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Black Keys Sue Ad Agency, Paul Simon Offers Guitar Lessons, Jim Lauderdale Teams With Robert Hunter

If you’ve ever wanted a guitar or songwriting lesson from Paul Simon, and you have over 11,000 dollars to spare, now’s your chance. The legendary songwriter is auctioning off a special one on one session for the Children’s Health Fund Online Auction. Place your bid here.

The Black Keys are suing NY ad agency Della Femina Rothschild Jeary & Partners over the use of their song “Tighten Up” in an ad for New Jersey’s Valley National Bank in an ad that was broadcast during this year’s Grammys. The blues-rock duo has filed two separate suits, one in Manhattan and one in Nashville, where they reside. The song, from their Grammy-winning album Brothers, topped the Billboard rock charts last year.

Roots musician Jim Lauderdale‘s Reason & Rhyme, a collaboration with Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter, hits stores today via Sugar Hill Records. The bluegrass-centric record marks their second time teaming up, following 2004’s Headed For The Hills. โ€œWe started on this one last August,โ€ Lauderdale says, โ€œright after I finished touring with Elvis Costello. Robert and I have worked just about every way you can think ofโ€”writing in the same room, adding lyrics to music and music to lyricsโ€”but whichever way we go, heโ€™s the lyrics guy and Iโ€™m the music guy. This time around, we wanted to keep the momentum from Patchwork River going; I started sending him melodies, and ten days later we had 18 songs to choose from.โ€

It’s official: Gossip Girl’s Penn Badgley will portray the late singer-songwriter Jeff Buckley in Greetings From Tim Buckley, the upcoming film directed by Dan Algrant. The 24-year-old actor said in a statement: “to play a man who was singularly gifted as an artist, greatly misunderstood and mythologized as a human being. It’s something very special and sacred. I’m going to give all I can to this project.” The upcoming film, due next year, will portray the events that lead up to Jeff Buckley’s performance at father Tim Buckley’s tribute ceremony.