Pearl Jam, Aerosmith and Green Day, along with Skunk Anansie, are some of the first confirmed acts for the 2010 Heineken Jammin Festival. It will take place July 3-6 in Venice Italy at Mestre’s San Guiliano Park. Earlier this week the four acts were announced during a Mestre press conference attended by Venice’s Mayor, Heineken Italy’s Marketing Director, Live Nation Italy/Milano Concerti’s CEO, and Municipalita Mestre Carpendo’s President.

If you want Carrie Underwood, you can have her. I do admire the remarkable potential and youthful talent of Taylor Swift, after all she is only 18 years old. However, my blonde and young country singer of choice, or any young country singer for that matter, is Miranda Lambert.

Over her first two albums (with the first being pretty good and the second one great), Lambert alternatively comes across as the kid sister of Gretchen Wilson and the Dixie Chicks rolled into one woman. At Mystic Lake Casino on Saturday night, during her first headlining performance in the Twin Cities, Lambert came across alternatively like Dolly Parton and the blonde bombshell 1980s rocker Lita Ford.

Onstage the twenty four year old Lambert was a little country and a little rock-n-roll, and quite good at both. To start with, she’s a top rated songwriter. Out of the 18 songs she sang, 13 of them were written by Lambert. During her Saturday performance Miranda also proved that she has a charming personality as well, in addition to being a powerful performer.

Lambert at first appeared to be a little too slick and didn’t seem to connect with the sold out crowd for the most part, except when introducing “Dry Town,” a song about a Texas booze free county. She quipped, it’s like tonight kinda, where there’s no liquor or beer in sight for miles and miles. (It’s alcohol-free at Mystic Lake). That sucks, you know!

All too often, it didn’t appear that Lambert cared that the kick drum of Keith Zebroski’s was too loud and obliterated her vocals quite often. On the softer songs, however, he didn’t tend to mar the effect. Lambert, particularly on “Easy From Now On,” sang with an emotionalism that had the subtlety of Dolly Parton. Her voice had a weariness and longing on the song “More Like Her” which neither Swift or Underwood could come close to. Lambert unquestionably has a soft and vulnerable side to her, despite making her mark in country music with her tough gal, no-nonsense rants.

Lambert, to be sure, rocked the house as she shook her long, ratty blond hair just like a rock video vixen from the 1980s. Dressed in tight jeans with a rhinestone belt, t shirt with skull and cross bones, and high heeled, tall boots, she looked like one of the rock circuit Sunset Strip denizens when Motley Crue was reigning supreme. The crowd was galvanized and waved their fists on “Gunpowder & Lead,” “Stay with Me,” the rollicking classic Rod Stewart tune, and “Kerosene,” the fiery finale. During her ferocious flurry of six songs to close the set, Lambert was able to prove she can not only rock out with all the best, but also has country music’s best va va voom strut.

After performing onstage for 75 minutes, the Texan, tough as leather songstress didn’t bother having an encore. The cocky move might have disappointed the fans, but was perhaps befitting of her personae.

Paul McCartney is cobbling together dates for his upcoming North American tour. He announced two stops last week and he’s released another two this week. Currently, things are slated to kick off with a double dose of McCartney in Glendale, Arizona on March 28-29 at Jobing.com Arena. The newly added shows are in Miami, Florida (4/3) and San Juan, Puerto Rico (4/5).

It has been eight long years since Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers have released a new album, but it seems 2010 is the magical year. Their forthcoming album entitled “Mojo” doesn’t have a release date on the book yet, but the supporting tour is all set. The band will hit 36-cities in North America starting in Raleigh, North Carolina on May 6 and will wind to a conclusion in Saratoga Springs, New York on August 27.

After two years of circling the globe as part of the Police reunion tour, Sting took a much-deserved break. It seems a year and a half later, he’s ready to pickup the microphone and head out on the road this time with a different kind of group – the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra. The Royal Philharmonic will be tasked with interpreting some of the biggest hits from Sting and the Police including “Every Breathe You Take,” “Fields of Gold,” “Roxanne” and “Every Little Thing She Does is Magic.”

It isn’t really a stretch saying that anyone who has seen Anthony Bourdain on the different cable shows that he’s been on has wanted to either punch him in the mouth or go out drinking with him. Those feelings can also change hour to hour. I’m reminded of friends of mine in college who stopped listening to bands just as soon as “120 Minutes” played their videos or when they had bypassed college radio. Still, the guy does seem like he would be lots of fun hanging out with, with plenty of great conversation, drink and food.

Two of rocks more hardcore personalities, Rob Zombie and Alice Cooper, will join forces for a handful of tour dates in April and May. Aptly dubbed the “Gruesome Twosome Tour,” the co-headlining trek will kick off in Winnipeg, Manitoba on April 26 and wrap up in Casper, Wyoming on May 4. After the duo have closed out the 7-city outing, Rob Zombie will launch his own summer tour.

Billy Joel and Elton John have canceled this summer’s leg from their joint tour. The reason is the Piano Man would like to have some time off. Elton John, in an interview with the Chicago Tribune, said that Joel had made the decision to take the year off, which forced the cancellation of their outing which had been scheduled.

I have never been a big fan of SXSW rumors. There’s quite a few blogs out there that choose some big bands out on tour, look at the touring schedules for them, and if the bands aren’t scheduled during SSXW week state that the bands are free and place them on the rumor list. Last year, for instance, neither The Faces or Elton John had dates booked for the week of SXSW and made it onto the rumor list.

Bon Jovi, Grammy Award winning rockers, will be kicking their new tour off February 19 in Seattle, WA at Key Arena. For the first three songs there will be live free webcast. The band’s “The Circle Tour” is scheduled to last for around two years, with the group performing in 30 countries and 135 shows.

Fans are very excited about the upcoming tour. In addition to playing their standard hits, Bon Jovi is also planning to perform a lot of album tracks that the band hasn’t performed in many years.