Bittersweet farewell from early-retiring Jason Mraz

FAREWELL tours can be tedious non-events. More often than not, they're staged by some music act on its last legs, whose members no longer speak to one another and whose only bond is their shared goal of squeezing the last dollar from every fan.

Jason Mraz's ongoing early retirement tour is anything but that. Here's an artist who is still at the peak of his game but has chosen to bow out to concentrate on charity work instead.

As noble as that sounds, it's not totally unexpected as well because here is a singer-songwriter who has made a name for himself by being an all-round nice guy, complete with a knack of writing chirpy folk pop ditties about love and the beautiful planet we live in.