A VERY NELLIE NEW YEAR. As some of you must know from Smarttix, the one-and-only Nellie McKay will sing in the New Year at Ars Nova, which (notwithstanding Smarttix’s not-very-smart wording) is near Times Square at 511 W. 54th Street. The tix are $35.

In other Nellie news, Billboard reports that Nellie and Columbia Records have parted ways.

The split might have been precipitated by a dispute over the number of tracks to be included in Nellie’s next CD, Pretty Little Head, slotted to hit stores on January 3, 2005. It features a duet with Cyndi Lauper, who has now replaced Edie Falco as one of Nellie’s co-stars in the upcoming Broadway production of Threepenny Opera.