Last month, singer-songwriter Duncan Sheik visited Kosovar refugee children at several camps in Albania with Tom Ehr, Executive Director of War Child U.S.A., a not-for-profit organization that helps children suffering in war-ravaged countries.

• Duncan Sheik

Duncan Sheik will be giving the gift of music to homeless refugee children who have been displaced by the war in Kosovo.

• Duncan Sheik

Alanis Morissette will help christen "Midnight Minutes," a new VH1 series in which one-minute films are built around artists' songs.

• Alanis Morissette
• Duncan Sheik

While his 1996 self-titled debut was characterized by breezy acoustic songs adorned with catchy vocal melodies, Duncan Sheik's new record, "Humming," finds the singer-songwriter adopting a more mature direction and sound with his new album.

Aside from embracing a louder, more amplified sound on the record, "Humming" also features Sheik name-dropping such rock icons as Bob Dylan and John Lennon in "That Says It All" a song he describes as a contemporary protest song.

"The thing about Dylan and Lennon," Sheik told MTV News, "is that they are the two examples of artists in the pop music world who really made very intensely powerful social commentary ... And that song is interesting because -- and I don't know if people are actually getting it -- it is in some way an homage to them, but it's also kind of a protest song."

"'Cause what I'm saying," he continued, "is that although they made great music, maybe even the best music ever, that doesn't mean that there's not great things still left to be done, and great ideas yet to come. When I say 'That Says It All,' it's facetious. The concept [for the song] is that there's this whole incredible world, full of mysteries and wonder, and you have to continually seek that stuff and not just focus on the past." [28.8 RealAudio]

As we previously reported (see "Natalie Merchant, The Roots, Duncan Sheik To Celebrate New 'Red Hot' Album With Promo Show"), on Tuesday evening Duncan Sheik will be among those performing at a special concert in New York City commemorating the release of the new benefit album from the Red Hot Organization, "Red Hot + Rhapsody."

• Duncan Sheik

Natalie Merchant, Duncan Sheik, Morcheeba and the Roots are among the musicians that have signed on for a one-off promotional concert scheduled for October 6 in New York City to help celebrate the release of "Red Hot + Rhapsody," the new benefit album for AIDS relief from the Red Hot Organization.

Co-sponsored by "Details" magazine and Levi's Jeans, the event will feature performances from most of the artists appearing on "Red Hot + Rhapsody," an album of contemporary artists covering George Gershwin songs that is the latest album from the Red Hot Organization aimed at raising funds for AIDS relief.

Duncan Sheik, whose own new album, "Humming," arrives in stores next month, spoke with MTV News Online recently about his contribution to the "Red Hot + Rhapsody," a cover of a song Gershwin originally penned for his 1930 musical, "Girl Crazy."

Sheik said, "and recorded it with another group of really amazing kind jazz musicians ... And that was pretty cool, because I guess I've ended up doing a couple of covers [in my career], and it's also nice to be able to reinterpret and modernize a really great and classic song. You can kind of have fun with it." [28.8 RealAudio]

"Red Hot + Rhapsody" is due out on October 6, and will feature the following artists:

• Morcheeba and Hulbert Lewis - "Summertime"
• Finley Quaye - "It Ain't Necessarily So"
• Natalie Merchant - "But Not for Me"
• Smoke City - "They Can't Take That Away from Me"
• Spearhead and Ernest Ranglin - "I Got Plenty o' Nuthin'"
• Bobby Womack and the Roots - "Summertime"
• Davina - "I Was Doing All Right"
• Duncan Sheik - "Embraceable You"
• Clark Terry - "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off"
• Luscious Jackson - "I've Got a Crush on You"
• Money Mark - "Peter Sellers Sings George Gershwin"
• Majestic 12 - "Nice Work If You Can Get It"
• Sarah Cracknell and Kid Loco - "The Man I Love"
• Skylab - "'S Wonderful/Rhapsody in Blue"
• Sinead O'Connor - "Someone to Watch Over Me"
• Baaba Maal - "Bess, You Is My Woman Now"
• David Bowie and Angelo Badalamenti - "A Foggy Day (A London Town)"

• Natalie Merchant
• Duncan Sheik

Singer, songwriter and occasional model Duncan Sheik will release his sophomore album, "Humming," on October 6, and the record marks Sheik's first real chance to pay tribute to his late friend, Jeff Buckley.

For "Humming," Sheik wrote and recorded "A Body Goes Down," a memorial for Buckley, who drowned while swimming in the Mississippi River in May 1997. Playing drums on that track -- and most of the rest of Sheik's album -- is Matt Johnson, who also played drums on Buckley's first record, "Grace."

As we previously reported (see "Brandy Talks About Wilhelmina/Atlantic Records Modeling Deal" ) Sheik was among the first group of artists from Atlantic Records to be paired with the Wilhelmina modeling agency, although he has yet to appear in any print or broadcasting advertisements arranged through the pact.

• Jeff Buckley
• Duncan Sheik

For a Dickens novel, it sort of rocks. The "Great Expectations" soundtrack album features Scott Weiland, Tori Amos, Chris Cornell, and Duncan Sheik, whose song "Wishful Thinking" [800k QuickTime] is the first single and video off the soundtrack.

Sheik, who scored a best male pop vocal Grammy nomination this year for the track "Barely Breathing," was at the recent Sundance Film Festival, to play in a series of music showcases. There, he told us that he never got to see "Great Expectations" before writing his track, but he did meet with director Alfonso Cureon, and he told us how that worked out.

"I wrote this song to the best of my ability, a song that would have an appropriate mood for the film and then the director gets it and he does what he will with it," Sheik explained.

"I think sometimes the record companies and the studio battle with the director, but usually as an artist you have to stay out of it and let them do their thing, it is their movie after all and the music should serve to tell about the movie."

Sheik is about to start work on his second album.

• Duncan Sheik

March 10 [18:00 EST] --Jewel, Duncan Sheik, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Anita Baker, and actor Alec Baldwin went to Washington, D.C. Monday to lobby Capitol Hill for greater support of the arts.

The artists were part of a contingent (which also included Michael Bolton, Richard Marx, Richie Havens, and National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences head Michael Greene among others) that met with lawmakers to highlight the importance of the arts in American culture.

The trip kicks off a week-long Arts Advocacy Celebration which will include lobbying sessions, classroom visits, and a fund-raising concert. Proceeds form the concert will benefit NARAS' educational programs.

• Jewel
• Duncan Sheik