The FYI News Bulletin

By David Farrell

Diana Krall guests on a new Willie Nelson covers collection set for release on Feb. 26. The two combined to reinterpret ‘30s standard I Won’t Dance and souped it up with an animated video that harkens back to the early days of TV. The album’s title is That’s Life.

– Is that Jian Ghomeshi who can be heard voicing day times on Radio Paradise, the non-commercial, US-based listener-supported Internet radio station? If not, the host could certainly be his vocal double. Irrespective, the former media and music industry celebrity self-reports over 50M streams and 10K subscribers to Roque, his audio/video Internet show that speaks to Iranian communities around the world. As per usual, the production and content is above par.

– Turning 80 in June, charismatic Welsh-born pop singer Tom Jones wears time like a Patek Philippe watch. Going into his seventh decade in the spotlight, with a reported 100-million records sold to date, advance notices for his April 23 album release, Surrounded by Time (S-Curve/BMG), pointedly suggest Sir Tom still has the fire in him and isn’t just merely blowing smoke as many of his contemporaries today are.

Teasing it are a pair of song covers that speak to the calamitous times we live in. The first, Talking Reality Television Blues, speaks to today’s political climate and written and first recorded by Todd Snider, then followed by No Hole in My Head–penned and first recorded by ‘60s singer and political activist Malvina Reynolds, who is best known for her songs’ Little Box, and What Have They Done to the Rain?

– A new documentary about and featuring a 25-year-old Eva Cassidy has been released that celebrates the sad legacy of the American singer-guitarist who died of melanoma in 1996 at the age of 33. Her posthumously released recordings, including three number-one albums and one number-one single in the UK, have sold more than ten million copies, according to her Wiki entry. Here, her band members fondly recall their brief time with her, the voice and her instinct for picking songs. It is all delivered without hyperbole and delivered with a great sadness and affection.

– The LA Times reports that Shane Smith, the flashy media mogul who co-founded Vice Media and serves as its executive chairman, is eyeing a massive sum for his prized compound just outside Santa Monica: $50M. The property is not only the most expensive property on the market in Pacific Palisades, but it’s also one of the biggest.

– Taylor Swift‘s recently-announced re-recording of her 2008 Fearless album will be eligible for some Grammys categories, but not others, according to the Recording Academy as per Billboard.