Shorts: Shelby Lynne, Jeff Beck, Patty Larkin, John Lennon, Tift Merritt, Zac Brown Band, Jakob Dylan/Neko Case

Shelby Lynne will follow up her superb 2007 Dusty Springfield tribute disc Just A Little Lovin' with a self-produced new project Tears, Lies, And Alibis due April 20 on her own newly founded independent label. "I've made records for 20 years and never been more excited," says Lynne. "I finally have the creative control I've needed to get my vision out there." The new project is said to have relatively stripped down sound and some old school elements from a studio band that includes members of the famed Muscle Shoals Swampers: David Hood and Spooner Oldham. New songs include lead single "The Rains Came" as well as "Like A Fool", a song that premiered on the TV show "Army Wives."

Legendary guitarist Jeff Beck returns with his first studio CD in seven years on April 13: Emotion & Commotion. In typical Beck-ian style, the album is all over the place stylistically including tracks recorded with a 64-piece orchestra on some instrumental classics ("Over the Rainbow", Jeff Buckley's "Corpus Christi Carol", Puccini's operatic "Nessa Dorma". Joss Stone guests on a pair of songs including the blues classic "I Put A Spell On You" while rising neo-rockabilly singer Imelda May tackles "Lilac Wine." Beck will tour the U.S. this spring after a worldwide sprint and the highly anticipated double bill with Eric Clapton at Madison Square Garden in NY February 18 and 19.

The ever wonderful < Patty Larkin celebrates 25 years of making albums with the release March 9 of 25, an impressive collection of 25 Larkin love songs featuring (you guessed it) 25 guest artists. Among those on the impressive guest list: Mary Chapin Carpenter, Shawn Colvin, Rosanne Cash, Bruce Cockburn, Jonatha Brooke, Greg Brown, Janis Ian and Suzanne Vega. Complete listing here. More on 25 soon as we get some advance music...

 On June 29, Capitol will mark a pair of John Lennon release anniversaries -- 30th for Double Fantasy, 40th for Plastic Ono Band -- with special "anniversary editions" of each. Details to come.

DC favorite Tift Merritt > will release her new studio album See You on the Moon on May 25 via Fantasy. Produced by Tucker Martine (Laura Veirs, The Decemberists) and recorded in her home state of North Carolina, the new album is said to be less thematic than her excellent (and semi-auto-biographical) Another Country with Merritt remarking that "the story is more in the music this time."

Recent Grammy winner for Best New Artist, country rockers Zac Brown Band will release a 2-CD/DVD Live From The Fox Theater in April.

We're intrigued with the concept behind Women and Country, the upcoming T-Bone Burnett-produced solo album from < Jakob Dylan arriving April 5. The former Wallflower frontman asked Neko Case and her bandmember Kelly Hogan to add their vocals to eight of the project's eleven songs for what is said to be some pretty amazing harmonies. "Neko’s a huge character," Dylan remarked to Billboard. "She and Kelly add a huge personality to the record." Women is Dylan's first album since 2008's Seeing Things solo debut. Look for all three to tour together this summer.

Long-running roots rockers The BoDeans will release a new CD, “Mr. Sad Clown,” on April 6 via new label home 429. New studio album from Little Big Town penciled in for an August 24 street from Capitol Nashville. A 3-CD expanded version of The Cure's Disintegration arrives April 6 marking the release's 20th anniversary.