say that when times get recessionary or even plain tough retrenching can be harmful, as anyone who even invests a little will make grounds over you.  Now if this is true, then the record business (or at least the major labels) who claim that they are struggling now are on the verge of committing suicide.  Lets hope that I’m wrong.

Aside from the previously mentioned releases by Thea Gilmore and Kathryn Williams we’re also watching out for:

• Dido (yes I know not most original things to get excited about)
• Van Morrison – Keep It Simple (March)
• Joseph Arthur – We Could Survive EP, Crazy Rain and Boredom EP (and several others from March onwards)
• REM – Accelerate (April)
• Daniel Lanois – Here Is What Is (March)
• gutter Twins – Saturnalia (March)
• Coldplay
• Peter Gabriel
• Gnarls Barkley
• David Gray
• Kaiser Chiefs
• The Killers
• Madonna
• Massive Attack – Weather Underground (?)
• Mercury Rev
• Moby – Last Night
• Muse
• Nine Inch Nails – Year Zero Part 2
• Jewel
• Counting Crows
• Starsailor
• U2
• Morcheeba – Dive Deep
• Mike Oldfield- Music of the Spheres
• The Delays – Everything’s A Rush (April)
• The Verve
• Duffy – Rock Ferry
• M83 – Saturday-Youth
• Thea Gilmore – Liejacker
• Kathryn Williams – Two
• Alanis Morissette – Flavors Of Entanglement
• Matrthew Ryan – MVRSS (April)
• Jamie Cullum
• Paul Weller – 22 Dreams (June)

M83 have announced on their MySpace site that their follow to last summer’s Digital Shades will be released in April.  The album will be called “Saturdays=Youth”.  The album shows influences from the likes of Tears For Fears and Cocteau Twins.  For more information check out M83’s MySpace web pages at http://www.myspace.com/M83.

There is a fair of excitement about the likes of Adele and Duffy as up and coming female singer-songwriters.  However, I am pleased to say that I’ve just heard that the Mercury Prize nominated female singer-songwriter that can easily match these new hot things, Kathryn Williams is releasing a new album.  The album called Two is a collaboration with Neill MacColl (Kirsty MacColl’s half brother and respected folk musician).  Samples of the album can be heard at their new website http://www.williamsmaccoll.com/.  The album is due out on the March 3rd.

To support the album Kathryn and Neill will be touring, more information on their website, along with a single on 24th February through iTunes (unfortunately).

More information about Kathryn Williams can be found at:

• http://www.kathrynwilliams.net/ 
• http://www.myspace.com/kathrynwilliams