Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Sheryl Crow Readies 'Detours'


“All I Wanna Do . . .” Is listen to Sheryl Crow? — LD

Grammy Winner Finishes Her New Studio Album

SANTA MONICA, Calif. -- Singer-songwriter Sheryl Crow will release her sixth studio album, Detours, on February 5, 2008. The album marks the return of producer Bill Bottrell, who previously worked with Crow on her breakthrough debut album Tuesday Night Music Club, which earned the singer three Grammy Awards, and sold more than ten million copies worldwide.

"This is the most honest record I've ever made. It's about being forced to wake up," says Crow. Lyrically the album is the most politically and personally outspoken record of her career, addressing the current state of the world from different perspectives as well as some of the personal challenges she's faced over the last several years. The album, which in the end remains spiritually hopeful, retains the raw freshness of Bottrell's Tuesday Night Music Club-production and subtly pushes the boundaries of her previous work into new musical territories.

Track titles include "Shine Over Babylon" (currently available on iTunes, and the centerpiece of the album in Crow's opinion), "Love Is Free," the Arabic-tinged "Peace Be Upon Us," "Lullaby for Wyatt" (from Grace Is Gone, starring John Cusack) and the stark folky album opener "God Bless This Mess."

Sheryl can be seen performing tracks from Detours on CNN's "Heroes" on December 6th and on CBS' "A Home for the Holidays" on December 21st.

SOURCE: Interscope Records

Western Writers Add Best Western Song Category


Go Western, young man. Yee-haa. Giddy-up! — LD

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Western Writers of America, a guild of 600 professional writers of Western literature, has added Best Western Song as the newest category to the Spur Awards.

The Spur Awards, given annually for distinguished writing about the American West, are among the oldest and most prestigious in American literature. Spurs are awarded for novels, short stories, articles, juvenile books, poetry, nonfiction books and screenplays for dramas and documentaries.

"When one thinks of the great American West, one naturally hears great music," WWA President Cotton Smith says. "Memorable words and music that tell us of this special place in America's heart. That is an important part of the Western experience and WWA wanted to honor it -- with the creation of the Songwriting Spur Award."

To qualify for Best Western Song, the song must be released for the first time (in 2007) and available to the public with lyrics dependent in whole or in part on setting, characters, or customs indigenous to the American West or early frontier. A copy of the lyric sheet and medium must be submitted. Entries must be postmarked by December 31, 2007.

"It was an honor to serve on the team that created the rules for the Western Writers of America's Spur Award for songwriting," says Bobby Bridger, composer of A Ballad of the West. "Until now this genre of interpreting the history and culture of the American West has sadly been overlooked, and I am pleased the WWA has taken the first step to acknowledge the important contributions of balladeers and troubadours."

Winners and finalists will be announced in March and honored at the WWA convention, June 10-14, at the Chaparral Suites in Scottsdale, Ariz. Since 1953, Spur Awards have been given to writers such as Tony Hillerman, Larry McMurtry, Leon Metz and Elmer Kelton. Entries are open to WWA members and non-members. For further information contact Executive Director Paul Hutton, wwa@unm.edu or (505) 277-5234; http://www.westernwriters.org.

SOURCE: Western Writers of America, Inc.

Green Is the New Color of the Bottom Line


It isn’t easy being Green? Sure it is . . . & smart, too — LD

HARTFORD, Conn. -- "We believe design has enormous power and we are trying to use it to change the world," says Ian Yolles, Vice President of Brand Communications for Nau. "During Good And Green we will be sharing how the balance of beauty, performance and sustainability has driven everything we do as a company -- allowing us to not only generate a profit, but to contribute to positive, lasting and substantive change."

Yolles and other leaders in the fashion industry will show mainstream brands how to balance profitability and sustainability during Good And Green- The Green Marketing Conference, November 29-30, 2007, Chicago Cultural Center. Good And Green is designed to teach mainstream national marketers the techniques, benefits and bottom line impact of connecting with today's ecologically-concerned consumers through green marketing efforts.

Fashion has found success in blending "good-for-the-earth" business practices with state-of-the-art design and feels this way of doing business is key to a brand's current and future success. "We envision the eco movement as more than a trend. Eco has no "look" -- it is simply the way things should be done from now on," states Maria Intscher, Head Designer for Linda Loudermilk.

Good And Green attendees will have multiple opportunities to connect and learn from one another through solution-based workshops, drill-down discussion groups, insightful case studies and great networking events. A complete schedule and list of speakers is available at http://www.goodandgreen.biz.

Discovery Communications' Planet Green is the Exclusive Presenting Sponsor of Good And Green with Title Sponsors Bank of America, The Natural Marketing Institute, The Daily Green and Body + Soul magazine and Associate Sponsors 1% For The Planet, NatureWorks and Ketchum Public Relations. Fast Company is the Media Sponsor, Getty Images is the Imagery Resource, Earthsense is the Breakfast Sponsor, Nestle Waters is the Bottled Water Sponsor and NativeEnergy is the Official Carbon Offset Sponsor.

Good And Green is produced by PME Enterprises, Hartford, CT. Please visit http://www.goodandgreen.biz or call 860.724.2649 x 14 for more details and to register.

Contact: Patti Minglin -- 630-209-2524 -- pminglin@comcast.net

SOURCE: PME Enterprises

American Legion/Avue Launch Jobs Web Site for Vets


What’s the deal? Just tryin’ to help my fellow Veterans. — LD

Site Promotes "More Jobs, Better Jobs"

WASHINGTON -- The American Legion and Avue Technologies launched a joint Web site, http://www.vetjobs.us, to substantially increase employment opportunities in the federal government for America's returning veterans. The American Legion is the nation's largest veterans service organization, and Avue is the leading private-sector provider of human capital management services for federal agencies.

The new site will be free to all users and will not contain advertising of any kind. In announcing the site, the Legion and Avue emphasized that the traditional focus of federal agencies on placement numbers, without regard to the long-term quality of the job opportunity, has resulted in inferior job placement and career tracks for many veterans.

For example, while veterans have represented between 30 to 37 percent of new federal government hires during the past five years, only 14 percent and 26 percent of them, respectively, are placed in the two highest-paid labor categories.

The fact that veterans disproportionately take entry-level jobs for low wages, despite high qualifications, often means they will spend their entire career economically disadvantaged.

"We view quality civilian job opportunities and career growth to be perhaps the most critical issue that faces the more than 250,000 veterans exiting the military each year, and we are very enthusiastic to offer a solution that we believe will result in not only more jobs, but better jobs for veterans," said Marty Conatser, national commander of The American Legion.

"Avue is the perfect partner for this project because Avue is not only the leading technology platform for information and outreach on federal jobs, it is also committed to supporting veterans, and its system is the only one that automatically ensures veterans preference is correctly applied in every hiring action," Conatser explained.

"We are pleased to be able to join with The American Legion to ensure that veterans receive the very best in information and advice to maximize long-term career growth, identify local opportunities, improve compensation, and help ease the transition from military to federal civil government employment," said Linda Brooks Rix, Co-CEO of Avue.

The new joint American Legion/Avue program can be visited on the Web at http://www.vetjobs.us. The Web site is expected to be one of many future partnering efforts on behalf of veterans between Avue and The American Legion.

The American Legion was founded in 1919 on the four pillars of a strong national security, veterans affairs, Americanism, and patriotic youth programs. The Legion's 2.7 million wartime veterans work for the betterment of their communities through more than 14,000 posts across the nation.

Learn more about The American Legion by visiting http://www.legion.org on the Web.

Founded in 1983, Avue Technologies is the recognized market leader and technology innovator in public sector management platforms (PS/MP). The company provides the public sector with integrated technology and service solutions that dramatically increase enterprise-wide visibility and management effectiveness, workforce productivity, and manager and worker satisfaction. Avue is a privately held company headquartered in Tacoma, Wash., with offices in Washington, D.C., and Victoria, B.C. Learn more about Avue Technologies at http://www.avuetech.com.

SOURCE: The American Legion