DEADLINES EXTENDED FOR COMPETITORS in the prestigious Topanga Banjo•Fiddle Contest (through April 6, 2015)

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Attention all singers, pickers, strummers, bow wizards, harmonica players, soloists, duets, trios, bands, and devotees of other acoustic instruments. Win THIS and enjoy adoration. It’s a VERY big deal, and this year, they are SHORT ON CONTESTANTS.

The 55th Annual TOPANGA BANJO•FIDDLE CONTEST & FOLK FESTIVAL happens MAY 17, 2015 at Paramount Ranch in Agoura Hills. In every other year, entries would be closed long before now. But not THIS YEAR.

APRIL 6, 2015, is the EXTENDED DEADLINE

Some mighty famous people are past winners of various TBFC contests. ALL LEVELS are available to fit your skill level to that of the folks with whom you’ll compete – from Beginner all the way up to Professional Musician.

And, CONSIDER THIS: if the number of competitors is FEWER, it just might be YOUR YEAR to take home a prestigious prize!
All the details, including online sign-up, is at

http://www.TopangaBanjoFiddle.org


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PLUS…

MUSIC LEGEND AWARD nominations extended…

The MUSIC LEGEND AWARD was established by the Topanga Banjo•Fiddle Contest & Folk Festival, Inc. (TBFC) in 2002 to honor and recognize a person, group or organization which has distinguished him/her/itself over the years, in the preservation and advancement of old time, folk and bluegrass music in the Southern California area. The prize consists of a plaque and public proclamation with a cash award of $1000 and is presented at the Topanga Banjo•Fiddle Contest on the main stage every year.

The deadline for nominations has been extended until April 6, 2015. If you have someone that you would like to nominate, go to:

http://www.topangabanjofiddle.org/legend_award.html


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LOOK FOR THE GUIDE’S EDITOR at TBFC: He’ll be EMCEE of a buncha things, all day!

He’s Larry Wines. He’s been emceeing at TBFC for ten years. But if you’re a “regular,” you probably know that. When he’s not at a mic, he’ll love it if you mosey on over and say howdy with your best pickin’ grin.


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TOPANGA BANJO•FIDDLE CONTEST & FOLK FEST on FACEBOOK…

TBFC is facing the same thing at the hands of Facebook as other nonprofits, music festivals, etc.

In the last year or two, Facebook has severely limited the number of people that are reached by posts to a page. For example, the Topanga Banjo•Fiddle page has about 1700 Likes / Followers – BUT, a post may reach as few as 50 people, unless there is expensive “additional action” on the part of the nonprofit contest organization. TBFC board member Carl Gage explains, “Facebook justifies this by pointing-out the sheer volume of posts, and they say, ‘just because someone Likes a page, doesn’t mean they want to see all the posts to that page.’ The fact is, they now charge, BY THE DAY, to increase the reach of posts, so their bottom-line goes up along with their stock price.”

While Carl adds that it’s “No big surprise,” it’s clear from what he says that TBFC simply cannot afford to subsidize Facebook’s business model.

Carl continues, “We have raised that reach recently, but still have a long way to go to get our message to more folks. We ask that you ‘Like / Follow’ the TBFC page and ‘Like’ and ‘Share’ every post on your own timeline. This should help increase the scope of our posts.”

Go to

https://www.facebook.com/topangabanjofiddle

As Carl cautions, “Sometimes when you search for a page you have to sift through some extraneous results,” so you’ll want to use the exact address, or, as he says if you search, “look carefully for our page.”

Carl concludes, “Please forward this to music-loving friends and associates that will help support TBFC, including [prospective] judges, emcees, super volunteers or anyone else that you can reach and ask that they do the same. Thanks for your support.”


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Reprise:

“Alright. Just What's Going on? The Big Question Addressed” from March 13, 2015

As we reported then…
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CAN'T GIVE YOU "THE BIG REVEAL," BUT...

The Guide's BIG NEWS EDITION for March was obviously delayed, and "why" is not anything trivial. It's literally a matter of life and death. (You can see for yourself, three short paragraphs down.)

Several of our writers are working on assignments, and when they're done, we will publish their reports in a fresh news edition.

The Guide's editor must, for the present, fulfill ONLY that role: as EDITOR of reports and reviews and feature stories written by others. And the reason why is a big one.

Now, "literally a matter of life and death"-? You did read that accurately. Our editor says:

"I'm immersed in a field research project to find a living example of a severely endangered species. That is the only way to stop a developer whose strictly-for-money activities will (quite literally) totally destroy the entire habitat of the species at issue.

"I have found dead remnants of the species. We need to 'bring 'em back alive' to stand any chance of saving the only place where they live.

"By now you have noted that I have not told you WHAT the species is. Not even whether it is flora or fauna.

"And I can't. Because the greedy bastard developers subscribe to a very sophisticated web search service that notifies them of any mention of any aspect of this - on any website, in any news story, in any COMMENT to a news story, on social media, or anywhere. Only private email is safe, and only if no one copies and pastes into their social media account or some public forum.

"That is not an unfounded fear. The developer has:

(a) obtained all government-required permits to proceed with their destructive development, with no reference to the presence of the elusive and severely endangered species;

(b) already aggressively attempted to directly eliminate (read murder) the entire species at the first mention of it on the web (shocking and horrifying what they did, and are willing to do); and,

(c) prepared to launch a high-speed "push" with a phase that would only destroy - completely – both by killing outright and eliminating all habitat for the specific endangered species AND EVERYTHING ELSE alive there (which is a considerable variety of species) - and to do it apart from (or at least well in advance of) achieving their greedy money-grabbing goal.

"Beyond that, use your imagination to fill-in the blanks, and understand that the use of some non-standard nomenclature has been deliberate, to avoid their web search patrols. I can only tell you this is not some 'GMO-corn'-thing. It is a unique species that is millions of years old and about to vanish because of the greed of a few who care about increasing their financial riches and NOTHING else.

"Someday I will reveal all. Hopefully, that will be because we have saved the species in its very unique, very singular, very fragile habitat. And not because I am posting a post-mortem photo depicting the destruction of something special that could never again exist on this Earth.

"In the meantime, if you know someone in a prominent organization with successful experience in this kind of thing, we need to build the most powerful clandestine coalition possible.

"I wish I could have used more standard references, the scientific name of the species, and, in general, not been so mysterious and cryptic here. I hope you understand. Send me an email with any suggested contacts. Your general comments are welcome, too, but ONLY as private email. We cannot risk you posting something that alerts the developer's web search service.

"And really, wish me luck. I am the only one in a position to go to the site and spend what has already become a LOT of time there. Yep, luck. The endangered species and I are both really going to need it."

CONTACT email is:

Tiedtothetracks (at) Hotmail (dot) com


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The Guide's big MUSIC NEWS EDITION will be along soon.


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More, eventually, as always.
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We know, you may be reading this on a site that the Guide does not own. If so, check-in with us and let us know that all is good on that site – things like whether the Guide appears there with good formatting, and without somebody else collecting money for ads that are running with it there. And be sure to tell us if there’s questionable content or exploitation on that site, so we can sort it out or bail outta there.

Direct to the current editions /
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MOBILE-DEVICE-FRIENDLY editions load quickly at
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www.acousticamericana.blogspot.com
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CONTACT US at / send Questions / Comments to:
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Tiedtothetracks (at) Hotmail (dot) com
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Contents copyright © 2015,
Lawrence Wines & Tied to the Tracks.
All rights reserved.
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The ACOUSTIC AMERICANA MUSIC GUIDE endeavors to bring you NEWS and views of interest to artists everywhere, more specifically to musicians and the creative community, and music makers and fans of acoustic and Folk-Americana music, both traditional and innovative. We provide a wealth of resources, including a HUGE catalog of acoustic-friendly venues, and schedules of performances in Southern California venues large and small. We cover workshops and other events for artists and folks in the music industry, and all kids o’ things in the world of acoustic and Americana and accessible classical music. From washtub bass to musical spoons to oboe to viola to banjo to squeezebox, from Djangostyle to new-fangled-old-time string band music, from sweet Cajun fiddle to pre-bluegrass Appalachian mountain music to proto blues.
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The Acoustic Americana Music Guide. Thanks for droppin’ by to sit a spell.
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