Sugar Hill Records will on Aug. 10 issue "Touch My Heart: A Tribute to Johnny Paycheck." Produced by Robbie Fulks, it features Paycheck songs performed by George Jones, Buck Owens, Bobby Bare Jr., Mavis Staples, Al Anderson, Marshall Crenshaw, Neko Case, Jim Lauderdale and others. Paycheck died in February 2003 at age 64.

"I would love this record just as well if I had just picked it out of the store on a whim," Fulks says. "My sincerest hope is that these brilliant performances are widely heard, and the circle of people who are attuned to Paycheck's savage brilliance expands as a result."

In conjunction with Revolution Art and Design, Sugar Hill is offering a limited-edition letterpress print of Paycheck, signed by artist Chris McAdoo. For more information, visit the label's official Web site.

-- Phyllis Stark, Nashville

---

To celebrate Peter Case's 10th anniversary with Vanguard Records, the label is planning to release the compilation "Who's Gonna Go Your Crooked Mile? Selected Tracks 1994-2004." The set will boast songs from the four albums the singer/songwriter has released through Vanguard, as well as two new tracks and one live cut.

The new songs find Case wearing his new-age folk troubadour suit proudly as he takes on topical issues. The first, "Wake Up Call," was written shortly after news of the scandal at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison broke, while "My Generation's Golden Handcuff Blues" addresses corporate slavery and "an ever widening gap between the rich & poor."

The live track is a version of "Crooked Mile," from his defining 1998 Vanguard album "Full Service, No Waiting." The song was recorded a few months ago at McCabe's Guitar Shop in Santa Monica, Calif., on the former Plimsouls member's 20th anniversary of his first show at the venue.

-- Barry A. Jeckell, N.Y.

---

Singer/songwriter Jill Sobule will release "Underdog Victorious" as her first studio album under a new deal with Artemis Records. Longtime collaborators Brad Jones and Robin Eaton produced the 14-track set, which is due Sept. 7. The single "Cinnamon Park," the melody of which incorporates a very recognizable hook from the classic Chicago song "Saturday in the Park," will precede the album.

Sobule, who recently opened a few dates on Don Henley's ongoing U.S. tour, has a handful of dates on her summer schedule, beginning Wednesday (July 7) in New York. For the full list, visit her official Web site.

Later this month the winsome artist will see her off-Broadway play, "Prozac and Platypus," open for a July 20-25 run at the Beckett Theatre as part of the city's inaugural Summer Play Festival. She also has a role in the independent film "Mind the Gap" which screened in March at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas

-- Barry A. Jeckell, N.Y.