You know me: Always trying to restore sweet, sweet balance to your crazy, hectic lives. You spend your day working like an underappreciated pack animal, I try to distract you with (literally)
48 versions of ''The Girl From Ipanema'' (and yet no sign of Crystal Waters' lovely rendition? Is it because she changed it to ''boy''?).
Anyway, in this morning's slice of yin-yang music
news, let's start with the happy (that way, those of you who aren't ready to die inside before lunch can stop reading at the end of this paragraph). I am pleased to report that Nellie McKay is like a bird -- no, I am not confusing her with Nelly Furtado -- in that she is
flying away from Columbia Records , which shelved her second album in January during a nasty
artist-label tiff. McKay now plans to release Pretty Little Head as a double CD, with a 44-page color booklet, on October 31, via SpinART Records. Yay! If you're not familiar with McKay's work, then I urge you (yes, urge , like in an Herbal Essences commercial) to click
here and
here to hear ''Sari'' and ''David,'' two of the lovely ditties off Get Away From Me , McKay's 2004 debut disc.
On the slightly more chilling side of the coin, 12-year-old Bianca Ryan (pictured), the winner of Season 1 of America's Got Talent ,
has signed with Columbia/SYCO , and on Nov. 14, will inflict her renditions of (OH) ''I Believe I Can Fly'' (NO) ''The Rose'' (SHE) ''And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going,'' and (DIDN'T) ''You Light Up My Life'' onto an innocent and unsuspecting world. To be fair, the child can sang , as they say (
click here for one of her AGT performances), but her skills are kind of like unchilled Jello: Unless she's locked away in a cool, dark place for a decade or so, my guess is the results of her efforts will be unformed and unappetizing. Doesn't the kid, and the public at large, deserve better?
