Playlist

Nas' untitled album just took over the top spot on Billboard's Top 200. It seems as if the controversy over the album's original n-word title didn't hurt. (Or could it be that everyone already has Lil Wayne's Tha Carter III? Just wondering ...) God's Son sits atop the charts after selling 187,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan, for his fifth No. 1.

Don't count Weezy out, though. He's still selling over 100,000 per week ... if you remember, Tha Carter III sold a million in the first week of release. And he's held the top spot for three non-consecutive weeks. Guess hip-hop isn't so dead after all ...

Nas, supported by Talib Kweli, Jay Electronica and DJ Green Lantern, will appear at Dallas' House of Blues on The Jones Experiece Tour on Aug. 26.

Single-disc rereleases and deluxe editions of U2's first three albums — War, Boy and October — just came out (read Thor's review of them here). Are you U2 fan enough to go buy them? Tell us which of the three albums is the best, or at least your favorite U2 album overall.

This Jessica Simpson/Tony Romo bit was in today's paper, but it didn't publish to the Web site overnight, for some reason. But lucky you, I've got it right here. You can thank me in one-pound bags of high-tone coffee and free gas cards.

In this episode of Bimbo and the Romo, we have Jessica Simpson taking the stage Saturday for the first time in three years and getting emotional about it. She then dedicates a song she wrote called "You're My Sunday" to "this guy here" who "throws a football" and is "really good at it."

Arlington's Melissa Lawson, who keeps proving her artistic mettle on Nashville Star, comes home for a benefit concert Wednesday evening at Arlington High School Auditorium, 818 W. Park Row. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and the show starts at 8 p.m. Seating is first come, first served. The gig is a fundraiser for State Farm's "High School Dropout Prevention" program. It will surely be filmed for inclusion in the next Nashville Star episode. For more information, click here.

Photo: Melissa Lawson (Courtesy of nbc.com).

Ashlee Hewitt, the fresh-faced blond with the serviceable voice that once seemed destined to win Nashville Star, was eliminated tonight. She had the fewest viewer votes. Surprising, yes, especially when Coffey is the weakest artistic link on the show right now. Guess his weepy rendition of the Tim McGraw-Faith Hill duet "It's Your Love" last week struck a chord with America. Anyway, it was original song night and the judges raved about Arlington's Melissa Lawson. Ditto Gabe Garcia, from Lytle, Texas. Shawn Mayer survived, too, and got good notices. She did a power ballad called "I'm Not Looking Back." Next week: four finalists turn into three, one of which will be crowned the sixth winner of Nashville Star. The finale should be Aug. 4.

Photo: Ashlee Hewitt (Courtesy of nbc.com).

Our Metro department got a tip that the Jonas Brothers family is moving to Westlake. Check out the story and documents here. We'll be on top of the details as they come.

The prospect of tween girls' favorite boy band becoming North Texas residents — exciting or annoying? Or are you simply indifferent, as long as it's not your street getting clogged with a bunch of drive-by swooning? Tell us what you think.

• More Jonas Brothers on the blog

(AP photo: Joe, Nick and Kevin)

Yes, Tejano fans, as I reported here earlier this year, the Tejano Music Convention kicks off at the Dallas Convention Center Aug. 15 and runs through Aug. 17. There will be seminars, dance lessons, a fanfare and expo, classes teaching saxophone, accordion and trumpet, and of course concert performances from Jay Perez, Shelly Lares, the Hometown Boys, Ruben Ramos, Michael Salgado, Elida Reyna, Sunny Sauceda, Jaime y los Chamacos and many others. Check out www.tejanoticket.com for all the info you could possibly need.

Photo: Jay Perez at the Tejano Music Convention press conference last February (G.J. McCarthy/DMN).

I'll be honest. Behind the scenes details don't interest me much. So I'd never heard of this Scott Storch character (former pianist for The Roots and producer of several pop and hip-hop hits, for those of you who didn't know, either) until embarrassing revelations about his bling-to-broke situation got plastered all over the Web recently. Check out the story, a few videos of his hits and other info here.

(AP photo: Storch with Paris Hilton in 2006)

Tickets for "The Jones Experience," with Nas and special guests (can I get an amen?) Talib Kweli at the House of Blues, went on sale today at 10 a.m. The show is scheduled for Aug. 26, and tickets are $35 to $75. Also scheduled to perform are DJ Green Lantern and Jay Electronica.

DJ Green Lantern and Nas released a mixtape preceding Nas' new, untitled project. You know, the one with that word that caused a bit of an uproar. Need some incentive besides the invective used to originally title the album? Downloads are us.

(Peter Kramer/AP Photo)

Dave Marsh is one of rock's all-time best (and feistiest) critics. But at age 58, he's still got a thing or two to learn about journalistic ethics.
The noted Springsteen biographer and Creem co-founder recently published a lengthy story in the Austin Chronicle praising rocker Alejandro Escovedo. Problem is, Escovedo's new manager is Marsh's wife, Barbara Carr.
True, Escovedo deserves any glowing press he gets, especially in his hometown. And Marsh does admit in the story he's married to Carr, but claims her work "has nothing to do with me."
Possibly. But if Mr. Escovedo wasn't Carr's new client, what are the chances a big-time writer like Mr. Marsh would deign to write an epic story about him in an Austin weekly?

Amazing! Just amazing! Lindale's Miranda Lambert finally notches a Top 10 hit single on Billboard's country chart with the fiery "Gunpowder & Lead," a story song about domestic abuse and eventual revenge. The track currently sits at No. 9. It took way too long for mainstream country radio to align on her side. But let's not complain because they did it with the best tune on 2007's marvelous Crazy Ex-Girlfriend CD.

Amazing! Just amazing!

Photo: Miranda Lambert all wrapped up in goodness (Courtesy of Columbia Nashville).

Stephen Simmons writes about the sobering realities of life -- that is redemption, heartbreak, hangovers and the loneliness of the road. On his new CD, Something In Between, the Tennessee native delves more into interpersonal relationships. His songs are backed by a slew of talented musicians, from fiddle player Tammy Rogers to steel guitarist Al Perkins. Check out his website for more info.

Anyway, Mr. Simmons along with fellow Americana troubadours Mando Saenz and Jason Eady perform tonight at Love & War in Texas in Plano. Cover is only $8.

Photo: Stephen Simmons (Bob Delevante).

Spain's La Oreja de Van Gogh, the quintet with the dreamy, rhythmic folk-pop sound, has switched lead singers. The angelic-voiced Amaia Montero has departed, and in her place is Leire Martínez. Ms. Martínez makes her debut on La Oreja de Van Gogh's still-untitled upcoming CD, scheduled to be released stateside Sept. 30. Here's hoping Ms. Martínez can help maintain the gorgeous sound the group had on 2006's stunning Guapa, a Latin Grammy-winning opus. The first single from the new disc is "El Ultimo Vals," which hits radio Aug. 12.

Photo: La Oreja de Van Gogh in 2005 with Amaia Montero (Montserrat Velando).

Major coup for Dallas' Old 97's: Rhett Miller's being interviewed and performing solo songs at this very moment on NPR's Fresh Air -- you can hear it locally on KERA.FM. Or check out NPR's web site later to listen to a podcast.

Country icon Willie Nelson's jazzy collaboration with respected trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, a CD titled Two Men With the Blues, becomes his highest debuting disc since 1982's Always On My Mind. Two Men, released on Blue Note Records, entered Billboard's pop albums chart at No. 20, selling 21,650 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. For Mr. Marsalis, this number is his career best...period. Before this, he reached No. 90 on the same list with 1984's Hot House Flowers.

Photo courtesy of Blue Note Records.

The Eagles will play a second American Airlines Center show, Sunday, Sept. 14. A Sept. 13 show was announced earlier. Tickets to both shows go on sale Monday at 10 a.m. Ticketmaster, ranging from $45 for the nosebleed sections to $175 for decent-to-good seats. The sluggish economy apparently played a role in the pricing: Seven years ago, the Eagles charged $55-$175 for their show at the AAC -- $10 higher than they're charging now.

Q-Tip, the brains behind A Tribe Called Quest, has been mostly MIA for oh, the last 10 years it seems. But that's about to change in a big way. He recently told the LA Times in a far reaching article that his long-awaited album, The Renaissance, will hit stores in September.
"I had to wait until the time was right. If I put it out a couple of years ago, it wouldn't have been right," he told the Times. "But now you have people like Santogold, Kanye West, Lupe [Fiasco], Common. It seems like it's a bit more in tune with what I'm doing."
Wanna early listen? Tip's streaming the track "Gettin' Up" on his myspace page. Enjoy.

She's writing the music for the Broadway version of the 1980 movie she starred in with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin. Read more here.

(FYI: Click over for a peek at our new arts blog, where we also posted this item).

(Photo: AP)

One more thought about last night's Nashville Star episode: Coffey, from Bangs, Texas, did Tim McGraw and Faith Hill's "It's Your Love." Well, almost. Apparently he gets all emotional every time he hears that song. During rehearsals he couldn't get through it once without crying, he said on the show. You should have given it the old college try, Coffey. Onstage his already unwieldy vibrato sounded out of control as he fought to finish the tune. It was painful to hear. Emotions during a song are great. They prove the artist is human, like they are living the lyrics. But when you keep telling us you're going to break down and then you do, you come off contrived. Like you planned this all along.

But hey, the judges loved him for it. So go figure!

Photo: Coffey (Courtesy of nbc.com).

I've not been a fan of Shawn Mayer's Nashville Star performances since the start of this season. She was never the worse one for me, but always far from the best. Something about her came off as more shock value than substance. But whoa, her take on Carrie Underwood's "Before He Cheats" smoked tonight. It had fire, the kind that burns deep down inside. She felt the song, which is something I thought was lacking until now. Ms. Mayer was in the bottom two tonight, but was spared. Let's hope the major improvement is not too late for her.

Photo: Shawn Mayer (Courtesy of nbc.com).

And then there were five... The elimination of Laura & Sophie, who received the fewest viewer votes, leaves the sixth season of Nashville Star with a mere five finalists. Remaining are: Ashlee Hewitt, Melissa Lawson, Coffey, Gabe Garcia and Shawn Mayer. Three of them are Texans. Pretty cool, huh? Anyway, the best of the night was Mr. Garcia, whose smooth, confident and vocally sophisticated take on Billy Currington's "We Must Be Doing Something Right" proved yet another mature step for him. He even successfully used his falsetto. Ms. Lawson was good, too, singing Martina McBride's "My Baby Loves Me." She gave it lots of sass and swagger. Two of the judges said she overdid it. Any thoughts?

Photo: Gabe Garcia (Courtesy of nbc.com).

Dallas' very own Grammy-winning production team, Play-N-Skillz, will host their All Star Weekend for the second year in a row, highlighted by the duo's performance at the K104 Summer Jam on Saturday at Nokia Theatre at Grand Prairie. The guys have a song on featured artist Lil Wayne's platinum-in-a-week Tha Carter III, "Got Money" featuring T-Pain (of course it does). They're also working their own single, "One Mo' Gin (Play that Song Mr. DJ)."

They guys have also joined with local community organization Juventud American to coach a soccer team during a community game on Sunday. A "special celebrity friend" will coach the other side.

The weekend guest list reads like a who's who in rap: Lil Wayne, Slim Thug, Mannie Fresh, Bun B, Krayzie Bone and Talib Kweli. One of my favorite groups, Big Red Rooster, is on that list, too. And Mavs player Josh Howard is on the list, too.

Old 97's bassist Murry Hammond unveils his first solo CD nationally Aug. 18 on his own record label. I Don't Know Where I'm Going But I'm On My Way was recorded in 2007 in San Diego with producer Mark Neill. It supposedly boasts a rootsy sound owing heavily to the legendary works of the Carter Family, Johnny Cash and Hank Williams. And yet, you'll hear the moody spirit of, say, Brian Eno, too. The disc employs only acoustic instruments and even sports "cowboy poetry-style spoken word." Sounds