Steven Page, founder and former creative co-lead of Barenaked Ladies, steps out on his debut solo album Page One due September 28 via Rounder/Zoe. Says Page: "All original songs, back in the pop world again, and damn I’m proud of it.  The influences are all over the map, as they always have been, and here you’ll get tastes of everything from power-pop to big-band jazz to disco, electropop and folk." First single "Indecision", co-written with Stephen Duffy,  is due Tuesday July 27 and is said by Page to be "a melding of Jobim-style Brazilian pop and classic Steven Page power-pop." Elvis Costello drummer Pete Thomas and singer Esthero guest on the track.

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John Martyn, the pioneering and mind-bending British folkie who passed away last year, is being honored with an extensive tribute album due soon. No release date or official title yet, but a preliminary track listing includes performances by Beck, Snow Patrol, Beth Orton, The Swell Season, David Gray, The Cure's Robert Smith, Vashti Bunyan and Morcheeba vocalist Skye Edwards. Track listing below:

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Songwriting icon Leonard Cohen will release Songs From the Road, a twelve-song concert CD and DVD recorded along his acclaimed 2008/09 international tour, on September 14 via Columbia/Legacy. Details from the Legacy press release:

 Following the celebration of his 40^th year as a Columbia artist in 2007 and coinciding with his induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in March 2008, Leonard Cohen thrilled his fans by announcing his first tour dates in 15 years.  He’s gone on to   play the most prestigious and beautiful venues in virtually every corner of the globe,  mesmerizing and charming audiences with performances that were hailed as some of the best of his career.  “When legend Cohen takes to the stage,” raved Ireland’s The Independent (June 2008), “it’s no less than a cultural event of Biblical dimensions.”

One dozen of Leonard Cohen’s most famous songs from those recent world tour performances –  at auditorium halls, festivals, arenas, and stadiums from Tel Aviv to London, from across Europe to the California desert and his native Canada – are now collected on SONGS FROM THE ROAD.  The 12-song program filmed in high def and recorded in 5.1 surround sound will be issued in two separate packages: The DVD+CD package will be an oversized 2-disc softpak, identical to last year’s Leonard Cohen Live At The Isle Of Wight 1970.  The Blu-ray will be in a standard amray case.  Both will be available at all retail outlets starting September 14^th through Columbia/Legacy, a division of SONY MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT.  A gatefold, 180 gram vinyl LP of the 12 audio tracks will also be released the same date.

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From the Guster Blog:

"OUR NEW ALBUM, "EASY WONDERFUL" IS COMING OUT OCTOBER 5TH ON AWARE/UNIVERSAL REPUBLIC RECORDS

I've been waiting two years to announce that. At some points this recording process was neither Easy nor Wonderful for the Gusters, but we persevered and came out on top. Our new album is twelve songs deep, simultaneously adventurous pop and classic Guster. The "results are in the pudding" -- as it is said -- we couldn't be more proud of where we ended up.

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New York singer/songwriter Nellie McKay will follow up last year's Doris Day tribute album Normal As Blueberry Pie with her first album of all original material in three years: the thirteen-song Home Sweet Mobile Home, arriving September 28.

“I have no idea how this album happened,” McKay declares. “I guess I was looking for a sound to reflect our shrinking world and the bleed of culture crossing all kinds of borders.” Dvid Byrne, who recruited McKay as a contributing vocalist to his Here Lies Love concept album with Fatboy Slim, is said to be a "guiding force and spirit" on Home Sweet Mobile Home. Source: Paste

Two classic catalog titles from pioneering alternative country/rock band The Jayhawks have been expanded for reissue by Sony Legacy on October 19: Hollywood Town Hall (1992) and Tomorrow the Green Grass (1995). These releases were the famed Minneapolis band's first two albums for Ric Rubin's Def American label and their last to feature contributions from co-founder Mark Olson.

Both Legacy Editions will feature five previously unreleased bonus tracks. Tomorrow the Green Grass will also contain a second bonus disc: The Mystery Demos. In July, 2009, the label issued Music from the North Country, The Jayhawks Anthology, a retrospective that included -- in the deluxe version -- rarities, B-sides and a DVD. All of the projects have been supervised by the Jayhawks' Gary Louris.

From ROLLING STONE: "On October 26th, Bryan Ferry returns with a new solo album Olympia, which finds the Roxy Music frontman reuniting with bandmates Phil Manzanera, Andy Mackay and Brian Eno. It's the first time the four members of the group's classic lineup have performed on an album since Roxy's classic 1973 album For Your Pleasure.

"Ferry also roped in big-name collaborators including David Gilmour, Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood, Flea and Scissor Sisters for the LP, which includes covers of tracks by Traffic and Tim Buckley. (Ferry is no stranger to reinterpreting classic rock: his last album, Dylanesque, was a collection of Bob Dylan covers.) To gear up for the album's release, Rolling Stone has an exclusive premiere of the video for lead single "You Can Dance." In the clip, Ferry croons the sultry electro-pop number as sexy female dancers writhe and jiggle in what looks like the hottest members-only nightclub ever."

DC NOTE: Olympia was co-produced by Ferry and longtime Ferry and Roxy soundman Rhett Davies. Roxy Music will embark on a 40-year anniversary tour in September.

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FROM THE ARTIST'S SITE: "Acclaimed singer-songwriter Teddy Thompson’s forthcoming album Bella is set for release September 21 on Verve Forecast. The album follows 2008’s A Piece of What You Need, which The Guardian declared “one of this year’s best.” Produced by David Kahne (The Strokes, Regina Spektor), Bella features some of Thompson’s boldest material to date, as well as evocative string arrangements on several songs.

"Bella is Thompson’s fifth set in a career that has consistently garnered critical praise. NPR declares him “the musical equivalent of an arrow to the heart,” while The New York Times calls his work “beautifully finessed.”

"The son of folk music legends Richard and Linda Thompson, Teddy Thompson formed his first band in his teens. His original tunes and live gigs generated such acclaim that he was soon signed to Virgin Records. By the time Thompson released his self-titled solo debut in 2000, he’d already played in his father’s touring band and contributed guitar and backing vocals on his father’s albums, You? Me? Us? and Mock Tudor. In 2002, Thompson played a key role in drawing his mother out of a 17-year musical retirement to record her landmark disc Fashionably Late, which he played on and co-produced. Thompson also toured as part of Rosanne Cash’s band before signing with Verve. This is his fourth release for the label."

Irish pop/rock trio The Script, still making significant waves in the U.S. with their self-titled debut album, will release their second album Science and Faith in the U.K. and Europe September 13. Lead single "First Time" debuts one week prior to the album's drop.

Led by frontman Danny O'Donoghue, The Script have become a huge multi-platinum success in Ireland and England and selling more than 250,000 copies of their debut in the U.S., primarily on the strength of million-selling hit single "Breakeven".

After nearly ten years with the esoteric Warner Music Group label Nonesuch, Americana alt-rockers Wilco have confirmed that they're ready to go it alone. Guitarist Nils Cline tells Express Night Out: "Jeff [Tweedy] was basically not wanting to be on a record label for a while — he didn't renew his contract with Nonesuch — so we're striking out on our own, our own label." The band will begin work on the follow up album to 2009's Wilco (The Album) this summer and then hit the studio this fall. A rep for the band says the new album should be ready for release in the first half of 2011.

"The process of making the next Wilco record is going to be long in terms of the writing and arranging and demoing phase," Cline says. "I think we'd love to make a really uptempo alienating record — I think everyone agrees that would be enjoyable — but the natural course of music-making kind of precludes that."

The E Street Band's Miami Steve Van Zandt has told British radio that an expanded version of Bruce Springsteen's 1978 album Darkness on the Edge of Town has been completed for fall 2010 release. "We put 10 or so outtakes on the Tracks box set (in 1998) and we found 10 more. I'm not sure how many we'll put on there." He added, "We'll go back and he might finish a lyric on one or two, or finish a harmony on one or two, but we'll keep them intact pretty much. They're all fantastic. [It's] going to be a really fun reissue."

The Darkness album is considered by many fans and critics to be quintessential Springsteen, an album released at the height of his live performances and an important transtional album between the soulful, lyrically intense drama of Born to Run and the leaner, arena-friendly rock of The River and Born In the U.S.A. Many tracks from the sessions have become staples of his shows including "Candy's Room", "Badlands", "Racing In the Street" and "Prove It All Night".

Long-running Boston indie favorites Guster have completed their sixth album -- as yet still untitled -- for an announced street date release of October 5 via Universal Republic. The project has been fraught with creative issues as the band's work last fall with famed produced David Kahne was scrapped and they headed to Nashville to start over with a self-production strategy in place. But now "it's in the bag and it's going to be awesome" says Guster-guy Adam Gardner.

Grammy-winning singer/songwriter Paula Cole says she's leaving the more jazz-oriented direction of her 2007 album Courage behind when she releases her new album Ithaca on September 21 (Decca). Ther new project, she says, is "my return after a 10-year hiatus" from the more pop and radio-friendly songs that marked her 1999 album "Amen" and its predecessor. "It's back to the Paula Cole people probably remember from the '90s." Cole has been previewing songs from Ithaca on her latest concert swing, including "Music in Me" and "Something I've Got to Say."

"These songs - the vast majority of them anyway - were written while I was going through the divorce, and I was just so lucky to have music to turn to, some place to help me heal," observes Cole. "These songs just demanded to be written. You go through periods of drought as a writer, and you don't know when the mystery will hit, and that mystery - that beautiful muse - was very alive for me in this period."

Official Press Release: It’s been six years since celebrated female duo Azure Ray released their critically acclaimed album Hold On Love. It’s been a long wait for music fans, but thankfully that wait is about to come to an end. The highly anticipated full length from Orenda Fink and Maria Taylor is a sublime future classic titled Drawing Down the Moon, set for release on Saddle Creek September 14.The record was produced by Eric Bachmann at Echo Mountain Studios in Asheville, North Carolina, mixed by Michael Patterson in Los Angeles, CA and features guest appearances by Andy LeMaster and Liz Durrett.

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British pop icon Elton John and legendary American singer and songwriter Leon Russell have wrapped up a new album The Union together with producer T-Bone Burnett for an October 19 street date via Decca. In what appears to be one of the more interesting albums of the year, the duo perform all new songs written by John and long-standing lyricist Bernie Taupin in a variety of "organic" styles.

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Alt-country rising star Ryan Bingham will follow up his Oscar-winning song "The Weary Kind" from the soundtrack to the film Crazy Heart with Junky Star, a new album produced by "Weary" producer T-Bone Burnett are due September 7 via Lost Highway. The twelve songs on the new project were written by Bingham and performed by his longtime band The Dead Horses, featuring Matt Smith (drums), Elijah Ford (bass) and Corby Shaub (guitar/mandolin). 

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Scottish singer/songwriter KT Tunstall has announced that Tiger Suit will be the title of her third album set for a September 28 street date by her label Virgin. The title, says Tunstall, comes from "a recurring dream among other things."

She recorded the follow up to her 2007 album Drastic Fantastic at the famed Hansa studios in Berlin, known for David Bowie's Heroes and U2's Achtung Baby. New songs that Tunstall has been playing live include "Poison In Your Cup", "Fireworker" and "Madame Trudeau", the latter telling the tale of the wife of the Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau who "ran off with the Rolling Stones for a weekend."

Carlos Santana will release an as-yet-untitled new studio album September 21 that will feature the legendary guitarist's own take (with some superstar support) on what are being described as the "greatest guitar songs of all time." Among the tracks included: "Back In Black" featuring rapper NAS, Jimi Hendrix' "Little Wing" with Joe Cocker, Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" with Chris Cornell of Soundgarden and The Doors' "Riders On the Storm" featuring original Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek.

New project is the first album of all-new studio recordings since 2005's All That I Am, an album that sold Gold (500k copies, but a far cry from his earlier successes with 2002's Shaman (2X Platinum, or 2+ million copies) and 1999's massive hit Supernatural (15X Platinum).

Flamingo, the highly anticipated solo album from The Killers' frontman Brandon Flowers, now has an official release date: September 14 (Island). Named after the famed Flamingo casino in Flowers' hometown of Las Vegas, the new project received production support from Stuart Price, Brendan O'Brien (Bruce Springsteen) and Daniel Lanois (U2) and will feature a duet with Rilo Kiley's Jenny Lewis. Lead single, the anthemic "Crossfire" hits radio June 21. "It was weird," says Flowers of the solo recording process. "Without the union and The Killers and that way of doing things and friendship. I had fun making the record but that brotherhood didn't exist. At times it was a little bit lonely." Flowers and his Killer bandmates head back into the studio next year to begin work on the follow-up to their 2008 album Day & Age.

Listen to "Crossfire":

Brandon Flowers - "Crossfire" (from the album Flamingo) (Available at iTunes and other fine online stores)

Teddy Thompson returns September 7 with the release of new studio album Home via Verve Forecast. Thompson, son of legendary British folk/rockers Richard and Linda Thompson, previewed a number of songs from the new album recently at the Meltdown festival in London -- an event curated by his father. New songs include "Take Me Back Again", "Only For a Second", "Over and Over" and the album's title track. Home is Thompson's first set of new studio recordings since 2008's A Piece of What You Need.

UPDATE: Latest info indicates that the new album has a new name: Bella.