Although the weather may be less-than-stellar and the sun seems to be missing from most places, there's still hope for festival-goers hoping to catch some live music before the year is up.
Warren Hayes returns for the twentieth time for the anniversary of his annual Christmas Jam Festival. Read more »
The seven-year-old Savannah Music Festival has established a reputation for interesting programming crossing diverse musical boundaries, but their just-announced 2009 program may be the event's most interesting and most diverse yet. With top artists in various genres of jazz, roots, blues, world music, and classical, the upcoming festival, set for March 19 to April 5, 2009, puts a feather in the historic city's cultural cap.
The event's more than 100 performances are programmed in themes, series and special events. Some of the highlights are as follows:
In roots categories, Long Time Travelin' is a celebration of American folk song traditions featuring Rayna Gellert of Uncle Earl, gospel bluegrasser Doyle Lawson and hosted by Americana singer-songwriter Jim Lauderback, while Roots & Twang is a concert serieis featuring Neko Case and Crooked Fingers, Punch Brothers with Chris Thile, The Infamous Stringdusters, The Lovell Sisters and more. Read more »
Although displayed on the site's main page as running from November 14th-16th, the schedule indicates that a day appears to have been added at the beginning. So the event will supposedly start on Thursday the 13th, featuring additional performances by Perpetual Groove and The Motet. Other headliners include JJ Grey and Mofro, Ivan Neville's Dumpstaphunk, Yonder Mountain String Band, Soulive, The New Mastersounds, Lettuce, The Everyone Orchestra featuring Jon Fishman and Michael Kang, Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Dr. Claw (another Ivan Neville outfit), and many more. Read more »
We exited my apartment in downtown Chicago last night and made our way toward the Barack Obama rally in Grant Park. As Hutchinson Field had long since reached its capacity, my friends and I went to the opposite end of the park, the better part of a mile from where Obama was to give his victory speech (the stage was set up where the main AT&T Stage was at Lollapalooza). After weaving our way through the rapidly expanding mass of Obama supporters (of which there were supposedly more than a million), we spent a few minutes joining the masses in cheering and jeering at the current poll numbers being broadcast on a Jumbotron. Read more »
I recently provided answers to some survey questions from a college student about the economics of the live music industry, which gave me a chance to write down some of my thoughts about the underlying appeal of festivals and the likely impacts of the economic downturn on the festival market. It struck me that some of those answers would be interesting to also post to the site. Comments are welcome.
What is it about festivals that intrigues you?I believe that as our lives become more isolated and mediated by technology, we are seeking out immersive experiences that connect us with "live" communities and give us a sense of participation in a technicolor, multi-sensory world. Festivals are uniquely suited to providing this kind of experience in a contained weekend-long break from our otherwise humdrum, cubicled existence. Read more »
A gala musical fundraiser for Boston's Dimock Center hospital and urban health services program will bring together six established and rising female R&B and jazz performers Saturday, November 8 at te Westin Boston Waterfront Hotel. Presented in the format of a historic jazz-age nightclub program, the charity event highlights the range of styles embraced by younger Afro-American female musicians making their marks in the music industry today.
The six artists are soul singer Lalah Hathaway, carrying on the tradiiton of her late father Donny Hathaway; R&B pop vocalist Amel Larrieux; Broadway performer Julia Nixon, best known for her part in Dreamgirls; jazz drummer Terri Lyne Carrington; breakthrough jazz bassist and singer Esperanza Spalding; and local Aretha Franklin tribute artist Wannetta Jackson. Read more »
We here at Festival Preview have always striven to be a non-partisan publication. I think I speak for everyone when I say that personal bias has never gotten in the way of our mission to bring festival news to the masses. It is certainly not our place to shed negative light upon any subject on which we are reporting. So with that in mind, let's discuss the Arizona State Fair in Phoenix, which started on October 10 and runs through November 2nd. The aspect of this event that's of interest to us is the concert series, which features nothing less than a wonderful...no, divine lineup of artists.
This evening will feature alternative rock band Weezer, who within the last decade have become rock superstars thanks to their Blue, Green, and most recent Red album. It's true that groups like Metallica and The Beatles have done the color concept albums at some point during their careers, but keep in mind that they only bothered to do it once. Weezer, on the other hand, went above and beyond and dared to do it not once, not twice, but three times. Not to mention, songs like "Island in the Sun", "Pork and Beans", and of course, "Undone (The Sweater Song)" are consider by many to be some of the most influential lyrical gems produced since Dylan's heyday. The band's intrigue is magnfied by their geek image (specifically shrimpy vocalist Rivers Cuomo's thick-rimmed spectacles), ironically giving them leverage to shoot a music video at the Playboy mansion. Be sure not to miss the chance to experience these alternative rock classics, made even sweeter by Cuomo's newly-sprouted upper lip fur. Hef would agree. Read more »
The 10th annual Voodoo Music Experience will take place October 24-26. This year's festival, dubbed T
he Tenth Ritual, will be held once again in New Orleans' City Park. Voodoo will hold six stages, divided up into three sections: Le Ritual, Le Flambeau, and Le Carnival, inspired by the city's French culture. Many of the attendees from last year's festival asked the question of how next year could follow a lineup headlined by Rage and Smashing Pumpkins. Well folks, here's how: Read more »
Stretching the bluegrass boundaries farther than ever before, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass kicked off its weekend run with a Friday morning educational program featuring a rap and break-dance performance by pioneering hip-hop artist M.C. Hammer. Several thousand students from San Francisco middle schools responded to the feel-good performance with more exuberance than they might have for a pure bluegrass set, even though Hammer might have been as "old school" and before their time as, say, Earl Scruggs.
Hammer addressed the elephant in the meadow, saying he had been asked what he was going to do at a bluegrass festival. As the bass-heavy groove started up, he yelled the title of one of his hit numbers, "I'm gonna turn this mother out." Crowded on the periphery of the audience (outside the fenced-off kids-only center section), a robust crowd of young adults who had come of age with the Oakland-based Hammer in the 1980s and '90s, chanted along. Read more »
After they had played Lightnin' Hopkins and the Reverend Gary Davis, and after they had delighted the crowd with their signature "Hesitation Blues," acoustic blues throwbacks Hot Tuna captured the spirit of the San Francisco Blues Festival with their final number of their Saturday afternoon set.
"I got the blues from my baby down by the San Francisco Bay...." The audience, basking in the September sun on the Great Meadow at Fort Mason, with the Golden Gate Bridge and bobbing sailboats in view at stage right, ate it up. "If I ever come back to stay, it'll be another brand new day, walking with my baby down by the San Francsico Bay."
The Hot Tuna performance was one highlight of the first day of the venerable festival, taking advantage of the glorious September weather overlooking the Bay at Fort Mason's Great Meadow. The other highlight came two hours later, when another legend from a seminal '60s rock band closed out an entertaining all-star blues revue featuring a cavalcade of electric blues performers. After all that great music, Elvin Bishop reminded fans of the fun and excitement that a high-powered blues rock can deliver. Read more »
RIVIERA BEACH — The city council pulled the plug tonight on the ninth annual music festival despite promises from the festival advisory committee that the spring event would not cost taxpayers any more than the $75,000 appropriated as seed money. Mayor Thomas Masters led the charge against the festival, formerly called the jazz festival, saying it was "immoral" to put taxpayer money at risk in hard economic times.
