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Next month, the “American Idol” Davids will release their debut albums a week apart.

David Archuleta’s first single, “Crush,” peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100, and now resides in the Top 20. Not a bad first showing – especially since the song is perfectly pleasant, but not exactly distinctive.

Winner David Cook, meanwhile, opted for a moody, slow-burning rocker – “Leave the Light On” – as the follow-up to his victory ballad smash, “Time of My Life.”

The song is rather dull and plodding, but Cook’s fans have already pushed his album, which isn’t out for almost a month, to number two on the iTunes album chart. Maybe he can even unseat the “High School Musical 3” soundtrack after he performs on “Saturday Night Live” next weekend.

But what has become of Jason? Carly? Michael? Brooke?

That’s the question posed by USA Today’s ace “Idol” tracker Ken Barnes in this interesting story: http://blogs.usatoday.com/idolchatter/2008/10/have-we-reached.html?csp=34

Barnes pointedly notes that the crew from season six – Chris Daughtry, Kellie Pickler, our beloved Elliott Yamin, Bucky Covington and the final duo, Taylor Hicks and Katharine McPhee – has fared the strongest in their post-“Idol” careers. But, Barnes suggests that Daughtry and Elliott might have reason to worry about their follow-up releases and wonders, are we “Idol”-ed out?

What do you think? Pining for something new from Syesha Mercado? And actually, did you even remember her name?

Jason Mraz is in the midst of the never-ending tour.

He’s been traveling since February, three months before his latest album, “We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things” arrived. And, on the strength of its first single, “I’m Yours,” Mraz is happily filling places such as Radio City Music Hall and the Tower Theatre in Philadelphia.

This weekend, he performs twice in the area – Sunday at Charlottesville Pavilion for a general admission concert (http://www.charlottesvillepavilion.com) and Monday at Constitution Hall in D.C. (http://www.dar.org/conthall).

Next month, he’ll make his traditional visit home for Thanksgiving and squeeze in a pair of shows at The National on Nov. 26 and Nov. 28 (the first show is with a full band, the second, all acoustic).

Earlier this week, the Mechanicsville native checked in from his tour stop in Philly to talk about politics, his raw food diet and the success of his third studio album, which peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard album chart, has sold about half a million copies and commandeered many spots on the iTunes charts.

Look for the rest of this interview next month, closer to his Richmond dates.

Are you doing anything differently this time around with the tour? Still have the horn section?

We still have the horns. We’re celebrating most of the songs from the new album, as well as continuing to share old favorites. Things are getting bigger, but we’re still trying to keep everything intimate, keep the conversation alive.

There are so many artists out there who take their fans for granted or who look at them as a necessary nuisance, but you seem to embrace them as your friends and you share so much of yourself on your Web site. How much of that do you think contributes to your success?

I feel it, I do. I just want to see people smiling. The things I share on stage and on my Web site are things that give me comfort in life, the same things I put into the songs. I feel that’s my responsibly as an artist, a writer, a world traveler – to continue to share with whomever these stories of comfort and how to make this life experience a good one.

Without guidance, we can get lost in ourselves. We can just feel like what is the point of life? I’m happy to be this ambassador of positivity; it feel so much better than just standing on stage and going, look how cool I am, you guys …It’s those people who are giving me this life, especially the people who buy the tickets and buy the CDs. They’re funding this adventure, and I want to do positive things with that.

What’s this new photo thing you’re doing at the live shows?

You can email pictures ahead of time to the Web site (http://www.jasonmraz.com) based on which show you’re going to be attending. What I was hoping for was that people would share what they thought was beautiful about their community.

There’s also a feature where you can send pictures of just you and your best friends, and it comes up on the screen behind me [in concert] looking like Polaroids.

That seems like something that takes a lot of time to organize. Who is doing all of that?

My friend Jared. He used to spend time before the shows riding his bike and taking pictures. Now he’s slaving over a computer.

You’ve publicly endorsed Barack Obama on your Web site – are you doing anything political in concert?

I don’t talk on the mic about it, but Barack is in our show, I’ll tell you that. He speaks for himself. I do talk personally with people before or after the show and I use my Web site to link to Barack as much as I can.

When he appears [in concert], the place goes [bleeping] crazy. At first I was like, what if there are some people who boo? But then I thought, even if there are McCain supporters in the crowd, they’re not going to BOO Barack. But people go apey when they see his picture and it’s great. Hopefully, people will continue to take that spirit to the polls.

In Thursday’s Beat column, I wrote about music and the presidential campaigns—in particular, the McCain camp’s insistence upon using songs from avowed Democrats, who then complain publicly

(http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/entertainment/music.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2008-10-16-0007.html).

Well, they’re at it again, this time aggravating Bon Jovi for not asking if it would be cool to use the band’s “Who Says You Can’t Go Home” at recent campaign rallys (and really, unless McCain/Palin were in Alaska or Arizona, how does this even apply?).

Anyway, the latest gaffe: http://news.yahoo.com/s/eonline/20081015/en_music_eo/63961;_ylt=Ain8DQlKnvkf1Hgx2fXZ8DyVEhkF

So now we know Janet Jackson canceled a slew of dates not because of a rumored pregnancy, but, says her management, because she’s been suffering from a rare form of migraine that causes vertigo.

As a migraine-sufferer, she has my sympathy.

But riddle me this: Jackson is well enough to return to her tour tonight at D.C.’s Verizon Center, yet on Tuesday, she announced that she was postponing her Thursday gig at Madison Square Garden.

What, she was feeling better Wednesday, but already knew that she couldn’t exert herself Thursday?

More likely, tickets for the D.C. show were selling at a far stronger clip than the New York date—Ticketmaster is offering a buy-three-tickets-get-one-free promotion for the Madison Square Garden date, and a four-pack offer for Friday’s scheduled show at the Izod Center in Jersey – so by postponing the show, it gives promoters a couple of more weeks to try to unload tickets.

Even though Jackson is booked in 15,000-20,000-seat arenas, she isn’t even filling half the house at most shows.

Of the figures released to concert industry trade magazine Pollstar, Jackson’s Sept. 10 show at General Motors Place in Vancouver – a venue with a capacity of 20,763 – was set up for 11,000. She sold 8,900 tickets.

At the Staples Center in L.A. Sept. 17 – another 20,000-capacity venue – the house was set up to accommodate 13,000. She sold just over 12,000.

And Sept. 19, the 12,000-capacity Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas was set up for 8,100. She sold 8,000.

To be fair, a portion of the venue has to be blocked out for what is surely a large stage production. Typically, that will kill 3,000-4,000 seats.

But the fact that these venues were only setting up for attendance far below their capacities – a trick employed when tickets aren’t moving – says it all.

And that would give anyone a headache.

With so much going on at the Richmond Folk Festival – and with spending so much time talking to people to find out what they think of the things going on – we’ve often run out of space to discuss what is the main ingredient of this whole shindig: the music.

So, with one more day left to enjoy the multi-cultural sounds spread among the festival’s seven stages, here are my picks for some acts who shouldn’t be missed.

E.U.: The D.C.-based go-go band is not only an airtight musical outfit, but if you haven’t experienced go-go music live, they’ll show you in seconds why it’s known as an original form of party music.

Go-go relies on its backbeat, a crisp snare drum and rattling high-hat gluing the music with deliberate quarter and eighth notes on the bass drum. That’s the first sound that will make your body head uncontrollably to the dance floor (if you catch them in the Times-Dispatch Dance Pavilion, where there IS a dance floor).

Saturday afternoon, the seven-piece E.U. (which stands for Experience Unlimited) held down a non-stop rhythm while singer Gregory “Sugar Bear” Elliot issued a call-and-response during their versions of “Family Affair” and the Isley Brothers’ “It’s Your Thing.” At one point, he even improvised a Happy Birthday shout-out to “all the Libras in the crowd.”

Even though the band is mostly playing cover songs, when given the E.U. treatment, these well-known jams are stretched into fat, funky soundscapes that will guarantee even the most rhythm-less in the crowd find a groove.

Performing: 1:30 p.m. Dominion Stage; 4:45 p.m. Richmond Times-Dispatch Dance Pavilion

Líadan: This sextet of lovely ladies from Galway, Limerick and Dublin are more about melodic reed and string instruments – and accordion! – than the typical foot-stomping reels that are integral
to many Irish groups.

That isn’t to say they’re Enya.

Far from it, actually.

At Saturday night’s performance, the women balanced spirited instrumentals filled with fiddle, harp and tin whistle with Irish and Scottish ballads that illuminated their gorgeous harmonizing.

Oh yeah, and if their playing isn’t impressive enough, all of the group holds masters degrees in music.

Performing: 4 p.m. Wachovia/Wachovia Securities Stage

Nukariik: While I didn’t find this charming sister act as intriguing as AltaKAI, the Russian throat singers who visited the National Folk Festival in 2006 (maybe we’ve had throat singing overload?), it’s worth checking them out for the sheer oddity of what they do.

However, one of their performances on Saturday occurred on the exposed Dominion Stage, right under a set of train tracks.

Not a great plan, considering the sisters’ form of throat singing is rather quiet, like rapid breathing or whispering. And, of course, a CSX train with its blaring whistle rumbled past in the middle of their show.

But, it was still interesting to watch them – clad in traditional Inuit garb – as they stood inches apart, facing each other and holding each other’s elbows as they gently swayed or edged in a circle while expelling their sounds.

Performing: 3 p.m. Comcast Stage

Plena Libre: This Puerto Rican outfit took a few minutes to get warmed up for their Saturday evening performance – interestingly, almost every member took a brief solo spin on his form of percussion as an introduction to their set, rather than midway through or toward the end, which is more common for solo spotlights.

But when the entire group – all clad in white – seeped in behind a quartet of percussionists, founder Gary Nuñez on upright bass and a sublime horn section injected a jazzy vibe into the rhythmic sea.

Performing: 2 p.m. Richmond Times-Dispatch Dance Pavilion; 5:45 p.m. Ukrop’s/First Market Bank Stage

Howard Tate: The recently resurrected soul legend performed his shows this weekend with the horn section from Richmond’s Chez Roué Orchette, who sounded as if they’ve played with the man for years.

While not necessarily party music, Tate’s straight-up, old school rhythm and blues was belted with an authenticity few can still bring.

On Friday night, I ran into local fave Gary Gerloff (volunteering at the fest), who mentioned that the only living comparison to Tate is Al Green.

I couldn’t have said it any better.

Hope you caught Tate Friday or Saturday, because he’s not performing on Sunday. If you missed him, visit http://www.howardtate.net to learn a little more about this forgotten talent.

“If I Were a Boy” isn’t the type of first single you’d expect from a new Beyonce project.

No thumping beat. No frenzied horns. No finger-snapping attitude.

Instead, the song is a lovely, plaintive ballad with role-reversal lyrics (“If I were a boy, I think I could understand/how it feels to be a girl/I swear I’d be a better man”) that dig into heartache.

Some fans might be disappointed that Beyonce isn’t offering another club thumper yet, but “Boy” definitely succeeds in showcasing a more mature side of the recently married singer.

Women will love the song because it speaks from their viewpoint, while men might actually take a hint from it.

Z100’s Elvis Duran premiered the ballad on his New York-based morning show Wednesday.

Listen to it here and see what you think: http://z100.elvisduran.com/pages/news/beyonce/

Oasis’ “Dig Out Your Soul” won’t be in stores until Tuesday, but if you want a preview listen, head to http://www.myspace.com/oasis, where the band has posted the entire album.

This is my first experience with the new MySpace player, which the company debuted about a week ago (when I was busy being tortured by little children at Disney World).

The player’s design is certainly sleeker than the old model, but I’m already irritated by one feature. Maybe it’s my own blindness, but when listening to the Oasis album, it took me about halfway through the list of songs to realize which one I was listening to.

Nothing is highlighted, and the song’s names don’t appear near the “play” bar, but you CAN tell which is playing if you squint and notice the teeny speaker icon next to the song’s name.

Annoyance number two: after four songs, the music stopped and a box (featuring a pic of the Jonas Brothers!) popped up, asking if I was still listening. Well, I was, Mr. MySpace, until you made me stop what I was doing, go back to the MySpace page, click “yes I’m still listening” and then hit the play button again.

Anyway, this seventh album from the band should appease those who thought the boys lost their magic after “Standing on the Shoulder of Giants.”

The guitars are giant and crunchy – first single “The Shock of Lightning” is tailor made for arena singalongs, while the ballad “I’m Outta Time,” with subtle strings in the background, is the prettiest song the band has written since “Don’t Go Away.”

Of course, the Beatles influences are still blatant. “Get Off Your High Horse Lady” utilizes a nasally, sung-through-a-megaphone vocal effect that wouldn’t have been out of place on “Sgt. Pepper,” and “Soldier On” employs a marching beat reminiscent of “Come Together.”

Good stuff that should sound even better live.

Oasis plays the Patriot Center Dec. 20. Tickets are on sale at 10 a.m. Friday, but a pre-sale starts Thursday at 10 a.m. (password: wonderwall). There’s an 8-ticket limit.

CHARLOTTESVILLE

In the 13 years since Alanis Morissette became a superstar, catalyzed by an acidic kiss-off to an ex, she’s won seven Grammy awards and sold more than 55 million records worldwide.

Instead of coasting, as she easily could, she’s continually churned out insightful, soul-baring work – even if much of it isn’t quite as memorable as her catalog from the late-‘90s.

But despite her success, Morissette, who has publicly matured into the 34-year-old of today, approaches her music – both recorded and live – with an admirable rawness.

That isn’t to say that Thursday’s night’s Charlottesville Pavilion show – the kickoff of her two-month North American tour and a benefit for the Charlottesville Free Clinic—was devoid of flaws.

Her voice dissipated into the air before ever reaching the lawn area on the opening “Versions of Violence,” from her current album, “Flavors of Entanglement.” And, while the somber piano notes of “Uninvited” rang clearly, as soon as Morissette’s five-piece band slammed into the heavy goth-rock that pushes the rest of the song, her vocals were unintelligible.

The saddest casualty of this frustrating mix was “All I Really Want,” an unheralded gem from 1995’s “Jagged Little Pill” breakthrough. It wasn’t that Morissette’s voice wasn’t up to nailing the see-sawing range of the song – the band was simply overpowered her, particularly the funky scratching from her guitarist.

But about 20 minutes into the just-under-two-hour show, the sonic cobwebs were mostly cleared, allowing fans to absorb the emotion in “Not As We,” one of the most unguarded post-breakup songs on “Entanglement.”

Morissette’s voice isn’t the prettiest, but it’s stuffed with character. Her vocal style tends toward warbles and bleats, but on stage, you feel her words, as well as watch her present them.

When blitzing through a charging rocker, such as the also-new “Moratorium,” Morissette, clad in dark clothes, fully unleashed herself on stage. Her mane, which bumps against her tailbone when she’s upright, was utilized as a manic prop, whirled in classic head-banger style as she whipped around the stage like a pony ready to bust through the paddock.

But when the tempo paused for “Not As We” – and any other ballad throughout the night – Morissette stood in front of the mic stand, hands clasped at the wrist, as if ready to recite a poem. Makes sense, since many of her songs are basically intelligent diary entries set to music.

Prior to the highlight of the show – a five-song unplugged set – a rolling cadence ushered in an almost unrecognizable “You Oughta Know.” Rather than furiously pound through the song and fume like a bitter spurned lover, Morissette slowed it down a touch, making her snarling words sting even harder.

With 13 years of history behind “Oughta,” it’s still a bracing anthem of empowerment that has already been cemented in the rock history canon.

But as well as Morissette rages, she’s also quite intriguing in the simplest of setups. With her band scattered around her with acoustic guitars, a piano keyboard and skeleton drum set, she sat on a tall wooden stool with her legs crossed and strolled through some hits and welcome album cuts.

“Hand in My Pocket,” that song of reasonable contradictions, resulted in a majority sing-along from the crowd of a couple thousand. Meanwhile, 1998’s “Unsent,” which she called the “scariest” song she’s had to share, and “So Unsexy,” from 2002’s “Under Rug Swept,” exposed Morissette at her most vulnerable – and relatable.

Plugging back in for “Ironic,” which sounded like the biggest crowd favorite of the night (guess we’ve forgiven her for all of those not-exactly-ironies in the song?), and the appropriate closer of “Thank U,” Morissette looked happy as she flashed peace signs and stalked the stage in her black knee-high boots.

If her crew can rectify those sound issues for the rest of the tour, she – and her fans – will have plenty to smile about.

With its ninth studio album, “Death Magnetic,” Metallica has become the first band to have five consecutive albums debut at number one on the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart. That breaks a tie with the Beatles, U2 and the Dave Matthews Band, which all had four number ones.

“Death” was released on Friday, and in only five days, has sold almost 500,000 copies.

The guys, profiled in a recent Rolling Stone interview (http://www.rollingstone.com/news/coverstory/23089135), are also heading on tour this fall – with Richmond’s Lamb of God one of the chosen support acts. They’ll hit the Verizon Center in D.C. in January.
More info: http://www.verizoncenter.com/events/calendar.php?opts=detail&eid=2738&evtype=special

By Special Correspondent Hays Davis

    It may have been over 20 years since The Cult got their foot in the door of an international audience with the single “She Sells Sanctuary,” but a big crowd at The National made it clear that singer Ian Astbury, guitarist Billy Duffy and their crew had not been forgotten.

   
After a well-received set from Richmond’s Ki:Theory, who are joining the headliners for a few dates, smoke began filling the room for what was getting close to being a what-the-heck-are-they-doing-back-there wait.  Finally the band appeared, with Astbury bundled in a long-sleeved jacket and scarf (maybe the hot tub backstage wasn’t on its game). 

    The National crowd was way up for everything the band brought out, both new and old.  A second guitarist rounded out a five-piece lineup, freeing Duffy to break into more lead work while keeping the sound full.  Astbury was in good voice; while he seemed careful not to attempt to hit every protracted high note from their earlier recordings, it’s doubtful that anyone present would have taken him to task over not meeting expectations. 

    For anyone who felt that The Cult’s latest album, 2007’s “Born Into This,” didn’t quite hit the peaks of their glory days, hearing them play songs like “I Assassin” live may have prodded more than a few to consider giving that album a fresh spin.  And if the new stuff sounded better from the stage, old favorites like “Wild Flower” and “Edie (Ciao Baby)” went over doubly well. 

    When his between-song chatting was intelligible, Astbury took some time to get friendly with the crowd while Duffy switched guitars, at one point gauging their musical interests:  “Do you like Black Kids?  How about the German band Neu from Stuttgart?”  He barely had a chance to catch their response before Duffy struck some new chords and the band moved on.   

    The audience was twisted tight by the night’s end, with some of the best tunes saved for last, and when “Love Removal Machine” cranked up just before the encores the room blew apart.  Here, Duffy stepped out as the guitar hero an earlier generation remembered him to be, and he seemed to genuinely enjoy tearing into the solo that was a highlight of 1987’s “Electric” album.

    Practically everyone in attendance held their places for the encores.  While “Fire Woman” went over well as expected, all were waiting for the big finish of “She Sells Sanctuary,” and The Cult gave them no less than they’d given 20-plus years before. 

    Astbury and Duffy would be the first to tell you that their time together over the past couple of decades hasn’t exactly been a long, warm ride into the sunset, but Friday’s show was startling evidence that The Cult may be sparking as much fire on theater stages these days as they ever did in arenas.