Billboard Bits: LeAnn Rimes, OpryFEST, Camper Van

9/19/2002

News on LeAnn Rimes, OpryFEST, Camper Van

LeAnn Rimes has been added to the lineup for the 16th Bridge School Benefit concert outside of San Francisco. As reported yesterday, the Oct. 26 roster features Foo Fighters, Radiohead's Thom Yorke, Ryan Adams, James Taylor, Vanessa Carlton, Jack Johnson, Tenacious D, and event founder Neil Young. The bill is the same the following night, save for the Other Ones (featuring surviving members of the Grateful Dead) replacing Foo Fighters.

Rimes' new Curb album, "Twisted Angel," is due Oct. 1. First single "Life Goes On" is No. 18 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart this week. Although she won't tour until the spring, Rimes has appearances lined up on "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" (Oct. 4), "Mad TV" (Oct. 5), "Live With Regis and Kelly" (Oct. 7), and "The Caroline Rhea Show" (Oct. 8).

-- Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.

Nashville's Grand Ole Opry has lined up Ralph Stanley & the Clinch Mountain Boys, Marty Stuart, BR549, Lee Roy Parnell, and others for OpryFEST, a two-day outdoor music festival on Oct. 5-6 that will kick off "Opry Homecoming Month." Other artists slated to appear include the Derailers, the Nashville Bluegrass Band, the Whites, Mountain Heart, Robbie Fulks, and Steve Forbert.

One-day and two-day passes for the event are available via the Opry's official Web site. The site also features full daily lineups for OpryFEST's two stages, as well as information on travel packages.

-- Barry A. Jeckell, N.Y.

SpinART is preparing a limited-edition five-disc box set that will include the first four albums by legendary underground '80s group Camper Van Beethoven. The box, titled "Cigarettes and Carrot Juice: the Santa Cruz Years," will be released Nov. 5. It will include the CVB albums "Telephone Free Landslide Victory," "II & III," "Camper Van Beethoven," and the EP "Vampire Can Mating Oven," as well as one disc of live tracks.

According to the label, the hibernating group is considering touring in 2003. CVB -- with core members vocalist David Lowery, bassist Victor Krummenacher, guitarist Greg Lisher, and violinist Jonathan Segel -- reunited in July for shows in New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles in support of the release of "Tusk" (Pitch-A-Tent), a song-for-song reproduction of Fleetwood Mac's 1979 double-album of the same name.

-- Troy Carpenter, N.Y.