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 »
Saturday in Lebanon, NH was cold and raw. The wind whipped through our clothes and our ears turned red as we walked across the street to the AVA gallery. Inside the gallery was warm and cozy as the afternoon’s workshops began. At 1:00 PM four workshops were attended by small, but interested groups. Steve Hennig reprised his successful banjo workshop of last year. Rich Heepe held a session called “A Bit of Festival” and Rich Hamilton attracted a couple of fiddlers to his “Fiddlin’” session. Ford Daley continued last year’s seminar trying to answer the unanswerable question, “What is Bluegrass About Anyway?” Read more »
After an auspicious debut last year, the 2nd Annual DelFest is gearing up with an initial lineup announcement and open box office for early bird ticketing, VIP packages and RV permits. Also new this year is the first DelFest Academy, with three days of instrumental instruction taught by members of the McCoury band and others.
The festival runs Memorial Day Weekend, May 22-24, at the Allegany County Fairgrounds in Cumberland MD. The DelFest Academy takes place May 18-21 at the same site.
Besides the host Del McCoury Band, the initial lineup announcment includes Sam Bush, Railroad Earth, Peter Rowan and the Free Mexican Air Force, J.D. Crowe and The New South, Tim O'Brien, The Infamous Stringdusters, The Lee Boys, Dan Paisley & The Southern Grass and more.
For complete information and tickets, visit the DelFest website. 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 »
Now that the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass schedule has been published, it is possible to pick out the interesting newer bookings that will make this eighth edition of the San Francisco festival different from earlier years. You can now also begin the challenging task of mapping your personal schedule — challenging, since there are so many great acts playing head to head on the festival's five stages.
Many of the festival's biggest names are old standbys who have played HSB three or more times in the past. Among these are Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle, Robert Earl Keen, Earl Scruggs, Ricky Skaggs, Guy Clark and Hazel Dickens. You wouldn't go wrong putting any of them on your schedule, but the focus here is on performers who are either making their debut or are less well exposed at the festival, or who are playing in a different configuration from usual. Read more »
Cecil Sharpe, the English musicologist who collected and recorded the music of Appalachia in the 1920s, predicted that the unvarnished old-time style would be a thing of the past a generation later. But this weekend's Berkeley Old-Time Music Convention in Berkeley CA proved again that he was wrong.
While the style has given birth to a variety of derivative styles—from string bands to bluegrass to folk music to mainstream country—the original old-timey sound remains a vibrant form with plenty of practitioners and even innovators keeping the tradition alive.
The convention demonstrated that in a series of performances and dances at The Freight & Salvage and other Berkeley venues featuring artists such as Sheila Kay Adams, The Brandy Snifters, The Stairwell Sisters, Rayna Gellert and Foghorn Stringband. But the panel discussion with Adams, Gellert and Lyle Lofgren provided the best context for why old-time music remains relevant today. Read more »
One of the most talked-about sets of the roots festival year, the Levon Helm Band performance at MerleFest 2008, is now available for paid download from FestivaLink.net. There were many reasons I was sorry to have missed the festival, but not hearing the comeback performance by the one-time vocalist/drummer/mandolinist of The Band topped the list. Sad to say, I also missed his only other 2008 festival performance in August at Newport Folk.
Now I can enjoy the live MerleFest performance in its entirety thanks to the lovingly produced downloadable recording from FestivaLink. I have written before that live festival sets are not always unique enough to merit paying for. This one is — without question. Read more »
Enjoy this outstanding video review from Stephen Ide of Thirsty Lizards of last July's Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival. Featured performers include Uncle Earl, Hot Rize, David Grisman, The Wilders and The Grascals, but the real star is the festival itself, the first held in a new location on Walsh Farm in Oak Hill NY. Visit Steve's YouTube page for lots of individual performances.
While candidates for the upcoming presidential election debate the best ways to bring about global peace and understanding, the worldwide dance music community has taken the matter into it's own hands, or rather they're taking the matter to the dance floor.
On September 13 all around the world, dance music lovers and peaceniks of all stripes will be shaking a tail feather for peace at Earthdance, the worlds largest simultaneous dance music festival. Read more »
The Otis Mountain Music Festival may represent a model for successful contemporary music festivals. Promoter Jeff Allott put together an eclectic selection of varied groups with something to please everyone. From traditional bluegrass groups like regional favorite Big Spike and national touring band Blue Moon Rising to edgier bands like the Biscuit Burners, Cadillac Sky, and the Greencards, Otis Mtn. emerged as an example for promoters of small to mid-sized festivals of how to present a festival. Otis Mountain is a small ski hill located about two miles outside Elizabethtown, NY along state route 9N. While E-Town is the county seat of Essex County, it offers few amenities for the traveler not prepared to be pretty self-sufficient. There are no chain motels or fast food restaurants, but the region provides several very nice bed and breakfasts and, if you include nearby Keene Valley, plenty of good places to eat and stay. Read more »
