.
.
Up top: One on Monday, Jan 3; + more
| Tonight at Zebulon Cafe (8 PM) | |||||
| Catch the American musician Van Dyke Parks Monday night for "Cymbalom" at Zebulon Cafe. See the legend with special guests Inara George, Leland Sklar and Grant Geissman. The show starts at 8 PM. Click above to secure your tickets now. ___ ___ ___
New Year, new offerings at Bob Stane's famous COFFEE GALLERY BACKSTAGE in Altadena... 01/06/22 - HELEN HUDSON Bob Stane says: + Everyone loves Helen. Maybe it is a theme of a movie. I’ll be there. A return ... MORE INFO01/07/22 - SWAN MONTGOMERY & ROBERT PLANTNATION Swan Montgomery (of Led Zepagain) & Robert PlantNation come together for an unforgettable night of ... MORE INFO01/13/22 - THE BAKER’S DOZEN A whirlwind tour of America with The Coffee Gallery Backstage as the anchor venue on The West ... MORE INFO01/14/22 - THE SALTY SUITES The Salty Suites played their very first show together in a high security prison for the ... MORE INFO01/15/22 - THE ANGRY BRIANS A matinee Irish extravaganza. With their own style of Celtic Fusion, these vagabond scholars of ... MORE INFO01/15/22 - LOVE DOLLY "Hi everyone! My name is Kim Eberhardt. I am the writer and featured performer in the Love Dolly Show ... MORE INFO01/16/22 - SIERRA HIGHWAY A tight California based Acoustic Americana band serving up contemporary, original and traditional music ... MORE INFO01/20/22 - ROADHOUSE SERIES A Tribute to Richie Furay: Pioneer of Americana Music. In the history of rock n roll music and ... MORE INFO |
■□■●○■□●○■□■
UPDATES, Sunday, Jan 2, 2022...
Things TODAY / TONIGHT & into January!
☆ On TV...
"JUST CALL OUT MY NAME," the concert / music documentary of JAMES TAYLOR & CAROLE KING.
This promises to be a delight. West Coast peeps can watch it at 6 pm PST or at 9 pm PST. (It airs twice, to get the 9 pm slot Eastern and Pacific; adjust for where you are.)
On CNN.
Photo: King and Taylor rehearse at the Troubadour Tavern for a performance in 2007 in West Hollywood, California. (Ric Francis/AP; from CNN)
Rolling Stone writes:
"Directed by Frank Marshall and commissioned by CNN Films and HBO Max, the documentary showcases previously unseen performance footage from their 1970 Troubadour concert debut, the pair reprising that show for the West Hollywood venue’s own 50th anniversary in 2007, and several full song performances from their 2010 reunion tour.
"The documentary’s new interview with King and Taylor, coupled with their performances, highlight the camaraderie and chemistry radiating from their enduring music and lifelong friendship. They reflect on their collaborative relationship and share several stories about their songs, including 'You’ve Got a Friend.' In the film, King explains the song 'purely came through me.' Taylor first heard King play the then new song at soundcheck before their debut Troubadour show together, and they share how he came to cover it. Band members of the Section — Danny Kortchmar, Russ Kunkel, and Lee Sklar — who backed the duo through all three concert eras are also interviewed, along with insight from musician/producer Peter Asher."
___
☆ "All-Request Song Fest" by Emma's Revolution, streaming live
Sunday Jan 2nd 1pm PT/4pm ET:
All-Request SongFest
Zoom & Facebook Live
"Join us to sing your favorites for our All-Request SongFest! Send us an email before Sunday or post in the Zoom chat or Facebook comments, that day, and we'll sing all the songs we can fit into the hour. Celebrate the end of the old year and the beginning of the new!
"Scroll here to see all the songs we've sung
and let us know which ones you'd like to hear!
"You're welcome to join in to spend some time with us.
Singing or playing an instrument is not required.
"Lyrics with chords are available at this link, if you'd like to sing or play along. Register for the Zoom event, watch via simultaneous livestream on our Facebook page or watch the post-session video on our Facebook page and our YouTube channel."
___
☆ On the web, live from Austin, Texas...
Pic shows Chris & Christine performing on the Austin City Limits set. That's NOT where they are tonight, though. Read on...
|
|
|
|
___
Musician Rod McDonald starts the New Year with a busy schedule!
☆ Streaming live theatre... (today through Jan 14th)...
 | |
| Congratulations to everyone who has worked so hard to bring this production to life. Break a leg! The Perfect Year Presented By P3 Theatre Company Streaming available from
Visit here for more information. |
___
☆ Garrison Keillor observes the whole New Year's thing...
New Year’s Day is an occasion nobody knows what to do with and so is the Eve that precedes it. I used to go to parties where we gathered around someone with a guitar and sang about broken romance and drank until the liquor was gone and the next day I awoke in a fog to watch football with other inert men but I gave all that up long ago. Gradually, a person edits out stuff that makes no sense and I scratched football, Florida vacations, artichokes, science fiction, pocket billiards, and broadcast journalism, and thus life became more and more interesting. It’s been forty years since I watched a football game. Twenty since I put the bottle away. These changes make one hopeful for the future. And here we are, looking around at 2022.
Call me naïve but I’ve been around for three score and ten plus nine years and I believe in progress. I was impressed when science found a way to put shampoo and conditioner into one bottle and when the cranberry and raisin married to form the craisin. I still rejoice at the ease of long-distance phone calls — we don’t even use the term “long distance” anymore — I’m astonished when my daughter FaceTimes me from London as I sit in a café in New York, and in our capitalist society, why does this not cost $35.75 a minute? A miracle.
I read about Boyan Slat, the young Dutchman who invented a boom that collects tons of plastic pollutants for recycling, pollutants that rivers dump into the seas and that kill fish, and it gives a person hope that we will work out the problems that a great many writers revel in despairing over, the fashionable dystopian soothsayers who prevail in academia and the media and who congregate on the coasts and talk to themselves about their iconic migraines and the systemic emptiness of life in Middle America, which they seldom set foot in but where their books sell by the truckload to comfortable people in need of the thrill of crisis. |
I’ve known some luminous people in my time, and what distinguished them was their enduring enthusiasm and hopes and aspirations, and I recommend the same to you. When I was your age, I learned the arts of sarcasm and ridicule, and as a young writer aimed for a dark neurotic brilliance (“Devastating … compelling” — NY Times, “Rips the covers off the myth of exceptionalism” — Vanity Fair), but as an old man I look around and see splendor and bravery and genius and kindness and that, my dears, is the real story.
Sitting in a café on Columbus Avenue in New York a couple weeks ago, I watched an ancient man inching his way along the sidewalk, long white hair and beard, blinded by the sun, confused, tattered, about to step into the bike lane and be run down, when two young women and a young man came to his rescue, took his hand, got his address, called an Uber to come get him, put some money in his hand, and off he went. This is the real story, a man of my generation rescued by the young. Writers can revel in despair but other people are intent on solving problems, and that’s where you should put your money.
 |
I know something about misery, having just spent four days in Florida, a state where nobody wears a mask and so I had visions of dying of COVID amid the junk food outlets and collapsible condos, but I did not die and came back north and now I have hope for 2022. The developer ex-president will find himself being questioned under oath this year, the dark cloud of perjury over his head, and his anti-science cult followers will be playing a bad hand in the November elections. Solar energy will take great strides forward. Baseball will return. My friend Harry Reid who grew up dirt-poor and fought his father to protect his mother and hitchhiked forty miles to go to high school and who wound up marshaling the Affordable Care Act through the U.S. Senate had a luminous faith in this country. I talked to him a couple months before he died last week and he was full of life and quoting Mark Twain — the line about the man who lives fully does not fear death and also, “I’ve lived through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened.” Harry was the only politician I knew who kept a picture of a humorist on his office wall. May he rest in peace and rise in glory.
********************************************************************
This week’s ["A Prairie Home Companion" - ed.] feature show takes us back to January 1, 2000 (remember Y2K). Our guests: Leo Kottke, Ann Reed, Butch Thompson and Maria Jette. Join us via our Facebook community gathering at 5PM on Saturday or listen HERE.I
In THE BACK ROOM this weekend
THE CHRISTMAS BLIZZARD (serialized - 5th installment Chapters 14-16)
The NEWS from Lake Wobegon January 3rd, 1981 audio
When you subscribe you have access to The Back Room archive including the earlier chapters of THE CHRISTMAS BLIZZARD
(Money raised from subscription fees helps to sustain the production company)
___
■□■●○■□●○■□■
Here's the full edition from Dec 30, INCLUDING POST-NYE THINGS YOU CAN DO!
Here's a quick look at some news and QUALITY LIVE MUSIC EXPERIENCES that await your presence.
This is NOT comprehensive. We have more, we know bits 'n pieces of more we need to research, and frankly, we haven't researched much yet. But if we do all that now, you won't know about some of what's in here until after it's over. And nobody wants to sing Auld Lang Syne for stuff they never got to do.
So, here ya go!
Check back later for more options!
■□■●○■□●○■□■
First, a perspective from Denmark-based, transplanted American musician and music retreat guru Brett Perkins, to add to the mix of mixed thoughts...
I know most all of us are concerned about the latest pandemic developments and I encourage everyone to stay vigilant in protecting their safety and the safety of those around them.
For me, this does not mean cancelling concerts or retreats that can be and are managed in a safe manner - evidenced by the July 2021 Idyllwild Retreat which involved eighteen participants without any cases occurring.
I believe this to be a time for each of us to draw on our inner resources of Love over fear, determination over discouragement, and optimism over pessimistic projections and I invite you to join me in keeping hope and culture alive and thriving.
We have more from Brett, including a fun music video. Keep reading...
■□■●○■□●○■□■
|
|
|
■□■●○■□●○■□■
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
■□■●○■□●○■□■
Three from Paste magazine...
The 10 Best Country & Americana Albums of 2021
Featuring Allison Russell, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Valerie June and more
And...
Gaby Moreno's Acoustic Festival VIII
Paste Studio Premiere: Gaby Moreno & Friends at Casa de la Ruina
Earlier this month, Paste filmed Gaby Moreno's Acoustic Festival VIII in Antigua, Guatemala. You can watch the whole concert here
And...
No Album Left Behind: Way Down in the Rust Bucket Is an Essential Look at Neil Young & Crazy Horse's Fearless Peak
This long-lost document may be Neil Young and Crazy Horse's most important live offering of all.
■□■●○■□●○■□■
| ||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Editor's note: the NAMM Show, held every January at the Anaheim Convention Center, Is the world's largest music industry event. The 2020 Show was one of the last major events before COVID struck. The 2021 show, like everything else that had to be planned during 2020, was of course cancelled. The 2022 Show has been delayed until Autumn. The NAMM Show must turn-away lots of musicians and music fans because it is a packed house of music-industry-only attendees. THIS IS A GREAT OPPORTUNITY FOR EVERYONE TO GET A TASTE OF NAMM, so REGISTER! It's FREE!
■□■●○■□●○■□■
|
|
|
 | ||||
Photo By Christopher Nelson They add: "We want to inform you about an important update to our COVID policy. We are now requiring proof of vaccination for all participants of the 2022 Northwest Folklife festival, including staff, volunteers, artists, and vendors.
|
■□■●○■□●○■□■
And now... Mo' Brett!
We promised you more from this very special artist. Enjoy, and start planning your live listening forays, artistic sojourns & endeavors for 2022 !
| ||||||
BRETT'S UPCOMING CA TOUR DATES
January 15th Sculpterra Winery, Paso Robles, CA
January 22nd Palm Loft Gallery, Carpinteria, CA
January 23rd Puffers of Pismo, Pismo Beach, CA
January 29th Idyllwild Songwriters Festival, CA
ADVANCE TICKETS ON SALE NOW!
2022 RETREATS
IDYLLWILD/CA
January 24-29
March 14-19
July 11-16
September 19-24
TUSCANY
April 10-16
COPENHAGEN
August 22-26
INISHEER/IRELAND
October 24-30
All retreats end with a songwriters festival on location, opened with a set of selected songs from the week.
(Single or multiple day participation possible on the Idyllwild & Copenhagen Songwriting Retreats: $100. a day).
Recommended covid protocols followed on all retreats
= Proof of vaccination or antibodies required =
Join us in the Listening Circle of songs!
=REGISTRATION IS OPEN NOW FOR ALL RETREATS=
***
■□■●○■□●○■□■
More, SOON, to help you launch your 2022.
So remember to CHECK THIS SPACE!
■□■●○■□●○■□■
Resources / Navigation / Contacting us / finding what you want in current, recent, or archived Guide editions
On mobile devices, click "view web edition" to bring-up the left side bar with navigation tools. That gives you direct access to click your way to all re9cent editions. It's easy to bring-up month-by-month archives to everything last year, so far this year, and each previous year.
.