Spoleto Festival USA has just announced its 2009 festival schedule and tickets are now available for sale on the festival’s Web site. Due to the economic crunch, Spoleto has had to cut back on the number of performances it is offering in 2009. This season there are 120 performances, which is down by 22 from last year’s 142. The budget for this year’s festival is significantly less than 2008’s as well, going from $8.4 million to $6.2 million. Raking up $372,000 in debt, 2008's festival was the first in 13 years to be in the red.
The 2009 schedule features Gustave Charpentier’s Louise as the only opera performance of the season. Questions were raised about whether or not the Wachovia Jazz series would continue given that the bank had been purchased last year. It will in fact continue under the same name, bringing in five acts. The Westminster Choir also returns with Bach, Buxtehude, Josquin Desprez, Frank Martin, and Moses Hogan as just a few composers included in their program.
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Want to get a flavor of the musical lineup at FloydFest, the highly regarded world-jam culture fest in southwest Virginia? Just read the phrases used describe some of the artists named FloydFest 2009. running July 23-26 in Floyd VA.
Afro-beat globe-trotters, extravagant cabaret. Brazilian thump and cool, Canadian folk hipsters, neo-funk-soul, sacred steel masters, sweet reggae grooves, house-jumping sounds, progressive old-time, street brass explosion, disarming arrangements, cosmic rockers, retro-pop and honky tonk, soul shaking conscious. quirky Americana Jazz, gypsy swing, gospel.
You don't even need the names to know that is going to be a fun festival. Since 2002, Floydfest has built a standout world-jam music and arts festival in southwest Virginia by mixing a global, multicultural outlook with Appalachian musical roots. That's a unique formula that has earned FloydFest a national reputation. Read more »
Planet Bluegrass put off its Telluride Bluegrass Festival lineup announcement until after Christmas, but it rolled out an exciting preliminary lineup for RockyGrass 2009, which runs July 24-26 at the Platnet Bluegrass Ranch in Lyons CO.
With about two-thirds of the lineup named, the top headliners so far are Steve Earle & The Bluegrass Dukes, Hot Rize with Red Knuckles & The Trailblazers, Del McCoury Band and Earl Scruggs with Family & Friends. Not at all bad. There are also a bunch of descernable themes running through the program.
Hard-core bluegrass is represented by younger traditional bands like Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper and Danny Paisley & The Southern Grass in addition to Scruggs and McCoury. New grass experimentalism is also well expressed with Mike Marshall, Darol Anger, Three Ring Circle and California.
Claire Lynch, Darrell Scott and Tim O'Brien join Earle in the lineup as distinctive songwriting voices. The Kruger Brothers and Swedish stringband Väsen represent international influences, while Bearfoot, Sarah Jarosz and The High 48s signal that there is a youthful spirit coming up through the ranks. Read more »
The self-proclaimed "Northeast's premier indoor festival" rolled out the main stage lineup for the 24th Joe Val Bluegrass Festival, set to run February 13-15, 2009, at the Sheraton Hotel in Framingham MA. Headed by breakout bluegrass stars Dailey and Vincent, the lineup is packed with blue-chip bluegrass acts, mostly from the genre's mainstream.
Other headline names include Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper, Steep Canyou Rangers, Claire Lynch Band, Josh Williams, Dry Branch Fire Squad and a new Kruger Brothers Bluegrass Project with featured members Adam Steffey and Bobby Hicks.
That's a lineup that should be appreciated by the tradition-leaning audience of the Boston Bluegrass Union, which has produced the festival since 1984 as a tribute to a pioneering bluegrass performer from the Boston area. Joe Val won the International Bluegrass Music Association award for Event of the Year in 2006. Read more »
With its box office set to open a week later than usual on December 10, Planet Bluegrass dribbled out a few interesting names for its 2009 lineups over Thanksgiving. The headline is an anniversary for Jerry Douglas—his 25th Telluride Bluegrass Festival—and right in time for a strong season by his new band with Luke Bula and Guthrie Trapp. Also named for the 36th TBF: Emmylou Harris, Railroad Earth and The Steeldrivers.
RockyGrass will once more have Del McCoury on the Lyons stage. Two hot traditional bluegrass bands will appear: Danny Paisley & The Southern Grass and Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper. In August, the 19th Folks Festival will feature Brett Dennen and Dougie MacLean.
More lineup announcements for all three festivals will be released before December 10.
