Tours

Texas singer-songwriter Joe Ely has been in love with trains his whole life. In 1977, he recorded one of the great train songs -- "Boxcars," which his longtime pal Butch Hancock wrote -- laying out exactly what had hooked him over the course of countless rides in open freight cars journeying to and from his hometown of Lubbock. If you ever heard the whistle on a fast freight train Beatin' out a beautiful tune If you ever seen the cold blue railroad tracks Shinin' by the light of the moon If you ever felt a locomotive shake the ground I know you don't have to be told Why I'm going down to the railroad tracks And watch them lonesome boxcars roll "My grandfather worked the Rock Island line, and my father worked on the Santa Fe line," Ely, 62, said Sunday night following his performance at Burt's Tiki Lounge, about two blocks from the Albuquerque train station.

The man did not seem to be a serious student of wine. Disheveled, unshaven and reeking of booze, he demanded a glass, rested his head on the tasting-room counter and loudly moaned. Knocking over a "wet floor" sign and lurching into displays, he stumbled into eight wineries in one afternoon last week, and six refused him service.

On a stretch of land here dusted with the wings of sycamore seeds, love stories lie underground with the dead. There is the human heart buried next to the man who first captured it. The body of a banker whose wife left him for a famous actor. The couple hit by a train after a wedding reception. Time threatened to wash away the long-lost tales of romance and heartache trapped in Laurel Hill Cemetery, a Victorian-style graveyard overlooking the Schuylkill River.

, a city forged on gambling, booze and flesh, has been strangely reluctant -- and perhaps a little nervous -- to make money off its mob roots. Until now. On a recent drizzly night, a small, white Vegas Mob Tour bus rumbled past aging strip malls, its passengers eager to see the spots where wiseguys were killed. Thug Jerry Lisner was repeatedly shot, strangled with an electrical cord and dumped in his swimming pool on a tree-lined street named Rawhide.

The BURLY, young marketer in the crisp white shirt rose to speak, and 20 seated passengers leaned forward to catch his every word. Grinning broadly, Alex Godoy described the house just outside the tinted window. "Every price is negotiable," he reminded his audience. Then he uttered the magic phrase: "OK, everybody, off the bus!"

I just jogged past a bald guy carrying a tray of Starbucks coffee on Rodeo Drive. I slow down. Wasn't that Ben Kingsley? Nah. Gandhi wouldn't be schlepping coffee around on the street. A few blocks away, I slow to a trot again, at the corner of Rodeo Drive and Wilshire Boulevard, when I spot a gorgeous blond woman with big hair and a low neckline. Isn't she on "Desperate Housewives"? No, probably not. I'm on a group jog of L.A.'

An early front-runner for the 2007 Odd Couple Pairing of the Year award has emerged with word that filmmaker David Lynch and '60s folk-rock hero Donovan will team for three free appearances this month. They'll make stops Jan. 12 at Lincoln Center in New York, Jan. 14 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and conclude their brief tour Jan. 21 at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood.

There's "Something So Strong" about New Zealand rock band Crowded House after all: The group that disbanded a decade ago is re-forming for a new album and tour that will begin at this year's Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival. Although most of the headlines regarding the latest Coachella talent lineup announced Monday focused on the one-night-only reunion of rock-rap group Rage Against the Machine, fans have been buzzing worldwide about the resurrection of Crowded House.

Give credit (or blame?) to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: David Lee Roth is back with Van Halen and planning to tour. The mercurial Roth, who officially left Van Halen on April Fool's Day in 1985, will reunite with his old band for a tour that kicks off in North Carolina in early May and includes June stops in L.A., Orange and San Diego counties, according to sources in the concert industry. Joining Roth will be guitar hero Eddie Van Halen and drummer Alex Van Halen.

WHEN Zubin Mehta first conducted the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in 1961, he says, he and the orchestra discovered they were both 25 years old. "At a reception after the concert, the orchestra's president said in his speech, 'I hope we will turn 50 together,' " recalls Mehta. "Fifty turned to 60, and now the orchestra and I are 70 together." Named the Israel Philharmonic's music advisor in 1969, the Bombay-born, Yiddish-speaking conductor became music director for life in 1981.