Occasional Musical News

Subject: Occasional Musical News
From: Amos
Date: 13 Aug 09 - 02:46 PM

A review of the Newport Folk Festival over 50 years.

Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News
From: michaelr
Date: 13 Aug 09 - 03:20 PM

Where?

Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News
From: Amos
Date: 13 Aug 09 - 03:26 PM

Sorry--it was meant to be a link!! http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2009/07/folk-you-50-years-of-the-newport-folk-festival.html

Another interesting project: a record built on the lyrical ravings of Jack Kerouac:

...I shambled after as I've been doing all my life after people who interest me, because the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones that never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes 'Awww!'"

"...This dazzling bit of prose surfaces within the first several pages of Jack Kerouac's On The Road. The 1957 book chronicles the budding Beat movement and has been a model for countless artists and adventures chasing after rich living ever since.

Amongst this throng are Son Volt's Jay Farrar and Death Cab for Cutie's Ben Gibbard, who, united by reverence for their artistic forefather, will release a collaboration inspired by Kerouac's wild, winsome prose this fall. Titled One Fast Move or I'm Gone, the record was written almost entirely by Farrar, who adapted Kerouac's writing into lyrics. The project was born when the writer's nephew, producer Jim Sampas, asked both musicians to contribute to a documentary about Kerouac's life during the years he penned the novel Big Sur, published in 1962."...

Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News--Stephanie Booker
From: Amos
Date: 19 Aug 09 - 02:49 PM

Stephanie Rooker's soul-shaking sounds range from saucy r&b, to innovatively revived funk, to jazz-infused ballads.

Drawing from her broad range of musical influences: from folk music of her native Appalachia to her immersion in traditional music of Ghana, from years of classical and jazz training to her distinctive grasp of the cultural evolution of American gospel--blues--jazz--&--hip-hop, Stephanie Rooker's sound is fresh and cultivated. She sings with the careful phrasing of a soulful Eva Cassidy, the wailing of a young, blues-steeped Bonnie Raitt, and the self-affirmative slant of Stevie Wonder.

Rooker attended historically progressive Oberlin College, where she designed an independent major in Ethnomusicology with an emphasis on West Africa and the Diaspora. This gave her the opportunity to study for 4 months in Ghana, where she conducted field research and recordings and produced a CD of the traditional music of the Ashanti, Dagomba, and Ga people of Ghana. It was also during this time that she began composing her own music and booked her first tour as an acoustic duo with guitarist Chris Eldridge (of Chris Thile's "Punch Brothers"). After graduating, Rooker settled in Brooklyn, NY, where she continued honing her musical abilities and began immersing herself in the New York scene.

Stephanie Rooker has since been performing extensively in New York City and beyond. In 2008, she released her debut CD, Tellin You Right Now, to a packed house at NYC's Cutting Room and has since been climbing the music-scene ladder quickly, performing at such high-profile venues as NYC's Blue Note, Washington, D.C.'s Blues Alley & Roanoke, VA's Jefferson Center.

Her unique and alluring music is fueled by an almost tangible passion, creating with it a force for empowerment and social change. Supported by band of seasoned musicians--all mavericks on the New York scene, Rooker's songs are ripe with innovation and rounded by expertise.

Stephanie Rooker is working on making people listen, on calling us to take a moment to recognize what we have, and what we have to give. She lets her voice loose in the name of the most essential and contagious kind of Love. Rooker hopes that her audiences will reflect, understand and heal, but--most of all--keep on lovin' one another.

Rooker is currently working on her second studio album, due out in 2010.

Friday, August 28, 2009

The Blue Note Jazz Club
131 W. 3rd St.
New York, NY 10012

(Village Voice)

Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News
From: Amos
Date: 20 Aug 09 - 10:05 AM

Berkeley's Freight & Salvage braves move to new home
By Jim Harrington
Oakland Tribune



The local folk music scene is about to get a major upgrade.

Call it Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse 3.0 — as the legendary club, which has served as the heart of the folk music scene in the Bay Area for the past 41 years, gets set to move into a new state-of-the-art performance space Aug. 27 in the downtown Berkeley Arts District. It will be the Freight's third home, following a stint on San Pablo Avenue and its current spot at 1111 Addison St.

"I'm looking forward to being in the cultural epicenter of Berkeley," says Steve Baker, the Freight's longtime executive director. "We are close to the university and close to the high school. I can keep my eyes on my two kids, who will both be at Berkeley High next year."

The latter isn't the rationale Baker sold during the lengthy fundraising drives, which helped secure much of the $11.5 million needed to open the new venue. The main reason behind the move, Baker explains, is that it allows the Freight to better pursue its mission — to promote "the understanding and appreciation of traditional music."

Everything about the new Freight has been designed to encourage greater community involvement. It's at 2020 Addison St., across the street from the Berkeley Repertory Theatre and in the heart of the city's Downtown Arts District, which means more foot traffic, parking and public transportation options. That in itself is a change from the venue's current location in a residential area of Berkeley.

Also, the new venue's main concert hall will seat 440 people — double the capacity of the current club and about five times that of the Freight's original San Pablo site."

Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News
From: Amos
Date: 20 Aug 09 - 05:02 PM

An interview with Josh Bray from the edge of folk and blues sounds.

"KH: What age did you know you wanted to be a musician?

JB: Only very recently. I had been studying to be a criminal lawyer and decided that the student life afforded me the opportunity to play around town, doing bits and pieces here and there. I was even set to travel to America to work in Capital Defense (death row) in the southern states. This was what I had always 'planned' to do and had been volunteering my time in the UK working with charities. I know, however, from the very first gig I played (about 3 years ago) that it would be something I would always want to do, even if only for fun. Then I was lucky enough to be give the opportunity to record and it kind of took off from those first recording. About a year ago we got a record deal and that was the time that I decided to ditch the law and give it a crack!"


A

Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News
From: Amos
Date: 21 Aug 09 - 08:58 PM

Blind Willie Johnson's Grave Discovered
Thursday August 20, 2009

Since his death in the late-1940s (the exact date and year is in question), slide-guitarist Blind Willie Johnson has become one of the early blues era artists most loved by guitar-slinging rockers. Johnson's songs have been covered by everybody from Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton to Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones. The guitarist's classic "Dark Was The Night (Cold Was The Ground)" was included on a "sounds of the earth" recording that was shot into space with the Voyager One space probe.

Sadly, though, for over six decades Johnson's final resting place has been unknown and unmarked…until now. Texas music historian Jack Ortman spent eighteen months and more than a dozen long distance trips between Austin and Beaumont to uncover the truth about the blues legend. In the process, he feels that he has discovered Johnson's grave in Beaumont's Blanchette Cemetery, the musician buried in a pauper's grave in the Negro section of the cemetery.

Ortman's journey began when he became determined to discover Johnson's burial site, gathering up books, articles, and CDs documenting the guitarist's life and music. In a press release about his discovery, Ortman says "during my research, I kept coming across information that Blind Willie had lived in Beaumont during the 30s and 40s. The sources also revealed that he died in Beaumont. My natural curiosity made me search further and I started finding information that no one was sure where he was buried. That was it, my moment of realization, and I thought, 'What a perfect project for me.'"

Ortman is pushing for the placement of an Official Texas Historical Marker from the Texas Historical Commission on Johnson's grave, which has already been paid for by an anonymous donor. Ortman's quest to find Johnson's gravesite is a fascinating tale, and you can read about it on the PR Inside website.


From this Blues Blog

Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News
From: Amos
Date: 24 Aug 09 - 01:34 PM

Cathy Ponton King finds her voice in the blues
Originally published August 20, 2009


By Lauren LaRocca
News-Post Staff

        
        


Information: www.the-music-cafe.com

        
Cathy Ponton King grew up in an Irish family and learned to play traditional music by the age of 10. When her love for blues took precedent, she began writing her own material, but her roots weren't lost.

"I was really influenced by the Irish spirit," she said.

She put herself through college by playing folk music at the Dubliner, a club in D.C., before her blues days.

Playing Irish music limited her because she wanted to write her own material and Irish clubs typically wanted her to play traditional songs.

"I dearly love Irish music to this day," she said, "but it didn't allow me to be a songwriter."

The two genres might not be so different. Both include slow, mournful ballads as well as joyful, exuberant melodies, and "both mine deep into the human soul," she said. "Ireland is the land of the saints and scholars and poets; I think they tap into the human soul. ... The depths of emotion that Muddy Waters is able to produce -- that was some of the deepest emotions ever put into music."

A student of poetry, King believes Irish poets and blues writers are "equally as deep."

She said her switch to blues was freeing, and the switch from part-time to full-time musician even more so. She worked in the radio business for several years before committing to her music full time in 1983.

"Everyone thought I was crazy," she said.

Currently based in Vienna, Va., she has since recorded two albums and has toured the East Coast continually. She said she plays mostly in the Maryland, D.C., Virginia region and sees her native D.C. as the hub. She's played Frederick several times for nearly 20 years, mostly at the Bentz Street Raw Bar, once the chief blues venue in town.

On Saturday, she'll play the Music Caf? in Damascus, her first time at the venue.

She performs with several musicians which include Frederick -based drummer Bob Berberich; Antoine Sanfuentes, another drummer; keyboardist Bill Starks; and guitarist Dave Chappell. She's worked with Jim Robeson, who has won two Grammies for studio production and is both her producer and bassist, as well as Jeff King, her executive producer and songwriter whom she married.

On her most recent album, "Undertow," released last fall, her husband wrote three of the songs, including its title track. She penned all the others.

"The blues music is always simmering as a very potent force," she said. "It allows me to say whatever I want as a songwriter."

www.cathypontonking.com

www.cdbaby.com/cd/cathypontonking

Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News:Doowop Queen Moves On
From: Amos
Date: 26 Aug 09 - 07:50 PM

Brooklyn-born Eleanor Louise Greenwich, a Brill Building songwriter and producer perhaps best known for collaborations with Phil Spector on Wall of Sound powerhouses like the Ronettes "Be My Baby," Ike & Tina Turner's "River Deep, Mountain High," and the Crystals' "Da Doo Ron Ron," passed away today in New York City.

Her ability to convey both the rapture and heartbreak of young love in music proved transcendant; the unbridled joy in the Crystals' "Then He Kissed Me" and abject sadness in the Ronettes' "I Wish I Never Saw the Sunshine" come through as clearly today as they did forty years ago.

Alongside writing partner and husband Jeff Barry, Greenwich penned a stream of '60s hits, including early rebel-girl classic "Leader of the Pack," "Chapel of Love," and "Do Wah Diddy," and produced much of Neil Diamond's early work (she is often credited with helping him get his start), including "Cherry Cherry" and "Kentucky Woman."
Leader of the Pack, a play based on Greenwich's life and songs, ran on Broadway in 1985, and earned a Tony nod for Best Musical; she also sang backing vocals for Van Morrison's "Brown Eyed Girl" and on albums as diverse as Blondie's Eat to the Beat and Cyndi Lauper's She's So Unusual.

Though she never achieved the type of marquee fame that she brought to other artists, she was an accomplished singer and performer in her own right. Listen below to "Sunshine After the Rain," from her aptly-titled 1968 album Ellie Greenwich Composes, Produces & Sings:

Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News
From: Amos
Date: 26 Aug 09 - 07:51 PM

Above was from http://music-mix.ew.com/2009/08/26/ellie-greenwich/.

Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News
From: Stringsinger
Date: 27 Aug 09 - 05:28 PM

This is a great thread and I'd like to see it as a staple on Mudcat. I relish knowing
what's going on.

Frank

Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News
From: Amos
Date: 27 Aug 09 - 09:15 PM

Thanks, Frank!! Glad to be of service. I will keep it as alive as I can.

The Chicago Tribune reports:

MIDLAND, Mich. - The twang of banjos, fiddles and dulcimers will ring out in Midland this weekend.

The 16th annual Midland Dulcimer Festival, sponsored by the Folk Music Society of Midland, kicks off Thursday and runs through Sunday.

Organizers say acoustic musicians of all levels are invited to the workshops, shows and jam sessions that will feature throughout the four-day event at the Midland County Fairgrounds.

A free traditional dance is set for Friday evening.

Alcohol is banned, along with most electric instruments.

Admission is $4 a day or $7 for all four days.

---

From Jazz Times:

Multi-reedist, composer and educator Joe Maneri died on Aug. 24 at a hospital in Boston. He was 82 years old. For most of his life, Maneri toiled in obscurity, spending his time as both a student and teacher of creative music. Although he retired from public performance for various stretches throughout his life, a series of recordings for the ECM, Hat Art and Leo labels during the '90s helped to bring him a certain level of recognition among jazz aficionados and musicians. Author and graphic novelist Harvey Pekar championed Maneri and even insisted that his music be included in American Splendor, the film based on Pekar's life. (Pekar also profiled the reedman for JazzTimes in 2000.) Maneri is perhaps best known for his passion for microtonal music, the use of 72 notes per octave. In 1995, fellow educator Ran Blake said about his colleague, "Along with Jimmy Giuffre and perhaps tomorrow's Don Byron, Joe Maneri is one of the 20th century's greatest clarinetists."


Regards,


A

Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News
From: Amos
Date: 31 Aug 09 - 11:11 PM

From Physics Org:

Lost sounds of the past brought to life (w/ Video, Audio)
August 31st, 2009

Salpinx, barbiton, aulos, syrinx. Never heard them? Never heard of them? Neither had anyone else, for centuries. Until now.


These were all musical instruments, familiar to ancient civilizations but long since forgotten.

Ancient instruments can be lost because they are too difficult to build, or too difficult to play, but they can be heard again thanks to the ASTRA (Ancient instruments Sound/Timbre Reconstruction Application) team. These researchers accomplish this feat using computer modeling and grid technology - the shared resources of a distributed network of hundreds of computers.

Having successfully reconstructed the sound of an earlier instrument called the "epigonion," ASTRA is working on a whole host of other lost instruments including the salpinx (a kind of ancient trumpet), the barbiton (an ancient base guitar), the aulos (an ancient oboe) and the syrinx (a pan flute).

More ancient instruments are to be heard soon, after the organization's official Lost Sounds Orchestra finishes its preparations for a unique performance towards the end of summer.

Epiginion playing the Scarlatti Sonata in D Minor

Epiginion playing the Scarlatti Sonata in G Major

(For these sound samples see the article at http://www.physorg.com/news170963147.html).

In many respects, ASTRA's Lost Sounds Orchestra is like any other orchestra — with real musicians, rehearsals and performances — except its goal is to offer its audience a completely new world of music. The sounds of the barbiton and the salpinx are currently being finalized, while a guitar player is familiarizing himself with both the epigonion and the barbiton using his specially adapted electric MIDI guitar, which has been programmed with the lost sounds. The sounds of even more instruments, such as an ancient lower Mediterranean frame drum, should also be completed by the end of summer.

More information: http://www.lostsoundsorchestra.org/
Source: Enabling Grids for E-sciencE (EGEE)

Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News
From: Amos
Date: 01 Sep 09 - 10:13 AM

August 29, 2009 - NPR-In a career spanning more than four decades, Cree Indian singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie has recorded numerous albums and written Oscar-winning songs. In the 1960s folk revival, she was a folk icon among Bob Dylan and Joan Baez. On her first album in 13 years, Running for the Drum, she expands on the inventive mix of Native American rhythms, electronica and folk music she began many years ago.

The second track of the new album, "Cho Cho Fire," is a driving rock song featuring a 30-year-old field recording.

"The Black Lodge Singers were at a powwow maybe 30 years ago," Sainte-Marie tells host Scott Simon. "My nephew went to the meeting in Saskatchewan and recorded a snippet of them when they were kids. And they have gone on to become one of the most beloved powwow groups in the world. I took a snippet of this 30-year-old cassette, and I embedded it into a new song I was writing called 'Cho Cho Fire.' "

Sainte-Marie was one of the first songwriters to take advantage of emerging music technology in the late '60s. On her 1969 album Illuminations, nearly all the electronically processed sounds came from Sainte-Marie's voice or guitar.

"I really had a head start on digital technology, because I entered it by the way of music," Sainte-Marie says.

On Tour To Get Away

In between albums, Sainte-Marie keeps herself busy. For the past 13 years, most of Sainte-Marie's time has been occupied by The Cradleboard Teaching Project, which provides updated curricula for educators about Native Americans.

"Native American people wanted to be understood, because Native American people suffer from being misperceived," Sainte-Marie says. "There's just nothing out there in the mainstream curriculum."

Apart from her music career, Sainte-Marie was once a regular on Sesame Street, where she taught children about sibling rivalry, Native American people and practices, and breast-feeding.

(Article at NPR)

Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News
From: Amos
Date: 01 Sep 09 - 10:56 PM

New York, NY (Top40 Charts/ Acoustic Ocean) -
Acoustic Ocean's Peggy Morgan and Bette Phelan are both longtime musicians, but also yoga instructors, therapists/counselors in several fields, and developers of a unique therapeutic protocol called SoundBodyMind that combines hands-on healing, hypnotherapy and vocal sounding.

Their music is meant to be enjoyed as a listening experience, but it also is beneficial in supporting relaxation, meditation, healing, sleep, massage, yoga and exercise. According to Phelan, 'We made Light Returning to help people access those parts of themselves that are in need of healing, and to bring about a greater sense of balance and harmony in their lives, often facilitating an emotional release.'

Acoustic Ocean's music can be purchased at their website (acousticoceanmusic.com), top online stores such as CDbaby.com and Amazon.com, and at numerous digital download locations including iTunes.com and Rhapsody.com. Light Returning is already a Top 10 airplay album on the international New Age/Zone Music Reporter chart.

This is an hour-long album of eight original compositions that are primarily acoustic and instrumental (occasionally incorporating some wordless vocalizing). These are musical meditations composed by Morgan on Celtic harp and then expanded and enriched by Phelan into deeply-layered arrangements featuring guitars, hammered and mountain dulcimers, piano, bass, mandolin and the occasional sounds of cello, saxophone, flute and other instruments blended with soothing ocean waves and bird-songs to convey the feeling of the Hawaiian Islands where Acoustic Ocean is based.

'Throughout history humans have faced times of danger, excitement, adrenalin rush and 'fight or flight' for survival,' explains Morgan. 'But those times are supposed to be quickly over and followed by long stretches of 'rest and repair.' In our modern world, however, we often stay pumped up to an abnormal hyper-tension level of stimulation, and sometimes we get stuck there. We need to find ways to relax and unwind, find our true selves, and heal. The music on Light Returning is meant to help expedite that.'

---

A preview of the Sonic Circuits Festival of Experimental Music is scheduled for 7 p.m. Saturday. Musicians may use batteries or ingenuity, but instruments will not be plugged in. Performers will include sound mechanic Neil Feather playing his invention, the Futura Ultra-Retro synthesizer; Mike Tamburo on the hammered dulcimer; percussionist and songwriter Pilesar; minimalist pop duo Avocado Happy Hour; guitarist Layne Garrett; and self-taught musician Ize B. Pickin. The concert is at Pyramid Atlantic Arts Center, 8320 Georgia Ave., Silver Spring. Tickets are $8. Call 202-420-9553

---

fter the 1972 flameout of Creedence Clearwater Revival, ending its short reign as America's most popular rock band, John Fogerty launched a solo career in a surprising way. His debut effort was titled "The Blue Ridge Rangers" and consisted of country and folk-rooted songs he'd always loved. Suddenly without a band behind him, Fogerty played all the instruments and sang all the vocals himself. ¶ He didn't even put his name on it: The album jacket showed silhouettes of what appeared to be five guys wearing cowboy hats, playing guitars, fiddle and upright bass. They were all Fogerty, superimposed on a spacious, open landscape. ¶

Now, 36 years after that album was released, he's resurrected the concept with a new collection, "The Blue Ridge Rangers Rides Again." ¶ "There probably wasn't a month that went by in all that time that I wouldn't hear a song and think, 'Oh, that'd be great for another Blue Ridge Rangers record,' " said Fogerty, a ball of energy while talking about music last week in the living room of the Beverly Hills home he shares with his wife, Julie, and their two teenage sons.

"I'd thought about doing another one; it's just one of those things I never got around to actually doing," he said. "Then one day Julie came to me said, 'Why don't you make another Blue Ridge Rangers record?' Well, it's like your wife walks up to you with all your fishing gear in her hands and says, 'Here, why don't you go fishing for a few days?' "

This time, however, Fogerty wasn't interested in secluding himself in a recording studio and doing everything on his own as he had done more than 35 years ago. For the new album, released this week, he rounded up some of the most respected names in roots/Americana music to help, including guitarists Buddy Miller and Herb Pedersen, steel guitarist Greg Leisz and drummer Jay Bellerose.

(LA Times)

---

Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News
From: Amos
Date: 04 Sep 09 - 09:11 AM

Mother of Folk Music' and sons will share music
For the Cumberland Times-News
Cumberland Times-News

FROSTBURG — A highlight of the Frostburg State University Appalachian Festival will be the capstone concert by folk music legend Jean Ritchie and Sons featuring the music of the Kentucky mountains, performing on stage at the Palace Theatre Sept. 19 at 8 p.m.

Touring with Ritchie are her two sons, Peter and Jonathan Pickow. A family affair, the Ritchie/Pickow family performs ballads from Ritchie's Scottish, Irish and English ancestry; the songs and hymns of her childhood; and original works she has penned from her years as a performer and social activist.

Jean Ritchie was born into a large and musical family in the Cumberland Mountains of Kentucky in 1922. The youngest of 14 children, she grew up in a farm home where singing was a natural as breathing. It wasn't until the 1940s, when the Ritchie family purchased a radio, that she learned she was singing hillbilly music. In the mid-1930s Alan Lomax recorded "Archive of Folk Songs" in Kentucky for the Library of Congress, and the Singing Ritchies were among the people he recorded.

After graduating from the University of Kentucky in 1946, Ritchie moved to New York City and accepted a position at the Henry Street Settlement. She soon found her family's songs useful in reaching out to the children in her care. Her voice was perfect for the old ballads, especially with the accompaniment of her lap dulcimer. She soon found herself in demand in the New York coffee houses and her singing career began. In 1948 she shared the stage with the Weavers, Woody Guthrie and Betty Sanders at the Spring Fever Hootenanny, and Oscar Brand's Folksong Festival on WNYC Radio adopted her as a regular by October 1949.

Since then, Ritchie has never stopped. She was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to trace the links between American ballads and the songs of the British Isles. As a song collector, she began by setting down the 300 songs she learned growing up. In 1955 Ritchie wrote a book about her family called "Singing Family of the Cumberlands."

Ritchie became known as the "Mother of Folk Music." Her songs have been recorded by such artists as Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt, Judy Collins and Emmylou Harris. She has performed at Carnegie Hall and the Royal Albert Hall. Her album, "None But One," was awarded the Rolling Stone Critics Award in 1977.

Tickets may be ordered by calling [phone] or [phone], or by visiting ces.frostburg.edu.

Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News
From: Amos
Date: 09 Sep 09 - 03:06 PM

By DAVID GARBE For The Beacon News

Sixty-some years ago, when Ed Weiss was a boy, a relative gave him a battered ukulele. But Weiss never learned to play it until this weekend, when he dug out the pint-sized instrument to bring with him to the Fox Valley Folk Music and Storytelling Festival.

Along with his wife and about 20 other newbies on borrowed ukuleles, the Batavia man participated in a festival workshop on Monday devoted to the miniature guitar.


During the Fox Valley Folk Music and Storytelling Festival in Geneva over the weekend, musicians would frequently gather for jam sessions before and after their performances.



They strummed and plucked under the guidance of Lil' Rev, a Milwaukee-based folk musician.

"If you endeavor to play the ukulele, you should know that you are spreading joy throughout the world," Lil' Rev told his pupils. "You walk into a room with one of these and everybody smiles."

In just a few minutes, he had all of them ready to accompany him to the Louisiana folk classic "Iko Iko:" "Oh my grandma and your grandma, were sitting by the fire ... "

The cheerful sound of two dozen ukuleles spilled out of the Island Park Pavilion, drifting across the bustling lawns to the nearest tent, where a group of traditional Irish musicians were jamming on flutes and fiddles and drums.

Past that tent was another impromptu jam session, this one on a rip-roaring bluegrass bent. Twenty yards beyond, up on the main stage, the Mark Dvorak Trio was entertaining a crowd of hundreds. At the other end of the park, there were two more workshops in progress -- one on the guitar and another on songwriting -- not to mention a talk on politics by folk music superstar Peggy Seeger.

And of course, that was just the schedule for the 2 p.m. hour.

With eight simultaneous stages and more than 40 musicians and storytellers performing over the course of two days, the festival presents folk music fans with some agonizing dilemmas: Do you listen to the acts on the main stage? Or learn how to do a traditional English country dance? Or join a jam session?

The festival has always used a multi-stage format, said director Juel Ulven, which was particularly unusual when he founded the event in the 1970s. Now in its 33rd year, the Fox Valley Folk Music & Storytelling Festival has become the biggest of its kind in Illinois, drawing thousands of people from across the Midwest every Labor Day weekend.

The breadth of musical styles and traditions offered at the festival, along with the parallel scheduling, means that even casual visitors are likely to find something of interest at any given moment.

"I'm more of a jazz fan, actually," said Sandwich resident Diane Norman, shooting a sly glance over her shoulder to make sure no one would be offended. Still, she said, she has been coming to the folk festival every year for more than a decade, and counts it among her favorite musical events of the year.

"It's great seeing the people play and enjoying what they're doing," she said. And as a guitarist herself, "a lot of us who play like to watch these really good musicians to see what they're doing."

For those who are already fans of traditional art forms, the festival is a way to celebrate and preserve music and stories passed down through the generations.

"It's not music that was marketed. It's music that people loved and cared about. That's why this stuff survives," said Ulven.

One of the great strengths of traditional music, many performers said, was that it is designed to be participatory. Listeners don't just sit, they dance and sing along.

Back at the pavilion, Lil' Rev was winding down his crash course in the Ukulele.

"It's empowering to let people make music on their own, instead of just being consumers of music," he said. "(Traditional music) is real. It tells the stories of people's lives, their struggles and their joys and their sorrows." ...

Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News
From: Amos
Date: 09 Sep 09 - 03:57 PM

From Dayton, Ohio:

For a city with a population less than 200,000, Dayton rivals much larger metropolitan areas when it comes to support of the types of music that can cleanse the soul.

Cityfolk again leads the pack and has invited a tantalizing roster of high-profile acts to perform in the Gem City. And then there are the always-reliable nightclubs, and restaurants that continue to pump fresh blood into the heart of Dayton's musical nightlife.

To paraphrase Bette Davis, fasten your seat belts. You're in for a fabulous ride in 2009-10.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-21670 or [e-mail].

CITYFOLK

The Miami Valley's ethnic and traditional arts presenting group offers a variety of performance series, educational activities and community events. Concert locations vary. For more information, call (937) 223-FOLK (3655) or visit www.cityfolk.org. For tickets, call [phone] or order from the Web site.

Sept. 13-16: Culture Builds Community: Prophecy Music Project Residency

Oct. 30: Balkan Cabaret with Johnny Morovich. A night of traditional Balkan music and dance.

Nov. 7: The StepCrew. Canadian music and dance ensemble.

Nov. 7-12: Culture Builds Community: Son de Madera residency

Nov. 12: Son De Madera. String-driven music from Veracruz, Mexico

Nov. 19: Los Lobos. Three-time Grammy-award winners, Los Lobos are America's premier roots rockers.

Jan. 23, 2010: Del McCoury Band with Joe Mullins and the Radio Ramblers. Leader Joe Mullins is one of the finest banjo players of his generation.

Feb. 4, 2010: Natalie McMaster and Donnell Leahy. Fiddling dynamo Natalie McMaster returns to the Cityfolk stage.

Feb. 11, 2010: Chen Zimbalista. Virtuoso Israeli percussionist.

March 20, 2010: John Jorgenson Quartet. Gypsy jazz.

April 7, 2010: Wacongo Dance Company. Traditional songs and dances from Central Africa.

April 9, 2010: Lunasa. Bass-driven grooves that nudge Irish music into new territory.

CONTRA DANCES

Contra dance and waltzing to live music is presented the first Friday of each month from September through May. The event begins at 6:30 p.m. with open waltzing followed by contra dancing at 7:30 p.m. and called dancing at 8:30 p.m. The dances are at Michael Solomon Pavilion, 2917 Berkley St., Kettering. Admission is $6, with children 12 and younger admitted free.

Oct. 2: Jim Vogt with Changeling

Nov. 6: Dudley and Jacqueline Laufman

Dec. 4: Kathy Anderson and the Corndaddies

Feb. 5, 2010: Susan Moffett

March 5, 2010: Darlene Underwood

April 2, 2010: Kate Power with musicians of Rhythm in Shoes

May 7, 2010: The Corndrinkers

Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News
From: Amos
Date: 11 Sep 09 - 12:28 PM

And from Franklin, NC:

Folk music concert in Franklin September 13          Print
Thursday, 10 September 2009

The Arts Council presents a free outdoor concert by folk musicians Anne and Rob Lough (pictured) on Sunday, Sept. 13, at 4 p.m., at the Town Square Gazebo, Main Street, Franklin. The program features folk songs that reflect the musical heritage of the region and nation, including lilting mountain ballads and songs of the American Frontier, traditional Irish and Scottish tunes, and some tall tales thrown in for fun.

The Loughs are talented, seasoned, and versatile performers. Anne began singing and playing folk songs at age 14, and has studied, collected, and performed folk music ever since. An outstanding balladeer, she plays many instruments including autoharp, guitar, and mountain and hammer dulcimer. She teachers dulcimer at John C. Campbell Folk School, and at festivals and workshops across the country. Rob grew up playing old-time music with his family, and is widely known for his vocal and guitar accompaniment and down home humor. The Loughs have been performing together about 40 years and live in Haywood County.

Attendees should bring a lawn chair. In case of rain, the concert moves into the First Presbyterian Chapel, 26 Church Street. This free event is sponsored by the Arts Council of Macon County, with support from the Grassroots Arts Program grant from the North Carolina Arts Council, a state agency.

Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News
From: Amos
Date: 12 Sep 09 - 01:30 AM

Rochester, NY:

Aubrey Atwater and Elwood Donnelly are folk musicians who met at a coffeehouse 22 years ago and have explored Celtic, British and Appalachian folk and gospel singly, together and with various partners. Lissa Schneckenburger is a young violinist who's delved deeply into the traditions of dance-focused New England folk music. Kim and Reggie Harris take a "from Bach to rock" approach to their performances, with a special emphasis on African-American spirituals and songs of freedom.


They're among the headliners of the Golden Link Folk Singing Society's annual Turtle Hill Folk Festival, set for Sept. 11-13 at a new location, the Rotary Sunshine Campus in Rush. Founded more than 35 years ago as a one-day picnic at the home of some Golden Link members, the event has grown over the years to a full weekend of performances by local and nationally (sometimes internationally) known musicians across the broad spectrum of the "folk" palette — Cajun, Celtic, stringband, blues, bluegrass and more — as well as workshops, sing-alongs, jams and more.


Festival chair Tom Taylor, of Honeoye, hopes the new site will become the festival's permanent home. Housed for years at Markus Park on Quaker Meeting House Road in Mendon, construction at that park forced the festival to find a transitional home last year — Harry Allen Park and the First Presbyterian Church of Honeoye Falls — the festival needs a long-term locale, Taylor noted.


"The Rotary Sunshine camp is a fine facility, and the organization is such a serving group — we're just pleased to connect up with that organization," Taylor said. "We're looking to see how it turns out this year. ... We would like to settle into a place that's long-term, because it's useful in people finding us and getting people to come to the festival."

Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News
From: Amos
Date: 12 Sep 09 - 12:00 PM

Free Bob Dylan Concert (Los Angeleles, 1974) offered online by Wolfgang's Vault -- may require registering, which i harmless.

Not Bob's best work, but a fun memory trip.


A

Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News
From: Amos
Date: 12 Sep 09 - 12:19 PM

Notes on the above mentioned Dylan Concert (Bob Dyland and the Band, Los Angeles Forum, 1974)

Bob Dylan - guitar, piano, vocals, harmonica
Robbie Robertson -guitar, vocals
Rick Danko - bass, fiddle, vocals
Richard Manuel - piano, vocals, drums
Garth Hudson - organ, clavinet, piano, synthesizer, saxophone
Levon Helm - drums, mandolin, vocals

Journey back to 1974 and Bob Dylan's return to the stage following a seven-and-a-half year touring hiatus. As Dylan and The Band made their way across North America during the first two months of that year, expectations were tremendous. The tour was the hottest ticket in town, so much so that the US post office had to set up extra mailboxes for ticket orders in many of the major cities. Over five million paid mail orders were reportedly sent in for the 650,000 tickets available over the course of the tour, making them the most in-demand ticket in the history of rock music. Forty concerts were performed in forty-three days, culminating in three performances at The Forum in Inglewood, California, where the bulk of the live album, Before The Flood, was recorded. From the start, a live album was planned; it was the first of Dylan's career and his new label (he left Columbia for David Geffen's Asylum label the previous year) had high expectations. These pressures were likely insignificant compared to Dylan knowing he must transcend his legendary status and the expectations of his audience which, despite his absence from touring, had only grown stronger in the intervening years.
Also contributing to the nearly rabid anticipation for this tour was Dylan teaming back up with The Band who, with the exception of drummer Levon Helm, had backed Dylan on the infamous tour of Europe in 1966 and played on the Basement Tapes. Indeed, with the exception of his first electric performance at Newport in 1965 and his guest appearance at the Concerts For Bangla Desh in 1970, The Band were the only group to back Dylan publicly up to this point in time. Through the bourgeoning underground network of bootleg recordings, Dylan and The Band's musical relationship had taken on a near mythical and legendary status, despite having never been released or even heard by the vast majority of fans at the time. Since Dylan's touring hiatus began in 1966, The Band had become one of the most respected and influential groups on the planet, having released a series of albums that remain some of the most compelling and distinctly original of the late 1960s. Performing less frequently, The Band were a considerable draw on their own by this point and with their 1971 Cahoots LP being their last to contain new original music (1973's Moondog Matinee was an album of covers), they too were faced with daunting expectations.

As the tour progressed, Dylan and The Band experimented with song selection and sequencing, consciously avoiding the standard opener/closer routine and instead mixing things up a bit within each set. Performing within a basic two set format, each set presented The Band performing both with and without Dylan; additionally, following the intermission, Dylan began each second set solo acoustic, something he hadn't attempted in quite some time. Once a few adjustments were made, the pacing and sequencing of the concerts worked well and stayed relatively consistent, giving both Dylan and The Band opportunities to perform together and alone. Revealing that Dylan was quite aware of audience expectations, he chose to perform a variety of his most revered songs, including quite a few from the 1966 tour set list, while avoiding recent material from Self Portrait and New Morning. With the notable exception of "Forever Young," Dylan even avoided material from Planet Waves, the new album recorded with The Band, released a few weeks into the tour. Instead, he returned to many of the songs that established his reputation in the first place, but as would become more prevalent in the years to come, he often revamped or rearranged them, bringing entirely new meanings to a lyric by emphasizing different words or occasionally by changing the lyrics altogether.
Dylan and The Band together on stage was an event to be celebrated and few left disappointed, but what one gets out of these performances has a lot to do with the baggage they bring to listening. The same applied to the audiences on this tour. While nearly everyone was celebrating the event itself, those with the fewest preconceptions had a greater chance of unhindered discovery, while those fixated on the 1966/67 era bootlegs of Dylan and The Band were destined to have their enjoyment hindered by comparison. Needless to say, Dylan had continued moving forward, even within the context of older songs, many of which had evolved or changed since their earlier incarnations.

On this final day of the tour, Dylan and The Band gave an afternoon and evening performance. With the exception of the opening song, which went unrecorded, here we present the entirety of Bill Graham's recording of the afternoon show exactly as it happened (the second set can be found here). Two prime examples of how Dylan had revamped older songs to fit his current state of mind were included in the opening six-song sequence, which features Dylan and The Band performing together. Both of these songs, "Most Likely You Go Your Way (And Ill Go Mine)" (the unrecorded song), and "It Ain't Me Babe," several songs later in the first set, now speak directly to Dylan's audience, declaring his independence from their expectations. The remainder of this first Dylan/Band sequence includes a revamped "Lay Lady Lay," two of his most enjoyable counter-culture/drug influenced songs, "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" and "Rainy Day Woman #12 & 35" (with humorous new lyrics), and his ultimate "us vs. them" song, "Ballad Of A Thin Man," the same version used on Before The Flood. On every one of these songs, The Band proves just how well they adapt to Dylan's idiosyncrasies, playing in a truly collective manner that is inspired and full of fire.

In the middle of each set, Dylan takes a break so that The Band can perform original material. On this final day of the tour, they open with the title song off their third album, "Stage Fright," with Rick Danko fronting the group on lead vocals. With the exception of a rather sedate, "I Shall Be Released," which features Richard Manuel singing the falsetto lead in a voice that is beginning to show the ravages of time, the remainder of this set focuses on material from their most beloved album, their self-titled sophomore effort. These are all highly engaging performances, from the classic "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" and "King Harvest" to the more obscure "When You Awake" and concluding with the percolating "Up On Cripple Creek." The Band has the innate ability to seem loose and relaxed, while playing in an incredibly tight manner. These are prime examples of that cohesiveness, with each member contributing to the collective whole, with little grandstanding or superfluous soloing. Instead the intensity is generated by the energetic piano playing of Manuel, the unparalleled flavoring of Garth Hudson's keyboard arsenal and Robertson's controlled biting leads - all weaving in and out of the supple rhythm section of Danko and Helm, who are superb here, both on their instruments and as lead vocalists.

To conclude the first set, Dylan returns and together these musicians deliver four more songs together, beginning with a fast and furious arrangement of "All Along The Watchtower" that was included on the Before The Flood album. With an obvious similarity to Jimi Hendrix's take on the song, this is The Band at their most blazing, including particularly wailing leads from Robertson. A radically revamped "Ballad Of Hollis Brown," one of Dylan's vintage topical songs is next. Practically unrecognizable compared to its original incarnation, this has been transformed into another blazing rocker, with Dylan growling out the vocals, Robertson interjecting biting leads all over the place and the collective group bearing down hard and heavy between the verses. They conclude the first set with an emotionally engaged vocal performance from Dylan on "Knockin On Heaven's Door."

At this moment in time, this tour would stand as one of the most successful ever and it certainly went a long way toward rejuvenating interest in both Dylan and The Band. In his second volume of Performing Artist books on the subject, Crawdaddy founder, Paul Williams, put this tour in context most succinctly when he stated, "The performances that resulted are not the among the best of his career; but they are frequently very moving and represent a crucial transition: Dylan's reclaiming of the stage after a long and stifling silence, his rediscovery and reassertion of himself as a performing artist.
collapse

Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News
From: Amos
Date: 13 Sep 09 - 10:14 PM

Detroit area news:

"Metro Detroit folk fans will be visiting Plymouth on a regular basis with the addition of a coffeehouse-style music series to the local arts scene.



The BaseLine Folk Society, which brings together amateur and professional folk, traditional and acoustic musicians for monthly open-microphone concerts, opens its fifth season Saturday at the Joanne Winkleman Hulce Center for the Arts — the Plymouth Community Arts Council building on Sheldon Road.

BaseLine — the name refers to the thoroughfare of the same name (also known as Eight Mile) and the music from the deep-toned stringed instrument — had made its home at the Northville Art House but had outgrown that venue, said founder Mike Mullen.

Mullen says his definition of folk music is broad, with the emphasis on acoustic instruments.

"We're really not interested in the labels. It's kind of the old saying, 'You know it when you see it,' " said Mullen, who plays guitar, mountain dulcimer and Celtic harp.

BaseLine's coffeehouses feature up to eight open-microphone performers, who sign up on a first-come basis (those who don't make the list are guaranteed a spot the next month), plus a half-hour feature performance by an established musician or group. There's a host, too, who also performs.

Shows are 7 p.m. on the third Saturday of each month, through May. Circle of Friends, which offers a tribute to 1960s folk legends Peter, Paul and Mary, is the feature group for the season opener, and the host is Susan Hoy, a Northville singer-songwriter.

The open mic segments, Mullen said, draw everyone from beginning performers to professionals who want to try out new material. At least half, he said, perform original music.

The feature performers, he said, come from a variety of styles; Mullen said he tries to listen to audiences and that his own taste is secondary when it comes to picking the headliners.

"There's a lot of really interesting acoustic music going on," he said.

Audiences, he said, are very much into the music and supportive of the performers.

"The audiences that we have they are always so encouraging — and they listen," Mullen said...."

Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News
From: Amos
Date: 15 Sep 09 - 09:12 AM

Austin Daily Herald

Published Monday, September 14, 2009

Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and former lead singer of The Byrds Roger McGuinn said he's looking forward to his upcoming trip to Austin.

The folk-rock legend will be performing at the Paramount Theatre on Friday, with an act that McGuinn said would feature a few Byrds hits, some of his solo work and some surprises.

The Byrds formed in the 1960s and had a lot of success, with hits such as "Turn! Turn! Turn!" and "Mr. Tambourine Man," but McGuinn said he's really enjoyed the freedom that performing solo has given him in more recent years.

"I always wanted to be a solo performer, like (folk singer) Pete Seeger," McGuinn said.

These days, McGuinn and his wife Camilla get to travel around the country in a van, playing small theaters.

The van is large — McGuinn said Camilla can stand up inside of it — and he said they really enjoy traveling together.

"We love it," he said. "(And) we get paid to do it."

On a recent European tour, the two even had time to cruise on an ocean liner.

"You can't really do that in a band," McGuinn said.

The musician hasn't been to southeastern Minnesota before, but McGuinn said he's played in the Twin Cities and is also friends with a Minnesota music legend — Bob Dylan.

"Mr. Tambourine Man" was originally written by Dylan, and over the years he and McGuinn have toured and recorded together.

"I love the guy," McGuinn said. "He's a great artist."

The two of course are known for folk music — a genre that McGuinn said has morphed since he got into it in the '60s.

Today, McGuinn said a number of styles, including hip-hop, feature folk influences.

"I'd say that folk music isn't the same as it was in the '60s," he noted.

Excited for the show

Scott Anderson, manager of the Paramount Theatre, said he can't wait for Friday's show.

"(The Byrds are) one of my favorite bands of all time," he said. "I'm getting goosebumps just thinking about it."

Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News
From: Amos
Date: 16 Sep 09 - 09:19 AM

Still Human After All These Years
Rosalie Sorrels voices the sounds of ordinary folk
by Amy Atkins
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click to enlarge Sorrels' album and CD covers

    *
    * Sorrels' album and CD covers

                                                                                                


"My love is a river where the white waters pour /

I've hunted and trapped her through the Gates of Ladore. / She sings through a curtain of cold mountain rain / Where I dug her bright silver in the high Coeur d'Alene.

She'll never be mine / She'll never be mine / I won all her treasures so simple and fine / I guess she'll never be mine."

—"She'll Never Be Mine" by Utah Phillips

The trip to the cabin crests the summit of Lucky Peak Dam and soars through winding passes, past tall, ancient trees that cast long shadows across the highway. The rutted dirt road, dotted with "No Trespassing" signs, runs between the mountains on one side and Grimes Creek on the other. Past copses of deciduous trees and conifers, many of them planted when the land was purchased nearly 80 years ago, the road opens onto a large garden among the trees and a two-story log cabin. Living in that log cabin off Highway 21, way out in Idaho, surrounded by books, art and music, is 76-year-old folk music icon Rosalie Sorrels.

Sorrels' father built the cabin for her mother, and the two-story building, the garden out front and Sorrels herself are as much a part of the landscape as the creek that flows nearby. On a sunny Sunday morning, in the tiny kitchen-slash-bathroom on the second floor of her home, the world-renowned musician mixes up a batch of homemade corn muffins and scrambles eggs with milk for her aging, longtime companion, Lenny Bruce.

His hips are causing him problems and he needs to take medication. "It's the only way I can get him to take his pain pills," Sorrels says. As she scoops the eggs into a bowl, the dog heaves himself up off the floor and ambles over. He hesitates briefly, then shoves his nose in the pale yellow pile.

"Now where is the baking powder?" Sorrels asks. She looks through a couple of drawers and cupboards but doesn't find it. Sounding like any person who's taken care of herself for a long time, she adds, "I don't mind when someone comes up to help me clean or whatever, but I wish they'd put stuff back where they found it." Concerned but not deterred, she pours the muffin batter into a tin and puts it in a shiny, white oven to bake.

As the muffins cook, Sorrels opens the door so Lenny Bruce can go outside and then reaches for two coffee cups from a slew of them hanging from hooks in the ceiling. Many are handmade, souvenirs from her travels and tours. She explains where this one came from and how she got that one. She pours rich, dark coffee from a silver and black coffeemaker and settles in to visit.

"I love being here," she says of her home in the mountains, a sentiment echoed by the sound of Lenny Bruce barking in the background. "The more I'm here, the more I love it. And I'm really loving it this year. This is the first year in three years I'm able to put in a really good-sized garden."

Sorrels lives in the mountains because she wants to, not because she has a point to prove. She doesn't cook over an open fire or eschew electricity or indoor plumbing. She has a phone; she has a radio; she has a TV; she has a computer. Sorrels and her surroundings are in some ways a metaphor for how the rest of the world seems to view Idahoans in general and, in many ways, how we view ourselves: We're a part of the modern world but refuse to give up the pioneer spirit that got us here in the first place.

Sorrels' home holds images and items that define, describe and divulge a woman whose history is the stuff legends are made of, including her friendship with Hunter S. Thompson. Thompson described their first meeting, to the best of his recollection, in the liner notes for her 1971 album Travelin' Lady: "I forget exactly how I first met Rosalie Sorrels, but I think it was a night in California when I almost killed myself on a motorcycle ... I was too full of pain to sleep, so she made me a pot of tea that was half Wild Turkey, as I recall, and then she sang for me until I finally passed out around dawn ... Some of Rosalie's songs are so close to the bone that I get nervous listening to them."

Books, records, CDs, posters, fliers, art, family photos and small tableaus of Dia de los Muertos figurines fill Sorrels' living room without crowding it. It's a space in which a visitor could spend days perusing and uncovering hidden treasures as Sorrels' tells the stories behind them, but even if a visitor were left alone inside, a respect for Sorrels would compel them to sit quietly with hands folded and wait for her return.

Much of the ephemera that surrounds Sorrels is related to her own musical career, which spans six decades and includes performing before crowds of thousands. She received her second Grammy nomination last year for her Strangers in Another Country, an homage to her friend, Utah Phillips, and received critical accolades for her debut performance at South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas, this year.

"There were 700 cowboys all jumping around, and then I got on stage and some guy stood on his chair and yelled, 'Sing somethin' about Texas, darlin'!' I said, 'Oh, honey, I'm from Idaho and we have a panhandle, too.' They just cheered and proceeded to show me how sweet they could be."

Shortly after Father's Day, Sorrels headed to play the Kate Wolf Festival in Northern California, taking Boise musicians Bill Liles and Ben Burdick with her.

"I love playing with them," Sorrels says of Liles and Burdick. "They're so much fun to play with and they're so aware of what I do. I was a jazz nut before I started singing folk songs. My concert set is with Ramblin' Jack Elliott, one of the only people I know older than I am who's still alive," she laughs heartily.

But like the long, rutted dirt road that leads from the highway to her cabin, the path that led to Sorrels' success was not always a smooth one. After her divorce in the mid-60s, she packed her five children into the car and traversed the country as a touring musician.

"NPR did a story on me," says Sorrels. "They did extensive interviews, talked to a lot of people. I was listening to it on the radio and they got to my daughter and asked, 'What was it like traveling around?' and I said [to the radio], 'Don't tell them!'

"She went on, saying, 'Oh, we had a lot of fun. We met a lot of interesting people and went to a lot of interesting places.' I thought, 'Fun? What fun? I remember when the transmission fell out on the highway and you were all crying!'"

As she and the children traveled the United States, Sorrels found that while she enjoyed writing and singing folk music, her passion lay in collecting it. She became fascinated with the idea that folk music was its own kind of history.

"You could take a song and trace it back a thousand years," Sorrels says, the excitement she still feels evident in her voice. "You could go through the periods it went through, how it came from England to the United States, went to the southern Appalachians and all these different places. You could see all the changes it went through and you could still see it was exactly the same song. And what made people keep those songs. All of that was amazing. I was obsessed. I drove people crazy saying, 'Give me your old songs.'"

Sorrels' hunger for collecting music was further fed in the late '80s when, to celebrate Idaho's Statehood Centennial in 1990, the Idaho Folk Song Project was born. With a fund from the Idaho Centennial Commission and a grant from the Idaho Commission on the Arts, the purpose of the Folk Song Project was, according to the foreword by Robert McCarl, the ICA's folk arts director at the time, to "begin the process of collecting and building an archive of folk songs and music sung and played by the people of Idaho as they went about their daily lives before and during the course of the last century."

After years of collecting and singing Western folk music, who better to visit the far reaches of Idaho for the state's history than Sorrels? The result of her search is the 250-page book Way Out in Idaho. Sorrels traveled across the state meeting men, women and children, some who were born here, some who settled here, and some who were brought here. She looked at their photos, listened to their stories and collected their songs, unearthing a history as rich and loamy as a forest floor.

The first lines in the book are her own: "Ever since I was a little girl, I've believed that the name of my state was taken from a Nez Perce phrase that meant, 'See how the morning sun is shining on the mountains.'

"When I have been on a long journey and I return in the morning, I say those words over and over to myself—calling back my grandmothers and grandfathers, calling back faces and rooms, places and times so long gone by. That's what folklore is—the homemade, hand-wrought stuff of memory—not history, but color—the blood and breath of then and now."

---

Full story in the Idaho Arts Quarterly.

Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News
From: Amos
Date: 16 Sep 09 - 11:59 AM

Key quotes borrowed from the San Diego Folklore Society oages:

We are the Coal Holders

Ever since the cave dwelling beginning, there's always been the guy who's job it was to carry the last hot coal. (Remember?) See, when the tribe moved on, someone had to carry the last hot coal to start up the next fire at the next campsite. They needed this fire to cook with, sleep near, talk and sing around. Now, many of these coal-holders, over time, became folk singers.

Later on, some went electric. Some even became rock and roll singers, punkers and rappers. Hey, different tribes, different instruments. But the job itself has never changed. My dad was one of these guys. And a lot of his songs were pretty damned hot!

We are Woody's coal-holders. We do this to keep our present day tribe warm, fed, and informed.

Sometimes it gets real cold out there (Have you noticed?) and it seems like a chilly wind is just going to blow us all off the map.

A lot of people are feeling the effects of the chill; no food, no shelter, no singing, no rights. And other people are chilling inside; no warmth, no joy, no song, no tribe.

Coal-holders are real important right now!

They will be the ones who will make it possible to build the next fire. They will be the ones to serve up our next hot meal or our next warm talk. And though it seems that there are no bonfires burning just yet, I do feel that things are warming up!

--Nora Guthrie

============================================================
WHY DO WE CARE?

"When someone asks, why all this fuss and bother, this endless trouble and expenditure of time on an old song, the answer is: because this old song, in its mere, sheer commonness, strikes to our very roots. There is no obligation on these old things to survive. They have lived on in the minds and hearts of countless men and women, untainted by compulsion, for the purest and most disinterested reason possible to be conceived: because they have continued to give joy and solace, on the basic levels of artistic experience, to generation after generation of our humankind.

'The proper study of mankind is man, and so long as this precept remains valid, folk song will continue to be an important subject for human inquiry."

--Bertrand Bronson



"The piano may do for lovesick girls who lace themselves to skeletons and lunch on chalk, pickles and slate pencils. But give me the banjo, when you want genuine music, music that will come right home to you like a bad quarter, suffuse your system like strychnine whiskey, ramify your whole constitution like the measles, and break out on your hide like the pin-feather pimples on a picked goose--when you want all this, just smash your piano, and invoke the glory-beaming banjo!"

-- Mark Twain

Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News
From: Amos
Date: 16 Sep 09 - 12:01 PM

Oddly enough, this comes from The National, an English paper printed in Abu Dhabi:

Old folk's home

Tim Cuming

    * Last Updated: September 15. 2009 4:46PM UAE / September 15. 2009 12:46PM GMT

The Watersons have been a fixture on the British fold scene for decades and continue to record with Topic. Courtesy Topic Records

This autumn, the world's oldest independent record label celebrates its 70th anniversary with a series of concerts on London's South Bank. The anniversary will also be marked by the release of Three Score And Ten, a set of seven CDs embedded in a richly illustrated hardback book telling the story of Topic Records, the English folk label that put out its first disc in 1939, just as Europe was sliding into war. The Man That Waters The Workers' Beer, backed by The Internationale became the first entry into what is perhaps the greatest recorded catalogue of traditional music in the world.

Those two songs, first released on thick, brittle shellac in 78rpm format, are included among 154 extraordinary performances spanning English, Irish, Scottish, American and world folk music. They date back to a recording of the then 75-year-old Joseph Taylor from Lincolnshire singing an unaccompanied country ballad, the haunting Creeping Jane, in 1908.

The label's vast archive encompasses pioneering field recordings of music from around the world – from India, North Africa, South East Asia and Eastern Europe – alongside albums of Irish rebel songs, songs from the industrial cities of the North and Midlands of the UK, and the great singers and fiddle players of Camden's Irish bars. There are the great rural source singers and musicians of the British Isles – walnut-faced old men with brilliant names – Walter Pardon, Sam Larner, Harry Cox, Scan Tester – whose ancient repertoires still fuel the fire for this century's rising generation of folk musicians. Songs such as Sarah Makem's The Banks of Red Roses are once heard and never forgotten. As Bob Dylan once said: "All these songs about roses growing out of people's brains and lovers who are really geese and swans and turn into angels – they're never going to die."

It was the rediscovery of these old songs, given new life and a Topic catalogue number, that fuelled the folk revival of the 1950s and 1960s. Martin Carthy, Dave Swarbrick, The Watersons, Davey Graham, Anne Briggs and many more found their home, their knowledge and their philosophy in Topic's living library of traditional songs.

The label's roots lie deep in the history of British socialism before and immediately after the Second World War, and in the Worker's Music Association, an offshoot of the British Marxist Party founded in 1936 by the composer Alan Bush. A good many of their early releases were sourced from the Eastern Bloc, alongside recordings by Paul Robeson, Pete Seeger, and other key figures from the international peace and anti-nuclear movement. "They put music out that nobody else would touch," the singer Norma Waterson remembers. "The early Party singers, Communist choirs, the Unity Theatre. It was the people's music, the people's fight."...

Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News
From: Amos
Date: 16 Sep 09 - 12:08 PM

I had never realized there WAS a band with such a name, but it seems HOLY F**K played at San Diego's Street Scene earlier this month. Herewith a review:


By DERRIK CHINN
SIGNONSANDIEGO STAFF WRITER




Purists in the sense of pre-Powerbook experimentalism, Toronto's Holy Fuck creates its lo-fi electronic rock using a roster of instruments that's entirely analog. Anything goes, really, as long as it's not a laptop. The goal? Craft modern electronica without using modern equipment. Visually, it translates to yards of chords and wires spilling out of a fleet of knobbed switchboards that most viewers under the age of 18 have probably never seen before. Audibly, it's an instrumental odyssey through (insert favorite 1980s Nintendo adventure game here … Contra, Mega-Man, Metroid). The Canadian foursome has been around since 2004 and has two albums in the bag: the 2005 self-titled debut and 2007's "LP."

Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News
From: Amos
Date: 16 Sep 09 - 04:22 PM

Folk legend Richie Havens set to perform Heritage School of Music benefit
by The Times-Picayune
Wednesday September 16, 2009, 1:00 PM

Richie Havens, the folk music legend and veteran of the original Woodstock festival, will perform in a special concert to benefit the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation's Heritage School of Music.

The Woodstock veteran and folk music legend Richie Havens will perform Friday, Oct. 16, in a benefit concert for the Heritage School of Music at the Howlin' Wolf.

Richie Havens, the folk music legend and veteran of the original Woodstock festival, will perform in a special concert to benefit the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation's signature education program, the Don Jamison Heritage School of Music.

The concert will take place Friday, Oct. 16, at the Howlin' Wolf (907 S. Peters Street) starting at 9 p.m.. Tickets are $20 and may be purchased online here.

Also performing will be the duo of singer-songwriter Paul Sanchez and jazz trumpeter/Heritage School alumnus Shamarr Allen. The students and faculty of the Heritage School will perform, too.

SOURCE: The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and Foundation, Inc.

Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News
From: Amos
Date: 16 Sep 09 - 08:42 PM

The Birds on a Wire song:

A musician creates a composition by photographing birds on a set of power-lines, and treating their positions as musical notes on a staff.

Story and audio here

Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News
From: Amos
Date: 17 Sep 09 - 09:34 AM

Here's the rundown on a Folk Festival in the Skokie-Des Plaines area. 4th Annual WFMT Midnight Special Folk Festival

3-7 p.m. Sept. 20 at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts, 9501 Skokie Blvd., Skokie. $25-$125. [phone], www.wfmt.com/folkfestival

Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News
From: Amos
Date: 17 Sep 09 - 01:20 PM

August 27th, 2009--ZDNet Blogs

Bob Dylan to voice GPS? Who do you want directing your drive?

Posted by Jennifer Bergen @ 10:37 am



Bob Dylan is in talks with two car manufacturers to be the voice of their in-car navigation systems. The jokes are too easy with Dylan's song titles and lyrics providing an adequate amount of "direction-", and "road-related" themes, but would anyone seriously want to have Dylan grumble directions over an in-car GPS?

Dylan even joked about it on his radio show, "Theme Time Radio Hour.":

    "I am talking to a couple of car companies about being the voice of their GPS system. I think it would be good if you are looking for directions and hear my voice saying something like, 'Left at the next street, no a right. You know what? Just go straight'," he said.

    "I probably shouldn't do it, because whichever way I go I always end up at one place: Lonely Avenue."

Would Dylan's gravely mumbles be the voice you want to hear on your GPS? If we're going to get all crazy and throw any hint of an understandable GPS voice out the window, then I personally would like to hear Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau directing me to the nearest grocery store. My second choice would be Christopher Walken. What other voices would you like to hear? "

Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News
From: Amos
Date: 19 Sep 09 - 11:46 PM

World Music Fest guide
Howard Reich


September 18, 2009

Now that the smartly programmed but poorly produced Chicago Jazz Festival has come to an end, listeners can check out a soiree of a very different -- and far superior -- kind.

For the World Music Festival, which opens Friday and runs through Thursday, spares listeners the unfortunate acoustics of the Petrillo Music Shell and the inferior aesthetics of Grant Park.

Instead, the 11th annual World Music Festival presents its attractions in settings carefully chosen to suit the music at hand, from the intimate Old Town School of Folk Music to the acoustically inviting Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park. That's 57 artists from 32 countries in 21 venues.

For complete schedule, visit worldmusicalfestivalchicago.org.

Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News
From: Amos
Date: 22 Sep 09 - 09:43 AM

From Boston:

"Geoff Muldaur, who's inexplicably unsung outside a vast circle of admiring musicians such as Bonnie Raitt and Richard Thompson, has never stood still for too long. From his 1960s Cambridge days in the Jim Kweskin Jug Band, through his folk-blues records alone and with then-wife Maria Muldaur, and up to his recent reimagining of jazzman Bix Beiderbecke's music, Muldaur has never been easy to pin down. Nor would he want to be.
        
It's not surprising, then, that his latest album takes him down another rabbit hole. Out today, "Texas Sheiks'' pairs Muldaur with a top-notch band of roots musicians (including the late Stephen Bruton, Muldaur's friend who partly inspired the collaboration). The collection of loose and lively roots music spans everything from shuffling country-blues to old-time parlor songs and even reunites Muldaur with Kweskin on two tunes.

Muldaur, who lives in Los Angeles ("which is God's joke on me - I never liked the place, and I still don't,'' but he's got a nice lady out there), says it's just par for the course.

"You know me, I bounce around from project to project trying to come up with the next crazy idea,'' Muldaur says, adding that his upcoming plans include a project in the British Isles, working on his chamber works, and eventually making an "electric badass album with horns.''

Muldaur played Sunday's gala fund-raiser in Boston for Betsy Siggins's new project, the New England Folk Music Archives, and he has a solo show Thursday at Johnny D's (8:30 p.m., $15). " Interview with Geoff is here.

---

From Chatanooga:


New folk music school seeks to build lasting bonds between students

By: Casey Phillips


For a craft that's traditionally passed on in a social context, there are few organizations set up to teach folk music in a classroom setting.

About a year ago, local musicians/teachers Christie Burns and Matt Evans decided to try to change that. The result of their efforts, the Mountain Music Folk School, will begin its first eight-week semester Sept. 28.

Everything about the school's operation, from the local musicians who comprise its teaching staff to the way the courses are taught, ties into the fundamental goal of building Chattanooga's musical community, Ms. Burns said.

"I'm really excited about that possibility of the social mixing that could go on in these classes," she said. "People will come from all kinds of backgrounds and be pulled together by their interest in music."

The classes will meet weekly for 75-minute sessions at three Southside venues, the Bluegrass Grill (55 E. Main Street), Area 61 (61 E. Main Street) and GreenSpaces (63 E. Main Street).

Courses are available for a variety of instruments and styles, from African guitar and clawhammer banjo to harmony singing and a world-music ensemble. Additional one-day workshops throughout the semester will offer intense studies of more specific styles.

Based on participation during this first semester, Ms. Burns and Mr. Evans said they hope to offer four or five semesters a year, the next one slated for January.

In June, Mr. Evans and Ms. Burns used money from CreateHere's MakeWork Grant program to bring the executive director of the Folk School of St. Louis, Colleen Heine, to Chattanooga to help them hone their ideas.

Ms. Heine and Latitude Advisers' Mike Harrell, the school's business consultant, have played key roles in making the project a reality, Mr. Evans said.

"Mike Harrell has been a huge part of helping us figure out how to make something like this work," he said. "There's no way this would be happening without the grant and specifically the part that's paying for the business consulting."

Like the Folk School of St. Louis, the Mountain Music Folk School's structure will emphasize the importance of group learning over private instruction.... (Details here.

---

From Winston-Salem, a poetic account:

"One by one, the musicians drifted to the white gazebo at the center of the shady park, took seats on the wooden bench and opened their cases, lifting out guitars and violins. Pages rustled as new songs were passed around, and chords tentatively floated on the thick summer air.

The musicians' welcoming voices and gentle laughter, muffled in the humid stillness of the day's end, were suggestive of many evenings spent together sharing the easy companionship of music.

Bud Harmon, blue sweatband circling close-cropped white hair, began strumming an old Kingston Trio folk song about an unfortunate rider trapped on the Boston subway. Chris Nelson and Phil McVay's heads bobbed in time with the music. They recognized the song and began to play along.

David Hatcher, a lean man sporting a carefully trimmed beard and short white hair, loped up onto the gazebo and removed his fiddle and a handful of harmonicas.

Hatcher started the group a couple of years ago, putting an ad in the paper inviting people of any skill level to meet at a local library branch and play folk music and bluegrass.

The group was slow in getting off the ground, but now has a core of five to six members who never miss a session. They meet every two weeks for a couple of hours, alternating between Grace Court Park in Winston-Salem, a band shell at Central Park in King and the Reynolda branch of the Forsyth County Public Library.

Although the overall trend of the songs offered up for the group to play is folk music, the tunes wander into bluegrass, country/western, ragtime, pop, soft rock and the Beatles. A short classical number sometimes slips in as well.

"I thought I'd play a Willie Nelson song tonight," Harmon said, as the folk song died away.

"What's that -- Billie Nelson?" someone asked, pretending not to hear.

"Willie. Willie Nelson. He wrote it, and I'm gonna destroy it." The others laughed, and Harmon began growling, "Mama, Don't Let Your Children Grow Up to Be Cowboys."

The group listened closely and began to join in one at a time, like children watching a chance to hop onto a revolving carousel. Resonant guitar chords swelled as the long strains of a fiddle began to unlimber, peppered with haunting notes of a harmonica.

Strollers paused nearby to listen. Benches began to fill as colorfully suited bicyclists ghosted noiselessly around the edges of the park, then circled around for another pass.

The lingering heat of the day seemed to settle into the bowl of the park like a thick, warm soup. The muffled sounds of the city dissolved with the warmth of guitar and violin as the daylight faded in the gloaming.

[e-mail]"

Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News
From: Amos
Date: 22 Sep 09 - 02:21 PM

Update | 11:30 p.m.(NYT Arts blog) The boos poured out loudly and lustily after the Metropolitan Opera's gala opening night performance of Puccini's "Tosca" Monday night. The vocal thumbs down was not directed at the voices. Karita Mattila, who sang Tosca, and her tenor co-star, Marcelo Alvarez as Cavaradossi, received healthy ovations. So did James Levine, the Met's music director and the conductor that night.

But when Luc Bondy, the director, and his team took the stage for final bows, the boos arose. For scorecard keepers, the cheers and applause were louder, and many in the audience seemed to step up pro-Bondy shouting as the boos kept going.

Negative reaction was no surprise, given that Mr. Bondy's stark production replaced the lavish veteran "Tosca" of Franco Zeffirelli, a favorite of many Met fans. At a dinner afterward, Mr. Bondy seemed unperturbed by the reaction. "If people would be happy after 'Tosca,' then I would be upset," he said.

"Tosca"-philes will be interested in how the title character took her leap to the death in this version. A classic apocryphal tale has the soprano jumping off the walls of Castel Sant'Angelo onto a trampoline instead of a mattress and bouncing up a few times. This time, Ms. Mattila climbs up a stairs, disappears into the top of a tower and is seen in silhouette leaping forward. Stage devices arrest the jump so she is frozen in mid-leap. Quite effective.

Mr. Bondy injected a few risqué elements: the portrait of the Magdalene being painted by Cavaradossi in the Roman church of Sant'Andrea della Valle showed a naked breast, and at the end of the act, the evil Scarpia (George Gagnidze) displays his lecherous credentials by embracing a statue of the Madonna in the church, to the horror of the clerics on stage (the reaction of any clerics in the audience was unknown). Some reports held that Mr. Bondy had Scarpia, shall we say, asserting himself in a more vigorous fashion with the statue during rehearsal. Another lascivious note came in the opening of Act II, when three ladies of dubious virtue entwine themselves around Scarpia, with one appearing to simulate a sexual act while he sings. There's no aphrodisiac like power. As Tosca points out, "Before him, all Rome trembled." That comes, of course, after she stabs him to death, thus calming a tremulous Rome.

In the auditorium, the recession was not evident: the jewels and gowns and white ties and tails were abundant as ever. Along with the pop-culture celebrities, classical music honchos were out in force: Alan Gilbert, the New York Philharmonic's new music director; Clive Gillinson of Carnegie Hall, Ara Guzelimian, dean of the Juilliard School, Joseph V. Melillo of BAM and George R. Steel of the New York City Opera, among others.

Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News
From: Amos
Date: 26 Sep 09 - 03:01 PM

vanston, IL. (Top40 Charts/ Evanston SPACE PR) - Since 1981, Mark Dvorak has been crisscrossing the country, living the life of the traveling troubadour and honing his craft as musician, songwriter and entertainer. He has distinguished himself as a unique and influential figure on the national folk scene. Called 'a folk singer's folk singer who follows unerringly in the footsteps of Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie,' Dvorak performs more than 200 concerts per year. His song writing has been called 'wondrous' and 'profound.' He is an integral member of the faculty at Chicago's Old Town School of Folk Music, and when he's not on the road he can be found there teaching, jamming with students and passers by.

The Rockford Folk Music Society calls Mark, 'The Midwest's premiere keeper of traditions.'
The Chicago Tribune has called his performance, 'Masterful.' SING OUT! Magazine wrote, 'Dvorak shines.'

Trips through Tennessee, Ohio, Michigan, Colorado, Wisconsin, a recording session in Nashville, and even a tour of Finland were a part of Dvorak's summer itinerary.
'Michael and Mark represent the best in Chicago's long folk legacy,' said Dave Specter, co-owner of Evanston SPACE.


'Michael of course, with his work with Steve Goodman and Mark with his deep connection with the Old Town School of Folk Music.'

Michael Smith is internationally recognized for his legacy of outstanding songs, theatrical pieces and wide critical acclaim. Smith and Goodman collaborated on a number of songs before Goodman's untimely death in 1984. Goodman also had hit records of Smith compositions 'The Dutchman,' 'Spoon River' and 'Video Tape.' Smith has also won awards for his work on Frank Galati's The Grapes of Wrath, and won a Jeff award for the locally produced Michael, Margaret, Pat & Kate

Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News
From: Amos
Date: 27 Sep 09 - 02:41 PM

One of San Diego's own brightest and best blues artists, Steve White, was unexpectedly stricken with a throat tumour. The operation required the removal of his larynx. He will not sing or play the blues harp again.

The good news is he is out of ICU and the operation was successful and no complications.

Steve's website includes a video of one of his performances. A real wing-wang-doodle of a guy.



A

Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News
From: Amos
Date: 28 Sep 09 - 11:23 AM

From October 2003 (BBC News):

Brain itch' keeps songs in the head

...I just can't get that song out of my head...

Research in the US has found that songs get stuck in our heads because they create a "brain itch" that can only be scratched by repeating the tune over and over.

In Germany, this type of song is known as an "ohrwurm" - an earworm - and typically has a high, upbeat melody and repetitive lyrics that verge between catchy and annoying.

Songs such as the Village People's YMCA, Los Del Rio's Macarena, and the Baha Men's Who Let The Dogs Out owe their success to their ability to create a "cognitive itch," according to Professor James Kellaris, of the University of Cincinnati College of Business Administration.

"A cognitive itch is a kind of metaphor that explains how these songs get stuck in our head," Professor Kellaris told BBC World Service's Outlook programme.

"Certain songs have properties that are analogous to histamines that make our brain itch.

"The only way to scratch a cognitive itch is to repeat the offending melody in our minds."

'Insidious and blatant'

Professor Kellaris has presented the early results of his earworm research at a conference on Consumer Psychology.

He said that virtually everyone suffered from a cognitive itch at one time or another.

"Across surveys I found that from 97% to 99% of the population is susceptible to earworms at some time," he stated.

"But certainly some people are more susceptible than others. Women tend to be more susceptible than men, and musicians are more susceptible to them than non-musicians."

Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News
From: Amos
Date: 28 Sep 09 - 01:24 PM

(Reuters) U.S. guitar maker draws buyers, cult-like following
Mon Sep 28, 2009 12:42pm EDT



By Andrea Shalal-Esa

STEVENSVILLE, Md (Reuters) - Three decades after defying the odds and persuading Carlos Santana to try out his hand-built guitar, Paul Reed Smith's quest for perfect tone is still reeling in enthusiasts from all over the world.

Despite the world economic downturn, his company has built a new multimillion dollar factory and is looking at multiplying revenues while other instrument makers report declining sales.

More than 1,700 guitar dealers and customers traveled to a festive open house at Smith's Maryland headquarters this past weekend to see his newest guitars and tour a factory that turns out over 16,000 handcrafted instruments each year.

The crowd -- which included dealers, doctors, investment bankers and ordinary guitarists -- ordered more than 500 guitars ranging in price from several thousand dollars to as high as $70,000, for a grand total of well over $1 million.

Over the past 25 years, that kind of excitement has made Paul Reed Smith (PRS) Guitars the third largest U.S. electric guitar maker, helping it to squeeze older names Fender and Gibson and capture 40 percent of the high-end guitar market.

Nick Catanese, of Black Label Society, began playing PRS guitars in January, and says there's no comparison with other brands. "They're almost like a work of art," he told Reuters.

Those kind of reviews are good for PRS's bottom line, which is surviving the economic downturn better than most.

This year, PRS expects to match its 2008 revenues of $38 million, while competitors report declines of 20 to 30 percent, and the new factory should allow the company to double its sales once the economy recovers, says President Jack Higginbotham.

Gary Ciocci, managing director of Premier Guitar magazine, attributes the company's success to Smith's intense focus on its customers and events like the $300,000 open house. ...

Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News
From: Amos
Date: 29 Sep 09 - 12:54 PM

It does my heart good to see something like this in the Washington Post:

"Virginia's Crooked Road: A Warm Welcome to Mountain Music

Friday Night Jamboree at the Floyd Country Store. The show always begins with a gospel band, then moves on to other types of Appalachian music, including flat-foot dancing, which looks similar to Irish dance.

By Melanie D.G. Kaplan
Special to The Washington Post
Sunday, October 4, 2009

I arrive at the Marathon gas station in Stuart, Va., just above the North Carolina border, to find a man eating beans out of a can and a collection of animal heads peering down at an understocked convenience store. I am at my first stop on the Crooked Road: Virginia's Music Heritage Trail -- a 250-mile path of music venues in the Blue Ridge and Appalachian regions of southwestern Virginia -- and I don't see anything that resembles the jam session I expected.

But soon, a 70-year-old man named G.C., a third-generation musician from town, brings his guitar over to the picnic table outside the store. Then a fiddle shows up, followed by a banjo. One by one, gray-haired men climb out of pickup trucks with their instruments and amble over to the patio, home of the Thursday night State Line Grocery Jam Session. And by the time I leave, two hours later, I've fallen under the spell of mountain music.

It's not the first time. Last year, I joined a friend for my first bluegrass concerts in Washington and was drawn to the music so suddenly that I had barely learned which instrument was the mandolin before I'd bought one. Now, after six months of lessons and calloused fingers, I am bravely, naively joining the Thursday night crew in a corner of Virginia where it seems that everyone plays a "git-tar" or fiddle, and plays it well.

"There's music everywhere here," says Joe Wilson, one of the architects of the Crooked Road, which was established in 2004 to support tourism and economic development in one of Appalachia's distressed areas. Wilson is a folklorist and the longtime director and current chairman of the National Council for the Traditional Arts. Earlier this month, he received a Living Legend award from the Library of Congress.

"Americans don't know diddly about their music," he says. Traditional American mountain music came about when the African banjo and European fiddle met in Virginia, he explains. "Appalachian music has been the most accepting music -- whoever you are and wherever you are, you're welcome to play it. It's the sound; it has a joy to it. It's working-folk music."


It's also infectious. Even though I can't keep up with the State Line crew (I should have practiced a few years longer), I want to sit here all night, next to G.C., singing from his songbook, and the banjo player, simultaneously pickin', smokin' and drinkin' coffee. I am in the company of folks who make good music with less effort than they make simple conversation. For them, it's just another Thursday evening, doing what they do. But for me, it's the beginning of a whirlwind trip exploring 188 miles of the Crooked Road and listening to some mighty fine tunes. ..."

Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News
From: Amos
Date: 06 Oct 09 - 03:00 PM

Building a Bridge: Ancient Paths, Modern Voices Fuses Folk Music with the Present

By Stephen Jones
04 Oct 2009

        
Carnegie Hall is gearing up for Ancient Paths, Modern Voices, a celebration of Chinese culture through a series of over 30 events presented across NYC Oct. 21-Nov. 10. Here, Stephen Jones discusses the thriving folk music scene in present-day China.


**

In recent years, Wu Man—a graduate of Beijing's Central Conservatory who left China 20 years ago to pursue a career as a pipa player on the international stage—has become curious about the folk traditions in her homeland. "In the conservatories, we were isolated from the local traditions going on all around us in the countryside," she recalls. "It was high time to seek out my musical roots."

Building a bridge between folk music and the wider world, Wu Man began traveling throughout China, visiting poor barren villages in the rural northwest, interacting with puppeteers and roving musicians, and sharing bowls of noodles with Daoists and members of shawm bands. In Taste of China and Ancient Spirits—two events she is curating for Ancient Paths, Modern Voices—Wu Man introduces China's traditional and classical music as both host and pipa performer.

The pipa, which dates back to the Tang Dynasty (618–906 CE), is a Chinese classical instrument that is similar to the lute. "The music is scholarly, though any notation is really only a rough skeleton," Wu Man explains. "Like the music written for the qin [seven-stringed zither], you can only learn nuances face-to-face with a master teacher—you can't just read and play."

Outside of the cities in remote villages, traditions are still passed down from one generation to the next. The Zhang Family Band, based in a village near Huashan Mountain in Shaanxi province, tours the nearby countryside with its guttural, hoarse singing and instrumental accompaniment. Its shadow-puppet dramas are performed at temple fairs and rituals that promote the well-being of families.

Increasingly, however, family bands like the Zhang and the Li—the latter practitioners of Daoist ritual music—are becoming rare since younger generations are gravitating to urban areas, depleting the village life and culture. "The religious music of the Li family dates back nine generations," says Wu Man, "but the next generation—their children—don't want to learn it."

Full article here at Playbill Arts.

Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News
From: Amos
Date: 09 Oct 09 - 09:00 AM

Joel Plaskett leads the pack in folk music award nominations
Patrick Langston, The Ottawa Citizen
Published: Thursday, October 08, 2009

Halifax's Joel Plaskett is the heavyweight among this year's Canadian Folk Music Awards nominees announced Wednesday in Ottawa. The indie roots rocker and Polaris Prize finalist garnered nominations in four categories: contemporary album, solo artist, producer and pushing the boundaries. The fifth annual awards gala pulls into the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Gatineau Nov. 21.

Nipping at Plaskett's heels is Montreal's Middle Eastern ensemble, OktoEcho. The group is up for ensemble, world group and instrumental group. OktoEcho's competitors in the ensemble and instrumental categories include Toronto's Sultans of String, whose flamenco world jazz fusion has also earned it a pushing- the-boundaries nomination.

The 90-plus nominations in 18 categories include National Capital Region artists Lynne Hanson (new/emerging artist), Cantarra (vocal group) and William Hawkins (English songwriter). Ottawa-born Maggie G is on board for children's album.

Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News
From: Amos
Date: 09 Oct 09 - 09:08 AM

Joan Baez's sweet sound comes to PBS


By Gail Pennington
POST-DISPATCH TELEVISION CRITIC
10/09/2009

In 1959, Joan Baez, "very young and very scared," faced what seemed to her like the largest crowd ever assembled: 15,000 people at the inaugural Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island.

"I was standing there with my little knees knocking, and I went up on stage, feeling as though I had been invited to my own execution. But instead of fainting or dying, I sang."

The performance "was very well received," Baez recalls, "and kind of sent me on my way from coffeehouses into a larger world of music."

And how. Baez, with her three-octave range and thrilling vibrato, became the queen of folk music at a time when folk was America's biggest music craze. But Baez saw her life as being about something bigger.

In between making gold records, Baez, the daughter of Quakers and a passionate advocate for human rights around the world, marched with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., prayed with residents of Hanoi during 11 days of carpet bombing in North Vietnam and saw her husband, David Harris, go to prison on draft-evasion charges. She performed for peace on the West Bank and Gaza Strip, sang in the strife-torn streets of Sarajevo and, most recently, serenaded Nelson Mandela on his 90th birthday.

"I'm at my happiest and healthiest when I'm very much wrapped up in politics," she says in "Joan Baez: How Sweet the Sound," airing at 8 p.m. Wednesday on PBS' "American Masters." "Music plays a secondary role in my life."

Baez was in Newport, R.I., again this summer for the 50th anniversary of the folk festival and appeared by satellite when PBS introduced the special to TV critics meeting in Los Angeles. Even on two big screens, she looked vibrant and much younger than her 68 years.

And if her voice isn't as big and clear as it was in the 1960s and '70s, that's not much evident in "How Sweet the Sound," in which filmmaker Mary Wharton followed Baez on tour last year, seamlessly mixing scenes from 50 years ago with contemporary footage. The story is told without narration, in Baez's voice and in commentary from those close to her, including Bob Dylan and ex-husband Harris.

Baez was coy about Dylan when questioned this summer, deferring to "American Masters" executive producer Susan Lacy and saying she'd let the documentary speak for itself.

In fact, Dylan does a lot of speaking about Baez, describing the first time he heard her "heart-stopping soprano voice" and couldn't get it out of his mind.

Baez was already a star while Dylan was a scruffy, strange, street kid in the early 1960s when she began inviting him onstage during her concerts. Before long, "People got it, that he was pretty damn special," she says in the documentary.

They went on to become friends, lovers and adversaries. Her "Diamonds and Rust," a poignant but clear-eyed reflection on past love, was written about him, and he's proud of that, Dylan says in the documentary.

But "let's move on," Baez responded with curt humor when asked repeatedly about Dylan.

And move on she has.

Although still touring, with a Grammy-nominated CD, "Day After Tomorrow," Baez says she's relaxed a bit. She likes spending time with her mother, 96, and with her son Gabriel Harris, a percussionist who tours with her, and his wife, Pamela. She especially enjoys time with her granddaughter Jasmine.

Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News
From: maeve
Date: 09 Oct 09 - 10:59 AM

Interesting reading, Amos. I was especially happy to read about Rosalie. Thanks.

maeve

Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News
From: Amos
Date: 09 Oct 09 - 03:18 PM

Old Town School of Folk Music to perform at IRMA
TNN 9 October 2009, 10:10pm IST

        |         
VADODARA/ANAND, India: A group of faculty from world famous Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago will be performing at the Institute of Rural
Management Anand (IRMA) on Sunday.

Old Town School of Folk Music is the largest community school of the arts in the United States, which is actively pursuing international partnership opportunities both to bring master traditional artistes to Chicago for extended residencies and to generate opportunities for the school faculty to teach and perform abroad.

"This trip is supported through a grant from MacArthur Foundation," a release from IRMA said on Friday, adding that the diverse group travelling to India includes master of jazz tap dance Reggio the Hoofer' McLaughlin, teacher of guitar and theatre Mary Peterson, teacher of old and middle eastern music Ronnie Malley and master of punk and post-punk electric guitar styles Dan Fulkerson. "The delegation is led by executive director of the school James Bau Graves, who is a specialist in North American folk song styles and director of Kalapriya Foundation and teacher of Bharatnatyam Pranita Jain," the release added.

Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News
From: Amos
Date: 10 Oct 09 - 03:21 PM

Let a thousand guitars bloom in India where the folk revival is still reviving nicely.

Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News
From: Amos
Date: 12 Oct 09 - 03:37 PM

FAYETTEVILLE — Guitar guru, songwriter and storytelling folk singer Jack Williams loves his peaceful home in rural, southern Washington County, but he's too busy performing for fun to enjoy it often.

Most musicians dream of fame, fortune and success, but Williams is more than content to make a modest, honest living performing his unique style of music in venues all across the country.

People are always telling him how to make it big.

"I'm not encumbered with that desire," he said. "There is no actual happiness to chasing the brass ring."

It's hard for a first-time listener to pay attention to the inspiring stories in his songs because his finger picking - of the Martin guitar he bought new in 1974 - is so amazing it's hard to focus on anything else.

When you listen, the many sounds of his guitar enhance the story he's singing like a great soundtrack helps a good movie.

After shows, people often compliment his picking abilities, but he prefers fans connecting with the messages in his music.

"The way people view me is misplaced. I'm not a technical whiz."

His songs are considered to be folk music, even though he said most people don't know that that is.

Williams said that if he wrote a song and then:

• Pete Seeger sang it, you'd consider it folk.

• Bruce Springstein played it, you'd call it rock.

• Garth Brooks performed it, you'd call it country.

Traveling troubadour

He's honed his skills through the years playing in nightclubs and bars, but now it's mainly concert halls, festivals and private shows. You won't find him in the local hot spots around here. He plays solo gigs he books himself and occasionally joins a friend or two for a performance or workshop.

His touring schedule includes shows all over - Evanston, Ill.; Milwaukee, Wis.; Round Rock, Texas; Jacksonville, Fla.; and Ontario, Canada; just to name a few.

He tries to book about 150 shows a year, which is a busy pace after considering travel time. His wife Judy, always travels with him. She's his number one fan and maintains his Web site, but you won't find her on stage.

Williams can't hide his distaste of the commercial music industry because its primary focus is making money. He admits he has to make money to keep playing for a living, but to him, music is about much more.

He turned down a recording contract with a Nashville, Tenn., record company after the president of the company told him how he planned to change his music to increase its commercial appeal.

"I just do what I do and hope for the best," he said. "I'd rather be honest about it."

He admits that staying true to yourself comes at a price because honesty doesn't pay as well.

"You can either take somebody somewhere or you can make a buck," he said.

Many people mistakenly think musicians live an easy life - partying all the time and hanging out in bars. That's just not the case for him.

"We just want to make a living," he said.

Advice for pickers

Williams explains that musicians are sometimes discouraged in our current culture where people think that if you are not the best at something then "Why bother"

He disagrees. His advice is quite simple: "Play for the fun of it and enjoy it."

Performing music requires a certain amount of innate talent, he believes, but the level you're performing at doesn't make any difference. So what if you only play a few chords for songs that you enjoy? Don't be discouraged by naysayers.

"Never ever in the rest of your life watch 'American Idol,'" he suggests.

Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News
From: Amos
Date: 14 Oct 09 - 10:39 AM

Ralph Stanley is one of the last, and surely the purest, of the traditional country musicians. He's such a stickler that he has no use for the dobro, let alone electrified instruments, and he's not overly fond of the term bluegrass. He prefers to call what he performs "that old-time mountain music." He plays the five-string banjo in the claw-hammer style he learned from his mother — or he used to, until arthritis caught up with him — and he sings in a raw, keening Appalachian tenor.

The songs tend to be about hard times, unfaithful lovers, deceased children, lonely graves. One of his most famous, "O Death," is a pleading dialogue with the Grim Reaper himself. It used to be said that when you heard a Ralph Stanley tune, you either wanted to get drunk or go to church and get saved.

Mr. Stanley is 82 and, except for a dry spell in the early 1950s when he worked as a spot welder in Detroit, he has been performing steadily since he was a teenager. He still plays more than 100 dates a year, though he travels now in a customized bus rather than in an old Chevy, the band crammed in the back seat and the bass strapped to the roof. He has even been to Japan several times, where fans learn his songs by rote.

Mr. Stanley, who has called himself Doctor ever since being awarded an honorary degree from Lincoln Memorial University in Tennessee in 1976, has been so busy, traveling and collecting awards — three Grammys (one for an a capella version of "O Death" on the soundtrack of the film "O Brother, Where Art Thou?"), the National Medal of Arts, a "Living Legend" designation from the Library of Congress — that he only just got around to writing his autobiography, with the help of the journalist Eddie Dean.

His book, "Man of Constant Sorrow: My Life and Times" (Gotham Books), which comes out on Thursday, takes its title from another famous song and is a lot like the man himself: warm, folksy, down to earth, plainspoken, a little blunt and prickly at times. (It has nothing good to say about the Nashville star Tim McGraw, who, Mr. Stanley notes, hasn't "a lick of country" in him.)

Mr. Stanley talks of how death "brung together" his mother and father, and how he was "borned and raised way back in the hills." About musical talent, he writes: "It tends to run in families like a good line of dogs, and there ain't nothing you can do to change that."

Last week, Mr. Stanley was in New York with his band, the Clinch Mountain Boys, as part of a double bill at Carnegie Hall with Steve Martin, who had teamed up with the Steep Canyon Rangers, a North Carolina group, to play some of the songs on Mr. Martin's recent banjo album, "The Crow." At the end of the show the two groups got together for a crowd-pleasing version of "Orange Blossom Special" and for "Little Maggie," with Mr. Stanley singing the plaintive lyrics:

"Oh yonder stands little Maggie,
a dram glass in her hand.
She's drinkin' away her troubles.
She's a-courtin' another man."

Mr. Martin said afterwards that appearing with Mr. Stanley, whom he had idolized for years, was "a scary dream come true," and added, "I'm already old, and look at him, still going."..

---

The complete article on Mr Stanley can be found on this NY Times site.

Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News
From: Amos
Date: 14 Oct 09 - 01:48 PM

The Huffington Post has an interview with Joan Baez.

Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News
From: Amos
Date: 14 Oct 09 - 03:41 PM

Carly Simon retired in 2008. She released her final album, This Kind of Love, on Starbucks' music label, Hear Music, bought a house in Martha's Vineyard and settled into a quiet life. She called the album her "last at bat" and, well, that was that.

Then the Starbucks chain floundered and according to Simon, 64, the album sold poorly due to the coffee magnate's mismanagement of her music. The deal with Hear Music included an advance of $750,000-$1 million, a prominent marketing scheme to promote the album in all Starbucks chains and a promise that This Kind Of Love would be stocked in the thousands. Hear Music basically promised Simon the success Paul McCartney experienced with 2007's Memory Almost Full, which debuted at #3 on Billboard's Hot 100 and sold 1.5 million copies worldwide.

Simon is now suing Hear Music and Starbucks LLC for "concealment of material facts," "torturous interference" and "unlawful, unfair and fraudulent business practices." Simon claims she sunk $100,000 into the production of This Kind Of Love and her advance dwindled to $575,000; a sum Simon alleges she has never received in full. In short, This Kind Of Love sold 124,000, was ignored by critics and fans and was passed off as a failure. Simon hopes to win between $5 and $10 million from the lawsuit.

The folk music icon is also making a surprise comeback, with Never Been Gone, an acoustic homage filled with songs about young women, life's lessons and the way she'd always thought that life should be. The album, a reworking of her greatest hits with two new songs, is out October 27 on Iris Records.


The songs seem to have given the press shy Simon a new vigor as this year will see the chanteuse in the hot seat on "The Late Show with David Letterman," "Good Morning America" and "The Today Show." Soft-spoken and withdrawn, Simon has admitted to various media outlets that she is "excited and nervous" to open herself up to the public again.

Simon's newfound strength has also manifested itself in a different way and she has decided to overcome her intense fear of flying and will be playing intimate venues throughout Europe for the first time in her thirty-eight year career. Times and locations have yet to be set, but the tour will kick off in January.