AP - Iraqi composer Naseer Shamma is such a master of the traditional Arab stringed instrument called the oud that he has taught himself to play one-handed. -- read full article
AP - Matt Damon kept his cool as he helped distribute food from a truck that got stuck in the mud in a western Haitian town where Hurricane Ike left hundreds of people homeless and hungry.
Reuters - Morocco's Gnawa, heirs to a
musical and spiritual tradition brought north across the Sahara
centuries ago by black slaves, are enjoying new fame as their
hypnotic rhythms hook listeners across the world.
Reuters - A new museum devoted to the pop
supergroup ABBA will not open as planned next year, although
organizers say the project will definitely still go ahead.
AP - A judge dismissed all charges against singer Kelis stemming from a 2007 incident in which she was accused of disrupting a police operation by rushing toward officers and screaming racial profanities.
Reuters - The memories of two American
legends -- novelist John Steinbeck and folk songwriter/musician
Woody Guthrie -- will be honored September 20 during This Land
Is Your Land, a concert at the Sleep Train Pavilion at Concord
in Concord, California. -- read full article
AP - Queen sang to tens of thousands of Ukrainians in a charity concert meant to raise money and AIDS awareness in this ex-Soviet republic. -- read full article
Reuters - Popular TV theme songs have slowly
disappeared from the landscape, leaving a world of "cold opens"
-- plunging viewers straight into the action without an
introductory tune -- and the licensed use of existing songs. -- read full article
Reuters - These days, it's not unusual to
find Alicia Keys, Chris Brown, Ne-Yo and other contemporary R&B
artists residing on the U.S. singles chart -- especially in its
upper echelons. But that wasn't always the case. -- read full article
Reuters - The 50th-anniversary Hot 100 Song
chart is based on actual performance on the weekly Billboard
Hot 100 since the singles chart's inception in August 1958
through July of this year. -- read full article
Reuters - "La Bamba" was the first
Spanish-language song to hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100
singles chart, and its universal catchiness has led to big
business for the hundreds-of-years-old Mexican folk tune. -- read full article
