KELLY TALKS TEXAS: Burleson native Kelly Clarkson’s fourth album, All I Ever Wanted, hits the market on Tuesday with plenty of momentum. The first single off the disc, “My Life Would Suck Without You,” shot straight to No. 1 on the Billboard charts, breaking records for speed of ascension along the way. Hunter Hauk over at quickdfw.com caught up with Clarkson via e-mail for a Q&A, in which the original American Idol champ says when it comes to music from her home state, Fort Worth’s Toadies still reign supreme. She had plenty of kind words for last year’s No Deliverance, the band’s first studio album since 2001:

“I love No Deliverance! Todd Lewis has such an awesome voice! It’s so dirty and worn. The songs are so sexy but, at the same time, there’s a certain pain to them. I can’t wait to see them tour this album. I will be at as many shows as I can get to. Great, great band.”

If you’d like to see the Toadies (and maybe Kelly in the process), they’re playing at the Wildflower Festival in Richardson on May 16.

Also, update: The New York  Times reviews Clarkson’s new CD, and gives it mostly a thumbs up:

The most immediate parts of “All I Ever Wanted” read a bit like Kelly Clarkson karaoke: back are the Swedish writers and producers and their laser-guided arrangements, with dynamics that are particularly well suited to her voice, broad, nimble and gale-force strong …

After all these years, Ms. Clarkson’s identity is finally firm: spurned, hurt and torn.

FWSO ANNOUNCES SEASON: In case you missed it, the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra announced its 2009-10 season late last week. Scott Cantrell laments in The Dallas Morning News that the third season of a costly Mahler cycle had to be postponed, replaced with repertory works by Beethoven. (In a related note, you should read Cantrell’s piece from Sunday about the globe-trotting nature of our area conductors.) Andrew Marton of DFW.com caught up with FWSO president Ann Koonsman, who acknowledged that the economy played a role in shaping the season.

“We wanted the season to be full of blockbusters – from Tchaikovsky and Sibelius to Pink Martini and the music from South Pacific and Man of La Mancha,” Koonsman said. “We realize that in these really tough times, if people are going to spend those discretionary dollars on us, we want to give them everything they could dream of and more.”

And while we’re on classical music, an UPDATE: Jaap van Zweden got called back by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as a last-minute replacement for concerts on March 19-21.

IN THE LOOP: There’s still plenty of time to take in WaterTower Theatre’s Out of the Loop Festival. If you’re not sure what to see, theaterjones.org has made it out to review several of the shows. One of the favorites so far is Straight, a show about gay men trying to convince themselves that they aren’t. It was written by David Schmader, who also does the Showgirls commentary that Jerome discussed in a radio story last week.