This week’s roundup of New Music Monday items is topped by Kelly Joe Phelps, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Ry Cooder and Scrapomatic. There are interesting reissues and live dates to discuss, too

Turns out Levon Helm had one more inspiring moment to give. The former singer and drummer of the Band helped facilitate a new all-star recording commemorating 50 years of Amnesty International in the time before cancer took his life.

John Mellencamp and Stephen King’s dramatic “roots musical,” in the works for more than a decade, will finally debut this spring.

Taj Mahal, recording as part of the 30th annual John Lennon Tribute at the Beacon Theatre in New York City, finds the chest-bursting peril, the nakedly emotional plea, inside “Come Together”

The lyrics have changed over these many years, but the mythical journey of Stagger Lee — “that bad man, oh, cru-el Stagolee” who shot a card-playing companion over a five-dollar Stetson hat — remains this talismanic tale.

by Nick Deriso The Blues Foundation announced its 2009 inductees for the Blues Hall of Fame on Wednesday. Lucky us. We already love ‘em: Multiple Grammy Award-winner Taj Mahal; Irma Thomas, the “Soul Queen of New Orleans”; as well as late Chicago bluesman Son Seals and the Reverend Gary Davis. Several singles or album tracks are also set to be [...]

by Pico If whack jazz isn’t exactly your cup of tea, this fifth and final installment of “The Best of 2008″ might suit you better. It’s all about the blues, here. I took a fairly broad view of what is called “the blues.” Some of these records may not have a single twelve-bar blues in them, but they will all [...]

A mere three days after the last Quickies, and here we are back already with another one. It just goes to show how the CD release pace quickens as we round the bend toward the holiday shopping season. With pockets getting emptying rapidly in the face of an economic Armageddon, it becomes more imperative to make your selections wisely. This [...]