TOMORROW ON OUTQ: BEN HARPER, RAPHAEL SAADIQ, ROME, BOOKER T, BLIND BOYS

Longtime readers of No Expiration know that on Wednesday mornings at 9 am ET, I go on SiriusXM OutQ's Morning Jolt with Larry Flick to talk about music. Sometimes I have a theme: tomorrow the theme is cool new music.  I know, that's a bit vague.

First off is the new Ben Harper album, Give 'Till It's Gone. I wrote about that the other day: I like it a lot, and I prefer it to his last album with Relentless7 (R7 is the backing band on this one, and they are credited with co-writing songs, but for some reason the album is being referred to as a "solo album").  Ringo Starr and Jackson Browne both guest on the album... Ben is slowly entering the classic rock echelon of artists, and rightfully so.

I am digging Raphael Saadiq's new album, Stone Rollin'.  He is such a talented musician, and I give him a lot of credit for doing an album like this.  There's almost no imaginable context where this could be a hit in 2011.  Shame on us: it deserves to be a hit. He kind of splits the difference between classic Motown and classic Chess here, with maybe a bit of Stax thrown in. He plays most of the instruments, and there are very few guest stars on the album, and I have a feeling that this is going to be a hard one to sell.  So do your part as a music fan and go BUY it.

Rome is a very cool project that I just wrote about: it features producer Danger Mouse and Italian film composer Danielle Luppi paying tribute to spaghetti western scores. Jack White (him again, uh oh) and Norah Jones are the featured singers on the album. It's a score to a film that hasn't been made yet.

Booker T Jones just released his second solo album in a row (I guess he doesn't want to make records with The MG's again?). On his last album, Potato Hole, he used The Drive-By Truckers plus Neil Young as his backing band, and the album was all instrumental (which is fitting, because his Hammond organ playing is so lyrical). This time, on The Road To Memphis, he uses The Roots and Questlove co-produces.  There are a couple of cool guest singers, including Sharon Jones, Jim James of My Morning Jacket and even Booker T himself.

Finally, Take The High Road, the new album by The Blind Boys Of Alabama. It has a bunch of country collaborations on it (including one with Willie Nelson) and the album was produced by Jamey Johnson. It's a good album!

Hey, if you're a reader and haven't gotten to hear me on the radio (and if you want to), why not get a free online subscription trial, at www.siriusxm.com/freetrial .

DANGER MOUSE + DANIELLE LUPPI + JACK WHITE + NORAH JONES = ROME (A COOL PROJECT)

I've been looking forward to this Rome project for a while now. Producer Danger Mouse, who has worked with Cee-Lo Green in Gnarls Barkley, with James Mercer of The Shins in Broken Bells and the late Mark Linkous in Dark Night Of The Soul has a new project, Rome.  It's a collaboration with Italian composer Daniele Luppi, and it's a tribute to spaghetti western soundtracks.  The featured singers on the album are Jack White (for once, doing a project that he's not in charge of) and Norah Jones.

Much of the album is instrumental pieces, and they're pretty cool.  In some places, I thought maybe someone should send this stuff to Quentin Tarantino, in case he starts working on Kill Bill 3.

Jack White wrote and sang his own lyrics, but he didn't compose the music and doesn't play any instruments.  But because of his unique lyrical style, it sounds like a Jack White project (although the music doesn't sound like anything he's done before).  Danger Mouse wrote the lyrics for the Norah songs - but when she sings a song, I feel like she almost rewrites it.  She's one of the best collaborative singers out there today. The album plays like a soundtrack in search of a film, but I'd love to hear Jack and Norah perform their songs with their day jobs on their next tour.

You have to admire Danger Mouse: besides all of his projects that I mentioned above, he's produced Gorillaz, Beck and The Black Keys and is producing the next U2 album. He is an artist who had led us to understand that every time he does something new, it will be much different from what he's done before. I don't love everything he's done, but you have to respect the fact that he's a very successful modern artist who really can't be boxed in.