Damien Rice Part 2:Cameos and a new album?

As I mentioned before, it is odd (or isn't it?) how artists collaborate with other artists in the same genre regardless of personality, schedule, origin, etc. Maybe it's because they wanted to impress me...or most likely because each share that one common root: phenomenally outstanding songwriting and singing. I won't do a full history lesson of a song like I did for Ritter or trace roots and vast webs of friends in great detail. I'll just catch you up a bit on Damien Rice in Part 2:

As mentioned in Part 1, Damien has spent time busking on the streets after leaving his previous band, Jupiter, who went on to form Bell X1. Through his musical connections in Ireland, Rice is also part of a band that is a collection of various musicians. Ready for this? The Cake Sale features Lisa Hannigan (remember her voice on "9 Crimes?"), Paul Noonan (Bell X1), Gary Lightbody (Snow Patrol), Nick Seymour and Graham Hopkins (Crowded House), Nina Persson (The Cardigans) and two more little guys in the industry - Josh Ritter and Glen Hansard (Once, The Frames, The Swell Season, helped start both Ritter and Rice...).

Rice has also collaborated and performed with the heirarchy of my creme de la creme list. Thanks to a head's up last year by my musical detective over at I Am Fuel, You Are Friends, I was elated to find out that Damien Rice had performed with Ray Lamontagne in France to cover a Bee Gee's classic.

Damien Rice & Ray Lamontagne - To Love Somebody (live)

In 2007, Rice joined the stage with David Gray for Live Earth's leg at Wembley Stadium, London, to cover the 1956 pop song, Que Sera, Sera.

Damien Rice and David Gray - Que Sera, Sera (live)

And don't worry, according to Damien's site, he'll be coming out with another recording soon. He just finished a 10-day road trip where, he and friends drove (in a mini, mind you) from Ireland to Barcelona armed with a portable recording studio. His goal was to stop along the way in random places where he aimed to write and record a new song in each of the ten days and then compile each recording on a new album, Nuevo. We'll see...