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Nick’s post today on Jack Johnson reminded me of a post I had written a month ago in my notebook to pass time in a company meeting…

For Jack Johnson’s follow up to In Between Dreams what could be cooler than doing Sing-a-Longs and Lullabies for the film Curious George . The album features a 13 mostly original child-themed songs from Jack and friends (including G. Love and Ben Harper) performed in Johnson’s typically laid-back style. All that and a downloadable coloring book to boot!

To be honest, I was a bit skeptical of Johnson back when I first heard Bushfire Fairytales in 2002. I was turned off be the similarity of each song. They all sounded the same. I gave up on the album after one listen. However, at the time, I was playing a lot of Kelly Slater’s Pro Surfer on the X-box, which not surprisingly featured a number of songs from the Hawaiian surfer-singer. As I was repeated exposed to Johnson I came to the conclusion that while he may only have “one” song, it’s a pretty darn good song!

Tackling a motion picture sound track puts Johnson in the rare company of Elton John , Phil Collins , and Tom Petty . In general, I think the results have been great when directors have handed over the reins to rock artists, both from the impact to the movie and the quality of the sound track. It’s always fun to hear the results when these guys are stretched to write songs with specific themes and tones to correspond to scenes of a movie.

Sing-a-Longs and Lullabies for the film Curious George features some “classic” lyrics. Highlights include “3 Rs” (”Reduce, Reuse, Recycle”) and “The Sharing Song” (”If you’ve got three, give one to a friend and me”). The catchy single “Upside Down” stands head and shoulders above the rest of the album. That and Johnson’s cover of The White Stripes‘ “We’re Going to Be Friends”. The rest the of tracks likeable but not memorable. New takes on Johnson’s one great song.

Yes I’m excited that my favorite band of all time is releasing a new album in May, Pearl Jam, and from the sound of the single “World Wide Suicide” it looks to be another classic. I guess each time they announce a new release it brings out the 9th grader inside of me, rocking out to “Alive” and “Jeremy” on a school bus. Of course I’ve changed a lot since then and so has Pearl Jam .

While the core of the band has remained the same over the last 15 years (with the exception of drummers, of which they’ve had four), no two Pearl Jam albums have been the same. A big part of the difference is caused by the fact that unlike almost any other band, all the members of Pearl Jam contribute to the band’s song writing. The frequent change has served as a refiner’s fire to its fan base. While it’s contributed to a drop in commercial success for each album from the record setting sales of Vs. (1993) and Vitology (1994), the fans that remain are as diehard as they come.

The strong base is also in large part due to the fact that Pearl Jam treats their fans well. Sure these guys have got to millionaires. Sure it costs $50 a seat to catch a show these days. Sure Stone Gossard was recently quoted as hoping the new album would have more commercial success than the previous few. These aren’t starving artists! Nor should they be.

They fought TicketMaster in 1994 to reduce ticket surcharges for fans. They were one of the first artists to make special ticket arrangements for fan club members so they could be assured the best possible seats at show. Their fan club remains one of the most affordable in all of rock at $20 per year, providing 2 new letters, a holiday single, and special ticket and merchandise access. They were among the first to formalize a program to release every live concert on CD, which made sense since they are one of the few acts to plays a completely unique set list every night and performs every song in their catalog over the course of a tour. And they have always provided a steady stream of news on their site whether their next album is 2 months or two years away. (All that and they thanked me on their site for posting a concert review of a show in Maryland in 1998)

So if it’s been a while since you listened to a Pearl Jam disc, I suggest you get reacquainted. Their 2004 greatest hits album, rearviewmirror , is a great way to get caught up. Also, If you pre-order the new album at their website, you get a additional live album and can download the album at 12:01 am on its release day, May 2. If you’re not a fan club member, I’d also suggest you sign up before the next leg of the tour is announced so you can get what are truly the best seats in the house. Rock on!

Ok, I admit it. Jason Mraz has become a guilty pleasure of mine.

“Remedy” was of course a catchy hit, but I never really followed up, perhaps being turned off by the skewed hat and target audience of 14 year old girls. Over the holidays however, in an effort to get in touch with my inner teenager I borrowed Mraz’s latest album Mr. A-Z from my 17 year-old brother in law, along with Yellowcard, Good Charlotte, and of course Dashboard Confessional. (I have determined that Dashboard Confessional truely can’t be enjoyed by anyone whose brain has developed past their teenage years. I think it’s physiological.)

Mraz’s music can only be categorized as Pop. Not quite rock, but not R&B. Regardless of what it is, each time I listen I find come to the same startling realization: This guy is really good. He’s got a gorgeous voice, fun lyrics, and can just plain write great music. My personal favorites are “Life is Wonderful”, “Wordplay”, “Did You Get My Message”, and “Plane”.

I’ve found myself on a bit of a Folk kick lately. Joshua Radin. Amos Lee. Jack Johnson. James Blunt. Cary Brothers.

What’s Folk music anyhow? Not necessarily a simple question if you refer to Wikipedia, though if you’ve listened to these artists you’ll know I ascribe to the more modern definition of music consisting predominately of simple acoustic guitar arrangements and vocals. Though I have to admit that my personal folk nirvana is when these talented song writers pick up the pace and expand the songs with a few more instruments. At the end of the day, I’ll always be a rock fan at heart.

Folk artists have long been top on my list. Well at least artists with roots in Folk. Pop-rockers Vertical Horizon (who I used to work for) may be best know for their single “Everything You Want” , ranked by Casey Casem as the top song of 2000, but the group started as an acoustic folk duo with the album There and Back Again. Rockwell Church , another personal favorite, has systematically expanded their sound from album to album, but vocal harmony and acoustic guitar they started with remain at the root of their music.

A few weeks ago I picked up James Blunt’s Back to Bedlam on iTunes . By now most people with a bead on music are familiar with Blunt, a former British army officer who has exploded onto U.S. scene recently following some similar success in the U.K. I first heard Blunt when his track “You’re Beautiful” was released as a free download on iTunes. I find the free tracks hit or miss, but I managed to find at least two artists who have made it all worth it. During months of flirting with buying Back to Bedlam I was noticing it was holding strong in top five albums on iTunes. I finally bit the bullet and downloaded and it has consistantly grown on me over the last few weeks. My current favorite track is “Wisemen” .

My most recent acquisitions were Joshua Radin’s self-released We Were Here and Amos Lee’s self-titled album from Blue Note/EMI.

As I’ve mentioned previously, I found out about Radin from Zach Braff who has been plugging him hard on his blog (Zach Braff’s Garden State Blog) and even gave him a pitch on iTunes. Of couse, Radin’s music has been heavily featured on the last two seasons of Scrubs (”These Photographs” , “Don’t Look Away” , “Closer” , “Today” ). We Were Here is Radin’s full length debut and features remakes of some of his more popular songs “Winter” and “Today” , though unlike many folk artists who find themselves expanding their arrangements and crossing over to rock in their arrangements, Radin has actually scaled back from his earlier EP, First Between 3rd and 4th . To be honest, I personally prefer the EP, but for my aforementioned reasons. We Were here is still a great effort and shows real development of a personal style in addition to great song writing.

Amos Lee, on the other hand, was a Pandora find. Lee’s album has more of blues feel and definitely more produced than Radin, which most arrangements also including light percussion and keys. The highlight of the album is the break-up anthem, “Colors” , which is in the sad and pining vein rather than bitter and pissed off. On the track, Lee swoons in a sweet falsetto over a laidback guitar riff.

If you get the chance I’d highly recommend all three of these artists. They’re mellow gold.

Nate Out.