As weird as it sounds, the sound of Jamaica has always had a soft spot for American country music, often topping the charts in the island nation throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Next week, the mighty Trojan label is issuing a three-CD box collecting classic country songs reinterpreted by Jamaica's favorite sons. Simply titled Trojan Country Reggae, the set features toasters, MCs, and old-school dub professors Toots & the Maytals, David Isaacs, Dennis Brown, Max Romeo, John Holt, Hopeton Lewis, and more twisting up 50 selections, including "Tennessee Waltz," "Stand by Your Man," "Help Me Make It Through the Night," "Sunshine on My Shoulders," "For the Good Times," and (duh!) "Wasted Days & Wasted Nights."

In retrospect, everything turned out well, but Dewey Bunnell was skeptical when America was presented with an opportunity to record its first album for a major label in more than 20 years.

"I had my hesitations in the beginning," Bunnell said in a phone interview last week, "'cause it had been so long, and we had suffered disappointments with the previous projects of all-new material in the '90s. ... Nothing much happened with those, so I was very guarded going into this."

If you've ever heard William Elliott Whitmore's singing - or read reviews of his work, which typically note that he has the weathered pipes of someone at least twice his age - you might snicker at this statement from the singer-songwriter: "I always wished I could sing like Frank Sinatra, or Morrissey, or fucking Dean Martin - those real crooner guys," he said in a phone interview this week.

It's a safe bet that most everyone is familiar with the heavily made-up shock rocker Alice Cooper, who brings his latest stage project, "The Psycho-Drama Tour," to Davenport's Adler Theatre on August 23.

Perhaps less familiar is the Alice Cooper who finds the time to play golf nearly every day - even while touring - and who hosts the Alice Cooper Celebrity Golf Am, now in its 11th year.