• This Tuesday Reprise Records is re-releasing Neil Young's fantastic Greendale "musical novel" album from last year, this time with a different bonus DVD. If you haven't been hooked into the cast of characters that weave through each song, now's your chance to get caught up and join the postulations over the mysterious Green family tree, a subject that possesses my buddies like our mothers' ruminations over soap operas.
• Topaz Records has just released a salute to yesterday's hip-hop artistry with the Old School New Style tribute compilation, breathing fresh life into a baker's dozen of classics such as A Tribe Called Quest's "Left My Wallet in El Segundo" and Spoonie Gee's "Love Rap.
• I've always said that if I make it to the pearly gates, I'd like to hear Jimmy Martin's voice or the hillbilly boogie of the Delmore Brothers in the heavenly house band. One of founding pioneers of bluegrass is graced with a fascinating DVD documentary this week from Straight Six Films.
• Next week the foundational powerhouse of Motown, known coolly as The Funk Brothers, will be honored with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and an edition in the label's 20th Century Masters/Millennium Collection CD series.
Author, musician, and filmmaker Michael Dean has just released the follow-up to his excellent $30 Film School guide with a new 518-page tome sharing lessons from his hard-knock years touring with his band Bomb and the 12 records he's created.
• Big funk and big love are back on the map with the soulful vibes of Big Advice and its appropriately titled album Love Shines. Comprised of Juan Nelson, bassist of Ben Harper's Innocent Criminals, and vocalist Ahaguna Sun of Sunbear, Big Advice is a smooth house party and romantic after-hours gem wearing its heart on its sleeve for classic soul grooves.
• Hey! You've got history in my heavy metal! No, you've got heavy metal in my history! Former Judas Priest vocalist Tim Owens is now a part of Iced Earth, with a new album due this Tuesday that focuses on historical people, places, and events such as Attila the Hun, the Red Baron, Waterloo, Gettysburg, and Valley Forge.
• The Neverland Ranch burns like a scene out of Equus, and major record labels are diving for a warm seat in a game of musical chairs. Even Wal-Mart is taking a stab at the MP3 game as iPod devices, cell phones, and PDAs morph into the next killer application.
• Jack White of the White Stripes has his touch all over the soundtrack to Cold Mountain, released this week on DMX/Columbia Records. Alongside songs by Alison Krauss, Tim Eriksen, and the Sacred Harp Singers, White contributes two originals and covers of material written, or made famous, by Ralph Stanley and Howlin' Wolf.
• Are we there yet? Are we in the festive mood? C'mon, set the road rage aside and give in to the twinkling lights and falling snow, even if only in your mind. Need a nudge? Ivan Pavlov and I suggest baking peanut-butter cookies and getting lost in the spell of new holiday music, from sentimental to silly, softly soulful to house-rocking.

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