Just thought I'd check to see if there was any update on this Aretha album, which was mentioned in Billboard magazine in 2006:

Aretha Franklin says her new album, "Aretha: A Woman Falling Out of Love," is "the real deal," and she has a guest list to back that up. Franklin is joined on the set by gospel greats Shirley Caesar, Karen Clark-Sheard and the rest of Detroit's Clark Sisters, plus multi-platinum Nashville singer Faith Hill, who Franklin tells Billboard.com "was fabulous, just fabulous. She's a very nice lady."

Franklin co-produced the album -- which is expected out in the first quarter of 2007 on her own independent Aretha's Records label -- with veteran studio hand Michael Powell (Anita Baker, Patti LaBelle, Aaliyah), who also worked on Franklin's 1998 set "A Rose is Still a Rose" and 2003's "So Damn Happy."

Franklin and Powell wrote songs for "A Woman Falling Out of Love," along with hitmakers Gordon Chambers and Troy Taylor. The set was recorded in the Detroit area, where Franklin resides, although Hill recorded her parts separately.

"A Woman Falling Out of Love" will come out riding the crest of a Golden Globe nomination for best original song in a motion picture for "Never Gonna Break My Faith," her duet, co-written by Bryan Adams, with Mary J. Blige for the "Bobby" film soundtrack.

"My agent called me and told me that Miramax Pictures was calling and they wanted me to sing for that [film]," Franklin recalls. "I was just delighted, having met several of the Kennedys on occasion and I also sang at the first memorial service for him. And singing with Mary J. Blige, I think we made a very good coupling."

Franklin was also be feted at the United Negro College Fund's "An Evening of Stars," which was taped in September in Los Angeles for a broadcast that will premiere on Jan. 27 on BET, repeating the following day.

While searching today, I found this story from November of 2009. I checked on QVC and there is no mention of Aretha.

THE QUEEN OF SOUL RELEASES
“ARETHA, A WOMAN FALLING OUT OF LOVE”
ON ARETHA’S RECORDS IN STORES JANUARY 2010
INITIAL CD RELEASE SOLD EXCLUSIVELY ON QVC

“This Christmas ARETHA” currently in stores everywhere

(New York, NY – November 5, 2009) – The Queen of Soul releases “Aretha, A Woman Falling Out Of Love” on Aretha’s Records in January 2010. The initial CD launch and release will be sold exclusively on QVC followed by an exclusive release at Walmart stores nationally. “Aretha, A Woman Falling Out of Love” is the second release on Aretha’s Records followed by the digital single release of the preferred version of “My Country Tis of Thee” the song she performed in front of a national and international audience of billions at the historic Swearing In Ceremony of President Barack Obama.

“Aretha, A Woman Falling Out of Love” is produced by Aretha Franklin, BeBe Winans and Gordon Chambers and features 11 tracks including a duet with gospel artist Karen Clark-Sheard. “I just love, love, love the music,” comments Franklin. “It’s real music-to romance, dance and party to.”

Franklin recently performed at the Rock and Rock Hall of Fame 25th Anniversary Special along with Lenny Kravitz and Annie Lennox at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The HBO Special will air on Sunday, November 29, 2009.


This season, Franklin will make the national television rounds to perform songs from her first-ever holiday CD, “This Christmas ARETHA.” Next summer, she will begin her series of private vocal sessions in Detroit and then on to New York City. Franklin is currently accepting applications from students, check your local newspapers for further details. The Detroit sessions will be held at the Westin Hotel in Southfield, MI and the New York City site under consideration for the Master Classes is Carnegie Hall.

###


ABOUT ARETHA FRANKLIN
Known around the world by her first name, and as the undisputed, reigning “Queen of Soul.” Aretha Franklin is peerless. She has achieved global recognition on an unprecedented scale. She is one of the most influential and important voices in the history of pop music. In 2009, Franklin was named the #1 Vocalist of All Time by Rolling Stone magazine. Her ever-distinctive, soulful, to-the-bone vocal style has graced music charts for over four decades and her ‘live’ performances have touched the hearts of tens of millions since she began her musical journey in Detroit as a singing child prodigy. It is her rich legacy of recordings that are a testament to the power, majesty and genius of this one-of-a-kind artist of the first order. Aretha Franklin has earned countless international and national awards as well as accolades and global recognition on an unprecedented scale. She is a 2005 recipient of a Presidential Medal of Freedom honor (the U.S.A.’s highest honor), a Kennedy Center Honor, the American National Medal of the Arts Award, 18 GRAMMY® Awards including Best Female R&B Vocal Performance for eight consecutive years, a GRAMMY Legend Award, a GRAMMY Lifetime Achievement Award, and five American Music Awards. In 1987, she was the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and in 1979, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She was named 2008 MusiCares® Person of the Year by the Recording Academy and she was presented with the prestigious NAACP Vanguard Award.

From the Associated Press in a review of Aretha's concert with Condoleeza Rice, is yet another mention of this album "to be released later this year"...

Franklin and Rice make music at Philly concert

By MATT MOORE and NANCY C. ALBRITTON, Associated Press Writers
1 hr 46 mins ago

PHILADELPHIA – Condoleezza Rice is no stranger to the whims of royalty. So when the Queen of Soul herself, Aretha Franklin, decided the two should get together to play a song or two for charity, it was decreed.

The former U.S. secretary of state and Franklin took the stage Tuesday evening at Philadelphia's Mann Music Center in a rare duet for Rice, the classically trained pianist, and Franklin, the divalicious voice of a generation. Their aim was to raise money for urban children and awareness for music and the arts.

"It is a joint effort for the inner-city youth of Philadelphia and Detroit," Franklin told The Associated Press the night before their concert with the Philadelphia Orchestra.

"We decided to give it a try," Franklin said. "So here we are, in the city of Brotherly — and Sisterly — Love."

Their appearance in the three-hour concert before an estimated crowd of 8,000 overflowed with Franklin's catalog of hits and arias from the world of opera and classical music.

Rice, better known as a diplomat and national security adviser, played piano while Franklin sang her hit "I Say A Little Prayer" as well as "My Country 'Tis of Thee." Earlier in the program, Rice performed a selection from Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 20 in D Minor with the orchestra, a piece she said she practiced furiously.

Franklin even tickled the ivories a few times Tuesday night, including for a song off her new album "A Woman Falling Out of Love," to be released later this year. She also sang a duet — "The Way We Were" — with surprise guest Ronald Isley.

Rice's given name is derived from the Italian opera stage instruction con dolcezza, meaning "with sweetness." Long a musician of note, she played from elementary school through college and beyond, in quartets and performing chamber music.

She has even played with cellist Yo-Yo Ma. But, she said this was "the first time I've played with an orchestra since I was 18."

When she learned that Rice played classical music, Franklin sent for one of her recordings "to hear what she sounded like."

Previously, she said, "All I had seen of Dr. Rice was in a political atmosphere. It just seemed foreign that she would be a classical pianist."

Franklin was surprised.

"She really does play," Franklin said. "She's formidable."

The two met at a White House function, Rice recalled. "We were just talking and chatting and she said 'You play, don't you?' And I said, 'Yes.' And she said we should do something together."

Rice told the AP their plan to play together was borne of their mutual appreciation for music and determination to keep it near and accessible to children.

Franklin, relaxing in her hotel suite and holding a single long-stemmed peach-hued rose, deplored school budget cuts of music and arts programs as "a travesty" that cannot be allowed.
"Imagine what all of this would be without music. If you have to cut, cut something else. Not the music. We need the music. It soothes the savage beast. We need the music."

Rice, in a separate interview, agreed.

"Nothing makes me more unhappy than when I hear people talk about music education in the schools as extracurricular," Rice said.

Both women lauded each other's talents, and abilities, but Rice made it clear she'll leave the singing to Franklin.

"You do not want to hear me sing!" Rice said. "I'm a good choir musician, but I think I will stick to playing the piano."

This is apparently going to be released "the first week of May" via Walmart, at least according to a recent interview with Aretha.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/201 ... view_N.htm


Aretha Franklin talks return to stage, diet change

By Nekesa Mumbi Moody, AP Music Writer

NEW YORK — Aretha Franklin, who says she's back at "150%," is planning to return to the stage in May for her first post-surgery performance.

The Grammy Award-winning singer will also release an album that month with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. More personally, she's working on losing more weight from her frame, which is noticeably slimmer since her December
surgery.

"I want to not only maintain the weight I am at now, but better it, by one dress size," the Queen of Soul said Wednesday in a phone interview with The Associated Press.

The 68-year-old Franklin underwent surgery for an undisclosed ailment in December. She calls it "more than minor surgery."

At the time, word spread that her situation was dire, and she received a multitude of prayers and well wishes from fans. She dismissed reports that had her on her death bed: "You can't stop people from saying
whatever it is they're going to say; you have no control over that."

Since her surgery, Franklin has been working out and walking on a track three times a week for at least a mile.

But she said her biggest health change has been in her diet: She's given up her beloved chitterlings, pigs' feet and ham hocks in favor of a Whole Foods-type diet, and she hopes to get down to a size 16.

"They're off my diet. They just really don't fit with Whole Foods," she said. "I had it for enough years that I don't miss it. You can't continue to eat things that are not good for you."

She acknowledges that after she resumes performing, it'll be hard to eat diet foods.

"When you come off (a high-energy concert), a carrot or some celery just isn't going to work," she said. "I've gotta do a fresh fruit thing ... and come up with some tasty and satisfying recipes that are going to work for
me after concerts."

Franklin, who canceled several performances last year because of illness, has set her first concert since surgery on May 28 at the Seneca Niagara Casino in Buffalo, and is set to release her long-awaited album, Aretha: A
Woman Falling Out of Love, the first week of May. R. Kelly is one of the album's songwriters.

"It's definitely going to take the boomers back ... but it's also contemporary with respect to other writers and production," she said.

Franklin was feted by the Grammys this week, as the show opened with a tribute to her featuring Christina Aguilera, Jennifer Hudson, Florence Welch, Martina McBride and Yolanda Adams.

Franklin herself hadn't sang for a month — which she believes was her longest time between singing — as she convalesced at home. She had to sing four or five times a day to get her voice back where it was, but
she said it's "right on the money."

Franklin recently attended a Detroit Pistons game with the Rev. Jesse Jackson and said Wednesday that she was at a boat show lounging on a luxurious boat — and she planned to purchase it afterward.

Fans can expect to see more of Franklin in the coming months. When asked how her health is now, and whether she'd need follow-up for her surgery, Franklin said: "You have to just maintain good health from
here."

There is finally a pre-order link on Walmart's website, with a release date of 05/03/2011. There is no cover artwork nor tracklisting as of yet.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/16504976

Tracklisting according to Walmart.com:


1. How Long I've Been Waiting
2. This You Should Know
3. Sweet Sixteen
4. U Can't See Me
5. A Summer Place
6. New Day
7. When 2 Become One
8. The Way We Were
9. Faithful
10. Put It Back Together Again
11. His Eye Is On The Sparrow
12. My Country 'tis Of Thee (Bonus Track)

Cover artwork:

Still waiting for my copy to arrive. When I search on the Walmart website, this title does not appear. When I bring it up via my order, Shipping & Pick-up reads: Not available at this time. Not sure if that means they didn't press enough copies?

At any rate, here is a review from the Chicago Sun Times. I also wondered about many of the tracks that I've read about since this was first mentioned that do not appear (especially the duet with Faith Hill). Also, considering the Aretha's Columbia albums are slammed for inappropriate song choices, there doesn't appear to be anyone to blame except herself for song selections on here like "The Way We Were" (um, almost 40 years later) and "Theme From A Summer Place" (which is from 1960, the time she WAS signed to Columbia! and has GOT to be heard to be believed for it's overwrought performance and tacky production) and BB King's "Sweet Sixteen" (which she recently performed on Jimmy Fallon).


Aretha Franklin is Lady Retro on uneven ‘Woman Falling’
BY THOMAS CONNER

Pop Music Critic/tconner@suntimes.com

Aretha Franklin is the Queen of Soul. This is undisputed. She’s in the royal court of American gospel, too. But when it comes to jazz, blues, Broadway, movie themes, occasional pop (except for “Who’s Zoomin’ Who?”), slow jams or opera, she’s barely more than a pawn.

“A Woman Falling Out of Love” is Franklin’s 38th album and her first regular solo set since 2003. It comes just months after Franklin, 69, canceled several concert dates and underwent a major surgery — she still refuses to say what for — before appearing in a taped message at this year’s Grammys. She’s back on the road shortly, including a May 19 show at the Chicago Theatre. It all makes for a perfect opportunity to hail a triumphant return, but this is an uneven collection.

That Franklin worked hard on this album is not in doubt. Perhaps too hard and too long. We’ve been hearing collaborators’ names dropped for years. Those tracks produced by Gordon Chambers? Not here. Songs co-written with R. Kelly and Keyshia Cole? Not here. Duets with Shirley Caesar and Faith Hill? Nope.

A lot of editing took place — without the guidance of her previous partners at Arista, her label of 23 years, which she left in 2003. She recently told Reuters her reasons for doing so: “Instead of having a lot of spoons in the soup, there would only be one spoon and that would be mine, of course. And I’m a pretty good cook.” But maybe not a top chef.

On 2003’s “So Damn Happy,” her last album with Arista, Franklin made a stab at updating her music to fit the times, and it mostly worked. For “A Woman Falling Out of Love,” however, she’s in retreat. The songwriting is ’70s, the production is ’80s, the arrangements are pure ’90s smooth jazz.

Instead of a contemporary queen, we get an unsettling Eartha Kitt-enish cougar anthem (“How Long I’ve Waited,” one of two songs here Franklin wrote and produced), clumsy jazz-club scat singing (“U Can’t See Me”), an icy reading of “Theme From a Summer Place” and an overthought gospel rendition of “My Country ’Tis of Thee.” In her spoken opening to “The Way We Were,” a duet with Ron Isley, Franklin admits she wants “to take you back to the vista of the past.” Just be advised: This past is much more “You” than “Lady Soul.”

The album’s two bright spots come late in the sequence, and they both feature the songwriting of the underappreciated Norman West, a gospel contemporary of Franklin’s. On the empowering “New Day” (co-written with one of Franklin’s sons, Kecalf Franklin Cunningham), Franklin sounds fresh and rejuvenated, backed by modern pop-gospel vocals and light electronic beats. Even better is West’s “Put It Back Together Again,” a classically styled R&B ballad in which Franklin nails it — the one true home run of the album — sounding soulful and real as she sings bittersweet lyrics with real feeling and emotional depth.

“A Woman Falling Out of Love” will be sold exclusively at Wal-Mart until June 3.

Apparently this was pulled because there is a tracking error in "Theme From A Summer Place". I will have to contact Walmart to see about how they are handling replacements...