'American Idol' crooner Clay Aiken now a father

08/08/2008 3:00 PM, AP

The Associated Press

Former "American Idol" runner-up Clay Aiken is a father.

The 29-year-old crooner from Raleigh announced the birth of Parker Foster Aiken on his Web site's blog Friday.

"No hyphens. One first name," he wrote. "One middle name. One last name."

Clay Aiken's mother, Faye, told Raleigh TV station WRAL the child was born in North Carolina.

Aiken was a favorite of fans during the second season of "American Idol," where he finished second to Ruben Studdard. His album "Measure of a Man" went double platinum in 2003, and he made his Broadway debut this spring in "Monty Python's Spamalot."

The baby's mother is Jaymes Foster, Aiken's friend and record producer whom he met while performing on "American Idol." Their son was born at 8:08 a.m. Friday, and weighed 6 pounds, 2 ounces and was 19 inches long, according to the statement on the Web site.

"The little man is healthy, happy, and as loud as his daddy," Aiken wrote. "Mama Jaymes is doing quite well also."
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On the Net:
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/ap/ap_en_mu/storytext/people_clay_aiken/28522118/SIG=10qd9m8bp/*http://www.clayaiken.com

Sugarland Founder Not Feeling Love on the Inside

With great success can come great spoils. And, perhaps, the ire of the person who's missing out on the spoils.
Kristen Hall, one of the founding members of Sugarland, the country duo whose latest effort, Love on the Inside, currently boasts the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200, has sued her former bandmates for what she says is her fair share of the money they've been raking in since she left the group in 2005.

According to a lawsuit filed July 29 in U.S. District Court in Atlanta, Hall and fellow Atlanta musicmakers Kristian Bush and Jennifer Nettles had an agreement entitling each to an equal stake in Sugarland's profits and losses—but the checks stopped coming once she decided to pursue a solo career.

The trio "jointly endeavored to make the band Sugarland a creative and commercial success, and Hall contributed significant time, effort, energy and passion toward the creative and commercial success of Sugarland," the complaint states.

Per the suit, Hall rerecorded the version of the band's breakthrough single, "Baby Girl," that became one of the longest-charting debut singles in country music history and wrote or cowrote every track on their double-platinum 2004 album Twice the Speed of Life.
Also in 2005, while Hall was still with them, Sugarland was named Breakthrough Favorite New Artist at the American Music Awards.

By excluding her from their profit-sharing agreement pertaining to the albums they put out as a trio, Nettles and Bush "have acted in bad faith, have been stubbornly litigious and have caused [Hall] unnecessary trouble and expense," the suit continues.

Hall is asking for at least $1.5 million and a "formal accounting of all partnership affairs and businesses."

A rep for Sugarland referred a request for comment to the band's Los Angeles attorney, Gary Gilbert, whose office said he is currently out of town, per the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
After Hall left, Sugarland scored another multiplatinum hit with 2006's Enjoy the Ride and has picked up an armload of CMT and Academy of Country Music awards, including two ACMAs earlier this year for the song "Stay."

Interview : Brooke Fraser

Posted By: Kershia Wong

So some of you may not have heard of the name Brooke Fraser. Hailing from New Zealand, this humble and lovely songbird has already made quite a name for herself in the Pacific region. The album Albertine was released in the U.S not too long ago, and she’s currently on tour. I managed to speak to Brooke over the phone while she was preparing dinner for some friends to just have a chat about her music, love life, and the debate about the best coffee in the world.

ZME Music: Tell me more about yourself?

Brooke Fraser: I’m from Wellington in New Zealand and I’m one of 3 children but I’ve been living in Australia since 2004 and currently we’re over in the States touring for about 5 months so at the moment we’ve escaped the winter and we’re in LA

ZME Music: How long have you been playing music for?

BF: I’ve been playing music for I would say, in terms of playing my own songs, on a basic scale since about 13, then more properly when I was 15 or 16, and I was fortunate enough to be signed straight out of high school, and so I’ve been playing music ever since as my full time occupation

ZME Music: How would you describe your music?

BF: I’d say my kind of influence in terms of other artists tend to lean more to the folk side of things. But I like to write songs for everyday people, and so it’s almost like a folk but with a decent sprinkling of traditional popular music to make that accessible to the wider public I suppose you could say.

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Interview : Ludo

Posted By: Tibi Puiu

Some of you may remember when we wrote, in our Bands to Watch feature, about a nifty and emerging St. Louis pop-punk band, called Ludo. Their latest record “You’re Awful I Love You,” hit every respecting store on February 26th and was quickly embraced by their fans and new listeners alike. Recently I had the chance to have a short chat with two of the band members, frontman Andrew Volpe and synth master Tim Convy, about various aspects, like the band in general, the new album, the band’s musical directions and other fun stuff.

ZME Music: Aloha fellow rockers. What’s rollin’ ?

Andrew Volpe: Well hello there, good friend. Not much. You know. Keeping it real. Representing. How are you doing?

ZME Music: I’m doing great myself, thanks for asking, let’s just kick off the interview and find out some interesting stuff. Firstly, could you please introduce yourself to the more ignorant people reading this and not aware of your existence (i.e. Our readers)? You could start off by telling us how the band came together.

AV: Ludo formed as an acoustic duo in St. Louis, when Tim Ferrell and I (Andrew) met in the summer of 2000. We were a full band in our minds though - we just needed to find the right people to round out our super-team. After college, we moved to Tulsa to get away from all distractions. Tim Convy and Ferrell knew each other from playing in bands in high school, so he joined us in our acoustic tour. In the summer of 2003, we put ads out all over the internet to find Ludo’s bassist and drummer. Marshall from Omaha and Matt from Houston, respectively, answered the call, and moved into our tiny, crappy house in Tulsa. Three weeks after meeting each other, we recorded our debut album in St. Louis, immediately hit the road, and have toured basically non-stop since then. It’s a real man-bites-dog story. Not sure I used that term right…

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Bowie Covered By Indie Artist In Lates Compilation

Posted By: Tibi Puiu

After they’ve released a more or less successful Prince cover compilation record, in the form of Controversy, a while ago, the fine folks from Rapster are back with yet another cover song compilation LP, this time featuring artists influenced by the great David Bowie.

Matthew Dear, Carl Craig, Kelley Polar, Au Revoir Simone, Joakim, and the Thing are just a few artists who cover the Thin White Duke on “Life Beyond Mars: Bowie Covered“. The songs covered come in different “shapes and sizes,” most off Bowie’s more popular albums like Low, Hunky Dory, and Scary Monsters, but also lesser-known material such as the 1986 soundtrack to Labyrinth, in which David played a part.

Life Beyond Mars is available on iTunes now, and will hit shops in CD format July. Today it was mailed for free with the latest issue of the Sunday Daily Mail, where Bowie also is featured in an article, in which he talks about the new cover album, detailing how the 12 track selection went and confessing which songs came closer to his heart. You can read the whole article here. Tracklist right after the jump.

Life Beyond Mars: Bowie Covered:

1. Au Revoir Simone: “Oh! You Pretty Things”


2. Heartbreak: “Loving the Alien”


3. Kelley Polar: “Magic Dance (Harold and Baby O in Italy Version)”


4. Leo Minor: “Ashes to Ashes”


5. Carl Craig Presents Zoos of Berlin: “Looking for Water”


6. Drew Brown: “Sweet Thing”


7. Matthew Dear: “Sound & Vision”


8. Susumu Yokota: “Golden Years”


9. The Emperor Machine: “Repetition”


10. Joakim & the Disco: “A New Career in a New Town”


11. Richard Walters & Faultline: “Be My Wife”


12. The Thing: “Life on Mars”

http://www.zmemusic.com/news/bowie-covered-by-indie-artists-in-latest-compilation/