Arts & Entertainment Soul Brother Ann Arbor's Mayer Hawthorne channels Motown in his original compositions and upcoming album. Suzanne Chessler Special to the Jewish News Ann Arbor M ayer Hawthorne loves cooking and trying new foods, but his breakthrough connection to Peanut Butter has nothing to do with eating. Hawthorne, 30, grew up in Ann Arbor with the dream of becoming a self-supporting musician and recently got a giant boost from Peanut Butter Wolf of Stones Throw Records. Hawthorne, who moved to Los Angeles three years ago while supporting himself as a graphic designer, met Wolf through Noelle Scaggs of the Rebirth, soon signed a recording contract and has completed his first album, A Strange Arrangement. Hawthorne's original soul songs on that CD, to be released in the fall with the singer-songwriter providing the vocals, will be previewed in Ann Arbor. His show, at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, May 17, at Necto, is one stop in a 20-city tour. "I've done shows at Necto but never as Mayer Hawthorne," says the emerging entertainer, who launched in hip-hop under his real name, Drew Cohen. "Besides doing a full set of material from my upcoming album, I'll be doing a few covers of my favorite soul hits." Joining Hawthorne, a multi-instrumentalist with fal- Jews Nate Bloom Special to the Jewish News Time 100 Time magazine is out with its annual "World's 100 Most Influential People" issue. Articles about each luminary can be found on Time.com . I've confirmed that the following members of the "100" are Jewish: Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman; personal finance expert Suze Orman; fashion designer Stella McCartney (her Jewish mother was Linda Eastman, the late wife of Beatle Paul McCartney); reality show producer Lauren Zalaznick; Ponzi scheme king Bernie Madoff; architect Elizabeth Diller, the daughter of Holocaust sur- vivors; the female hosts of the TV show The View, including Barbara Walters; banker Elizabeth Diller B6 May 14 • 2009 Leonard Abess Jr. setto and breakbeat sounds, will be his band, the County. Members, who are changeable, now feature Joe Abrams on bass guitar, Topher Mohr on guitar, Quincy McCrary on keyboards and Teamir Sweeney on drums. Among Hawthorne's songs to be showcased are "A Strange Arrangement," about a relationship both struc- tured and open; "The Ills," about current problems in the world; and "Just Ain't Gonna Work Out," which is about the end of a relationship and can be seen in video pro- duction on the Web at stonesthrow.com . "When I signed with the record company this year, I took on the stage name," says Hawthorne, turning his middle name into his first name and adapting his Ann Arbor street name into his surname. "The soul songs started out as a joke for my family and friends. I never had plans for a career singing soul music. The stage name went along with the whole fun-and- games aspect of it. "I started taking all that seriously when I signed with the record company and was asked to record a whole album of this material. I had to figure out who this Mayer Hawthorne character really is and develop the style and the sound." Hawthorne's interest in music grew at home, where his parents, Richard and Kathi Cohen, played Motown record- ings. He learned bass guitar from his dad, who works in the garden products business and plays bass in a local (his ethical practices and generos- ity to his employees was saluted by President Obama during his State of the Union speech); journalist and author David Sheff (best known for his memoir Beautiful Boy, about his struggle with his son's drug addic- tion); New York Times columnist Paul Krugman (winner of last year's Nobel Prize in Economics); and Shai Agassi, an Israeli who now lives in the United States. Agassi made one fortune developing software. Now, he heads up a com- pany called Better Place. Its aim is to Shai Agassi set up a network of stations that will, via robots, quickly replace batteries for elec- tric cars, thus making electric cars totally practical. Backed by Renault and others, Better Place has already started to build its network in Israel and in Denmark. Now a soul singer, Mayer Hawthorne originally launched his music career as a hip-hop artist under his real name, Drew Cohen. Celeb Shorts Opening Friday, May 15, is the doc- umentary film Tyson, about former heavyweight boxing champ Mike Tyson. The filmmak- er is James Toback, whose memorable film work includes his Oscar-nomi- nated screenplay for Bugsy, about Jewish gangster James Toback Ben "Bugsy" Siegel. Congrats to Sarah Jessica Parker, 44, and hubby Matthew Broderick, 47. They are going to have twin daughters this summer via a sur- rogate mother. Parker gave birth to their 7-year-old son, James Wilkie, the old-fashioned way. People magazine is out with its annual "100 Most Beautiful People" issue. Jewish cuties this year include Ashley Tisdale, Brooke Burke, Debra Winger, Rashida Jones, Chelsea Handler, Anton Yelchin and, most improb- ably, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. He's included in a special section called "Barack's Rahm Beauties." As you Emanuel might expect, Michelle Obama heads up that list. In the same issue, People gives a pretty good review to the new CD by Elliot Yamin, 30, who finished third in the American Idol contest in 2006 and has had a fairly suc- cessful career since. Speaking of Idol, this season's contestant generating the most buzz is Adam Lambert, 27. There are several videos on the Internet in which Lambert sings in Hebrew. However, there is no confirmation that Lambert is, in fact, Jewish. No doubt, the whole story will emerge in the near future.