• This Tuesday the Lost Highway Records imprint is releasing the soundtrack to HBO's Deadwood with a unique twist. Featuring the show's theme by David Schwartz and music from Jelly Roll Morton, Mississippi John Hurt, June Carter Cash, Lyle Lovett, and Sonny Terry & Brownie McGee, two CD versions will be available: one with just the music and the other sprinkled with dialogue gems between the tracks from the potty-mouthed cast of characters, including Calamity Jane, Wild Bill Hickock, and the appropriately named Al Swearengen (as in: swearing again and again and again).

• While the film won't open until February 18, fans of Dave Matthews should look forward to his acting role in Because of Winn Dixie, playing Otis, a pet-store clerk who sings to animals and sets them free. The Nettwerk Records soundtrack comes out this week and features music from the Be Good Tanyas, Emmylou Harris, Leigh Nash of Sixpence None the Richer, and a duet from Adam Schlesinger of Fountains of Wayne and James Iha of the Smashing Pumpkins.

How do two new releases in January already feel like "best of 2005" contenders? More satisfying with each repeated listening, two new CDs hitting store shelves this Tuesday have dominated my stereo for the past few weeks, and I'm not ready to hit "eject" yet.

Quad Cities native Thomas Sauer gave voice to the piano and his wife, Serena Canin, made the violin sing at a concert hosted by Chamber Music Quad Cities on January 2, at the Unitarian Church in Davenport. Sauer and Canin, both of whom are music teachers and performers from New York, showed their masterful technique and musicianship to a receptive audience of almost 100 people.