Believe it: Jessica Simpson has decamped to Nashville to begin work on her debut country album, due sometime in 2008 via Columbia Nashville.

Simpson declined to name songwriting collaborators, but tells Billboard.com she will most definitely be involved in the creative process. “Writing is a release for me,” she says. “It’s a way for me to tell my story. That’s not to say I wouldn’t record a song that I didn’t write. It’s just that it has been a while since I have opened the book.”

But why country, and why now? “I am a country girl,” she says. “I grew up in Texas, and country music was what I listened to. I always wanted to make a country album, but I wanted to wait until the time was right.”

“I think there is a strength in female country artists,” Simpson adds, citing Martina McBride, Shania Twain, Faith Hill and Reba McEntire as some of her inspirations.

Asked what has surprised her most since starting the follow-up to 2006’s “A Public Affair,” Simpson says, “Nashville is a very warm city. The people are friendly and kind. There is a sense of community, which thrives on music. There is no animosity … only respect for one another’s talent.”

It’s unclear if Simpson will hit the road in support of the as-yet-untitled country project, but she says, “Since the record is in the beginning stages, there hasn’t been much talk about a tour just yet.”

Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.

Terms of Entanglement: Alanis Morissette’s new album, Flavors of Entanglement, produced by Björk and Madonna veteran Guy Sigsworth, drops this spring, and features an eclectic array of world- and folk-influenced tracks. Morissette promises a deeply personal and highly political record, which should go over great with all her new “My Humps” fans. [Billboard]

Brandy can breathe a little easier now.

In a belated holiday gift, prosecutors in Los Angeles have decided not to file a misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter charge against the R&B songstress for last year’s chain-reaction car crash that resulted in a woman’s death.

According to a statement from the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office, authorities opted not to proceed with a criminal case after a probe found “insufficient evidence” that Brandy, whose last name Norwood, was to blame.

“After conducting a thorough investigation, which included consulting with some of the top accident reconstruction experts in the country, city prosecutors concluded there was insufficient evidence from which a jury could find Ms. Norwood guilty of such a charge beyond a reasonable doubt,” prosecutors said.

The fatal collision occurred on Dec. 30, 2006, when the Grammy-winning ex-Moesha star slammed her 2007 Land Rover into the back of a 2005 Toyota Corolla at 65 mph, setting off a four car pile-up.

The driver of the Toyota, 38-year-old Awatif Aboudihaj, careened into the highway’s center divider before being broadsided by another car. After suffering multiple pelvic fractures, the wife and mother of two died the following evening in the hospital.

Weeks later, once news of the accident became public, Brandy issued a statement through her publicist in which she “express[ed] her condolences to the family of the deceased” and called it a “terrible tragedy.”

After investigating the crash scene and testing Brandy’s sport utility vehicle for any mechanical defects, the California Highway Patrol eventually recommended a misdemeanor manslaughter charge be filed against her, saying negligence was responsible for the accident.

A guilty conviction could have netted the 28-year-old entertainer anywhere from a year in jail and a $1,000 fine to house arrest or a work-furlough program.

Brandy’s attorney, Blair Berk, said the performer was grateful for the prosecutors’ decision.

“We are extremely pleased that after a more thorough and extensive investigation by the authorities, the Los Angeles City Attorney has determined that Brandy Norwood should not be charged with any crime whatsoever relating to the traffic accident,” she said.

“These past 12 months have been extraordinarily hard for Brandy and her family, who were unfairly forced to live under a cloud of suspicion initially caused by an ill-advised and premature press release sent out by the California Highway Patrol, accusing Brandy of wrongdoing before the police investigation was even finished,” Berk continued.

“However, Brandy continues to be mindful that she was extremely fortunate not to have been injured in this accident and that there was a life lost.”

But Brandy’s ordeal isn’t over by a longshot. She must now sweat out three civil suits launched by the victim’s families.

The first is a wrongful-death complaint filed in January by Aboudihaj’s parents holding the singer-actress directly responsible for “driving recklessly” and seeking $50 million in compensatory and punitive damages.

The second was filed on behalf of the victim’s two children, 15-year-old Mrwan Mohammed and 11-year-old Kareem Mohammed, who were with their mother in the car when the crash took place and suffered injuries their attorney said will cause them permanent damage.

Then there’s Aboudihaj’s widower, Maroune Hdidou, who claimed Brandy was driving “too fast for conditions” and “following too closely” and sought unspecified compensatory and punitive damages for the loss of his spouse.

In May, Brandy launched her own legal salvo against one of the motorists involved in the pile-up, accusing 50-year-old Simi Valley resident Mallory Ham of negligence and blaming her for causing the accident.

The action came in response to Ham—who’s also named as a defendant in Hdidou’s suit—suing the erstwhile America’s Got Talent judge for negligence and vehicular damage.

Amazon.com has added songs from Warner Music Group to the range it sells as MP3 files without DRM (digital rights management), the companies said Friday.

The online retailer launched its music download service in September and now offers 2.9 million songs without copy prevention technology, including tracks from Warner, EMI, Universal, and 33,000 independent record labels — although it has still not won over Sony BMG, the only one of the music majors still insisting on the use of DRM.

Warner said it also planned to offer album bundles including exclusive tracks through the Amazon service.

The move is a blow to Apple’s iTunes Store, which has only persuaded EMI and a handful of independent labels to let it offer their tracks in the DRM-free iTunes Plus format it launched in May. The rest of the songs available through iTunes come with digital limitations on where they can be played, or how many times they can be burned to a CD.

Three formats dominate the market for online music sales: MP3 and AAC, which are both open formats, and WMA, a proprietary format owned by Microsoft.

MP3 files do not include provision for DRM: music recorded in that format will play on most digital music players, many mobile phones, and in software readily available for all the major operating systems, including Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux, opening up a huge potential market to Amazon and to other online music stores such as eMusic dealing in unprotected MP3 files.

AAC is the format Apple chose for its iTunes Store. Most of the 6 million tracks in its catalog come wrapped in a proprietary DRM layer called FairPlay, although EMI and independents such as Sub Pop, Nettwerk, IODA and The Orchard also allow it to offer higher quality AAC recordings without DRM. The DRM-encumbered tracks will play on authorized iPods, iPhones, PCs, and Macs — but won’t play on digital music players from other vendors. Unprotected AAC files will also play on many mobile phones, PCs running Linux with the appropriate software, and even Microsoft’s Zune digital music player.

WMA files without DRM will play on PC or Macs using Windows Media Player, and some phones and digital music players — although typically not on the same ones that play AAC files. Microsoft has also introduced a range of DRM systems enabling online stores to sell locked WMA files — and later abandoned some of them, leaving a certain amount of confusion and doubt about whether devices and songs branded “PlaysForSure” really will play for sure.

Industry executives expect initiatives such as iTunes Plus and Amazon MP3, which remove the DRM locks placed on music downloads by an earlier generation of music services, will encourage consumers to buy more music.

Warner believes that giving consumers the assurance that the music they purchase can be played on any device they own will only encourage more sales of music, it said Friday.

It may also persuade music-buyers to look at other brands of digital music player such as the Zune range from Microsoft, ending Apple’s dominance of that market segment.

With the locks off the music, Apple also faces the prospect of a price war with Amazon, which offers 1 million of its MP3 tracks for just $0.89, compared to the $0.99 Apple charges for all its tracks. Before the launch of Amazon MP3, Apple also charged a $0.30 premium for tracks in the iTunes Plus format, which is recorded at a higher quality than the DRM-encumbered versions. Other Amazon tracks sell for $0.99.

By Peter Sayer, IDG News Service

n verseTranslation is not easy. Moreover, I seek perfection in anything I do,” says Kapurthalabased Sewadar Singh Jogi in answer to why he took 50 years to come up with Khayyam Udaari, the Punjabi translation of Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat. “There were times when I’d translate two lines and the word ending the fourth line just wouldn’t rhyme. So I had to rework the first two lines,” says 78-year-old Jogi. While reading the English translation by Edward Fitzgerald, Jogi decided to try a Punjabi version. “What was missing in Fitzgerald’s translation was that sometimes it didn’t portray the import of the original, and words were repetitive.” Trained as a paramedic, Jogi now leads a retired life dividing time between reading, gardening, cooking and social work.

Serving the old

Four Sikh volunteers are being trained in Fremont, California, under the organisation Sikhs Engaged in Volunteer Activities (SEVA) to assist the seniors in their community. “This initiative falls under a programme called Community Ambassador Program for Seniors (CAPS), developed to serve seniors in their languages,” says Asha Chandra, program manager, CAPS, which has set out to provide information about local resources.

Royal affair in the community

Eight jewels belonging to Maharani Anita Delgado (1890-1962), which were auctioned at Christie’s, London, made a total of £ 627,500 (Rs 4,93,66,660) on December 12. Delgado was a Spanish dancer, before the Maharaja of Kapurthala Jagatjit Singh married her in 1908 in a traditional Sikh wedding. She changed her name to Prem Kaur and became the Rani of Kapurthala, and was showered with jewels by her husband.

Sikh impact

Due to the contributions of the South Asian community in Surrey, Canada, to the Surrey Memorial Hospital fund, the entrance to the hospital’snew emergency department is now being named after the founder of Sikhism Guru Nanak Dev. Premier Gordon Campbell said, “His name represents his values and all are welcome here.”

Playing to a different beat

They originally came together for a oneshot performance for Vancouver’s Celtic Fest in March 2006, but they were such a big hit that these five musicians decided to form a band of their own. Thus was born Delhi 2 Dublin, and for the first time, they are releasing their full length CD, Delhi 2 Dublin, which features eight original songs and two remixes.]

Says Tarun Nayar, one of the five band members, “Two and a half of us are Punjabis. I am a classically trained tabla player and am half Punjabi, half Irish/Scottish.

Sanjay Seran, the singer, and Ravi Binning, the dhol player, are also Punjabis.” They call themselves Delhi 2 Dublin because they mix up the musical styles of Ireland and north India. Violinist Kytami, who was trained in classical music, and Andrew Kim, who is a Korean who plays the electric guitar, form the fourth and fifth members of the group.

Influenced heavily by Punjabi music, infused with Celtic sounds, their songs contain not only bhangra beats, but also Punjabi vocals. “Most of the lyrics to our songs are in Punjabi. Sanjay, our vocalist, also writes the lyrics with help from members of the Vancouver Punjabi community,” says Nayar.

“Some are boliyan, others are specifically written for our tracks. On some of the tracks, such as Nighstep, we’ve tried to really step outside the scope of traditional Punjabi lyrics and write about some new things, a little bit more metaphysical in nature.

Another one of our songs is sung in Hindi, and is based on a bhajan. Guest vocalist Tanya Jacobs, who has trained in Kolkata, based the piece on a traditional composition.”

For more, visit their website at www.delhi2dublin.com

Taking bhangra global

Gurinder Chadha’s done it, Mira Nair’s done it and, in some way, even Karan Johar and Yash Chopra have done it—made Punjabis famous worldwide. But that’s through cinema. Sarina Jain, often called the Indian Jane Fonda, has taken her love for bhangra to a new level, and along the way she has made thousands shed kilos.

New York-based Jain was born and brought up in the US but says that she’s always been connected to India and would visit the country at least once a year when she was growing up. While still in her teens, Jain also developed a passion for being fit and started earning pocket money by working as a fitness instructor at a health club. “At that time, the aerobics workout was very dull.

People had to do the same stuff day after day,” she says. While in her 20s and working as a public relations executive, Jain hit upon the idea of formulating an Indian workout, and the Punjabi beats of bhangra is what came to her mind when she thought about energy, fun and fitness. But it was easier said than done. It took Jain, who is a Marwari, a whole year to come up with a programme in 1999. “I finally put it together and came up with the name, the ‘Masala Bhangra workout’,” she says. She has since released five home videos where you can dance the bhangra and cut the flab.

Jain, who was in India when we went to press, says that this has been a fulfilling trip for her. Topping her list is the fact that she finally visited Punjab after “all these years of promoting bhangra to the goras.” She’s also got Masala Bhangra classes lined up at Mumbai gyms.

When we spoke to her, Jain had just returned from Pune after shooting her sixth fitness video. “It’s called Back to Bollywood. Jassi, the Punjabi singer, has specially recorded a song for the intensive cardio workout,” she says.

Jhilmil Motihar

A taste of home

Visitors enjoy

The Indian community in Bangkok recently experienced a taste of India. The Punjabi Family Mela, organised by the Young Thai Sikh Association on December 9, to mark the King’s birthday, was a big hit.Almost 3,000 people visited the daylong event at the Thai Sikh International School. Games like human foosball and rock climbing kept kids and teenagers occupied. Food stalls offered samosas, tandoori chicken, seekh kebabs and more.

A mini Punjab created in a corner with a village backdrop, and bhangra performances struck a nostalgic note.