Patti Labelle

Delightful dogsThe region's finest canines strut into the 5th Regiment Armory at Howard and Preston streets from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday to put on the dog at the Maryland Kennel Club's annual all-breed dog show and obedience trial. More than 2,000 dogs, representing 140 breeds, will vie for ribbons, kennel club points and the coveted title "Best of Show." And vendors will offer a variety of dog-related items. Tickets are $4, $2 children and seniors. Call 410-879-0862 or 410-747-5974.'A Voice I Will Send'Discover ancient West African religious traditions and examine African-American identity when "A Voice I Will Send: Sisters Talk About a New Millennium" is presented tomorrow through March 7 at the Baltimore Theatre Project, 45 W. Preston St. The play -- written and performed by Denise Gantt, Lakia Green, Tanisha Brady Christie and Ieasha Prime -- is presented by the Medusa Theatre Company, the Artistic Connection and the Baltimore Theatre Project in partnership with Towson University, 8 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays.

MIAMI -- I wasn't scared. Let's get that straight from the get-go.If you want to call it anything, call it concerned. Or, at most, apprehensive.Hey, you'd be apprehensive, too, if you were 30-something thousand feet up and your plane suddenly started emitting a noise like this: "EEEEEEEE." Like the dental drill from hell. Like a 12-ton mosquito. Like Patti Labelle being tortured.And then a passenger decided to land the plane. But I'm getting ahead of myself.Let's begin at the beginning: I'm on a flight to Miami, sitting in the back row. Just unpacked my laptop and placed it on the tray table.

Newport Folk FestivalOn the road for the first time since its launch almost four decades ago, the Newport Folk Festival stops Sunday at the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia. The roster of performers includes Nanci Griffith, John Hiatt, Joan Baez, Marc Cohn, Violent Femmes, Rodney Crowell, Lucinda Williams, Lisa Loeb (pictured), Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Leo Kottke, Mark Eitzel and Wilco. The concert starts at 3 p.m.; gates open at 2 p.m. Pavilion tickets are $39 and $50; lawn seats are $27.75.

Kenneth L. Moore, who as a child performed gospel music in Baltimore churches with his sisters as part of the Moore Singers and later played with the Tina Turner band, died March 25 of undetermined causes while on tour in Australia. He was 45.Mr. Moore, who lived in Los Angeles in recent years, had been the musical director, a background vocalist and keyboard player for Ms. Turner's band since 1977."He was always the boss as far as the musical arrangements went," said Janet Arlington, a longtime friend who is associated with the group.

It was barely sun-up. A chill was still in the air, and on the highways, headlamps lighted the fading dawn. In the line of more than 200 outside Bibelot books, Lorraine Mackey, 27, held the No. 2 spot. She had claimed it at 2: 15 a.m.By yesterday evening, the bookstore's list had reached more than 1,000 people, each one wanting a few cherished moments with Patti LaBelle, time enough to get an autograph, a smile, perhaps a quick snapshot of themselves with their beloved diva as she closed another copy of her book, "Don't Block the Blessings: Revelations of a Lifetime," freshly signed, "Love, Patti."

Let's get this much straight from the start: "Waiting to Exhale" (Arista 18796) is not the new Whitney Houston album.That's not because it's a soundtrack album. After all, "The Bodyguard" was a soundtrack, too, and like "Waiting to Exhale" included tracks by other singers. But Houston was clearly the star of that album and generated the album's only hits."Waiting to Exhale," on the other hand, is more an ensemble piece. Some of that has to do with the fact that Houston only appears on three tracks (one of them a duet with CeCe Winans)

It's shaping up as a winner of a winter for singer Toni Braxton.On Monday, the Severn native was a double victor at the American Music Awards, toting off trophies for favorite new soul-R&B artist and favorite new adult contemporary artist.That may only be the beginning, too, as Braxton is up for twoGrammy awards, including Best New Artist.It's hard to say whether Braxton's success at the American Music Awards (which are voted on by a random sampling of pop music fans) will affect her chances at the Grammys (which are voted on by qualified members of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences)

Michael Crawford said he feels as if he's just had a baby.Not one that needs to be fed and changed, however. Or that lives and breathes. No -- this one is called "A Touch of Music in the Night," and it's his latest album on Atlantic Records, featuring songs he calls "adult pop numbers" and two duets -- one with Barbra Streisand ("The Music of the Night" from "Phantom of the Opera") and a completely new song with Patti LaBelle ("With Your Hand Upon My Heart")."We started this album nine months ago," Mr. Crawford said the other morning.

The premise of characters in their 20s, fresh out of college and entering the workaday world, is not exactly new. There are only about half a dozen shows stroking that concept this season.But in only one of those shows does the young graduate wind up working for singer Patti LaBelle -- she of the mighty hair, flying hands, impossible voice and regal carriage. And that show is "Out All Night," which premieres at 8:30 tonight on WMAR (Channel 2).Part Earth Mother and part Queen of the Universe, moving like someone wired into a Walkman pumping out the hottest sounds you never heard, LaBelle is all over the place in tonight's pilot as Chelsea Paige, a former singing star who now owns a successful nightclub.

IN THE WAKE of Pier Six Concert Pavilion's sudden cancellation of last night's show, the amphitheater's management has begun to take a hard look at its schedule and consider measures to take to prevent any more cancellations.Pier Six, which has held eight shows since reopening on July 25 with almost 1,200 additional seats, has lost money on all but two acts -- John Denver and Patti LaBelle -- and it just broke even on those, managers said.Key managers of Pier Six and the Baltimore Center for the Performing Arts, which runs the theater, will hold meetings this week to discuss the soft ticket sales of the bulk of the season's shows, general manager Karen Ritgert said.

Labelle [Verve Records] *** CDS Well, it's better late than never. The last time Labelle, the legendary trio of Patti LaBelle, Nona Hendryx and Sarah Dash, recorded an album together was in 1976. The year before, after toiling on the rock and R&B circuits for more than a decade, the powerhouse threesome topped the pop charts with the disco-funk classic "Lady Marmalade." But the sudden success proved to be too much. So the longtime friends hung up their famed space-cadet get-ups and went their separate ways.

Patti LaBelle thought the magic was gone, so she didn't want to do it at first. Besides, too much time had passed. More than 30 years ago, the soul diva and her longtime girlfriends Nona Hendryx and Sarah Dash - collectively known as Labelle - were among the hottest, strangest groups in pop. They were three black women dressed in outrageous drag (feathers galore, mile-high platforms, even metal breastplates) belting full-throttle, in-your-face songs about sex and politics. The trio's biggest hit was 1975's "Lady Marmalade," a funky ditty with a memorable French chorus about a New Orleans prostitute.

Just announced Patti LaBelle -- Pier Six Pavilion on Sept. 6. 410-547-7328 or ticketmaster.com. Rick Ross & Friends -- 1st Mariner Arena on June 20. 410-547-7328 or ticketmaster.com. Deanna Bogart Band -- Rams Head Tavern in Annapolis on July 26. 410-268-4545 or ramsheadtavern.com. All Time Low -- Rams Head Live on July 18. 410-244-1131 or ramsheadlive.com. emmet swimming -- The 9:30 Club in Washington on June 28. 800-955-5566 or tickets.com. Still available Kenny G -- Wolf Trap Barns in Vienna, Va., on June 12. 410-481-6500 or 800-955-5566.

IN A way he is a modern breed of film star. A man as interested in the business of show as he is in performance. An amalgam of magnetism and marketing savvy. Talented and shameless. A charming control freak. George Clooney minus the smugness. Arnold minus the skeeve. Tom Cruise minus the crazy. Ryan Seacrest, if Seacrest were a man." That's Alison Glock writing in Men's Journal about Dwayne Johnson, formerly known as pro wrestling's "The Rock" and later as a tight-jawed, heavily muscled action hero in over-the-top projects such as The Mummy Returns and The Scorpion King.

On the playlist this week, I check out two new compilations: one from an early muse for the Neptunes, the other from the architects of the Philly Soul sound. Kelis, The Hits: --When this Harlem native broke onto the pop scene in '99, I dug her right away. Her music -- anchored by the noisy rock textures and propulsive, ricocheting beats of the Neptunes -- was a sonic bag of Skittles. Kelis' first hit single, "Caught Out There," stood out on urban radio at the time with its screaming chorus: "I hate you so much right now."

Where do you go to find out about the history of gospel music? You can try the Internet. However, Bil Carpenter, who has done promotions work for such artists as Baltimore's Jonathan Nelson, the Staple Singers and Shirley Ceaser, has put together Uncloudy Days (Backbeat), a gospel music encyclopedia about more than 650 artists and personalities from 1900 to the present. Carpenter, a Washington resident, says he began the project because of his interest in history. He got into gospel music as a youth and started to collect information about the artists.

"It's the show according to Patti LaBelle," the down-home Philadelphia soul legend told the huge crowd Saturday night at the African American Heritage Festival. If anybody in pop has earned the right to play the diva role, it's "Miss Patti," as she frequently called herself during the fun, hourlong set. Over the course of her 45-year career, the two-time Grammy winner has never enjoyed the critical kudos or record sales of some of her peers, namely Dionne Warwick, Aretha Franklin and Diana Ross.

The University of Maryland School of Medicine unveiled plans yesterday for a splashy, yearlong celebration to mark the institution's bicentennial. The school, founded in 1807, is the oldest public medical school in the country. Highlights of the anniversary celebration, which are scheduled to kick off in January, include: A series of free public lectures at the Hippodrome Theatre with singer Patti LaBelle, former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, and retired Oriole Cal Ripken. A live radio broadcast of A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor.

Patti LaBelle Patti LaBelle first made it big with the Bluebells in 1974 with "Lady Marmalade." Although the Bluebells disbanded in 1976, LaBelle has kept going as a solo artist, and hopes to release a gospel CD next month. She performs Saturday at Constitution Hall, 18th and D streets, Northwest Washington, with R&B and soul singer Charlie Wilson. The show starts at 8 p.m. Tickets are $77. Call 410-547-SEAT or visit ticketmaster.com.

Ashanti, Mario and more perform in An All-Star Salute to Patti LaBelle (above, 9 p.m.-10 p.m., WUTB, Channel 24).