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Occasional Musical News
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Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News From: Amos Date: 15 Oct 09 - 01:00 PM The son of folk icon Woody Guthrie heads into Mount Pleasant's Soaring Eagle Casino on Friday with three generations of Guthries for "The Guthrie Family Rides Again." Among the tribe: Arlo's son Abe, daughters Sarah Lee, Annie and Cathy, and Sarah Lee's husband Johnny Irion, with whom she performs. "We have guitars, autoharps, mandolins, ukeleles, my four kids," Guthrie, 62, says, calling from home in Massachusetts. Counting the grandkids, there might be four generations of Guthries onstage if a tape of Woody Guthrie's voice is played onstage, something they often do. "Yes, and even the youngest of them will make a brief appearance," Guthrie says. "Marjorie, my daughter Cathy's daughter is 2, and Sophie, Sarah Lee's daughter is also 2. So we have a couple of 2-year-olds we'll drag out to sing on one or two songs then they can go backstage to play. No one is expected to be professional so much as join in." That philosophy comes directly from Woody Guthrie, the Dust Bowl troubadour who sang countless folk and blues songs, and wrote such classics as "This Land is Your Land." The elder Guthrie felt that music was for everybody, not just people you pay to go hear in a concert hall. From Arlo Guthrie's family affair, Detroit News |
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Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News From: Amos Date: 15 Oct 09 - 01:41 PM A nice update on Richie Havens famed as a friend of Peace and Freedom. A |
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Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News From: Amos Date: 15 Oct 09 - 04:09 PM Interviews with a wide range of modern singer/songwriters. |
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Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News From: Amos Date: 18 Oct 09 - 01:19 PM Sent by a friend: "While in Nashville last week visiting relatives, my niece took us down Murfreesboro Road to the farmhouse where they once lived to visit an old family friend. My half-sister's kids had grown up playing with the son of the elderly lady living there now. Catherine Chrisman is a sweet, sharp little lady in her mid 80s who very much misses her husband, a college professor and woodworking expert, who passed away a couple of years ago. She showed us through the modest house and my niece reminisced on events that happened when her family lived there. We marveled at the exquisite furniture Mr. Chrisman had made after he retired. I noticed some pictures of a singing group called Riders in the Sky on the wall, but just thought Catherine was a fan of the group, this being Nashville, the center of country-western music. As we were leaving, my niece mentioned the Chrisman's son, Paul, aka Woody. My nephew said he was the smartest friend he had encountered. We went back inside the house and looked more closely at the pictures on the wall. "Turns out Woody had disappointed his parents when he changed his course of study at Vanderbilt from pre-medicine to physics and won a scholarship to MIT. They had had their hearts set on him becoming a physician. He graduated MIT with a PhD in theoretical plasma physics and then came back to Nashville to dabble in his true love--western music -- such a disappointment to his mom and dad who wanted him to get a "real job." An avid fan of the Sons of the Pioneers, Woody and a friend started a successful group called Riders in the Sky that supports the tradition of harmony in western music. Over 30 years later, the group continues to entertain and create Grammy-winning albums. They sang on the sound track of the Toy Story and Monster movies, with "Woody's Roundup" being an audience favorite. "When we left Rick told Catherine that he was sorry that her son was such a loser. She laughed heartedly and asked us to please come back to visit. Listen to the classics on this page. ANd this one. The group sang on the soundtrack of the Toy Story movies. here and here |
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Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News From: Amos Date: 20 Oct 09 - 04:19 PM rlo Guthrie Music: Clubs: folk When: 10/20/09 @ 7:30pm Cost: $30 Call: 241-2345 Web: www.arlo.net More Information: Arlo Guthrie "Guthrie Family Rides Again" Tuesday, October 20, 2009 Barrymore Theatre 2090 Atwood Ave Tickets: $30 Ticket Info: 608 241-2345, http://barrymorelive.com Showtime: 7:30 pm "The Guthries are the first family of American folk. They practice what Woody preached." -Vanity Fair "...the biggest treat was the encore, one of Woody's last lyrics, written when he was in the hospital in the early '60s, with the music added later by Arlo, a little-known but beautiful, spiritual song called 'My Peace.' And the audience left in peace, knowing that Guthrie music is alive and well, and that the legacy is in good hands." -Robert Price, New Jersey Herald On Oct. 20, folk music icon Arlo Guthrie will perform alongside three generations of Guthries as the "Guthrie Family Rides Again" tour hits the Barrymore Theatre in Madison (WI). Arlo Guthrie carries on the Guthrie Family legacy as he travels to communities far and wide sharing timeless stories and unforgettable classic tunes. A celebrated artist in American music, his artistic ventures help bridge an often-divided world through his powerful spirit of song. "Guthrie Family Rides Again" brings his singular voice as both a singer-songwriter and social commentator to the stage alongside his beloved children and grandkids. |
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Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News From: Amos Date: 21 Oct 09 - 09:29 AM Folk rock pioneer Roger McGuinn at ECA Oct. 24 Enterprise staff Journey through the musical history of legendary singer/songwriter and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member Roger McGuinn at Edmonds Center for the Arts Saturday Oct. 24. McGuinn became interested in music after hearing Elvis Presley's "Heartbreak Hotel" and asked his parents to buy him a guitar. In 1957 he enrolled as a student at Chicago's Old Town School of Folk Music where he learned the five-string banjo and continued to improve his guitar skills. After graduation, McGuinn performed solo on the folk music circuit where he was hired as a sideman by folk musicians like The Limeliters, the Chad Mitchell Trio and Judy Collins. It was during this time that he began hearing of The Beatles and wondered how Beatlemania might affect folk music. While playing at the Troubadour in Los Angeles, Roger began incorporating Beatles songs into his act and giving rock-style treatments to his traditional folk tunes, which attracted fellow folkie and Beatles fan Gene Clark to approach him about forming a duo. After meeting David Crosby, they decided to create a band and with the addition of percussionist Michael Clark and banjo player Chris Hillman, The Byrds came to life and scored a #1 hit with "Mr. Tambourine Man". During his time with The Byrds, McGuinn developed two influential styles of electric guitar playing, incorporating banjo finger picking styles he learned from his days at the Old Town School of Music. The CF Martin Guitar Company released a special edition guitar called the HD7 Roger McGuinn Signature Edition that claims to capture his "jingle-jangle" tone. After several personnel changes, The Byrds disbanded in 1973 and McGuinn has been recording and touring solo since then, going back to his folk music roots with projects like "22 Timeless Tracks from the Folk Den," which he recorded with musical friends Pete Seeger, Joan Baez and Judy Collins. |
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Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News From: Amos Date: 22 Oct 09 - 11:35 AM Music Wed Oct 21 2009 Graduation Week @ The Old Town School of Folk Music |
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Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News From: Amos Date: 26 Oct 09 - 04:10 PM By David McCollum All they needed was a campfire. The Folk Reunion concert Thursday at the Reynolds Performance Hall at the University of Central Arkansas took many of us back to another era of music — one that has been buried by modern technology but still manages to tug at tender memories. The Brothers Four, the Limelighters and the Kingston Trio, all pioneer bands in the "Hootenanny," American folk music thrust a half-century ago, were all featured during the homecoming segment of the UCA Public Appearances Series. It was a pleasing toe-tapping, hand-clapping, sing-a-along session among an almost full house in which the prevailing hair was gray or none at all. This was a concert for those who can remember typewriters, juke boxes and black-and-white TV. It took us back to simpler days when someone just grabbed a guitar and a bunch of friends followed to a dorm, house or campfire and harmonized in a sing-a-long. Jerry Biebesheimer, who directs the public appearance staff, set this one up especially for the post-45 crowd and his group should be commended. Homecoming is for the alumni as much as it is for students, and it should have events appealing to both. Biesbesheimer arranged the concert with a nod toward the Class of '59, which celebrated its 50th anniversary during the weekend. The three groups performing Thursday trace their roots to the late 1950s and made regular appearances at colleges and universities in the '60s and '70s. Much of their music is embedded in the minds of those who went to college in that era and listened to juke boxes. "For you younger people, a juke box is a giant iPod," said George Grove, the longest-tenured member of the Kingston Trio. All three bands are the only continuing original folk bands on the active concert circuit. Bob Flick of the Brothers Four is a founding member of that group. The other musicians trace their links to their groups over several years in continuing the tradition. Bill Zorn of the Kingston Trio is much recycled, having started with the New Christy Minstrels and also serving as a former member of the Limelighters. The neat part of the concert was its simplicity. It's interesting. My son traveled to Oklahoma City last weekend to watch Bono perform on a high-tech, glitzy stage converted into a model spaceship that thought it was absolutely awesome. U2 is also one of my favorites of the modern rock bands. Thursday night, there were no sets, no pyro, no fancy sound systems, nothing glitzy, nothing flashy, no eye-popping costumes, no dancers and no upscale electronically enhanced instruments. There was a plain black stage, a few amplifiers, a few microphones, a few bottles of water on platforms and the performers playing acoustical string instruments and engaging in simple and melodious harmony. This was music at its core — good instrumentation and good, clear harmony. It was music in which the music and the sound was more important than the volume. The performances resonated on simple purity. It was the ultimate in portable live music. It could be done in a concert hall, on a mountaintop, by a stream or in a den or dormitory room. To the music palate, it was what made-from-scratch biscuits and gravy is to the taste buds. There were so many old favorites, from the Brothers Four's haunting "The Green Leaves of Summer" to the Limelighters humorous satirical stuff that poked fun at their own genre to the Kingston Trio's big hits "Scotch and Soda" and "Tom Dooley." What the artists described as the American Songbook went down a warm-and-fuzzy memory lane. And the concert ended the only way it could end. All the groups came on stage and joined together in the iconic folk anthem, "This Land is Your Land" as the audience clapped and sang along. |
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Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News From: Amos Date: 26 Oct 09 - 04:51 PM Welcome to the New Folk Revival, says one journalist. He surveys young leaders in folk today. Nice to think the flame is being carried forward! A |
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Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News From: Amos Date: 02 Nov 09 - 08:12 PM "The Traveling Wilburys, the late 1980s supergroup that featured Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Tom Petty, and Jeff Lynne of ELO, set the blueprint for chummy band projects whose sum often happened to be as good, if not better, than their equal parts. While it's an old concept that might seem passé in this age of iTunes and Rock Band video games, Monsters of Folk are giving it new life. The four-member group – which features solo songwriter-performer M. Ward, Jim James of My Morning Jacket, and Conor Oberst and Mike Mogis of Bright Eyes – represents the kind of project that often falls through the cracks these days because nothing about it – the music or the marketing – conforms to what is considered necessary to sell records. And yet, because all four members are not household names, the project is also a reflection of artistic resilience. The group's self-titled album, released in September, and a North American tour, with dates through mid-November, are endeavors that together reflect an old-fashioned approach to making music that is more homespun and more about the total experience than selling a hit single. At the same time, their album hit No. 15 on the Billboard charts and No. 3 on Top Independent Albums. Beginning in the early half of this decade, all four members quietly built audiences without the benefit of a hit song or video or even major commercial placement in television or film. Instead, audiences organically found their way to My Morning Jacket, Bright Eyes, and Ward's music through entire albums, which became essential listening for anyone interested in folk-based songwriting. They also toured relentlessly, which helped them transition from playing small clubs to large theaters and headlining slots at major summer festivals. For young fans who hadn't grown up with the classic Woodstock-generation artists, these new bands provided a connection, by making albums with cohesive beginnings, middles, and ends. All three also were at the forefront of releasing special vinyl editions of their music to generate enthusiasm among fans who had never experienced the tangible side of music, something that was lost once major labels ushered in CDs and then digital files. To Ward, technology has become a double-edged sword. Despite the fact that "people are becoming aware of music in millions of kinds of ways" today, not all of them are as powerful as "the most old-fashioned way" – word of mouth. "I still believe the best way for people to hear music is with someone telling them, 'Hey, this is good,'" he says. Because of the unlimited media platforms currently available, Ward says there is too much distraction now and not enough of the community spirit that used to be found at local hangouts such as record shops. "Sometimes it's a little bit too easy for people today," he says. "I, for one, miss the anticipation I used to get to see if this record store I was walking into would have the record I was looking for." (WSJ) |
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Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News From: Amos Date: 09 Nov 09 - 03:53 PM THis from the Harvard Crimson: This month, Harvard Square will return to its folk roots and celebrate the area's role in developing of folk music with special events and displays of archival photos in stores fronts around the square. Joan Baez, best known for her folk hit "Diamonds and Rust," got her start in the legendary Harvard Square folk venue Club 47, reincarnated as Club Passim. Her early recording of the Child Ballads, a collection of English and Scottish folk songs, is also representative of the area's long-standing role in the folk music genre—the ballads were compiled by Harvard English professor Francis James Child. Now, the New England Folk Music Archive (NEFMA) and the Harvard Square Business Association (HSBA) are working together to raise awareness for the continued folk tradition in Harvard Square. Until last year, Club Passim maintained an archive of folk memorabilia, cataloguing photos and videos of the folk music scene in Harvard Square. But when the financial crisis hit and Club Passim could no longer actively support the archive, former executive director Betsy Siggins founded NEFMA, a nonprofit dedicated to keeping the Harvard Square folk tradition alive. This month is the financial and emotional "kick-start" for the new nonprofit, she said. Siggins played a large part in the square's iconic place in the folk revival as a founder of Club 47. "She likes to call herself the oldest hippie in Harvard Square," said Denise A. Jillson, the Executive Director of the Harvard Square Business Association. "She's been the go-to figure for all things folk for a long time." Local businesses have responded enthusiastically NEFMA, according to Jillson. "It takes a village to celebrate music," she said, "And this village is more than willing to step up to the plate." Jillson attributes the interest to businesses' support for Siggins as a prominent community member. |
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Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News From: Amos Date: 10 Nov 09 - 09:28 AM Coopersville, MI, United States, 11/10/2009 - The Plowboys Gospel Show and The Buffalo Girls & the Chips will have you singing along and tapping your toes. These bands are local favorites from the long-running Jam Nights at the Farm Museum, a regional showcase for traditional arts. The Plowboys (Cal Dyke, Jeff Line, Imre Bryant, & Don Kramer) and The Buffalo Girls (Donna Carlson, Ruth Sorenson, JoAnn Windburg) & the Chips are two favorite bands from the long-running Coopersville Farm Museum acoustic Jam Nights held year round on the 1st & 3rd Tuesday every month, from 6pm – 9pm. The Plowboys will be presenting a gospel show followed by The Buffalo Girls (& the chips) performing classic folk music. The Coopersville Farm Museum is a regional showcase for traditional arts. In addition to exhibits on farming and rural life, the museum features local musicians in acoustic jams twice a month and several concerts throughout the year. The musical programs at the Coopersville Farm Museum are keeping traditions alive and encouraging new ones. Coopersville Farm Museum (coopersvillefarmmuseum.org) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, located between Grand Rapids and the Lakeshore, just a stone's throw from the Del Shannon Memorial in downtown Coopersville. Built in 2001, the Farm Museum was the vision of Ed Hanenburg, a local businessman and farmer. Ed's love for farming and family comes through loud and clear in the silo that was built as the entrance to the museum. It contains a mural with his late father, Peter Hanenburg, his son, Keith, and his grandson, Tyler, alongside one of Ed's John Deere tractors. Ed built the museum in 01 and donated it to the community, along with it's contents, when it was established as a 501(c)(3) organization in 2005. Museum director, LeeAnn Creager began in 2002 to create a true representation of this small mid-west farm town and today the museum is a vibrant community based active facility. It takes many volunteers to keep things running smoothly, but the volunteers are the ones who add the warmth and the vision to the museum. Additional events and exhibits at the Coopersville Farm Museum include a two month long quilt show in August and September, several art galleries and contests, a antique tractor show, doll show every February and March, a train layout, petting zoo in April, holiday happenings every winter, and constantly changing displays representing life in a rural community. Arrive early to see the exhibits before the show. "Down home" hospitality during special events most likely will include a punch bowl or snacks. |
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Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News From: Amos Date: 12 Nov 09 - 02:02 PM From the Mohawk Valley: UTICA — Folk musician Tom Rush will perform at 8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 14, in the Root Sculpture Court at Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. Rush was a key figure in the folk revival of the 1960s and its renaissance in the '80s and '90s. Rush is well-known for his distinctive guitar style, wry humor and warm and expressive voice. Tickets are $30. Visit www.mwpai.org or call 797-0000. |
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Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News From: Amos Date: 18 Nov 09 - 09:06 AM Another generation of folk music's Guthries takes to the road By TOM KEYSER The Albany Times Union Sarah Lee Guthrie Sarah Lee Guthrie More News * Where does food come from? First-graders weigh in * A new campaign urges Kansas Citians to eat local for the holidays * While some parents would never hit their children, they can't help but yell * Another generation of folk music's Guthries takes to the road * Peter Facinelli isn't a doctor, he just plays one in 'Twilight' and 'Nurse Jackie' * Kevin Dillon's idea for dream 'Entourage' cameo is big * Electric appliance eases turkey frying * Dear Abby | Well-chosen words are always best * Carolyn Hax | Mom's book of tips teaches a valuable lesson * StarGazing has the answers on pop culture * Today in Kansas City | Wednesday, Nov. 18 * Tell us about your sacred escapes * 'Daddy's car' comes home * Here's how runway looks can translate to your wardrobe next spring * Review | Machiavelli would be proud of 'Farragut North' * Stargazing | Janet speaks on Michael�s death, Letterman and his wife * Dear Abby | Love of life is the real turn-on * Miss Manners | Wedding announcements don't work at wakes * Billy Graham | Turn your life over to Christ * A Case of the Mondays | Shay Estes is caught up in all that jazz Sarah Lee Guthrie says "bring the kids." A lot of people who come to see Arlo, her father, don't think that way. But for this tour, Sarah says, think kids. "It's really a family show, and it's really fun," she says. "We have ages 2 to 62 on stage. We're certainly encouraging more families to play music. So I hope that people might be inspired to bring their kids." Sarah, 30, along with her husband, Johnny Irion, their two daughters and other Guthries and friends, recently recorded a children's album, "Go Waggaloo." It was released Oct. 27 by Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. "John Smith, from Smithsonian ... called us up and asked if we would consider making a kind of kids' record, a family record, that wouldn't make anybody want to jump out of a minivan," Sarah says. "We totally understood what he meant." They already had choruses they'd been singing to their daughters, so they wrote the verses — well, sometimes their kids did. For the song "If Mama Had Four Hands," their father asked Olivia, 7, what mama would do if she had four hands. "And so," Sarah says, "she wrote the verses. 'She would paint with me. She would tie my shoes. She would feed the baby and fold the laundry.' That was kind of the process for a lot of those songs." Three are songs that Sarah's grandfather Woody Guthrie wrote. Sarah put music to his lyrics. They recorded the album in their new home in Washington, Mass., four miles from Arlo's spread. "We just built this house made of wood. It's like the inside of a guitar," Sarah says. "And for a kids record, it was even more perfect, because to get kids into a studio, and one, two, three sing, doesn't always work. So we were able to be natural and be in our house, and when it was inspiring, and we wanted to sing, and the kids wanted to sing, we were able to press record." Three of the songs make it into their concerts, she says. But the shows are a mix of Guthrie talents. "Well, there's a whole lot of us Guthries," she says, laughing. "Everybody gets a spotlight to do what they do. It's really a collage of us doing our own songs but also paying tribute to our grandfather, who was kind of the reason why we're all here and doing this, and why so many people do this." ON THE WAY Sarah Guthrie and the "Guthrie Family Rides Again Tour" are scheduled to perform March 27 at the Carlsen Center at Johnson County Community College. Tickets are $35-$45 through www. jccc.edu. |
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Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News From: Amos Date: 18 Nov 09 - 05:01 PM From the U. of KEntucky: LEXINGTON, Ky. (Nov. 18, 2009) − "You can hear the singing at a Sacred Harp convention 12 blocks away, I'm told. My children say 12 blocks isn't far enough - death metal folk, they call it," writes author Mary Rose O'Reilly of Sacred Harp music in her book "The Barn at the End of the World: The Apprenticeship of a Quaker, Buddhist Shepherd." Kentucky's Appalachian Association of Sacred Harp Singers honors just the musical tradition O'Reilly describes in her book and this week they will perform at the University of Kentucky as part of "Appalachia in the Bluegrass," a concert series that explores traditional music in the Appalachian region. The free public concert featuring this 19th century folk hymnody is scheduled for noon Friday, Nov. 20, at the Niles Gallery, located in the Lucille C. Little Fine Arts Library and Learning Center. Appalachian Association of Sacred Harp Singers is an informal group that comes together to sing from the Sacred Harp and Southern Harmony shape-note tradition. Formed around 1980, the group meets every second Sunday of the month to sing. An annual event, the Kentucky State Sacred Harp Singing, celebrating this form of vocals is presented each year at Pisgah Church in Woodford County on the Saturday before the third Sunday of May. Sacred Harp is a uniquely American tradition that brings communities together to sing four-part hymns and anthems. Participants are not concerned with re-creating or re-enacting historical events. The form's tradition is a living, breathing, ongoing practice passed directly to today's singers by generations of singers, many gone on before and many still living. All events welcome beginners and newcomers, with no musical experience or religious affiliation required — in fact, the tradition was born from colonial "singing schools" whose purpose was to teach beginners to sing and the local group's methods continue to reflect this goal. Though "Sacred Harp" is not affiliated with any denomination, it is a spiritual experience, and functions as a religious observance for many singers. Sacred Harp "singings" are not performances. There are no rehearsals and no separate seats for an audience. Every singing is a unique and self-sufficient event with a different group of assembled participants. The singers sit in a hollow square formation with one voice part on each side, they face inward so each individual can see and hear the other. However, visitors are welcome to sit anywhere in the room and participate as listeners. "Appalachia in the Bluegrass" concert series, presented by UK's John Jacob Niles Center for American Music, showcases a diverse selection of traditional musical expression. This series focuses on the many faces of indigenous American folk music, celebrating its roots in old-time music. All "Appalachia in the Bluegrass" concerts take place in the gallery of the Niles Center in the Little Fine Arts Library on UK's central campus. Niles Gallery concerts are scheduled on Fridays at noon and are free and open to the public. The John Jacob Niles Center for American Music is a collaborative research and performance center of the UK College of Fine Arts, UK School of Music and UK Libraries. For more information on the Appalachian Association of Sacred Harp Singers concert, contact Ron Pen, director of the Niles Center. |
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Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News From: Amos Date: 19 Nov 09 - 12:07 PM From ROchester, NY: The Jen Chapin Trio will perform its jazz-tinged urban folk music at 7 p.m. Monday at Geva Theatre Center's Nextstage, 75 Woodbury Blvd. Chapin (she is the daughter of the late Harry Chapin, so music and storytelling are in her blood) will be joined on stage by her husband and acoustic bassist Stephan Crump and guitarist Jamie Fox. Tickets are $20. Call (585) 232-4382 or go to www.gevatheatre.org. |
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Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News From: Amos Date: 20 Nov 09 - 12:11 PM Paste Magazine reports that Billboard is going to pay more attention to folk music: "Recent changes to Billboard charts will soon give both Michael Jackson and Ani DiFranco some overdue recognition. As announced recently, the Billboard 200 charts will soon include top-selling albums regardless of release date, therefore including catalog recordings as well as current releases. Since 1991, the Billboard 200 had only reflected albums released over the past 18 months and with a chart-placing single on the radio. Had this change been made sooner, the charts would have accounted for the dramatic upswing of Michael Jackson record sales following his death. Reuters even figured that his Number Ones would have even ranked at No. 13 last week, the highest of 11 Top 100 and 35 overall catalog titles, including the Beatles' digitally remastered catalog. Billboard also plans to account for musicians like Ani DiFranco, Monsters of Folk and Rosanne Cash in its new Folk Albums chart, ranking the 15 top-selling artists who release traditional folk and/or acoustic-based music. "Billboard's Folk Albums chart will reflect retail activity of a niche genre with a rich history," said Gary Trust, Billboard chart manager, in a statement. "Folk artists are among the most insightful songwriters and intimate storytellers in music, and we're proud to offer a chart highlighting their sales achievements." |
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Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News From: Amos Date: 20 Nov 09 - 09:57 PM From Pittsfield, MA: Friday, Nov. 20 PITTSFIELD Nearly a half-century after teaming with Noel Paul Stookey and Mary Travers, Peter Yarrow is working through his grief following her death two months ago by connecting with new and longtime fans during a publicity tour for his second children's picture book, "Day is Done." With lavish illustrations by Melissa Sweet and a three-track CD, it's listed by Publishers Weekly as the nation's top-selling children's picture book. He's also performing with his daughter, Bethany, and her musical partner, the Canadian cellist Rufus Cappadocio, as Peter Yarrow with Bethany and Rufus. The threesome will present a concert of traditional folk favorites dressed up in new arrangements at Pittsfield's Colonial Theatre tonight at 8. In addition to pursuing solo careers, Bethany and Rufus as a duo specialize in contemporary folk, groove and world "roots" music, with a touch of soul, funk and jazz. "How many 71-year-old folk singers are out there with million-selling CDs?" Yarrow wondered during a recent cellphone interview while walking his dog near his Manhattan apartment. His first children's picture book, "Puff the Magic Dragon," re-imagined the land of Honalee, where "little Jackie Paper loved that rascal Puff, and brought him strings and sealing wax and other fancy stuff." With charming illustrations by the French artist Eric Puybaret, the volume and its accompanying four-song CD performed by Peter, Advertisement Bethany and Rufus sold more than a million copies. Yarrow also partnered with his daughter, now 38, and Cappadocio for a 2008 PBS special and DVD, "Spirit of Woodstock," that grew out of a 2007 CD, "Puff and Other Family Classics." The 17-song video includes Yarrow's reminscences of the summers he spent in the Woodstock, N.Y., artists' colony, beginning at the age of 8, sharing a cabin in the woods with his mother after his parents divorced. The concert was filmed before an audience of local children and their families at the picturesque Bearsville Theater. During the filming, Peter and Bethany revisited the tumbledown cabin, which he abandoned many years ago after a painful divorce from Mary Beth McCarthy, niece of the late Minnesota senator who led the Vietnam war opposition and sought the Democratic nomination for president. During the tumultuous 1960s, as Yarrow recalled, the shack served as a retreat for invited guests, including Bob Dylan and Tim Hardin, where they wrote songs they hoped would help change the world. "We may yet rebuild it," Yarrow said wistfully, though he now has a getaway in Telluride, Colo. With more than a touch of parental pride, Yarrow compares and contrasts Bethany with Mary Travers. "I feel she has the same kind of extraordinary honesty in her voice, and also an intensity that you rarely hear," he said. "Her focus is very different, from international roots music, but it emerges from the same set of inferences that brought Mary to where she was." Yarrow, whose progressive social and political activism is inextricably linked to his music, considers his collaboration with Bethany and Rufus "a re-imagining of folk music in a contemporary context. We need to have a cultural way of expressing a sense of mutual respect, interest and engagement with each other in terms of influences from around the world. We are all connected in some ways and need to find a language to express a deep appreciation of one another." As he sees it, "that's the connection between the work Peter, Paul and Mary were doing and the work we're doing." But, because Bethany was strongly influenced by rock and Rufus is a cellist with deep roots in world music and improvisational jazz, Yarrow acknowledges that performing with them was "a real stretch for me. I've sung long enough to have the intuitive gift for it and found a very comfortable place, but it sure took me to a new arena." Yarrow re-enters his comfort zone when they perform highlights from the original folk trio's songbook. "When we do those songs, Bethany joins me in a style more reflective of Peter, Paul and Mary," he said. Describing tonight's Colonial concert as informal and family-oriented, Yarrow expects to include "Puff" and a few other classics such as "No Easy Walk to Freedom," "Blowing in the Wind," "If I Had a Hammer" and "This Land is Your Land." He promises a multi-generational appeal -- "a passing of the torch, yet an ever-present, strong, persistent tone and feeling of what Peter, Paul and Mary did. You'll get a sense of continuity that something is going forward. The old values, the old commitments that fuel folk music and brought it to where it is now are sustained. I think that's not by design, that's just what is, that's the way we are." In addition to the book tour, where he sings a few songs and chats with youngsters, Yarrow finds "nothing more compelling and wonderful than sitting with my granddaughter, Valentina, who's two and a half, paging through these books and songs I recorded with her mom." |
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Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News From: Amos Date: 23 Nov 09 - 12:16 PM 2009 Canadian Folk Music Awards: List of winners Posted: November 23, 2009, 11:38 AM by Brad Frenette The Maritimes shone on Saturday night at the 2009 Canadian Folk Music Awards, held in Ottawa, as Haligonian Joel Plaskett won the award for both Contemporary Album of the Year and Producer of the Year, Susan Crowe (Halifax) was named English Songwriter of the Year and PEI's Catherine MacLellan (Solo Artist) and Colette Cheverie (Traditional Singer) were also feted. Plaskett was the sole multiple winner at the fifth edition of the awards. Download an mp3 of his Every Time You Leave, from his triple-album Three, via the CFMA. Following is the complete list of this year's winners. Traditional Album of the Year James Hill and Anne Davison – True Love Don't Weep (Brookfield, N.S. / originally from Langley, B.C.) Contemporary Album of the Year Joel Plaskett – Three (Halifax) Children's Album of the Year Chris McKhool – FiddleFire! (Toronto / originally from Ottawa) Traditional Singer of the Year Colette Cheverie for Hours Before Dawn (Charlottetown) Contemporary Singer of the Year Jim Byrnes for My Walking Stick (Vancouver) Instrumental Solo Artist of the Year Tony McManus for The Maker's Mark (Elora, ON) Instrumental Group of the Year Sultans of String for Yalla Yalla! (Toronto) Vocal Group of the Year Madison Violet for No Fool for Trying (Toronto) Ensemble of the Year The Deep Dark Woods for Winter Hours (Saskatoon) Solo Artist of the Year Catherine MacLellan for Water in the Ground (Charlottetown) English Songwriter of the Year Susan Crowe for Greytown (Halifax) French Songwriter of the Year Catherine Durand for Coeurs Migratoires (Montreal) Aboriginal Songwriter of the Year Don Amero for Deepening (Winnipeg) World Solo Artist of the Year Karim Saada for La Danse de l'Exilé (L'Assomption, QC) World Group of the Year Jayme Stone & Mansa Sissoko – Africa to Appalachia (Toronto / Quebec City) New. Emerging Artist of the Year The Good Lovelies – Good Lovelies (Toronto) Producer of the Year Joel Plaskett – Three (Halifax) Pushing the Boundaries Steve Dawson – Telescope (Vancouver) Young Performer of the Year Ariana Gillis – Ariana Gillis (Vineland, ON) Read more: http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/theampersand/archive/2009/11/23/2009-canadian-folk-music-awards-list-of-winners.aspx#ixzz0XhhZCd6j |
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Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News From: Amos Date: 23 Nov 09 - 12:19 PM "I'm going to come back to West Virginia when this is over. There's something ancient and deeply rooted in my soul. I like to think that I have left my ghost up one of those hollows, and I'll never really be able to leave for good until I find it. And I don't want to look for it, because I might find it and have to leave." Every state in the Union has contributed to the soundscape of America. However, at some point in the telling of that story West Virginia has gotten a bum rap, even though it was pretty much the birthplace of Appalachian folk music. What happened? Was it that people's tastes changed? I'm inclined to think that's only part of the reason. I can remember driving into Wheeling from Ohio and seeing the sign, "Welcome to West Virginia — Open for Business" and thinking not since Connecticut changed its slogan from "The Nutmeg State" to "The Constitution State" had I been more confused and disgusted by a State's change of face. I can't be completely certain but I think that whoever came up with that slogan ("Open for Business") has since come to their senses, was fired or voted out of office. It was later changed, hopefully still, to the more appropriate "Wild and Wonderful." Because when it comes down to it, that's what the state is. That "Open For Business" slogan can pretty much sum up why so many people easily brush off West Virginia's contributions to American music. I mean, is it me or does all the industry and 'open for business' seem out of place for the state? It seems so entirely unnatural. It's like West Virginia is that pretty girl in school who doesn't think she's pretty enough to be with anyone. West Virginia, in my mind and many others I hope, is the birthplace of Americana, a place that should be left as unspoiled as the C chord. The new slogan should be "We Agree Not to Congregate" and everyone should be proud of their Appalachian heritage and stop it with all the industry already. It'd be nice if West Virginia was known for what it really did best, making great music. Because between the world famous Mountain Stage and Augusta Heritage Center, West Virginia has so much to offer in terms of authentic contributions to music. That major contribution? is country music, folk music, Appalachian music, whatever you'd like to call it. Here is a very short history lesson of the origins of country/folks music. The Ulster-Scots, lowland Scots who emigrated to the Northern Ireland county of Ulster, later emigrated to all corners of the world, most important being the United States. They brought with them a communal music tradition — think sitting around the campfire playing and singing songs rather than sitting around watching someone else. It's this idea that gave birth to pickin' and fiddle music that would later morph into country, bluegrass, and folk music to name just a few genres. Musicians from West Virginia vary from the down-right old-timey like Hazel Dickens ("A Few Old Memories") and The Lilly Brothers ("Little Annie") to the twangy country style of Hawkshaw Hawkins and the blue-grass finger picking sound of Tim O'Brien ("Look Down that Lonesome Road" and a great performance with the Chieftains of Shady Grove). West Virginia is home of true country music. It was about heartache, lonesomeness, porch sitting, pretty women and dancing. There isn't any "checking for ticks" or "saving horses" or "riding cowboys." That kind of music is Nashville's bastardization of all that is good and wholesome about country music. It's music made easy for easy money. It takes all the goodness out of being an American and replaces it with what John Egerton wrote about as the "Southernization of America," and described by George Packer as an ideal that "identifies real Americanism with a southern accent, an insouciant swagger, a down home manner, and an undercurrent of violence"(I'd like to substitute or add ignorance in addition to violence). The music we are told is country music is nothing more than redneck music, the equivalent of gangster rap. That kind of country is what Bob Newhart was talking about when he said, "I don't like country music, but I don't denigrate those who do. And for the people who do like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'" So, I leave you with that to marinate on. You may not agree. You may be thinking, "who invited the crabby old man to write for Graffiti?" Well, you may be right about the crabby part but I have good reason to be crabby. West Virginia has been thrown out with the musical bath water, been lumped together with all the other so-called 'country music' states when in fact it is very unique and has something uniquely American to offer when it comes to music. I hope someone out there takes the time and listens to what came before Brad Paisley; open your eyes and see the mountains the way they used to look. (From here. |
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Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News From: Amos Date: 24 Nov 09 - 11:17 AM Birthplace of cosmic guitar pinpointed |
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Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News From: Amos Date: 25 Nov 09 - 08:39 AM Anything can happen at spontaneous folk jam Comments November 25, 2009 By DAN PEARSON Contributor The Lake County (Illinois) Folk Club welcomes back national touring folk troubadour Mark Dvorak at 7 p.m. Sunday to host a Spontaneous Folk Ensemble at the El Barrio Restaurant & Lounge in Mundelein. Dvorak, who lives in Riverside, invites all attendees to bring along their musical instruments and their voices and participate in this special fifth Sunday event which is open to all ages. "I also call it a sing-a-long concert and jam session," said Dvorak who teaches classes in guitar, banjo and the blues at the Old Town School Of Folk Music in Chicago. "When we get warmed up I start asking people who's got a good idea for a song. Most of the time, people will have one. And one leads to another." No two the same Dvorak has been a member of the Lake County Folk Club since it began. He last hosted this program at the Folk Club a year ago and said no two gatherings ever unfold identically. "Last November it was very successful. The main floor of the El Barrio was filled with instruments and there was a very high level of musicianship. I hope we can build from there. If I see someone noodling around, I may call them up to play a solo." Dvorak is currently gathering original and traditional material for his 12th CD, which will mark the recording debut of The Mark Dvorak Trio with fellow musicians Ellen Shepard of Sweet Fern and Christopher Walz, from the long-running stage show "Woody Guthrie's American Song." Dvorak credits Frank Hamilton, one of the Old Town School Of Folk Music founders, with introducing him to the spontaneous folk ensemble concept in 1997. Winging it "Frank was giving a workshop for instructors. They didn't hand out anything and they didn't write anything down. For two and a half hours this group improvised and used our own ideas and it was always very simple music that people could handle as they would. "I told Frank it would be nice to have a class like that at the school on an ongoing basis and he said, 'You're right, there should be a class like that and you should teach it.' At the time I said I didn't know enough about music and he said 'Well, what's that got to do with it? You just begin from where you are.'" Encouraged by his students, Dvorak has been conducting improvised sessions like these for more than 10 years including a bi-monthly spontaneous folk ensemble at the Grafton Pub in Chicago for the last six years. "The Grafton invited me to perform and I said I have a better idea. I have all these students who want a place to hang out and jam. What I learned from this process is what kind of songs work well with a group dynamic. "It is very exciting to see people really come to life. Not as students but as musicians, even if they have been playing only a short while. I always felt my job as a teacher is not just to supply information and resources but help foster a meaningful experience for people." Simple songs Dvorak said the key is finding songs known to most of the group and ones that aren't complicated to play. Songs like "This Land Is Your Land," "You Are My Sunshine" and call-and-response songs like "When The Saints Go Marching In." Some song circles use a songbook or hand out sheets of music to guide the program. "We thought we would try it differently," Dvorak said. "I discovered the minute we put the pieces of papers and the songbooks away, people can watch each other and listen. If I see someone struggling I will call the chords out. That's why it is important that all the songs be simple." He acknowledged that there are some audience members that just come to listen. Comfort level "Some people are comfortable staying in the background and others just chording along. This is not about putting people on the spot, it's about finding the place where they are comfortable participating." Dvorak said that somewhere in the middle of the evening he enjoys teaching a song and maybe telling a story about that song that is new to him. A current favorite is "Woody Knows Nothing," a traditional tune suggested by the late Erik Darling of The Weavers which is about birds and has nothing to do with Woody Guthrie. "Erik said this was the first song he learned that made him want to get into performing, so I probably will tell that story and sing that song," he said. |
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Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News From: Amos Date: 25 Nov 09 - 10:28 AM A history of the annual Ole Time Fiddler's and Bluegrass Festival in Union Grove, N.C. |
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Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News From: Amos Date: 27 Nov 09 - 11:01 PM CHICAGO FROM THE HORSE'S MOUTH: The Chicago-based folk group The Horse's Ha opens for Joseph Arthur at the Old Town School Of Folk Music. The band's most recent album, "Of The Cathmawr Yards," is odd in a good way, blending a somewhat jazzy sound to indie-folk melodies. 4544 N. Lincoln Ave.; Lincoln Square. 8 p.m. $22, $20 for Old Town School members, or $18 for senior citizens and children. From THe MOSCOW TIMES: A group of Ireland's top traditional musicians, dancers and singers visit Moscow for a special performance Friday, but for one of them, it's a case of unfinished business. Seán Ó Sé is the biggest name in Irish traditional singing — a tenor who has been at the top of his game for close to five decades. His pedigree goes back to the 1960s, when he performed with legendary composer Seán Ó Riada, a man who led a revolution in Irish music, whose reverberations are still felt today. Ó Riada, who died at just 40 in 1971, had a seismic impact on Irish music in his short life. Classically trained, his creative genius fused drama, art, history, music and film, unleashing the centuries-old power and resonance of Irish music in new forms to its people, and to world acclaim. His group, Ceoltóirí Chualann, had tradition at its core, but Ó Riada's formal arrangements gave the music a fiber and context never heard before, producing recordings of infinite and timeless value, and a legacy that gave birth to groups like The Chieftains. Brought to the fore was Seán Ó Sé, whose singing is a signature of Ó Riada's recordings. Such was his popularity that after coming home from performances on the remotest of country roads in Ireland in the 1960s, Ó Sé remembers being startled to hear their music on the radio — from Moscow. "You could get Radio Moscow late at night in Ireland. Tuning in, I was astonished to hear the group and myself singing! I remember being really moved and surprised at how far Ó Riada's music had reached out, and how it was seemingly popular in the Soviet Union, or at least on Radio Moscow," Ó Sé said. Ó Riada's music had a radical edge. His score for the film, "Mise Éire," told the story of uprising against British rule. His music came to air in Moscow via Irish communist Michael O'Riordan, whose wife was also a noted singer. "I knew Red Mick, as we called him. He was from near me in Cork. He sent Ó Riada's music to Moscow, and they put it on the airwaves. They played it many times, as I heard it often broadcasting from the U.S.S.R," Ó Sé said. "It was planned to bring Ó Riada and Ceoltóirí Chualann to Moscow, but the trouble in Czechoslovakia in 1968 put paid to the plans," he said, referring to the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia following the introduction of reforms by the government in Prague. Years later, 73-year-old Ó Sé is making his first trip to the Russian capital. "I'll be thinking of Seán Ó Riada when I sing for the first time there," he said. Unusually for a singer in the traditional idiom, Ó Sé had formal voice training before he began performing. Singers in the Irish "sean-nós," or traditional style, generally learn from tradition alone. "Some might even have been critical of such training, but it taught me how to take care of my voice and perform into my 70s," Ó Sé said. His distinctive tenor voice will perform only traditional songs in Moscow, with all but one in the Irish language. The group with him boast some of Ireland's finest traditional musicians, including current all-Ireland accordion champion, Pádraig King. Ó Sé's visit was organized by local musician and Irish-speaker Yury Andreichuk, whose first visit to Ireland last August helped build new cultural bridges between the countries, including a storming concert by Irish accordion legend Joe Burke and his wife Ann in Moscow earlier this month. |
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Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity Date: 28 Nov 09 - 02:06 AM |
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Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity Date: 28 Nov 09 - 02:08 AM Jeez Amos you sure posted a lot of these!....anyway, all I wanted to say, is AT THIS TIME, in the forum,...there are no 'obits'! Cool! Have a great time! |
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Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity Date: 28 Nov 09 - 02:26 AM Spoke too soon...there is an obit on the 'B.S.' side. |
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Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News From: michaelr Date: 28 Nov 09 - 02:27 AM Great find there about Sean O Se going to Moscow, Amos. Thanks a bunch, where do you find this stuff? Cheers, Michael |
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Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News From: Amos Date: 28 Nov 09 - 10:33 AM I have an aggregator looking for folk music news, but I only post clips of things which I think have some sort of special appeal here. Unfortunately a lot of these articles are time-sensitive. Nature of "news", I guess. A |
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Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News From: Amos Date: 29 Nov 09 - 11:44 AM Nowt so cool as folk... and that's no pipe dream Young and trendy folkies are breathing new life into traditional music. Yes, really... By Paul Bignell Sunday, 29 November 2009S There isn't an Aran sweater or a leather sandal in sight: a new generation of smart and chic British folk musicians is taking the music industry by storm. A music form long associated with pokey pub back rooms is moving centre stage at some of the nation's premier venues and festivals. Music experts agree that 2010 will be the year of the new folkies. Here is our guide to the ones to watch. While bands such as Bellowhead are not yet household names, they can claim fans as diverse as the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Glen Campbell and Frank Skinner, and are artists in residence this year at London's Southbank – a venue more normally associated with the London Philharmonic. Guitarist Newton Faulkner, with his blond dreadlocks and edgy clothing, looks fit for the fashion catwalk rather than a folk festival stage. West London folkies Noah and the Whale have become NME darlings, their international profile boosted massively by the use of one of their songs in a car commercial in the US. Though folk was marginalised by pop and rock in the 1970s, a glut of computerised music and a fragmenting recording industry have inspired moves in the opposite direction: players now want to return to traditional instruments and live performance. "Because you can't get big record company advances any more, it's resulted in a nurturing of a folk-based music culture," said music critic Nick Coleman. "Groups like Bellowhead are so relatively successful because they are coming out of the folk tradition but not being bound by it. In the same way as the last folk-rock revival in the 1970s, bands were coming out of the tradition recognising its fundamental beauty, but knowing that you don't have to sound 100 per cent traditional." This movement has been recognised by the Government, which recently gave the English Folk Dance and Song Society (EFDSS) an annual grant of £400,000 to aid folk musicians in performing and recording. Cecil Sharp House, the home of the EFDSS, houses recordings of folk music going back hundreds of years. Many modern artists visit the library to gain inspiration, including Blur's guitarist Graham Coxon who was at a gig at the house yesterday in memory of the folk guitarist Davy Graham who died last year....(Independent) |
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Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News From: Amos Date: 01 Dec 09 - 10:57 AM "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 |
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Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News From: Amos Date: 01 Dec 09 - 01:14 PM Rosebud Artists Depicted In New Hit Film "Cadillac Records" Chronicling The Story Of Chess Records December 2008, Rosebud News Legendary blues figures and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Willie Dixon and Muddy Waters are portrayed in major roles in the new hit film, Cadillac Records. The film chronicles the rise of Chess Records in 1950's Chicago. It was directed by Darnell Martin and features an ensemble cast including Adrien Brody, Beyoncé Knowles, Mos Def and Jeffrey Wright. Muddy and Willie were both Rosebud artists until their passing in 1983 and 1992 respectively. Muddy Waters was known as the Father of the Blues and his influence on contemporary music was massive. It was his hits that launched Chess Records and set them on the road to their legendary success. As a measure of his influence, his song "Rollin Stone" was not only covered by Jimi Hendrix but also provided the name for the world's greatest rock 'n' roll band and the magazine of the same name. He was also responsible for bringing a young Chuck Berry to Chess where his career was launched as well as influencing a generation of iconic artists from Bob Dylan to Led Zeppelin, Cream/Eric Clapton to AC/DC. Willie Dixon's songs were a crucial component in the success of Chess Records. Willie worked closely with Muddy, Howlin Wolf, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley and many more in the 1950's providing hit songs and frequently playing bass and /or producing. His work formed the bedrock of the blues, hence the title of Willie's biography, "I Am The Blues". Just a sampling of the diverse artists that covered Willie's songs includes Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, The Doors, Captain Beefheart, Led Zeppelin, Stevie Ray Vaughan, The Yardbirds/ Cream / Eric Clapton / Derek & The Dominoes, The Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac, Otis Redding, Aerosmith, Jeff Beck, The Monkees, The Pointer Sisters, Widespread Panic, The Who, The Allman Brothers, The Grateful Dead, The Band, Dizzy Gillespie, ZZ Top, The Black Crowes, BB King, Tom Petty, Styx, Willie Nelson, Los Lobos, Steve Miller, Steppenwolf and Sting - and many more. (From the website of the Rosebud Agency, which represents John Hammond and others). |
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Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News From: Amos Date: 02 Dec 09 - 09:14 AM The Kingston Trio, reconstituted with new ingredients, plays in Riverside. |
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Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News From: Amos Date: 04 Dec 09 - 01:11 PM You write the lyrics and let them sing it for you. It's fun, but they don't sing very well. A |
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Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News From: Amos Date: 04 Dec 09 - 01:50 PM Peter Yarrow sang "Puff, the Magic Dragon" at the memorial for Art D'Lugoff, pictured at right. Village Gate stars thank D'Lugoff for faith in them By Lincoln Anderson in The Villager Legendary impresario Art D'Lugoff was remembered with warm tributes, music and comedy performances and pledges to fulfill his dream — to create a Greenwich Village Folk Music Museum — at a memorial on Sun., Nov. 22. Fittingly, the venue was Le Poisson Rouge on Bleecker St., the former site of D'Lugoff's renowned Village Gate. Among the assembled stars were comedians Dick Gregory and husband-and-wife team Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, musicians David Amram and Peter Yarrow and the multi-talented Geoffrey Holder. Also giving tributes were D'Lugoff's children, his son, Raphael ("Raffi"), and three daughters, Racheal, Dahlia and Sharon. D'Lugoff died Nov. 4 at age 85. He opened the Village Gate in 1958 and, after a long, star-studded run, closed it in 1994. After living for years on the Upper West Side, D'Lugoff moved to Riverdale four years ago. Holder came out slowly and, standing with some effort, demanded that the house lights be turned up, and that the crowd give D'Lugoff a standing ovation. It was D'Lugoff's opening night, with a packed house, up in "Heaven's Gate," Holder explained — then pointed up. Musical virtuoso David Amram thanked D'Lugoff for letting him be himself. Amram quipped how D'Lugoff always stressed to performers to "be on time and end on time." As a trio of young Italian jazz musicians played "All of Me," Amram joined in, energetically chirping through two small flutes at the same time, one out of each corner of his mouth. Noting he'll soon turn 80, Amram poignantly recalled how D'Lugoff gave him the chance to perform on the Gate's stage. "Art always told me to not let anyone tell you who you are — that we all have a creative gift," he said, getting misty eyed. After breaking the ice with some self-referential "You know you're old when..." jokes, Gregory spoke about how much D'Lugoff's support had meant to him. He noted he always got top billing, no matter who else was performing. Sometimes, he'd be on the bill with such stellar musical talents as Miles Davis and B.B. King. "He wanted to give you more than your money's worth," Gregory said. He recalled D'Lugoff as a man of integrity. "The mob controlled everything," Gregory said of New York nightlife in the 1950s and '60s. "This was one of the few clubs that wasn't under mob influence." Gregory said while blacks were accepted as dancers and singers, it was hard for them to break into stand-up comedy. But D'Lugoff, by giving Gregory a forum, helped pave the way for Bill Cosby and Richard Pryor, he said. Yarrow said he owed D'Lugoff thanks for a bit of prescient advice. "He told me I wasn't ready as a solo. If he hadn't, we would not have made it as a group," he said of Peter, Paul and Mary. "I don't think anyone ever produced performers who were able to so much be themselves and be loved," Yarrow reflected of D'Lugoff. He then gently sang "Puff, the Magic Dragon," strumming along on guitar, as the crowd, without any urging, took up the classic refrain. Stiller and Meara also got their start at the Village Gate, though they admitted they bombed, before finding success at other local clubs. "I'm glad to be here — I'm glad to be anywhere," Stiller joked. "I hate memorials — because I don't really feel too well, to tell you the truth." City Councilmember Alan Gerson vowed to work to make the Greenwich Village Folk Music Museum a reality, though his term in office ends after this month. Dick Gregory said he hoped a Native American would someday be president. "As a kid who grew up in Greenwich Village, Art was larger than life," Gerson said. "And to be able to work on this museum with Art was a dream for me. ... I pledge that, in memory of Art D'Lugoff, and because it's the right thing to do — and it took us a little while longer, because he was a stickler and wanted to get it done perfectly — we will get it done, and get it done perfectly." Paul Colby, founder of The Bitter End, also on Bleecker St., perched on a stool to steady himself as he spoke of his friendly rivalry with D'Lugoff decades ago. He noted The Bitter End is being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. "Art had his list, I had my list," Colby said. "My list — Carly Simon, James Taylor, Neil Young." Wearing a red turtleneck, Oscar Brand, 89, whose folk-music show has aired on WNYC for 60 years, sang a selection of folk songs a cappella. Then Brand — who was blacklisted as a communist in 1950 — declared of D'Lugoff's political beliefs, "I believe that Art D'Lugoff was one of the good ones." Like Colby and Brand, Elizabeth Butson, The Villager's former publisher, is a member of the board working to create the Folk Music Museum. "I stood in line in '68 to see Jacques Brel, and then I stood in line again to see Odetta," Butson said. "The Village Gate was not just a club in the Village, it was the club in the Village." Butson said the Greenwich Village-Chelsea Chamber of Commerce had planned to honor D'Lugoff with its second Greenwich Village Music Legends Award. Odetta got the first one last year. Instead, they will present the award in his honor to his family members, she said. "The Folk Music Museum must be in Greenwich Village," Butson stressed. "Nowhere else will do." D'Lugoff's son Raffi shared some of his father's colorful sayings. If dinner at a restaurant was only so-so, D'Lugoff would dub it "mamafuku." When someone in business had done him wrong, he'd say, "He should fall on his head." He would say of himself if he had reneged on a promise: "I'm a pisher. "He took a big bite of life," Raffi said, "and he wanted to share it." His daughter Dahlia said her dad called the club "the candy store." |
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Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News From: Amos Date: 05 Dec 09 - 06:53 PM The latest edition of the Dave Brubeck Quartet's newsletter reports that Dave --who is about to turn 89--will be honored at the Kennedy Center on December 6th in the Presidential Box with Michele and Barack Obama, honoring Dave, Robert de Niro, Grace Bumbry (opera singer) Mel Brooks and Bruce Springsteen. The awards are based on exemplary lifetime acheivement in the performing arts. Dave and his wife Iola will be flying to BWI in from a performance of Dave's "Canticles" in Providence, RI for the luncheon on Dec 5, a formal dinner hosted by Ms. Clinton, and a White House reception on December 6. This year has been the 50th anniversary of Brubeck's world-shaking album, Time Out, which featured "Take Five" and "Blue Rondo a la Turk" among other great cuts. The oldest Brubeck son, Darius, has been playing to sold-out houses in London at "The Pizza Express". He's a Fullbright Senior Specialist in Jazz Studies. His siblings Chris, Dan, Matthew and Cathy are all involved in jazz as well. |
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Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News From: Amos Date: 07 Dec 09 - 11:34 AM President Obama praised five American performers and artists Sunday evening at the White House before they were honored at the Kennedy Center. Some of the President's personal recollections were the basis of his tributes, as he had grown up with these particular Kennedy Center Honorees as his cultural heroes. He intertwined his memories of concerts and movies with the impact the artists had on a generation. "You can't understand America without understanding jazz. And you can't understand jazz without understanding Dave Brubeck." Obama introduced the first honoree, who is celebrating his 89th birthday today. Obama recounted that his own father had taken him to see Dave Brubeck in concert during the few weeks in 1971 that he had spent with him in Honolulu as a young boy. It left a lasting impression. "I've been a jazz fan ever since. The world he opened up for a ten-year-old boy was spectacular." Mel Brooks ever the comedian, interjected with a self deprecating comment when Obama introduced him with birth name, Melvin Kaminsky. The president quickly replied, "I'm trying to say something nice about you now. Please don't upstage me." The president had plenty of material to retell about the producer and director's success, but he lamented, "many of the punch lines that have defined Mel Brooks' success cannot be repeated here." Again the President told of a personal encounter. "I went to see Blazing Saddles when I was 10. And he [Mel] pointed out that I think, according to the ratings, I should not have been allowed in the theater. That's true. I think I had a fake ID. But the statute of limitations has passed." In a more somber note Obama said, "In times of war and sacrifice, the arts and these artists remind us to sing and to laugh and to live. In times of plenty they challenge our conscience and implore us to remember the least among us." Grace Bumbry, the legendary opera performer, is being honored 32 years after she performed at the first Kennedy Center Honors for her mentor, Marian Anderson. According to Obama, when she performed at the White House, it was said, "that she moved Jacqueline Kennedy to lean over and gently sing along the words to the President." Although she gave her final operatic performance in 1997, Obama declared , "She remains the definition of a diva in the classical sense: a divine voice worthy of the heavens." Robert De Niro needed no introduction, but Obama regaled the audience with the story that De Niro at age 10, in his school play , made a "rather unlikely debut in The Wizard of Oz as the Cowardly Lion." Since then the actor has performed in more than 60 films over 40 years. The president remarked that "it is perhaps the great irony of his life… one of America's greatest cinematic actors is a man famously of few words off the screen." Obama introduced Bruce Springsteen, as "the quiet kid from New Jersey who grew up to become a rock 'n' roll laureate of a generation." Obama continued, "in the life of our country only a handful of people have tapped the full power of music to tell the real American story ... with honesty, from the heart and one of those people is Bruce Springsteen." Springsteen had been supportive of the Obama campaign and the President recalled watching him on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial "when he rocked the National Mall before my inauguration." He seemed to reflect and continued, "On a day like that, I remember I'm the President, but he's The Boss!" |
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Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News From: Amos Date: 07 Dec 09 - 02:24 PM You can't understand America without understanding jazz. And you can't understand jazz, without understanding Dave Brubeck. (Applause.) His mother was a classical pianist with high hopes for her son. And by the time he was four, he was playing himself. But by the time he was a teenager, he was tearing up local honky-tonks. Even his mother had to admit: "There is some hope for David after all." (Laughter.) And perhaps it was World War II – his service in Patton's Army – that changed his sound, forcing him, as he said, to work the war out of his system by playing some "pretty vicious piano." Whatever it was, his sound – the distinctive harmonies and improvisations of the Dave Brubeck Quartet – would change jazz forever, prompting Time magazine to put him on the cover as the leader of a new jazz age. Having brought jazz into the mainstream, he then transformed it, with innovative new rhythms on albums like "Time Out" – the first jazz album to ever sell more than a million copies and still one of the best-selling jazz albums of all time. Dave Brubeck has never stopped reaching new audiences: Performing for Presidents from Johnson to Reagan; composing orchestral tributes to Martin Luther King and Pope John Paul II; and even in his 80s, dazzling jazz festivals across America. And I know personally how powerful his performances can be. I mentioned this to Dave backstage. In the few weeks that I spent with my father as a child – he came to visit me for about a month when I was young – one of the things he did was to take me to my first jazz concert, in Honolulu, Hawaii, in 1971, and it was a Dave Brubeck concert. (Laughter and applause.) And I've been a jazz fan ever since. The world that he opened up for a 10-year-old boy was spectacular. And, Dave, for the joy that you've given millions of jazz lovers like me, for your six decades of revolutionary rhythms, you are rightly honored – especially today, on your 89th birthday. (Applause.) Barack Obama at KEnnedy Center on Dave Brubeck's 89th birthday |
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Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News From: Amos Date: 08 Dec 09 - 01:17 AM AMHERST – On Monday, Dec. 14, the Historical Society of Amherst will present a program by Sandy Lafleur on history through music and folklore. Lafleur's passion is folk music, song and dance. She first discovered the beautiful sound of the Appacachian dulcimer while a student at the University of New Hampshire, when she built her first instrument from a kit. The dulcimer, a product of the Appalachian mountains, can be considered a true American folk instrument. Today she enjoys playing at coffee houses, libraries and farmers markets, as well as teaching out of her Amherst home for an adult education program. She also performs at folk festivals throughout New England. The meeting, held in the Vestry of the Congregational Church on the Green, is open to the public. The meeting time is 7:30 p.m. and refreshments will be served after the presentation. |
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Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News From: Amos Date: 08 Dec 09 - 09:58 AM If Mozart had an iPhone--a report opn the doings of the Stanford Mobile Phone Orchestra - no, I'm not making this up. A |
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Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News From: Amos Date: 09 Dec 09 - 09:13 AM FAIRHOPE, Ala. — While several local spots offer live music on a regular basis, Fairhope does not have anything approaching the active music scene that's available across the bay in Mobile. Sarah Lee Guthrie and Johnny Irion bring their folk, country, old-time, rock and blues act to a Thursday night show at the University of South Alabama Baldwin County Performance Center in Fairhope. Local favorite Grayson Capps will open the concert with a solo acoustic set. Photos courtesy of Dr. Music. * But during the past year, a number of special concerts have occurred, with little fanfare or publicity, which some people only learn about after the instruments have been packed and the musicians rolled on to the next town. Some of those acts have appeared at the tiny venue of Dr. Music on Church Street, where a number of national touring musicians have dropped in for an intimate evening of live music. Thursday night (Dec. 10) offers a unique chance to catch some live music with deep roots in American folk music, when the granddaughter of Woody Guthrie and youngest daughter of Arlo will perform in a slightly larger venue at the University of South Alabama-Baldwin County Performance Center in Fairhope. "Sarah Lee Guthrie and Johnny Irion will break from a tour with Arlo Guthrie to show off their infectious mix of old-time music, country, folk and blues, " said Wade Wellborn of Dr. Music, which is sponsoring the show as a joint venture with USABC. "Sarah Lee and Johnny have a chemistry that brings out the best in each other. Her love for country and folk and his rock and blues interests mesh into an entertaining mix of guitar-playing prowess and purity of voice." The musicians are friends of local musician Grayson Capps, who will open the show with a solo acoustic performance. Capps recently released his first DVD, "Live at the Paradiso," and tours nonstop, Wellborn said. "The fact that he is breaking free from his band, The Stumpknockers, for this show is a real treat," Wellborn said. "Who knows what to expect besides a great evening of storytelling via song and spoken word." Guthrie is the granddaughter of Woody, whose song "This Land is Your Land" has entered the national consciousness, and daughter of Arlo, whose Alice's Restaurant" was played in its amusing rambling storytelling entirety at noon this Thanksgiving Day on 92ZEW radio. |
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Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News From: Amos Date: 12 Dec 09 - 04:25 AM From Nawlins: John Prine, Sarah Lee Guthrie and more music in New Orleans for Dec. 11-17 By Keith Spera, The Times-Picayune December 11, 2009, 4:31PM FRIDAY, Dec. 11 Sarah Lee Guthrie comes by her musical pedigree honestly — her father is Arlo Guthrie, her grandfather Woody Guthrie. Her own career in the family business didn't truly blossom until she met Johnny Irion, a South Carolina-born singer-songwriter, in L.A. The two discovered both a musical and romantic connection — they are now husband and wife. Their debut album, "Exploration," cast them as a harmonizing folk music duo with alt-country tendencies; they recorded their new album of children's music, "Go Waggaloo," with their two young daughters. Tonight at d.b.a. they share the bill with roadhouse blues-rock singer-songwriter Grayson Capps & the Stumpknockers. Also, John Prine kicks off a two-night stand at the House of Blues with Iris DeMent. Spend an evening with the Radiators at the Howlin' Wolf NorthShore in Mandeville. Bonerama funks up Rock 'n' Bowl. Eric McFadden is at the Maple Leaf. Tipitina's hosts the "Soul Glo Christmas Jam" with the Soul Rebels Brass Band and DJ Soul Sister. At midnight, Irvin Mayfield's Jazz Playhouse in the Royal Sonesa becomes "The Burlesque Ballroom" with a show by the Fleur de Tease burlesque troupe (admission is free, but reservations are required; call 553.2331). Nitzer Ebb headlines the Hangar. Christian Serpas & Ghost Town do honky-tonk at Ruby's Roadhouse in Mandeville. Susan Poag / The Times-Picayune Owen "Big Daddy O" Tufts celebrates his 60th birthday with a show Saturday at Ruby's Roadhouse. SATURDAY, Dec. 12 Mount Hermon's Owen "Big Daddy O" Tufts deploys a deft touch when picking backporch blues on either the acoustic or electric guitar. On a series of utterly charming albums for the local Rabadash Records, he pairs his guitar with a warm, easy-going voice on both original material and a vast repertoire of covers. Tufts celebrates his 60th birthday on Saturday at Ruby's Roadhouse in Mandeville, backed by his New Revue consisting of Tim Ernest on sax, Keenan Knight on guitar, Maha Raja Martin on drums, Wendall Pearson on bass and Rabadash proprietor John Autin on keyboards. Because of Tufts' recent health scare — doctors found blood cluts in his lungs, but he's responding well to treatment — Ruby's will be a nonsmoking venue for the night. Also, cross the Allman Brothers with the Radiators and the result might sound like the J.J. Muggler Band. The north shore institution currently includes founding bassist Calvin Huber, drummer Jude Lirette, guitarists Jay B. Elston and Tommy Chadwick, and keyboardist Wayne Lohr. Together they recorded "Hard Luck Town," the band's new CD of Southern rock, blues 'n' boogie; with special guest Brian Stoltz sitting in, as many as three guitars wail at a time. The J.J. Muggler Band celebrates the new release with a Saturday night show at The Kamp in Harahan. |
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Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News From: Amos Date: 14 Dec 09 - 01:35 PM THe Jazz Times gives coverage of the incredible gala event at the Kennedy Center honoring Dave Brubeck, as well as The Boss and Others. "It's only once in a blue moon that the Kennedy Center Honors, the Washington institution's annual lifetime achievement awards for American performing arts, salutes a jazz musician. The last instance was in 1996, when Benny Carter was honored—and that, allegedly, took President Clinton's intervention, since the revered-in-jazz Carter was unknown to most of America. This year, however, the Kennedy Center found that rare overlap of genuine innovation and popular acclaim in Dave Brubeck. The pianist and composer was feted in Washington on Dec. 6, his 89th birthday, at a ceremony (taped by CBS for broadcast) attended by a cross-section of Hollywood royalty and D.C. power players including President and Mrs. Obama, Vice President Biden and House Speaker Pelosi. Brubeck was part of a five-person honor roll that also included rocker Bruce Springsteen, opera diva Grace Bumbry, comedian and film director Mel Brooks and actor Robert De Niro. The tribute to Brubeck was the evening's second (after De Niro's), with a presentation anchored by fellow pianist Herbie Hancock. "Dave Brubeck is the reason I don't have a day job," Hancock began, detailing how he'd intended to become an electrical engineer before hearing Brubeck's music. He also highlighted the importance of Time Out, Brubeck's most famous and revolutionary album. "Time Out was a whole different spin," Hancock said. "That a jazz record could top the charts was amazing, but when you think about those difficult time signatures? Americans can't dance to 5/4!"" ..."After a short film celebrating Brubeck's life and work, from his father's California ranch to his quartet with Paul Desmond to his elder statesmanship, mistress of ceremonies Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg took the stage to announce an all-star musical tribute: a quintet featuring trumpeter Jon Faddis, altoist Miguel Zenón, pianist Bill Charlap, bassist Christian McBride and drummer Bill Stewart. They played a few of Brubeck's best-known tunes, beginning with "Unsquare Dance" and "Kathy's Waltz." Faddis stood out from the group on these, playing shining virtuosic lines at breakneck speed against Zenón peppery bebop phrases. On the CBS monitors, Michelle Obama could be seen gently swinging in her seat. When it came to Brubeck's biggest hit, "Take Five," the ensemble grew considerably. A curtain rose to reveal the U.S. Army Field Band's Jazz Ambassadors, a group of 13 horn and reed players, who joined the quintet in an impressive arrangement of the tune. Then, on a sliding stage, came a piano with Hancock in the driver's seat, soloing in a typically complicated and breathtaking harmony. (McBride later confessed that he was lost within one bar.) The ranks swelled yet again for "Blue Rondo à la Turk." This time the new arrivals were Brubeck's four sons—Darius (piano), Chris (trombone), Matthew (cello), and Dan (drums). With 22 musicians onstage, it sounded like a full (and sublime) symphony orchestra was soaring through the 9/8 groove, particularly with McBride and Matthew Brubeck (who played a splendid arco solo) now forming a string section. Just before the song closed, the whole group segued seamlessly into a chipper rendition of "Happy Birthday" that led right back to the "Blue Rondo" coda. "He's 89 years old today," Hancock had said of Brubeck in his intro, "But when he sits down to play, he turns on that smile and loses 40 to 50 years just like that." Though Brubeck wasn't playing, the smile he flashed as his tribute ended was at full blast. Its rejuvenating powers weren't an exaggeration." |
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Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News From: Amos Date: 14 Dec 09 - 03:32 PM From Chicago: Folk Songs and Stories of the Great Lakes Region-A Road Scholars Program by Lee Murdock Sunday, December 13, 2009 @ 1:00 p.m. Lee Murdock has uncovered a boundless body of music and stories in the Great Lakes region (16 CDs and 2 books so far). There is an amazing timelessness in this music. Great Lakes songs are made of hard work, hard-living, ships that go down, and ships that come in. The music is grounded in the work-song tradition from the rugged days of lumberjacks and wooded sailing schooners. Murdock comes alongside with ballads of contemporary commerce and revelry in the grand folk style. Making folk music for the modern era, Murdock's work is a documentary and an anthem to the people who live, work, learn, and play along the freshwater highways of North America. This event is Free and Open to the public. For more information, please contact Colette Leeser-Freeman, 815.385.0036. Venue McHenry Public Library 809 Front St McHenry, IL 60050 Presenter Illinois Humanities Council 312-422-5580 |
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Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News From: Amos Date: 16 Dec 09 - 12:08 PM From Wilmington NC: "Something similar is happening Friday at The Soapbox, when Johnny Irion – husband and musical partner of Sarah Lee Guthrie, who's the daughter of Arlo and granddaughter of the late Woody – performs as part of an Americana extravaganza with Zeke Hutchins and Jay Brown of singer-songwriter Tift Merritt's band. (Hutchins, whose brother lives in Wilmington, is Merritt's husband.) Headlining the bill is acclaimed Raleigh-based bluegrass act Chatham County Line. "Zeke and Jay have played on all of my records and Chatham County Line has played on most of them," Irion said during a phone interview from The Berkshires in western Massachusetts, where he now lives. "I feel real lucky to still have that connection." It's all part of a four-date regional tour of holiday shows. Irion will open with a solo set, followed by a few songs with Hutchins and Brown; an acoustic set by CCL; and then a more rocked-out finale where everyone will join together. It'll be the first time the gang's all been together in about three Christmases, Irion said: "We started doing this in like 1999 or 2000. I would come up from Columbia, (S.C.), where I was living at the time, and every Christmas we would do a couple of shows and either record or do jam sessions in the Triangle … It was always a challenge to be ready for that, like, a whole year has passed and what have you learned? And can you hang?" |
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Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News From: Amos Date: 16 Dec 09 - 11:30 PM ...The answer, of course, is Moses Asch. This month marks the 104th birthday of Asch, who founded Folkways Records more than 70 years ago along with Marian Distler. One of the most valuable musical, audio, and cultural resources of the last century, Folkways Records aimed to document the sounds (and lack of sounds) of the universe. That included titles like Sounds of North American Tree Frogs (1958), Sounds of Steam Locomotives (1956), and Sounds of a South African Homestead (1956). It also included folk music, not just from the U.S., but from all over the world. Here's how Asch explained the importance of this music: "Since folk means people, and this in turn means all of us, folk represents all of us. Folk music reflects…a people's culture, its heritage, its character." Over the years, Folkways Records introduced the world to voices like Lead Belly, Mississippi John Hurt, and Pete Seeger. In 1952, the massive six-album collection "Anthology of American Folk Music" put Folkways on the map for good and changed the face of popular music forever. That compilation turned the likes of Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello, Jerry Garcia, Jeff Tweedy, Lou Reed, and Patti Smith on to folk music, in particular the blues and country sounds of rural America. It was the first time most people had even heard of artists like Blind Lemon Jefferson and the Carter Family, and the effect was gargantuan. (In fact, as I sit here next to my own copy of "Anthology of American Folk Music," with its six CDs and its ghostly essay booklet, I can still sense the collection's power, and it gives me chills.) When the Smithsonian acquired Folkways after Asch's death in 1987, they agreed to continue Asch's tradition of always keeping all the label's releases in print, regardless of record sales. In total, Folkways Records released over 2,000 recordings under Asch and, since the Smithsonian's acquisition, over 300 more have been put out. Music lovers owe it to themselves to check out Folkways Records. Here are some other excellent releases from the label, in no particular order, that show the enormous scope of its astounding discography: Music of the Carousel (1961) Sounds of Sea Animals (1955) Blind Willie Johnson, 1927-1930, Blind Willie Johnson (1965) Angela Davis Speaks, Angela Davis (1971) American Favorite Ballads, Vols. 1-5, Pete Seeger (2009) Dust Bowl Ballads, Woody Guthrie (1964) Dillard Chandler: The End of an Old Song, Dillard Chandler (1975) Negro Prison Camp Worksongs (1956) Church Songs: Sung and Played on the Piano by Little Brother Montgomery, Little Brother Montgomery (1975) Watergate, Vol. 1: the Break In (1973) Sing for Freedom: The Story of the Civil Rights Movement Through Its Songs (1990) |
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Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News From: Amos Date: 18 Dec 09 - 12:12 PM Rohecter/Webster area, NY: Boston-based Lindsay Mac is not your average folk singer-songwriter strumming a guitar. She uses a cello, which she straps on like a guitar and then proceeds to strum and pluck it while singing. She'll be showcasing tunes from her albums, Small Revolution and Stop Thinking, beginning at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Harmony House, 58 E. Main St., Webster. Tickets are $18 ($15 advance). Call (585) 328-3103 or go to www.heartlandconcerts.org. |
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Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News From: Amos Date: 22 Dec 09 - 09:15 AM Book Review: Chicago Folk: Images of the Sixties Music Scene – The Photographs of Raeburn Flerlage http://blogcritics.org/books/article/book-review-chicago-folk-images-of/ "Many books documented the folk music scene of the 1960s, but none with this unique focus on a growing city, growing music scene and talent that would live on for decades. Through photographs by Raeburn Flerlage, Chicago Folk: Images of the Sixties Music Scene brings back memories of the many great performers who came to town for the University of Chicago Folk Festivals. Through the book's photos, we're brought back to a time when live music and accessible performers were a common occurrence. Chicago Folk: Images of the Sixties Music Scene puts Chicago in the spotlight, including great photos of Bob Dylan playing at Orchestra Hall in 1963. Pete Seeger, Win Stracke, playing along with Joan Baez and Bob Dylan… all this really happened, and is brought back to life in this photo history. With 150 images, including some at the Old Town School of Folk Music, which lives on, we sense the vibrancy of Chicago as an urban folk scene, attracting performers from around the nation. Flerlage excels at candid photos of performers creating the music and revealing the energy surging through audiences. Although much of this music remains accessible to us today, online and through programs like Chicago's Midnight Special on WFMT-FM, the photographs and chronology of folk music through the decade brings the '60s back to life in an extraordinary way. The culture, clothing styles, music halls and small clubs...." |
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Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News From: Amos Date: 30 Dec 09 - 02:06 PM From the Wall Street Journal: "...It's no secret that the commercial standing, even the viability, of the recorded album has been severely challenged in this decade by the rise of the single digital download, but that overarching trend is not inhibiting the vitality of historic American roots music CDs and boxed-sets. This year's releases from the archives of country music, folk, blues and gospel have often been audio statements designed as keepsakes, elaborate in presentation and annotation, and virtually always revelatory in sound quality—even when they're targeting younger listeners raised on low-fi MP3s. One Grammy nominee for "Best Historical Album," Rounder's boxed set of Woody Guthrie cuts derived from recently rediscovered master recordings made in 1944 ("My Dusty Road"), comes packaged in a replica of the folk singer's beat-up suitcase—a one-off shape for a time when fitting on record retailers' shelves is not the key consideration it once was. A second nominee in the category, Hip-O Select's 5-CD collection of blues-harmonica giant Little Walter's Chess Records recordings, is an example of an alternate approach—very simple packaging, but completist, multitake archival content. Both sets exhibit startlingly new levels of audio presence and both are also, in one sense, outliers, since it's not folk and blues that have dominated this year's key reissues, but early hillbilly music and gospel. The celebrated reissue engineer and producer Christopher King pinpoints some reasons: "The blues, for instance, have been done, redone and done again, whereas the hillbilly and gospel stuff is still more or less untraveled territory; it's been scraped a little bit, but it's never been really fully conceptualized and painted the way that it should. There's probably twice as much hillbilly material as blues and quite possibly three times as much gospel that's still untapped. Secondly, there are all of these hot young artists who are playing in the old-time string band style now—Old Crow Medicine Show, the Carolina Chocolate Drops, the East River String Band—making the style cool for younger audiences." Mr. King, through his firm Long Gone Sound Productions, based in Virginia, works with such historic-roots-music labels as Old Hat, Tompkins Square and Britain's JSP, and he has a reputation for sonic mastery large enough that JSP's boxed set "J.E. Mainer: The Early Years" has the legend "Transfers by Chris King" plastered across the cover. (That set is the first exhaustive exploration of the driving late-1930s recordings of the singing fiddler and his associates, who are considered a key missing link between old-time string band music and bluegrass.) "It's an art, not a science," Mr. King suggests. "You'll actually hear a little more noise on the new 'Gastonia Gallop' collection of hillbilly records made by cotton-mill workers, and on the 'In the Pines' and the Red Fox Chasers CDs I engineered, than you would have heard on LPs of old-time North Carolina hillbilly music [which all three contain] 20 years ago, or the 'noise-reduced' CDs of 10 years ago. But you're also going to hear much more audio information. We'll leave a little dirt in the bathwater to get the baby sparkling clean; people accept that today. My goal is to re-create the actual sound and ambience of the studio, to be in that room with the artists and hear them playing as they did." A third Grammy nominee for historic album, "Take Me to the Water," is every bit as much a book of striking, annotated photos of full-immersion baptisms from 1890 to 1950 as an audio collection of gospel music reflecting that experience, and it's the product of Dust-to-Digital, a young company that specializes in elaborate thematic, multimedia roots-music releases. (The much-praised 2003 historic gospel set "Goodbye, Babylon" was an earlier release.) "Most of our titles," Dust-to-Digital's Atlanta-based president, Lance Ledbetter, noted in a phone interview, "start with the historic audio, with the question of how much of it is still unavailable, and what's the story behind it that we would be trying to communicate—that people could enjoy, learn from and have a great experience with. 'Take Me to the Water,' however, started with old photographs collected by Jim Linderman, who'd been a fan of 'Goodbye, Babylon.' I realized that there were tracks that would capture that same life-changing moment as the photos, and give the listener—or whatever you want to call the person who might purchase this—an experience. It took two years, going to record collector after collector to put that all together, but it's got just about every prewar song about baptism ever made." A second worthy reissue in the continuing gospel revival, Tompkins Square's "Fire in My Bones," takes up from about the point where the baptism collection leaves off, moving from the riverside to the streetcorners and storefronts, c.1944 to 2007. One charming Dust-to-Digital production, "Victrola Favorites," released in 2008, demonstrated how much the visual side can add in re-engaging 21st-century audiences not just with old-time music, but with its original presentation. Arguably an art book with audio as the addendum, it lovingly archives the effluvia of the early recording industry itself—label and cover art, advertising and catalog graphics of the 78rpm era, across national boundaries and roots-music genres. Tellingly, Mr. Ledbetter's focus on historic multimedia was sparked by the elaborate rerelease of the 1951 Harry Smith "Anthology of American Folk Music," in 1997. He was 21 at the time, and remains attuned to these collections' ability to cut across age barriers...." |
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Subject: RE: Occasional Musical News From: Amos Date: 02 Jan 10 - 12:49 AM Chicago: The new season of World Music Wednesdays at Old Town School of Folk Music returns with Pilsen representing. Fandanguero and Son del Viento (both on the recently released CD "Pilsen Soundtrack 1.0") open the season, performing the son jarocho style with a contemporary flair. The series highlights Chicago's diverse cultural community with music, dance and art of Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Europe and the Americas. 8:30-10:30 p.m. Wednesdays at Old Town School of Folk Music, 4544 N. Lincoln Ave. $5 suggested donation; 773-728-6000, oldtownschool.org |
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