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[Updated with additions, 5:51 pm, Oct 14]
A new roots music festival, concerts in the venues and online, Stephanie Miller's "Sexy Liberal - Save Democracy" comedy tour concludes with an L.A. performance, plus... we remember Loretta Lynn, and -- well, take a look!
All the EVENTS follow the NEWS, then we wrap it up with an editorial about a simple, profound act to assure we have a future.
Let's get started!
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Folk legend Joan Baez helping Ukraine's children
Her art funds relief, medical care for war-ravaged nation's children
"Joan Baez stopped singing a couple of years ago, but she is a fabulous portrait artist. She did a portrait of Ukrainian President Zelinskyy," relates American Dr. Irwin Redlener, world-renowned infectious disease expert.
He continues, "She did prints of that portrait and raised a lot of money. We've been friends a long time. She recruited me to go to Poland and Ukraine to help decide what to do with the money, how it could best help. Once here, I was hooked."
Dr. Redlener is currently helping in a Ukrainian hospital that's been moved underground, to protect it from continuing Russian missile attacks on Ukraine's civilian population. Patients there have been wounded, including many children, and medical personnel are struggling to treat them without anyone suffering more wounds as attacks continue from Russian invaders.
To learn more or contribute to the war relief project for children started by Joan Baez, go to:
Ukraine Childrens Action Project
www.ukrainecap.org
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Int'l Acoustic Music Awards has two timely items
New Folk & Acoustic Spotify Public Playlist
First, the International Acoustic Music Awards' "New Folk & Acoustic Spotify Public Playlist" has been released, featuring their winners and past winners. It includes Buffalo Rose, Ellis Paul, Jonatha Brooke, Will Ackerman, Jeff Oster & Tom Eaton (This year's Grammy Nominee), Rod Abernethy, Frank J Myers, Jonathan Edwards, Ricky Kej (This year's Grammy Winner), and more. You can click their "like" link for their playlist and listen free.
IAMA's latest news has become a frequently shared article on the Music Connection magazine site. IAMA tells us, "We'd be grateful if you could take a moment and weigh-in on the matter. Read the article here."
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Awards competition deadline is Nov 10
Second, you can enter the 19th Annual IAMA (International Acoustic Music Awards) by November 10, 2022, or earlier: https://inacoustic.com/enter-here/
IAMA is sponsored by: Solid State Logic (SSL), New Music Weekly, Loggins Promotion, Airplay Access, Ditto Music, Sirius XM Radio, Acoustic Café Radio Show, Paige Capo, Make Music Matter, Kari Estrin Management & Consulting, and more.
Why enter IAMA?
• Get recognized as a music artist and for your music: Best Male Artist, Best Female, Group, etc.
• Winning artists will appear on the IAMA compilation CD.
• Winning artists will receive radio airplay.
• Gain music industry exposure and more.
Full info at: https://www.inacoustic.com
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Remembering Loretta Lynn
"Just write a poem and put a little melody to it. You girls can do it, probably better than I can. But I'll give you a run for your money!"
~ Loretta Lynn, who died this past week at age 90.
You need to to look way back, to a prior era, to realize Loretta as an artist changed everything. Before her, women stars -- Patsy Cline, Kitty Wells, and so many other gold- and platinum-sellers -- did not write their own songs. Change came overnight: After Loretta Lynn began writing hits that were autobiographical, all women artists were expected to have originals.
She was an early advocate for feminism. Her song, "The Pill," asserted women could be in charge of family planning and shocked the conservative mind. "In the Bible Belt, they would preach against it [the record] on Sunday, and on Monday morning the congregation would go out and buy it to see what was wrong with it. That made it a hit," said Loretta.
She sang with everyone from Ernest Tubb to Ray Charles, Conway Twitty to Willie Nelson to Patsy Cline. She was long ago inducted into the Grand Ole Opry and the Country Music Hall of Fame. President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Loretta Lynn, even after fame, acclaim, GRAMMYS, Gold records, a Hollywood movie about her life -- "Coal Miner's Daughter," starring Sissy Spacek -- always kept her sense of wonder and gratitude. And her accent was the real deal, from her upbringing in Butcher Holler. It was all a mosaic of authenticity integral with her persona, and not the fahke tew-wang of tudday's Nashville creatures.
The world will find plenty more music stars to idolize, but when it comes to those we can truly admire? Loretta Lynn has long held an esteemed place in that hallowed pantheon where other artists join fans to pay homage.
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Oligarchy Grocery
Today's business news headline: "Kroger to buy Albertsons for $24.6 billion."
Any grocery chain you knew growing up is now part of one or the other of these two corporate giants. Safeway, Piggly Wiggly, Food Giant. Market Basket. Food Lion. They're all vanished into Borg-like assililations. And now an ultimate megamerger is about to generate billions in corporate debt for its bloated, merged, impending self-inflicted indigestion in the form of "acquisition cost" -- that will be passed-along in ever-higher food prices to "the consumer," their dehumanizing euphemism for all of us. Even though these machinations of the super rich will do what they always do: (a) cut jobs and make remaining employees work longer, salaried, and therefore unpaid hours (b) force us to go to more stressful, unstaffed self-checkouts that accept no argument when the shelf price was less than the robot is demanding, and (c) use the power of their corporacratic monopoly to erode worker benefits gained through hard-fought union contracts.
So, what to do? Raise hell about this with your Member of Congress now, and get it blocked! Seriously, tell your lawmaker, "No more mega-mergers! Stop this one!"
Or, you can decide "That's too much to bother with." Which likely means you'll wait until your options to buy ANYTHING are (a) Wal-Mart, (b) Amazon, or (c) roadside minimarts that stock only burnt-dried wire-rack hot dogs, preservative-impregnated chips, and diabetes-inducing soda, but no fresh food. Likely your coming options -- IF you can safely pull into a roadside strip mall without being runover by a driverless big rig truck with data stream hiccups on its way from the processing plant to the 500-acre warehouse.
There are songs in all that waiting impatiently to be written. Think of "Little Boxes" when runaway cookie-cutter suburban development was the issue...
Or maybe you have a bigger issue. November 8th is voting day. Don't sit home.
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Events...
This weekend's new roots music fest: Sonic Boom
Sat, Oct 15, FESTIVAL
"PARAMOUNT RANCH SONIC BOOM MUSIC FESTIVAL" is a formidable first-time venture by folks you know, Tiny Porch Concerts, with support from the Santa Monica Mountains Fund. It happens at the same site as the longtime home of the springtime "Topanga Banjo•Fiddle Contest & Folk Festival." (No, the "TBFC" organization is not involved.) This is being promoted as "a one-of-a-kind music festival" hosted and largely organized by L.A.'s own DUSTBOWL REVIVAL. Therefore, do not assume you can catch it next year -- it may only happen once!
It kicks off with gates opening at 11 am, first performance at noon, at Paramount Ranch, 2903 Cornell Rd, Agoura Hills, CA 91301.
Featured are New Orleans' famous REBIRTH BRASS BAND, DUSTBOWL REVIVAL, DOM FLEMMONS, as well as YOSMEL MONTEJOY Y LA CALIENTE, EAGLE ROCK GOSPEL SINGERS, and WATER TOWER.
Local craft vendors, food trucks, craft beer, wine, kids' activities and unique jamming experiences throughout the festival grounds will all ensue.
Don't let history confuse you. If you've heard of "Sonic Boom" before this, that was in the context of "Colorado's Premier Electronic Music Festival" at Hummingbird Ranch in the beautiful Spanish Peaks Country of the Rocky Mountains. This Sonic Boom is roots music, NOT electronica.
□ The $85 VIP tix are sold out.
■ General admission, $45 -- includes parking and admission to the ranch.
■ Child tix, ages 4-12, $20; free under age 4.
A portion of your ticket purchase will support the restoration of Paramount Ranch, following the loss of the historic movie-set Old Western town to the disastrous Woolsey Fire in 2018.
Tix and info: https://www.betterunite.com/sonicboom
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Edwards Air Force Base Open House & Air Show
Not music, but a long-absent, big deal event
Sat & Sun, Oct 15 & 16; FREE general admission; gates open 8-11 am ONLY, no admission after 11 am.
Edwards is home to NASA's Neil Armstrong Flight Research Center. It's also where the Air Force flight-tests everything, and has its Test Pilot School. Yes, that's the USAF counterpart of the Navy's Top Gun school you know from two Tom Cruise movies.
Edwards was famous for its annual open house. But that ended after 9/11, when security fences went up. This weekend brings the first real return of the decades-long tradition that's been absent for 20 years.
2022 marks the 75th anniversary of the United States Air Force, while October 14, 2022 marks 75 years of breaking the sound barrier over the sky above Edwards. During this weekend, the event will pay homage to both legacies with historic aircraft and sonic booms, mixed with the latest in cutting-edge aviation.
Sure, the military is currently having a tough time meeting its required recruiting numbers. Two decades of unending, unwinnable, and ultimately useless wars will do that to a country. So some may see the weekend of blinding-fast, low flybys, aerial acrobatic demonstrations, and thunderous sonic booms over the desert's dry lakebeds -- well, cynically.
The military consumes more of the federal budget than anything else except a nebulous total of "entitlements" that are mostly unrelated. So this is an opportunity to go see just what it is they do with all that money. Some of it, anyway. Just put the event in your browser and you'll find what gate to use, when to go each day, and what you can expect to see.
You can take the I-5 or 405 north to the 14 Freeway, and exit at Rosamond Boulevard. Or from the Inland Empire, head over Cajon Pass on I-15, and chrck online to see whether you can traverse the desert on 89th St East, North to a different gate.
There is more than a touch of irony at work. You can catch the roots music "Sonic Boom" music festival on Saturday in Agoura Hills -- which has nothing to do with high tech aviation (see our festival feature story) -- and then go out to the Edwards Open House / Airshow on Sunday. Aside from the cost of gasoline (twice as much in California as anywhere else), the airshow has free tickets online.
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Live in the venues &/or online...
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■ At the Pasadena Folk Music Society
Sun, Oct 16, 2022, live online concert, 4 pm:
JOHN McCUTCHEON, celebrating 50 years as a folk music icon, returns to the Pasadena Folk Music Society with another four-show series of live streamed concerts similar to those he presented there lastspring.
Oct 16 is an all-request show, enriched by McCutcheon’s telling the stories behind the songs. Ticket buyers can request a song.
John McCutcheon continues the series Sun, Nov 13, debuting several songs he has co-written with Tom ("Last Thing on My Mind") Paxton in the past two years and showcase one that’s already been released to worldwide acclaim: "Ukrainian Now."
The series finale is Sun, Dec. 11, with “Winter Solstice: A Holiday Concert with John McCutcheon."
Ticket-holders get links for watching the shows live and also for replay any time in the 48 hours afterwards. The replay option allows enjoying the show a second time, or with pauses on-demand to catch the wonderful lyrics better.
A portion of the ticket sales benefit the Pasadena Folk Music Society, to help cover costs of returning with future in-person concerts at Caltech in Pasadena, CA.
Series producers say, "We are partnering with John for this series as we did for some well-received online shows last spring. From those live streams, we know we can expect smooth audio-visual logistics and an enjoyable show, almost as if sitting in McCutcheon’s living room with him."
* Tix: regular single-concert ticket price is $20, plus $4.60 in fees. The bundled ticket for the remaining three shows is $50, plus $11.50 in fees. Lower single-ticket prices are available for students and unemployed people. Other options include “family/household” and “music supporter” tickets.
* Info & tix at: https://pasadenafolkmusicsociety.org
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■ At The Coffee Gallery Backstage, 2029 N Lake Av, Altadena CA 91001; Reservations by phone only, at 626-798-6236; info, www.coffeegallery.com
□ Masks and Vaccination cards are required to attend Coffee Gallery Backstage Concerts.
• Fri, Oct 14, 8 pm - BETH FITCHET WOOD & STEVE WOOD + JODI SIEGEL. $20.
• Sat, Oct 15, 2 pm matinee AND 6 pm evening shows - LED ZEPAGAIN plays all-acoustic renditions of the famous rock band's hits. Either show, $25.
• Tue, Oct 18, 8 pm - MAIAH WYNNE, national traveling singer. $20.
• Thu, Oct 20, 7 pm - THE ROADHOUSE SERIES PRESENTS: "A Tribute to the Americana Music Movement," with 17 artists doing songs from the Carter Family to Brandi Carlisle. $20.
• Thu, Oct 27, 8 pm - CODY BRYANT, MARK BRIDGEFORD, CAMPBELL FEST. $20.
• Sun, Oct 30, 3 pm Matinee - "A 'DENA HOME COMPANION" is a multiartist “'dena” (Pasadena/Altadena/Eagle Rock-a-dena) spin on Garrison Keillor's "Prairie Home Companion," featuring comedy and classic American songs. $20.
•Fri, Nov 11, 8 pm - TALL MEN GROUP, the ensemble of ndividual accomplished songwriters, Edward Tree, Severin Brown, John Stowers, Marty Axelrod, introducing brand new songs and honoring the group’s founder, brother and chef Jimmy Yessian, lost to cancer in 2021. $20.
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■ At McCabe's concert hall, in back of the landmark music store, 3101 Pico No, Santa Monica CA; advance tix online, https://www.mccabes.com
□ Masks and Vaccination cards are required to attend McCabe’s Concerts.
▪Fri & Sat, Oct 14 & 15: SOLD OUT - HOT TUNA Acoustic.
▪Fri & Sat, Oct 21 & 22: SOLD OUT - JOHN DOE FOLK TRIO.
▪Sun, Oct 30, 8 pm - SONGWRITERS SHOWCASE w/ Rick Shea, Tony Gilkyson and Cindy Lee Berryhill. $20.
▪ Nov 5, 8 pm - Crys Matthews & Heather Mae. $25.
▪ Nov 12, 8 pm - Albert Lee
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■ At The Muckenthaler Cultural Center, 1201 W Malvern Av, Fullerton, CA 92833; tix & info, 714-738-6595, TheMuck.org
Thu, Oct 20, 7:30 pm - PETER BRANDON: after a three year Covid hiatus, and fresh off a Vegas Residency, Fullerton's prodigal son returns home for a night of Country music.
Thu, Oct 27, 7:30 pm - BEYOND THE BLACK VEIL: A Halloween inspired seance conjuring the spirits that inhabit the Muck.
Sun. Oct 30, 12-4 pm - "Día de los Muertos Festival" is Free and open to the public. The Muckenthaler invites everyone to join them to celebrate Día de los Muertos, with festive activities for the whole family, food, drinks, live music, local artisans, and arts and crafts for kids.
Nov 5-6, 10 am-4 pm - annual "Artistic License Fair" is Free to attend. Celebrating 28 years, the Fair is a fine crafts show featuring the highly collected work of over fifty L.A., Orange, and Riverside County artisans.
Thu, Dec 15 - DARDEN: this will be the fifth year of the "Darden Holiday extravaganza" at the Muck and its filled with all of your favorite Christmas classics all Dardened up.
Thu, Dec 22 - JIM "KIMO" WEST: Called "The World's Greatest Slack Key Guitarist," he turns his instrument toward the holidays for this Hawaiian-themed evening of music.
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■ Elsewhere...
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JAMES LEE STANLEY is playing two local venues...
Sat, Oct 15, 7:30 pm , at Boulevard Music in Culver City
and
Nov 12, 7 pm, at Kulak's Woodshed in North Hollywood.
Info:
His documentary, winner of the Peoples Choice Award, at the London Lift Off Film Festival: https://jamesleestanley.com/product/the-opening-act-the-extraordinary-journey-of-james-lee-stanley
James also has a NEW FREE ARTIST RESOURCE BLOG: www.datamusicata.com
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Sat, Oct 22, 2 pm & 8 pm - PASADENA SYMPHONY presents its 2022-23 season opening night with a program of Mozart & Saint-Saëns, in Ambassador Auditoritum, Pasadena CA
Mozart’s tempestuous Symphony No. 39 opens the 22/23 season with internationally acclaimed conductor Vinay Parameswaran at the helm. Plus, “one of the biggest pianistic talents to have emerged in this country in the last 25 years” (Baltimore Sun), Terrence Wilson returns to the Ambassador stage for Saint-Saëns' Piano Concerto No. 2.
The third annual "Composer's Showcase" also returns with award-winning violist-composer Nokuthula Ngwenyama’s "Primal Message" asking – what should we put in humanity’s first message in a bottle sent 25,000 light years away?
Featuring:
Vinay Parameswaran, conductor
Terrence Wilson, piano
Nokuthula Ngwenyama Primal Message for String Orchestra, Harp, and PercussionSaint-SaënsPiano Concerto No. 2RossiniOverture to La scala di setaMozart Symphony No. 39
Tix at: 626-793-7172 or pasadenasymphony-pops.org
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Attend this event live or pay-per-view online:
Sat, Oct 22, 2022, 8 pm - STEPHANIE MILLER’s "SEXY LIBERAL SAVE DEMOCRACY TOUR" concludes with its L.A. show at the Saban Theatre, 8440 Wilshire Bl, Beverly Hills, CA 90211
Damn few people can make you laugh at America's ridiculously polarized state of affairs. Most of those people are in this show: Stephanie, John Fugelsang, the Frangela duo, and Hal Sparks. Previous stops in D.C. and Chicago have brought surprise guests, too. Since L.A. is the only one doing pay-per-view as well as in-person, you can expect a lot. (That pay-per-view option is $20 and allows unlimited watching for a month.)
• Ppv tix: https://sexyliberal.com/
• Venue tix also at: https://www.stubhub.com/stephanie-miller-beverly-hills-tickets-10-22-2022/event/150486006/
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Sun, Oct 23, 2022, 5:30 pm:
JOHN DOE plays the Zebulon Cafe, 2478 Fletcher Dr, Los Angeles, CA 90039
He has recorded 8 solo records with numerous renowned singers and players, recently including Patty Griffin, Dan Auerbach, Aimee Mann, Don Was, Kathleen Edwards and Greg Liesz. That follows his long ago leadership of the band X.
He has appeared in over 50 films and television productions, with some of his most notable roles in "Road House," "Georgia," "Roadside Prophets," "Great Balls of Fire," "Pure Country," and "Roswell." He continues to act these days but more sporadically as his touring schedule has become more demanding. Other musical side projects include work with the Knitters, Jill Sobule and The Sadies. He continues to write poetry and has even taught workshops from time to time. He currently lives in Austin, TX.
* Tix start at $30.90 at https://zebulon.la ; hurry, this will sell-out early.
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IMPORTANT REMINDER, and memo to the future
We've changed the original intro to this important final item. That's because the folks it really needs to reach would have blown it off before. We hope they won't do that, anyway.
So here ya go: Point is, a whole bunch of us are getting tired of looking out for everybody else's future. I mean, it isn't all that much fun for ANY of us to invest time in learning about and understanding all the very many things that are poised like vultures on a fence rail to eat our lunch. Or rob us blind. Or steal the future. And, when they do it, leave the masses wondering "what happened?"
Because that is soooo predictable, AFTER too damn many of us found it too easy to be... distracted ...elsewhere. You know somebody that you have the desire to tell, "ya know, you, uhh, pay attention to a lot of crap that really does not matter a whit to what kind of future we will share. You even waste MY energy with your endless foolishness."
That is what it's all about. Not "politics" or "midterms" or "partisan control." It's about the future. The entire U.S. House of Representatives gets elected THIS November. All of them! Plus, one-third of the U.S. Senate gets elected that very same day! November 8th is "Rovember." November 8th is THE day when the future of REVERSING Climate Change, or instead, turning corporate oligarchs loose to plunder the planet, will be decided. Not just "the day it is determined," but the day it is DECIDED. That's because YOU can choose to vote on November 8th, "Rovember 8th," on "stop the oligarchs" November 8th, on Save Democracy November 8th.
And frankly, if you don't choose to carry your part, a whole lot of other folks are damned tired of doing it for you. I, for one -- your editor here, whose past includes holding White House press credentials and covering government, politics, science, technology, aerospace, engineering, infrastructure, international relations, and doing investigative journalism to enable all that, and not "just" doing music and the arts -- well, I am pretty close to done with all of it except one thing.
My rant can be summed-up in this short paragraph: I am tired of being an advocate for others who never utilize the opportunity to work in a coalition that advocates for their own future together with the rest of us. So, if voter turnout is low on November 8th, you can stop looking for my public policy advocacy on a broad range of issues. I will be a voice only for reversing climate change. The rest of you can tell each other how shocked and disgusted you are about everything else that happens after you fail to vote.
Or you can get mad while it matters, get motivated while it can make a difference, use your mind, use your voice, use your passion, use your vote, and take action for your future.
Check your VOTER REGISTRATION while there's still time. You can do it easily online by typing-in "check voter registration" and your city and state. You may need to re-register. Or if you have never been registered, it's time to change that.
Certain interests with ultra-rich backers are VERY actively engaged in purging voters from registration rolls, nationwide. There has never been anything like it in the United States of America in our lifetimes -- though the U.S. state of Georgia, four years ago, gave the registration purgers the model they are now using nationwide. It's all about winning by rigging the game. Only it isn't a game. It's power and control and who will wield it against rich interests -- who use politics for their self-serving wealth-grabbing -- at the expense of the rest of us.
The planet has a rapidly diminishing window to stop runaway climate change. Yet some interests continue to deny that it is happening at all, and will profit from despoiling the entire world unless we, the people, stop them.
Subterfuge, distraction, diversion, denial, Big Lies, outlandishly outrageous claims, every unimaginably ridiculous premise, exploitation of differences through scares and fears, and, when all that fails, overt threats against all who disagree, are the leading tactics of those who don't want you to vote.
Whether your top concerns are reproductive freedom or a future worth having and handing-off to future generations, or something else entirely, it all comes down to one thing: democracy must be preserved, defended, nurtured, and ultimately protected from those who would trample it. Ignore that, and fascism replaces democracy.
Check your VOTER status, and be sure you are qualified and thoroughly informed to vote this November. This is the most important "midterm" election cycle in 90 years, and the most consequential we may ever face.
~ Lawrence Wines, editor
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