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There are two new editions today. THIS ONE has all the weekend festivals, recommended events, music and arts news, and — Ground control to Major Tom — news of over 1200 fresh extraterrestrial discoveries(!)
THE OTHER new edition is the Guide's first-ever endorsement for President of the United States. Seriously. It's right here at a separate click and we hope you'll take time to read it.
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Contents / In this edition...
1) FESTIVALS: IMPENDING FUN!
2) CATCH LIVE FOLK CONCERTS ON THE WEB
3) ROOTSY SONGSTRESS SARA PETITE HAS LOCAL DATES
4) RECOMMENDATIONS: A MISCELLANY OF MUSICALITY — CONCERTS, ETC.
5) WORKSHOPS COMING SATURDAY, MAY 21st
6) OUTWEST CONCERT SERIES RETURNS MAY 26
7) CHAMPION COMEDIC BANJO PLAYER HAS UPCOMING L.A. SHOW
8) WANNA MEET EINSTEIN?
9) MUSIC FILM RECOMMENDATION: "RUDDERLESS"
10) GROUND CONTROL TO MAJOR TOM: NASA ANNOUNCES 1,284 NEW PLANETS FOUND
Jump right in. The water's fine.
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# 1 news feature...
FESTIVALS: IMPENDING FUN!
There are FOUR festivals this weekend, including Topanga Banjo•Fiddle on Sunday. Here's the lowdown on all the hoedowns.
√ 11th Annual ("11th Ever") "L.A. OLD TIME SOCIAL" runs Thu-Sat, May 12-14, at various venues and with emphases that range from concerts to dances to workshops. It's an immersion in the good time roots music that preceded bluegrass. Details, tix, registration at:
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www.oldtimeisagoodtime.com
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• It kicks off Thu at 8 pm, doubling as the weekly "Honky Tonk Hacienda" at El Cid, 4212 Sunset Bl, Los Angeles 90029. Performances by Echo Mountain String Band, Squirrel Butter, High Life Cajun Band.
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• Fri night's concert, May 13, at 8 pm, is Earl & Adrian White, Tom Marion with Frank Fairfield, The Canote Brothers, and intermission music by Sausage Grinder, at the Velaslavasay Panorama, 1122 W 24th St, Los Angeles 90007.
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• Sat, May 14, brings a huge schedule, noon-11 pm. Workshops run noon-6 pm, for: Fiddle, Banjo, Guitar, Mandolin, Square Dance Calling, Singing, & Clogging. At 6:30, the Family Dance & Cake Walk happen. Then at 8 pm is the Square Dance with callers Susan Michaels and Charmaine Slaven, and bands Hollywood Boll Weevils, Earl White Stringband, Squirrel Butter, and The Canote Brothers. All Sat events are at American Legion Post 206, 227 N Ave 55, Los Angeles 90042.
√ Annual "JOSHUA TREE MUSIC FESTIVAL" runs Thu-Sun, May 12-15, at Joshua Tree Lake Campground, 2601 Sunfair Rd, Joshua Tree 92252. It used to be Folk-Americana friendly, but not so much anymore. Performances Thu by Dam-Funk & the Light, Gene Evaro Jr., & Tomas de la Noche; on Fri by Dakhabrakha, The Main Squeeze, Adobe Collective, Sunsquabi, Trevor Green, Stone Soul, The Rainbow Girls, Todo Mundo, Denmantau, Bearcoon, & TryStates; on Sat by Empresarios, Little Hurricane, Greener Grounds, Dumpstaphunk, All Good Funk Alliance, Cactus Wine Experience, Royal Jelly Jive, Del Corazon, Dani Bell & the Tarantist, Desert Rhythm Project, & Jim Maloney; on Sun by Hamsa Lila, Dhara World Music, The Accidentals , Wondem, 3rd Ear Experience, Gene Evaro Jr., Vir, Inkx & Evan, Melaena Cadiz, & Megan Hutch.
√ Annual "ELECTIC MUSIC FESTIVAL": Sat, May 14, it's South Pasadena's FREE big one-day fest, on 12 Stages, much of it acoustic music with great sound systems, spread around the charming downtown. Performances by Albert Lee, Doug MacLeod, Barbara Morrison, Rick Shea, Dale LaDuke, Wild Mountain Mystics, Tim Tedrow & John Michael Kaye, Rebecca Stout, Whiskey Sunday, and more. Free. Ride the Gold Line Light Rail and avoid looking for parking.
√ Annual "TOPANGA BANJO•FIDDLE CONTEST & FOLK FESTIVAL" Sun, May 15, 9 am-6 pm, at Paramount Ranch, 2903 Cornell Rd, Agoura Hills 91301; 818-382-4819; in Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, near Agoura. For years, the best one-day folk fest anywhere. In addition to being dazzled by the contest competitors, there are scheduled performances on multiple stages by Ragged Union, The Americans, Canote Brothers, Evie Ladin Band, Hollow Trees, Joellen Lapidus, LA Dulcimer Club, Scottish Festival of Los Angeles, Ventucky String Band, G Burns Jug Band, Mike Mahaney & Friends Western Music Roundup, The Sweet Potatoes, Squirrel Butter, and folk "singer-songfighter" Ross Altman. Also, plenty of participatory dance: Clogging, Contra, & Square.
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Full info & advance tix online at:
www.topangabanjofiddle.org
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NEXT WEEKEND...
√ Annual "CLAREMONT FOLK FESTIVAL" Sun, May 22, is already SOLD-OUT.
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WORKSHOPS: 11 am-2 pm, at the Folk Music Center, 220 Yale Av, Claremont 91711.
• Introduction to Banjo: Kent Besocke
• Mountain Dulcimer: Leo Kretzner
• Songs of a Red Diaper Baby Boomer: Ross Altman
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FESTIVAL CONCERTS: 3-10 pm, at the Sontag Greek Theater at Pomona College, 300 E Bonita Av, Claremont 91711.
• 4 pm Quetzal
• 5:15 pm Yuval Ron Ensemble
• 6:30 pm Tom Morello
• 8 pm David Lindley
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909-624-2928
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# 2 news feature...
CATCH LIVE FOLK CONCERTS ON THE WEB
We've reported before on "SONGWRITERS AT PLAY," Steve Key's multivenue series. It has PLENTY of live web simulcasts weeknight evenings and weekends, plus the occasional radio streaming simulcast, all from the Central Coast. Not all these stream online, most do. And we encourage you to attend a concert when you're in the area. Or make a road trip, since some venues are wineries (one with its music hall in the old Southern Pacific Railroad depot!) Details at:
www.songwritersatplay.com
Here's the current schedule (MOST have web simulcasts)...
• Tue, May 10, tune in at 5 pm to hear Gayle Skidmore, Sugar Still, and Winne Brave. Airs on The Krush 92.5 FM, streams free worldwide at www.krush925.com. Repeats Thu, May 12, 9 am.
• Wed, May 11: The Salty Suites, with special guest Phil Lee, at the "Wine Down Wednesday" concert series at Sculpterra. $15 tix available at the door, or at Boo Boo Records in San Luis Obispo, or online at www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2527536. Sculpterra Winery, 5015 Linne Rd, Paso Robles; 805-226-8881. Food and wine available for purchase, including half-off the price of selected bottles.
• Thu, May 12: 9 am. Streaming radio repeat of the Tue, May 10, performance by Gayle Skidmore, Sugar Still, and Winne Brave. Airs on The Krush 92.5 FM, streams free worldwide at www.krush925.com.
• Thu, May 12: Dead Frets, plus Nick Brittan, Christiana Newcomb, Oliviero, Shining in the Dark. Show begins at 6:30 pm. Shell Cafe, 1351 Price St, Pismo Beach; 805-773-8300. All ages. Free. Co-production with Madeline Royal of "Love Live Music."
• Fri, May 13: Phil Lee, Ragged Company. Trevor McSpadden opens at 7 pm. Reservations strongly recommended: 805-227-6800. D'Anbino Cellars, 710 Pine St, Paso Robles. $12 cover. All ages OK. D'Anbino has cheese plates & desserts, but OK to bring your own food.
• Sun, May 15: Trevor McSpadden, plus PJ Robertson, Lars Mortensen. 1-4 pm, rain or shine year-round at Sculpterra Winery, 5015 Linne Rd, Paso Robles; 805-226-8881. No cover charge, all ages.
• Mon, May 16: Roy Schneider & Kim Mayfield,plus Stereo Chickens, Karyn Ann, Noach Tangeras, Lars Mortensen. Otter Rock Cafe, 885 Embarcadero, Morro Bay; 805-772-1420. 6:30 pm start. No cover charge, tip bucket for the featured act. All ages. Full dinner menu and great sunset views.
• Tue, May 17: Roy Schneider & Kim Mayfield, plus Craig McNichols, Max MacLaury, Devin Wallace, Lars Mortensen. Starts 6:30 pm, at Bang The Drum Brewery,950 Orcutt Road, San Luis Obispo; 805-242-8372. No cover charge, all ages.
• May 19: Roy Schneider & Kim Mayfield, plus Jennifer Martin, Amie Richie, Charles Motley. Show begins at 6:30 pm. Shell Cafe, 1351 Price St, Pismo Beach; 805-773-8300. All ages. Free.
• Sun, May 22: Reeves 'n Zat,plus Desiree trio, Rebecca & Gary Parks, Caitlin Anne Webster, Elizabeth Etta. 1-4 pm, rain or shine year-round at Sculpterra Winery, 5015 Linne Rd, Paso Robles; 805-226-8881. No cover charge, all ages.
• Mon, May 23: Reeves 'n Zat, plus Bearcoon, John Nowel, Randall Lamb, Caitlin Anne Webster, Janine Rose. Otter Rock Cafe, 885 Embarcadero, Morro Bay; 805-772-1420. 6:30 pm start. No cover charge, tip bucket for the featured act. All ages. Full dinner menu and great sunset views.
• Tue, May 24: "Bob Dylan Tribute" with Bear Market Riot, James Lee Stanley, The Agreeables, Noach Tangeras, Brian Rozendal, Girls & Boys, Cat Zebron, Ben Justus, Steve Fort. Tickets $12, available at the door; for the best seats, make dinner reservations at 805-962-7776. All ages OK. Doors open 6:30, show begins at 7:30 pm. SOhO Restaurant & Music Club,1221 State Street #205, Santa Barbara.
• May 27, "Bob Dylan Tribute." Starts at 7 pm. Reservations strongly recommended: 805-227-6800. D'Anbino Cellars, 710 Pine St, Paso Robles. $12 cover. All ages OK. D'Anbino has cheese plates & desserts, but OK to bring your own food.
• Jun 8: Jill Knight at the "Wine Down Wednesday" concert series at Sculpterra. $15 tix available at the door, or at Boo Boo Records in San Luis Obispo, or online at www.brownpapertickets.com. Sculpterra Winery, 5015 Linne Rd, Paso Robles; 805-226-8881. Food and wine available for purchase, including half-off the price of selected bottles.
• Jun 10, new trio Point Conception and Portland's Just People. Starts at 7 pm. Reservations strongly recommended: 805-227-6800. D'Anbino Cellars, 710 Pine St, Paso Robles. $12 cover. All ages OK. D'Anbino has cheese plates & desserts, but OK to bring your own food.
• Tue, Jun 21: Ynana Rose, plus David Trull, Jennifer Martin, Matt Yaki. Starts 6:30 pm, at Bang The Drum Brewery,950 Orcutt Road, San Luis Obispo; 805-242-8372. No cover charge, all ages.
• Jun 24, "Merle Haggard Tribute." Starts at 7 pm. Reservations strongly recommended: 805-227-6800. D'Anbino Cellars, 710 Pine St, Paso Robles. $12 cover. All ages OK. D'Anbino has cheese plates & desserts, but OK to bring your own food.
• Jul 13: CC Riders with Louie Ortega & Dorian Michael at the "Wine Down Wednesday" concert series at Sculpterra. $15 tix available at the door, or at Boo Boo Records in San Luis Obispo, or online at www.brownpapertickets.com. Sculpterra Winery, 5015 Linne Rd, Paso Robles; 805-226-8881. Food and wine available for purchase, including half-off the price of selected bottles.
• Aug 10: Bear Market Riot at the "Wine Down Wednesday" concert series at Sculpterra. $15 tix available at the door, or at Boo Boo Records in San Luis Obispo, or online at www.brownpapertickets.com. Sculpterra Winery, 5015 Linne Rd, Paso Robles; 805-226-8881. Food and wine available for purchase, including half-off the price of selected bottles.
• Sep 14: Jody Mulgrew Band at the "Wine Down Wednesday" concert series at Sculpterra. $15 tix available at the door, or at Boo Boo Records in San Luis Obispo, or online at www.brownpapertickets.com. Sculpterra Winery, 5015 Linne Rd, Paso Robles; 805-226-8881. Food and wine available for purchase, including half-off the price of selected bottles.
More tributes:
• June 14 Merle Haggard
• July 12 Jackson Browne
• Aug 30 Van Morrison
• Sep 13 Buddy Holly
• Oct 11 John Lennon
• Nov 22 Gordon Lightfoot
Full info and web simulcast links at:
www.songwritersatplay.com
More at:
www.facebook.com/songwritersatplay
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# 3 news feature...
ROOTSY SONGSTRESS SARA PETITE HAS LOCAL DATES
The Guide's founding editor was an early fan of Sara Petite, who has gone on to earn serious music prizes, do national tv, and open for headliners that include Ralph Stanley, Marty Stuart, Dave Alvin, and plenty more.
We like it when other music journalists rave about somebody after we do.
"There is no medical evidence to prove that Lucinda Williams, Nanci Griffith and Carrie Rodriguez joined forces to mother a fully-grown musician daughter. But if they did, San Diego singer-songwriter Sara Petite would be the likely outcome.” — George Varga, San Diego Union Times.
“She could sing a buzzard off a slop wagon.” — Mojo Nixon.
"A true original, Sara's music does not conveniently fit into any one musical genre or sub-category, but rather traces her influences in country, bluegrass, rock and folk, and emerges into a sound completely her own. As welcome in senior citizen centers as she is in biker bars, nightclub venues and festivals, Sara is as American as apple pie and Harley Davidson. She is gritty, she is wild, she is tender with a soul of a child." — Kim Grant.
Sara Petite is a gifted singer-songwriter who possesses a very real ability to reach the hearts and souls of fans young and old. She has that rare gift of crafting songs that appeal equally to, but are interpreted differently by, fans of diverse perspectives. This is amply evidenced as you watch the audiences at her live performances.
Petite has toured all over the U.S. and Europe. She has some local dates, including a free show in the most intimate of venues, the Cinema Bar in Culver City, at 9 pm on May 25th (1867 N Sepulveda Bl, Culver City. It's the size of a postage stamp, barstool seating is competitive; 21+ venue; come early to get in.) See below for more dates and venues.
Her new album, "The Road Less Traveled," is slated for August 2016 release.
Transplanted to San Diego from a tulip farming town in Washington, she cites her influences as artists as diverse as Loretta Lynn, Tammy Wynette, Dolly Parton, and June Carter, to Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen, and John Mellencamp. That'll prepare you a bit for that new record.
Catching her live... Southern Cal. & Central Coast Road Dates:
√ May 10: "Merle Haggard Tribute" night at the Belly Up, Solana Beach.
√ May 12: 7 pm, no cost, at Otter Cafe, 885 Embarcadero, Morro Bay.
√ May 20: 6 pm, no cost, at Wynola Red Barn, 4355 Hwy 78, Julian (inland San Diego Co.)
√ May 25: 9 pm, no cost, at the Cinema Bar, 1867 N Sepulveda Bl, Culver City.
√ May 27 & 28: 8 pm, no cost, at Pappy & Harriet's, 53688 Pioneertown Rd, Pioneertown 92268 (a famous remote venue in the eastern desert, a detour from 29 Palms.)
Sometimes, you can catch Sara Petite & the Sugar Daddies, her full band. Other times, it's her rootsy 3-piece Classic Country, swampy-sounding ensemble, Sara Petite & the Sweet Pea Possums. Or it's Sara and her guitar. All three options are formidable.
Touring as a solo artist, Sara has opened for many greats, including Ralph Stanley, Marty Stuart, Lonestar, Todd Snider, Dave Alvin, Josh Turner, Ol' 97s, John Eddie, Richie McDonald, Trent Tomlinson, Steve Poltz, and more.
Sara Petite's awards and accolades include:
• Winner, 3 times, San Diego’s Best Country/Americana Band
• Grand Prize Winner of Portland’s Songwriting Contest
• San Diego Songwriting Contest Winner
• International Songwriting Finalist
• In 2012, Petite won second place in the prestigious "Chris Austin Songwriting Contest" at the huge "Merlefest."
More info: www.sarapetite.com
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# 4 news feature...
RECOMMENDATIONS: A MISCELLANY OF MUSICALITY — CONCERTS, ETC.
There's a cosmic convergence of musicality these next few days. The concert scene is simply wonderful. These listings are in addition to events discussed in the other features in this edition. We aren't repeating ourselves with parallel listings. So be sure to check the festivals and other features, too.
Here are our recommendations, Thursday through Sunday...
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Thursday, May 12...
√ FORTUNATE SON, acclaimed Creedence tribute band: Thu, May 12, 2 pm matinee, at the Coffee Gallery Backstage, 2029 N Lake Av, Altadena 92675; reservations (10 am-10 pm, 7 days) at 626-798-6236.
√ EVIE LADIN: Thu, May 12, 7 pm, House Concert in Claremont 91711. Reservations get directions from Don Breyer at 909-626-8666 or debreyer@gmail.com.
√ STORYTELLING CONCERT: TY FANCE & JAMIE BRIDGERS: Thu, May 12, 7:30 pm, at the Coffee Gallery Backstage, 2029 N Lake Av, Altadena 92675; reservations (10 am-10 pm, 7 days) at 626-798-6236.
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Friday, May 13...
√ BLACK MARKET TRUST: Fri, May 13, 7 pm, at Squashed Grapes, 2351 E Main St, Ventura 93003.
√ EVIE LADIN BAND: Fri, May 13, 7:30 pm, at the "San Diego Folk Heritage" concert series at Templars Hall in Old Poway Park, 14134 Midland Rd, Poway (San Diego Co) 92064; 858-566-4040.
√ JOHN PRINE, JASON ISBELL, & AMANDA SHIRES: Fri, May 13, 7:30 pm, a formidable bill at the Greek Theatre, 2700 N Vermont, Griffith Park, Los Angeles 90027; 213-480-3232.
√ JIM GUSTIN & TRUTH JONES, plus CROOKED EYE TOMMY, and BOBBY BLUEHOUSE: Fri, May 13, 8 pm, at Arcadia Blues Club, 16 E Huntington Dr, Arcadia. Fun club, good food (generous portions), full bar, free street parking; bring esrplugs - seriously. Tix, $10, discounted to $5 online advance, at: http://www.arcadiabluesclub.com/schedule.htm
√ DIRK HAMILTON: Fri, May 13, 8 pm,at McCabe’s Guitar Shop, 3101 Pico Bl, Santa Monica 90405; 310-828-4497.
√ THE LUCKYS: Fri, May 13, 8 pm, at the Camarillo Café Concert Series, 1605 Burnley St, Camarillo 93010.
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Saturday, May 14...
√ QUATTROSOUND: Sat, May 14, 12:30 pm matinee at the Old Ranch Country Club, 3901 Lampson Av, Seal Beach 90740.
√ HOMEMADE JAM: Sat, May 14, 3 pm matinee, at the Coffee Gallery Backstage, 2029 N Lake Av, Altadena 92675; reservations (10 am-10 pm, 7 days) at 626-798-6236.
√ "ROSS ALTMAN Presents Songs of the ‘60s": Sat, May 14, 3 pm matinee, at the Santa Monica Public Library, 601 Santa Monica Bl, Santa Monica 90401. Sponsored by the Topanga Banjo•Fiddle Contest, which holds its annual festival tomorrow, May 15th. See festival section.
√ SLIGO RAGS: Sat, May 14, 7 pm, at the Coffee Gallery Backstage, 2029 N Lake Av, Altadena 92675; reservations (10 am-10 pm, 7 days) at 626-798-6236.
√ ALICE WALLACE: Sat, May 14, 8 pm. The truly outstanding artist plays "Russ and Julie’s House Concerts" series in Oak Park (Agoura Hills/Westlake Village area). Reservations get directions at 818-707-2179 or rsvp@houseconcerts.us
√ RAGGED UNION, Bluegrass band from Colorado: Sat, May 14, 8 pm, at Boulevard Music, 4316 Sepulveda Bl, Culver City 90230; 310-398-2583.
√ COCO MONTOYA, plus BOBBY BLUEHOUSE: Sat, May 14, 8 pm, at Arcadia Blues Club, 16 E Huntington Dr, Arcadia. Fun club, good food (generous portions), full bar, free street parking; bring esrplugs - seriously. Tix $25, discounted online advance to $20, at: http://www.arcadiabluesclub.com/schedule.htm
√ JANIVA MAGNESS: Sat, May 14, 8 pm, at McCabe’s Guitar Shop, 3101 Pico Bl, Santa Monica 90405; 310-828-4497.
√ RICHARD THOMPSON: Sat, May 14, 9 pm, plays solo and with his trio, at the Teragram Ballroom, 1234 W 7th St, Los Angeles 90017; 213-689-9100.
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Sunday, May 15...
There are entitely too many truly outstanding possibilities that are perfect for your post-Topanga Banjo•Fiddle Fest on Sunday...
√ PEANUT plays the "Matinee Kids' Show" series: Sun, May 15, 11 am, at McCabe’s Guitar Shop, 3101 Pico Bl, Santa Monica 90405; 310-828-4497.
√ DUSTBOWL REVIVAL: Sun, May 15, at 6 pm. It's the "Ojai Concert Series" at Dancing Oak Ranch, on Hwy 150 / 4585 Casitas Pass Rd, Ventura 93001; 805-649-5189.
√ "A TRIBUTE TO MERLE HAGGARD": Sun, May 15, 6 pm, at Cody's Viva Cantina , 900 Riverside Dr, Burbank 91506; 818-845-2425. Performances by Cody Bryant, Susie Glaze, Tony Gilkyson, Craig Elkins, Cary Park, Lisa Finnie, Ronnie Mack, Tonya Watts, Groovy Rednecks, & Rick Shea. It's this month's installment of "THE MESSAROUND" with a very formidable lineup!
√ RAGGED UNION, Bluegrass band from Colorado: Sun, May 15, 7 pm, at the Coffee Gallery Backstage, 2029 N Lake Av, Altadena 92675; reservations (10 am-10 pm, 7 days) at 626-798-6236.
√ "SONGWRITER'S SQUARE": Sun, May 15, 7 pm, brings PHIL WARD (delightfully comedic folksinger & Trough Records artist), ERIC KUFS (from folk band COMMON ROTATION), NORMANDIE WILSON (cabaret singer), and host BILL BERRY, for Phil's first post-root-canal concert "despite looking like a chipmunk," at Lyric-Hyperion Theatre & Cafe, 2106 Hyperion Av, Silver Lake (L.A.) 90027. Get $12 tickets at:
www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2545558 using the code word Phil. (The show's at 7 pm, not 7 am, despite what that web site says) Or pay $15 at the door if you mention Phil's name.
√ ROSEMARY BUTLER: Sun, May 15, 7:30 pm, at SOHo Restaurant & Music Club, 1221 State St, Santa Barbara 93101; 805-962 7776.
√ DANIEL BACHMAN: Sun, May 15, 7:30 & 9:30 pm, at the Museum of Jurassic Technology, 9341 Venice Bl, Culver City 90232; 310-836-6131; events@mjt.org
√ DARRYL PURPOSE with PAUL ZOLLO: Sun, May 15, 8 pm, at McCabe’s Guitar Shop, 3101 Pico Bl, Santa Monica 90405; 310-828-4497. The Guide just brought you a rave review (May 7) of the brand-new Darryl Purpose new album, with songs written by Paul Zollo. This'll be a big night.
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# 5 news feature...
WORKSHOPS COMING SATURDAY, MAY 21st
A pair of workshops spaced far enough apart you could make both. If you play fiddle and guitar.
√ "CAPE BRETON FIDDLE WORKSHOP" with ANDREA BEATON: Sat, May 21, 11:30 am, at La Crescenta Presbyterian Church, 2902 Montrose Av, La Crescenta 91214. Google it.
√ "FINGERSTYLE GUITAR WORKSHOP" with ADAM MILLER: Sat, May 21, 4 pm, at Boulevard Music, 4316 Sepulveda Bl, Culver City 90230; 310-398-2583.
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# 6 news feature...
OUTWEST CONCERT SERIES RETURNS MAY 26
Before we talk about who's performing, let's talk a moment about this series. It's in the Old Newhall district of Santa Clarita. It has grown to genuine event status in a comfortable theatre from a start, a few years back, in a western wear store. Along the way, it's gained sponsorship of local cable tv, which does a live shoot of every concert. And it's still put together by that store, which is named OutWest.
If you get your ticket in time for the next concert, happening May 26, you'll enjoy a performance by JENNIFER LIND, a wonderful singer and entertainer. It's at Repertory East Playhouse, 24266 Main St, Newhall. Jennifer blends western and mainstream folk styles. She has two albums out, and is now a member of the NEW CHRISTY MINSTRELS.
Evening begins in the theatre's lounge at 7 pm; concert at 8 pm. Tix are $25. Call 661-255-7087 to reserve your seats.
You owe it to yourself to become familiar with this series and with the living legacy of Western music.
L.A. doesn't offer a lot of real Western music, apart from the annual "Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival" that happened last month. Once in a while, the Autry National Center (Autry Museum of the American West) does something nicely tuneful. And Cody's Viva Cantina in Burbank works a good number of Western Swing bands into their nightly mix. Plus there's the fine lineup at the Coffee Gallery Backstage up in Altadena. And a few times a year, there's this series.
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# 7 news feature...
CHAMPION COMEDIC BANJO PLAYER HAS UPCOMING L.A. SHOW
Bet you think we're talking about Steve Martin. Not this time. We're talking about the winner of the coveted "Three Weeks Award" at Scotland's "Edinburgh Fringe Festival."
We're talking about Daniel Cainer.
"Call him a comedian, a spinner of tales, a homespun philosopher — beneath the rapid-fire delivery there lurks a warm Jewish soul and a quality Jews might call 'heimish', a feeling of comfort, of home. One laughs with, not at, the whimsy. A rare quality."
— Theodore Bikel, the late folksinger and actor.
Cainer has enjoyed sold-out shows around the world. His collection of stories in song reveals a master songwriter and performer.
"He shines light in lots of dark corners, family secrets, feuding tailors making their way from Lodz to London, and much more. You'll laugh, you'll cry. What's not to like?" — Jeannine Frank, event producer.
An "Edinburgh Fringe Festival" (Scotland) favorite each year, Cainer's compositions and topical songs are performed regularly on BBC London.
Check out a review from the 2015 Edinburgh Fringe Festival: "Always Best of the Fest!" --
http://fringereview.co.uk/review/edinburgh-fringe/2015/daniel-cainer-21st-century-jew
Now, the tricky part. You CAN see Daniel perform while he's in L.A. But you need to contact Jeannine to get a ticket. She will even get you a nice discounted ticket. But she is the one with the details, at:
jeannine@frankentertainment.com
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# 8 news feature...
WANNA MEET EINSTEIN?
"It's all relative -- so bring all yours to enjoy EINSTEIN, where humor, history & dazzling equations collide!" That's the clever promo. The rave reviews are more... intelligent:
HUFFINGTON POST: "This is a unique American premiere worth investigating.... Fry's portrait captures iconic mathematician as you might not have imagined him before..."
RANDOM LENGTHS NEWS: "... a glorious evening's entertainment, a personal triumph for Jack Fry and for the reality of science we know so little about."
It's one night only...
Tue, May 24, at 7:30 pm, at the Santa Monica Playhouse, 1211 4th St (a few doors S. of Wilshire Bl), Santa Monica.
Tickets $35 ($25 for Guide readers through promoter Jeannine Frank, at: jeannine@frankentertainment.com )
Explore more at:
www.einsteintheplay.com
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# 9 news feature...
MUSIC FILM RECOMMENDATION: "RUDDERLESS"
"RUDDERLESS" (2014) is now playing on Starz cable and Netflix. It doesn't seem to have ever gotten the usual round with critics, and that's too bad. It is an engaging music fable with catchy singer-songwriter material, some developed for full band performances.
It marks the directorial debut of veteran actor William H. Macy, who has a cameo, and it stars Billy Crudup.
The central plot line is handled with a good mix of necessary introspective character development and enjoyable music performances. And that's saying a lot, because the opening incident would be impossibly disturbing, even a deal-breaker, were it not adequately handled by the writing and cast.
The story gives us a skillful weaving of multiple generations, linked by the universality, redemptive power, and escapism of music. Yep, all three.
The moments — and a couple of entire scenes — of awkwardness are characteristic enough of the youth of some of the characters that it narrowly escapes being an eye-roller.
A very folky performance venue — half coffee-house, half bar — and a music store threatened with closing, along with scenes at a lake, all work to create believable surroundings and look like New England. But all are in Oklahoma; the film was made in Guthrie, Edmond, Oklahoma City, and at that lake. Each location becomes comfortably familiar and helps the plot work.
An especially strong reason to watch? Anyone who has ever been in a band (at any age), or worked the goofy jobs necessary to sustain chasing a music career, will relate to the many nicely crafted little "musician moments," perhaps finding them downright reminiscent. That includes a couple of over-the-top, alcohol-fueled parabolic arcs.
Language, and that opening incident and its eventual resolution, make it unsuitable for small fry. Recommended for everyone else. Especially everyone who spends some portion of their life involved in making music.
Co-stars Anton Yelchin; Laurence Fishburne, Felicity Huffman, and Selena Gomez also have roles.
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# 10 news feature...
GROUND CONTROL TO MAJOR TOM: NASA ANNOUNCES 1,284 NEW PLANETS FOUND
The $60 million Kepler Space Telescope mission keeps delivering huge dividends. With the NASA announcement today, May 10, the number of known planets orbiting stars other than our own just increased by a whopping 60 percent.
Already, scientists have determined that nine of those 1,284 planets are "rocky" rather than gaseous or iceballs, and they orbit their suns in the "goldilocks zone."
That refers to the right distance for water to remain liquid without permanently freezing or boiling away into vapor. Of course, the distance of that zone is different with each star, based on how big and how hot it is. And we're observing from distances so great that all this detection capability would have been thought impossible just a few years ago.
Venus could be in our sun's goldilocks zone, if it didn't have a runaway greenhouse effect that keeps it surface hot enough to melt lead. In fact, planetary scientists believe Venus once had oceans of liquid water. Which should give us caution. Not only about those distant rocky worlds. But about the accelerating global warming on our own. It's not wise to abuse mother nature.
Read about those 1,284 newly found planets at:
www.space.com/32850-nasa-kepler-telescope-finds-1284-alien-planets.html
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More music news is in numerous recent editions. More on upcoming FESTIVALS and events is in the April 16 edition, available at a separate click.
Much more, soon, on additional topics.
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
The Guide brings you frequent editions covering MUSIC NEWS, arts and industry events, and ticket alerts, available right here on the Guide's Blogspot site.
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
Direct to the current editions /
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: . Tiedtothetracks (at) Hotmail (dot) com
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Contents copyright © 2016, 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 forms. From the deepest roots to today’s acoustic renaissance, that’s our beat. We provide a wealth of resources, including a HUGE catalog of acoustic-friendly venues, and schedules and inside info on FESTIVALS and select performances in Southern California in venues monumentally large and intimately small and cozy. We cover workshops and other events for artists and folks in the music industry, and all kinds 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 bluegrass and pre-bluegrass Appalachian mountain music to all the roots of the blues and where the music is headed now.
.
The Acoustic Americana Music Guide. Thanks for sittin' a spell.
.
<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>
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Thursday, May 12, 2016
For President, the Guide Endorses...
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.
Welcome to this very serious consideration of our shared future. Thanks for joining us. Let's get started.
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FOR PRESIDENT, THE GUIDE ENDORSES...
We know. This excruciatingly endless election year has everyone wondering the same thing:
"Are Rod Serling and Franz Kafka at the door?"
"Are we living in some Groundhog Day of a Saturday Night Live sketch?"
In fact: America may be looking at the lowest percentage of voters in a November general-election in our history. But we're not there yet. And nothing says we need to be.
The Guide is doing this — something unprecedented for our music and arts journal — because it matters. Hugely.
If too much tv has you believing otherwise, we're especially glad you're reading this. Because your vote in California matters more than it has in years. Get registered to vote for the candidate of your choice. If you are disgusted with all of them, we hope to influence that.
Registration for the California Primary closes May 23rd.
We decided to offer this endorsement not as some flippant 140-word quip, but thoroughly, seriously, and comprehensively, as a worthwhile use of your time as one of the intelligent, thoughtful folks who comprise our readership. Thank you for joining us here to read this.
OUR ENDORSEMENT IS...
The Guide is endorsing Bernie Sanders in the California Primary on Tuesday, June 7th. We'd like to share with you the most compelling reasons why.
WHY YOUR VOTE MATTERS — REALLY MATTERS
These days, neither party can claim the largest plurality of the American electorate. As the 2016 election cycle began, 42 percent of all registered voters were independents.
Independents will certainly determine the outcome in November. In California, independents will almost certainly make the difference in the state's June 7th primary.
But be careful: in California, that means being registered "No Political Party Preference" — checking the tiny box on the voter registration form that is all by itself, way off to the right of all the other choices. Anyone being quick instead of careful might blunder into checking what they think is "independent," but it's the box for the "American Independent Party" — an ultraconservative political party(!) with no other option. (If you are not sure, go online and check your registration now. Google "registrar of voters" with your county name.)
You can take a Democratic Primary ballot at your polling place, and vote for Bernie Sanders, ONLY if you are registered "No Political Party Preference" or you are a registered Democrat.
Now, let's emphasize the next thing: corporate mainstream media has done a disgraceful disservice to democracy. It is they who would have you believe that voting in the remaining primaries — including the California Primary — simply doesn't matter. That's outrageously untrue. It does matter. And we'll say it again — Hugely. In Califonia especially, because of its delegate numbers, and in every other remaining primary because this is very close.
Given the rancor and ugliness and childish stupidity that has characterized so much of this excruciatingly lengthy presidential campaign, you may question the wisdom of our venturing into it at all, and especially this late. Those reasons, right here in this paragraph, are exactly why we are doing it.
WHO CAN VOTE, HOW, AND WHY
Many Republicans have no desire or willingness to vote for the presumptive Republican Party candidate.
If that's you, you still have time to re-register "No Political Party Preference" and gain the option to vote a June ballot to stop both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
If you're a Democrat and that statement gives you heartburn, stop and recognize that the majority of Americans are not comfortable with Hillary Clinton. And every Californian has a choice.
If you are registered as a Democrat OR registered "No Political Party Preference," you can vote for Bernie Sanders on June 7th.
Yes, independents can vote for Bernie Sanders — as long as they're registered in time as "No Political Party Preference," by May 23rd.
It's important that everyone knows that and spreads the word.
With so much general revulsion for the antics and process of the 2016 election; with such a thoroughly repulsive Republican candidate; and with one extremely unpopular Democratic candidate, in Secretary Clinton, who a majority of respondents in every poll deems "untrustworthy"; we believe it is our duty as a public service to make you aware of the wonderfully attractive alternative and how to act on that opportunity, and we believe that obligates us to offer the reasons why we believe you should.
THE REAL DELEGATE NUMBERS
The California Primary will determine 475 Pledged Delegates to the Democratic Party convention. That's the largest number from any state. Your vote determines how that number is allocated as nominating votes at the convention in Philadelphia.
If big corporate mainstream media has you believing this is already over, you have been deluded. Their insistence on combining Pledged Delegate votes, earned in primaries and statewide caucuses, with nebulous estimates of Superdelegate party hacks and elective office holders — whose votes are not guaranteed — is a baffling disservice to the American people.
There are 1,054 delegate spots STILL REMAINING to be chosen.
It takes 2,383 delegate votes to secure the nomination as the majority of the total of 4,765 delegates. Though, curiously, all three of those numbers, along with the number of California's delegate votes, can increase. We'll get to that.
First, the most important thing. Big media insists on showing a composite of somewhere north of 2,200 Clinton delegates, knowing it's a sham.
Yes, we are calling them out. Big media anonymously homogonizes Superdelegates. Except where the public understands, they don't play that game. In a revolt against party rules, Maine Democrats voted last week to strip their state's Superdelegates of power, making a big splash in the Chicago Tribune but going unreported nearly everywhere else.
It is a byzantine process. On Tuesday, Sanders won West Virginia over Clinton by double-digits. Yet he picked up only 18 of that state's 29 Pledged Delegates and only one Superdelegate. And California's delegation can quietly increase from 548 to 601 if a "20 percent bonus" formula is invoked by the Democratic Party.
But the most basic wackiness is the unquestioned, essentially fraudulent use of a composite number that adds earned Pledged Delegates to Superdelegates who can do whatever they want.
In fact, THESE are the Democratic Convention delegate numbers, with 10 states still to vote, including two of the biggest, California and New Jersey.
Pledged Delegates (guaranteed votes):
Hillary Clinton 1,710
Bernie Sanders 1,440
Superdelegates (discretionary votes, as they are presently expected to be cast):
Hillary Clinton 523
Bernie Sanders 39
LET'S TALK SUPERDELEGATES
So, as we just saw, Superdelegates may change their votes as they please.
There is good reason to believe that by this summer's nominating convention in late July, many will decide to change.
Such things as Secretary Clinton's $100,000 to $333,000 per-couple fundraisers have been advertised as benefitting state party organizations and Democratic candidates up-and-down the ballot. In fact, nearly all the money (after being moved around) ends up in the H-arrow campaign. And the state parties and down-ballot campaigns are left with no money from big donors who are maxed-out and cannot be tapped again.
That might be okay if she had "coattails" that would carry those other candidates into office. But her unfavorability ratings are over 50 percent.
Meanwhile, Bernie Sanders is the ONLY candidate with a positive nationwide rating.
In campaign finance terms? His campaign collects millions of small donations — famously averaging $27 — from people who can be approached over and over for more small donations, with probable capacity to support those down-ballot campaigns, as well.
If Secretary Clinton's approval ratings continue to plunge and Senator Sanders continues to score upset wins as he did in West Virginia, Indiana, and earlier in Michigan, those Superdelegates are hardly in the bag for Hillary.
And — not as some smear, but as a developing reality — there is the growing possibility she could yet face damaging fallout, if not federal indictment, in the ongoing federal investigation being conducted by FBI Director James Comey with 130 agents and a non-interference pledge from the White House. Her campaign calls it "a security review" but it's clearly much more. It may be examining favors done by her US State Department for foreign and domestic financiers and industrialists who contributed to the Clinton Foundation. Don't think it can be dismissed as "dirty politics." It's serious.
Any or all these factors may become straws on the camel, or could become bombshells as voters in the remaining ten states head to the polls. So California and its massive number of Pledged Delegates matters both for its direct part in the additive total to nominate, and for its influence on those whose convention votes for the nominee can be cast as they think best. It's "yuge."
CALIFORNIA'S DELEGATE MATH
California's delegate haul represents almost 20 percent of the 2,383 delegates needed to secure the Democratic nomination and almost 12 percent of the 4,038 pledged delegates up for grabs in 2016.
Despite those percentages, actual numbers are quite squirrely.
In California's Democratic primary, 475 Pledged Delegates are at stake, more than any other state in the Democratic nominating process. But that number can become 528 Pledged Delegates, if the "20 percent bonus" formulas all work with the rather odd numerology of the state party's May and June machinations. (For our mathematician readers, the equation, and enough to discern the odd process, is at http://www.thegreenpapers.com/P16/D-Alloc.phtml ).
The Democrats also award those infamous Superdelegates in California. Initially, that was set at 70. It's now 73.
In California, both Democrats and Republicans award most of their delegates by congressional district. Even politically-savvy residents of California's state capital needed to have it explained.
“So you’re gonna essentially have 53 small campaigns around the state,” says Paul Mitchell, who runs one of California’s most respected political data companies. For example, he says, coastal Democrats don’t vote like inland Democrats. And in some districts, more people vote early by mail.
“Those kind of mechanical differences are gonna be extremely important when you’re talking about potentially somebody’s entire presidential campaign resting on being able to eke out a dozen delegates here, a dozen delegates there, going into the conventions.”
And another twist: Republican delegates are winner-take-all in each district; Democrats award delegates proportionally based on how well each candidate does. Both parties also award extra delegates based on the statewide vote. So now you see why Trump is all but anointed and why the Democratic Party contest is very much up for grabs — despite the media's calls for you to believe otherwise.
(Thanks to Ben Adler of KQED, Capital Public Radio, for those interview quotes.)
ONCE THE NUMBERS FINALLY ADD-UP
The nominee — either Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton — will be chosen by vote of the delegates at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, PA, happening July 25th-28th.
Donald Trump will officially become the GOP nominee at the Republican National Convention, held July 18-21, in Cleveland, OH.
Beyond the Democratic Convention? If Senator Sanders is not on the general election ballot in November, you'll hear from us again, with an analysis of third-party options.
BUT HOLD ON! THERE'S THAT "SOCIALIST!" THING
Okay, let's get real about that. Have you checked-out a book from the public library? Walked your dog in a city park? Driven on a freeway? Hiked a mountain trail? Spent a day at the beach? Gone camping in Yosemite or Sequoia or the High Sierras or Grand Canyon? Glad those places can't be bought by the rich and everyone else — including you — kept out, or charged more than you can afford?
Are you glad you can call the fire department to save your abode, or the cops if somebody is being beaten to a pulp?
Then you're a socialist. Period. Get over it. If you believe that people should not suffer or die from untreated injuries or diseases without losing their houses, or because they haven't got a lot of money, then you're a socialist. In fact, the way Jesus did things during his time on Earth, there really isn't any question. He was a socialist.
Besides, look where end-game cutthroat capitalism has gotten us. Taxpayer funded bailouts used to pay multimillion dollar bonuses to the bloated fatcats who broke the economy in the first place? Publicly owned beaches and forests and National Parks and freeways and libraries are a much better idea. So is health care for all and tuition-free public colleges and universities that enable people to improve themselves and make our society more competitive against highly educated foreign competitors.
In fact, the notion of a democracy with pure capitalism is impossible. The rich would buy-up everything, and where would you go? We'll take democratic socialism.
THE GUIDE DOES MAKE ENDORSEMENTS, YES, BUT MUSIC, NOT POLITICS...
We have no idea if this will bring us readers or cost us readers. It should do neither, but we are aware that it could. And that's fine.
The Guide is an arts journal. Throughout our history, we have reliably reported in detail and made countless endorsements — well, recommendations — on events to attend, music buy to buy, artists to watch (and listen to)...
We have kept you abreast of, and sometimes recommended, new gear, venues, workshops, ways to support music education, wonky topics liked by artists and music fans, and more. We've covered trends — critically, and we've certainly not always been complimentary. We've even issued warnings of some real stinkers.
But politics?
We've covered the historic and still vital role of folk music and advocated for its influence in civil rights, worker rights, gender equality, and protecting wild lands and cultural and historic sites. We've advocated for artists and activists who've gifted us with their legacies, and emphatically advocated for the role of music and the arts in our obligation to leave a meaningful legacy to the future. We've noted and honored sacrifices made by some as integral to that legacy. And that's arguably political.
Our tech and science coverage? Along with music gear tech and instrument tech, we occasionally get into some science and engineering topics that range from preserving art and old recordings to archaeology and saving the art and architecture of ancient monuments — whether or not they have 3,000-year-old mosaics of lute players.
We've written about taking guitars out to do dendrochronology graphs in the field from ancient trees. That's the science of documenting climate going back over 8,000 years using rings in living trees more than 4,000 years old, and dead ones lying alongside them. Which is political to someone whose creationist religious beliefs demand a 6,000 year-old-Earth that came with fossils "laminated in."
We even get to a little astrophysics, planetary exploration, and understanding threats to natural systems and safeguarding Mother Earth. And because one of the two major political parties in America expends so much ignorant hot air denying what science can so easily prove, that, again, makes our presentations political.
A cardinal tenet
We advocate for mindfulness by artists that they — you, and we — have influence, and use it wisely and intentionally. And political dimensions can sometimes be found there.
We're told from time to time by various folks that they have written lyrics after finding ideas and inspirations in some of our news and feature stories on these broadly ranging topics, and that always makes us proud.
While offering plenty of sage advice from music masters in their areas of expertise, plus more humble editorial positions, and sharing viewpoints about controversial arts-related topics, our purpose has always been to spread light rather than heat. Even in fields as passionate as the arts.
Thus, we have made plenty of recommendations and posited some cautions. We have been critical — sometimes scathingly critical — of trends that shouldn't be monopolizing all the attention of arts & entertainment media and seeking to take your money. And we have raved with joy and encouragement to support everything from revivals of styles and traditional instruments and long-lost musical genres to innovators who expand the appeal of Folk-Americana and today's new acoustic music, including accessible classical music.
We could go on, through our ongoing celebrations and recommendations of music festivals, film festivals, and landmark concerts, to exploring songs and lyrics that are changing the world, to making picks of new releases and rediscovered old ones. So there have been countless endorsements. We have celebrated famous, contextually famous, and obscure PEOPLE in the arts who have changed the world in big or small but important ways.
We have covered a great many topics in and out of music where our endorsements are implied if not specifically given.
But we have never endorsed a candidate for political office. Until now.
WE'RE ENDORSING BERNIE BECAUSE...
√ Most of the Guide's readership is in California. Our metrics, happily, do include a truly global audience, and that is part of why we keep doing this: to expand knowledge of the music and musicians and broaden their reach and appeal. We can do what we do because it all comes to us. California is crossroads and nexus for live performance, recording, tv, filmmaking, and so much more.
√ California is also the biggest treasure trove of delegates for each political party's nominating convention. Nearly always, California votes so late that it's over before the plodding march of primary elections reaches the Golden State. This time it matters here, and California can be the game-changer for Bernie Sanders.
√ There is a thoroughly meaningful battle for the heart and soul of the Democratic Party and the future of the progressive movement. Beyond the rhetoric and the maddening focus of big media on trivia and a few overblown aspects to the exclusion of everything else, this is serious.
√ Income inequality in America is a widening gulf and the disparity is accelerating. The banksters, bailed-out by the taxpayers after they broke the economy in 2008, have taken the lion's share of profitability in the US economy for themselves. The middle class is increasingly joining the struggling and impoverished classes.
√ Health care is still not affordably available to all. Ending America's bizarre, uniquely cruel system that requires an investor make a profit before a patient is treated? That is a chief priority for Bernie Sanders.
√ Campaign finance reform, in the wake of Supreme Court rulings, has become the essential requirement to defeat the growing corporatocracy and its plutocratic masters. Other candidates may call for overturning Citizens United. Bernie Sanders would do that and eliminate the cause of such outrageous court rulings by ending the doctrine of corporate personhood — the idea that a corporation is immortal and has never-ending rights of citizenship, even when it pays no taxes and cannot be executed for killing people.
√ College and university education is increasingly out of reach. He will enable state-sponsored colleges and universities to be tuition-free, and fully pay for it with a tax on Wall Street speculation (yes, the money manipulators DO spend that much).
√ The most fundamental tenet of the American dream — home ownership — is vanishing as those with money accumulate more and more rental properties and the rest of us are relegated to being their tenants. Senator Sanders programs to reverse runaway income inequality will give hard working families a chance again.
√ The military-industrial complex never provided the promised "peace dividend" after the Cold War ended. Projecting military power into never-ending regime changes and incursions in the Middle East and elsewhere assures its primacy in the federal budget. Only Senator Sanders wants to reverse that.
√ Even as our bridges, roads, dams, railways, waterways, interstate highways, airports, levees, electric grid — and fresh water, wastewater, and other essential utilities — age out, break, get bandaid repairs, rot, decay, and ultimately collapse, sometimes poisoning us in the process, only Senator Sanders will restore an FDR-style major public works / infrastructure program to replace hopelessly old with world-class new, like they have in Europe and Japan.
√ Our schools operate with high dropout rates and disgracefully inadequate arts and music education, holding classes in crappy portable buildings because there is no money. And it doesn't take an expensive child-development consultant to see those are related. Senator Sanders will fight the conservative demands for school curriculums determined by local religious-zealot school boards and modernize education for all, with college as the affordable goal.
GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE & ENVIRONMENT
All these alarming problems operate against a background of global climate change that costs us more and more money in emergency disaster relief each year, looms as an existential issue for human civilization, and is denied in its entirely by one major political party. One US political party, that is. The rest of the world isn’t that stupid. Senator Sanders, alone among the candidates, will fight to stop and reverse global climate change.
While both Democratic Party candidates addresses these issues, one — Secretary Clinton — sees them as things that must be approached with moderation and balance that will keep the dialog within the realm of the politically expedient do-able. Her support for trade policies that allow foreign entities to strike-down US laws and regulations established for environmental protection and worker health and safety is courting disaster. Senator Sanders would renegotiate those trade agreements.
The Earth's natural systems have no regard for anything we find a politically achievable compromise. Assimilative capacities for toxins and pollutants do not change because we insufficiently limit their dissemination or inadequately regulate them — or remove all regulatory constraints, as the Republican candidate wants to do.
The fact is, global amospheric carbon has now exceeded 400 parts per million (ppm), after atmospheric scientists have warned for years that we must never allow it to go over 350 ppm, which research and climate modeling shows is the tipping point. Now, because oceans are where much of it ends up, that excess carbon is causing acidification and oxygen depletion of sea water, with consequences of diminished capacity to sustain sea life, including human food stocks.
Everything is connected to everything else.
Preserving fisheries, riparian wetlands, feeding grounds along migratory flyways, or any specific endangered species, share the same necessity. It only works if required ranges are safeguarded to assure viable habitats as part of sustainable ecosystems.
Stopping a little excess carbon and setting aside or safeguarding a little of some rainforest or other vanishing habitat — to make us feel better — it doesn't cut it.
And that is a useful metaphor for all the things we must do to make a difference, vs. settling for "realistic" things that have the optics and the rhetoric. Moderate measures that are shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic and, ultimately, produce much ado about nothing.
PHILOSOPHY VS. POLICY
Let's take quick focus on some serious facts that define who is ready to be President.
• We are faced with a Republican Party candidate who denies climate change and wants all environmental regulatory authority suspended because it "interferes" with profitability. That's in addition to his xenophobia, ham-handed demeanor, and generally dangerous uninformed bloviating.
• We have corporate mainstream media who has given him over two BILLION dollars worth of free airtime because it's boosted their ratings.
• The same corporate mainstream media has — wholly without justification — anointed one Democratic Party candidate, Secretary Clinton, as the presumptive nominee to face the Republican candidate.
• Meanwhile, we have the other Democratic Party candidate who has always held office as an independent — Senator Bernie Sanders. Serving in both the US House of Representatives and the US Senate, he has caucused with the Democrats, while becoming the longest-serving independent in American history. The Democratic Party largrly purged itself of office holders who were not sufficiently supportive of military occupations and presences.
• Even while, along with Republicans, Democratic office-holders succumbed to big money donors and to their agendas, Bernie, alone, has always run for office funded by small individual contributions, and he's never had a superpac.
• Bernie Sanders has vowed to reverse the Supreme Court's disastrous Citizens United and McCutcheon decisions that gave big money a free hand to buy elections. He will reestablish the lost parts of the Voting Rights Act and shepherd passage of a new version of the lost Glass-Stegall Act to reign-in the banksters.
• He has vowed to break-up the opportunistic predators on Wall Street, and to make financial institutions and corporate freeloaders pay their fair shares to the betterment of the society that allows them to operate with so many advantages.
• Bernie Sanders has maintained his integrity. He has maintained consistent positions on major issues.
• Bernie has won 45 percent of all Democratic Pledged Delegates and has almost none of the Superdelegates. Sanders has won 19 states and taken-on the entrenched Democratic Party establishment in each one. He's not raging against the machine. He's trying to replace the machine that's addicted to, and responsive to, big money.
• He has been the most effective legislator in Washington, D.C., as the "amendment king," even in a time of paralysis and mindless obstructionism.
• As chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, he wrote and attained passage of the most comprehensive help for our military veterans since the post-WW II GI Bill.
• He is future-focused. That has earned him a "yuge" following of young voters who have, in recent years, registered independent, but rallied to his campaign.
• He is the only candidate who, as President, will work aggressively, categorically, comprehensively and thoroughly, to stop and reverse global climate change with a carbon tax on polluters and public investment in a rapid conversion to "green" energy.
For all these reasons and more, the Guide enthusiastically endorses Senator Bernie Sanders for President of the United States.
__________
Get registered to vote for the candidate of your choice. Registration for the California Primary closes May 23rd.
Whether you are a Democrat, a disgusted Republican, or neither, as long as you register either Democrat or "No Political Party Preference" by May 23rd, you can vote for Bernie Sanders on June 7th.
Feel the Bern.
__________
For more that compares the current mess to some haunting parallels in our history, please see:
https://www.laprogressive.com/1964-election/
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
An abundance of music news and reviews, film festivals, arts events, gear reviews, and more, are in numerous recent editions. More on upcoming FESTIVALS and events is in the May 7 edition, available at a separate click.
Much more, soon, on additional topics.
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
The Guide brings you frequent editions covering MUSIC NEWS, arts and industry events, and ticket alerts, available right here on the Guide's Blogspot site.
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
Direct to the current editions /
MOBILE-DEVICE-FRIENDLY
editions load quickly at
.
www.acousticamericana.blogspot.com
.
<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>
.
CONTACT US at / send Questions / Comments to: . Tiedtothetracks (at) Hotmail (dot) com
.
<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>
Contents copyright © 2016, Lawrence Wines & Tied to the Tracks. All rights reserved.
<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>
.
♪ 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 forms. From the deepest roots to today’s acoustic renaissance, that’s our beat. We provide a wealth of resources, including a HUGE catalog of acoustic-friendly venues, and schedules and inside info on FESTIVALS and select performances in Southern California in venues monumentally large and intimately small and cozy. We cover workshops and other events for artists and folks in the music industry, and all kinds 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 bluegrass and pre-bluegrass Appalachian mountain music to all the roots of the blues and where the music is headed now.
.
The Acoustic Americana Music Guide. Thanks for sittin' a spell.
.
<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>
.
.
Welcome to this very serious consideration of our shared future. Thanks for joining us. Let's get started.
÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷
FOR PRESIDENT, THE GUIDE ENDORSES...
We know. This excruciatingly endless election year has everyone wondering the same thing:
"Are Rod Serling and Franz Kafka at the door?"
"Are we living in some Groundhog Day of a Saturday Night Live sketch?"
In fact: America may be looking at the lowest percentage of voters in a November general-election in our history. But we're not there yet. And nothing says we need to be.
The Guide is doing this — something unprecedented for our music and arts journal — because it matters. Hugely.
If too much tv has you believing otherwise, we're especially glad you're reading this. Because your vote in California matters more than it has in years. Get registered to vote for the candidate of your choice. If you are disgusted with all of them, we hope to influence that.
Registration for the California Primary closes May 23rd.
We decided to offer this endorsement not as some flippant 140-word quip, but thoroughly, seriously, and comprehensively, as a worthwhile use of your time as one of the intelligent, thoughtful folks who comprise our readership. Thank you for joining us here to read this.
OUR ENDORSEMENT IS...
The Guide is endorsing Bernie Sanders in the California Primary on Tuesday, June 7th. We'd like to share with you the most compelling reasons why.
WHY YOUR VOTE MATTERS — REALLY MATTERS
These days, neither party can claim the largest plurality of the American electorate. As the 2016 election cycle began, 42 percent of all registered voters were independents.
Independents will certainly determine the outcome in November. In California, independents will almost certainly make the difference in the state's June 7th primary.
But be careful: in California, that means being registered "No Political Party Preference" — checking the tiny box on the voter registration form that is all by itself, way off to the right of all the other choices. Anyone being quick instead of careful might blunder into checking what they think is "independent," but it's the box for the "American Independent Party" — an ultraconservative political party(!) with no other option. (If you are not sure, go online and check your registration now. Google "registrar of voters" with your county name.)
You can take a Democratic Primary ballot at your polling place, and vote for Bernie Sanders, ONLY if you are registered "No Political Party Preference" or you are a registered Democrat.
Now, let's emphasize the next thing: corporate mainstream media has done a disgraceful disservice to democracy. It is they who would have you believe that voting in the remaining primaries — including the California Primary — simply doesn't matter. That's outrageously untrue. It does matter. And we'll say it again — Hugely. In Califonia especially, because of its delegate numbers, and in every other remaining primary because this is very close.
Given the rancor and ugliness and childish stupidity that has characterized so much of this excruciatingly lengthy presidential campaign, you may question the wisdom of our venturing into it at all, and especially this late. Those reasons, right here in this paragraph, are exactly why we are doing it.
WHO CAN VOTE, HOW, AND WHY
Many Republicans have no desire or willingness to vote for the presumptive Republican Party candidate.
If that's you, you still have time to re-register "No Political Party Preference" and gain the option to vote a June ballot to stop both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
If you're a Democrat and that statement gives you heartburn, stop and recognize that the majority of Americans are not comfortable with Hillary Clinton. And every Californian has a choice.
If you are registered as a Democrat OR registered "No Political Party Preference," you can vote for Bernie Sanders on June 7th.
Yes, independents can vote for Bernie Sanders — as long as they're registered in time as "No Political Party Preference," by May 23rd.
It's important that everyone knows that and spreads the word.
With so much general revulsion for the antics and process of the 2016 election; with such a thoroughly repulsive Republican candidate; and with one extremely unpopular Democratic candidate, in Secretary Clinton, who a majority of respondents in every poll deems "untrustworthy"; we believe it is our duty as a public service to make you aware of the wonderfully attractive alternative and how to act on that opportunity, and we believe that obligates us to offer the reasons why we believe you should.
THE REAL DELEGATE NUMBERS
The California Primary will determine 475 Pledged Delegates to the Democratic Party convention. That's the largest number from any state. Your vote determines how that number is allocated as nominating votes at the convention in Philadelphia.
If big corporate mainstream media has you believing this is already over, you have been deluded. Their insistence on combining Pledged Delegate votes, earned in primaries and statewide caucuses, with nebulous estimates of Superdelegate party hacks and elective office holders — whose votes are not guaranteed — is a baffling disservice to the American people.
There are 1,054 delegate spots STILL REMAINING to be chosen.
It takes 2,383 delegate votes to secure the nomination as the majority of the total of 4,765 delegates. Though, curiously, all three of those numbers, along with the number of California's delegate votes, can increase. We'll get to that.
First, the most important thing. Big media insists on showing a composite of somewhere north of 2,200 Clinton delegates, knowing it's a sham.
Yes, we are calling them out. Big media anonymously homogonizes Superdelegates. Except where the public understands, they don't play that game. In a revolt against party rules, Maine Democrats voted last week to strip their state's Superdelegates of power, making a big splash in the Chicago Tribune but going unreported nearly everywhere else.
It is a byzantine process. On Tuesday, Sanders won West Virginia over Clinton by double-digits. Yet he picked up only 18 of that state's 29 Pledged Delegates and only one Superdelegate. And California's delegation can quietly increase from 548 to 601 if a "20 percent bonus" formula is invoked by the Democratic Party.
But the most basic wackiness is the unquestioned, essentially fraudulent use of a composite number that adds earned Pledged Delegates to Superdelegates who can do whatever they want.
In fact, THESE are the Democratic Convention delegate numbers, with 10 states still to vote, including two of the biggest, California and New Jersey.
Pledged Delegates (guaranteed votes):
Hillary Clinton 1,710
Bernie Sanders 1,440
Superdelegates (discretionary votes, as they are presently expected to be cast):
Hillary Clinton 523
Bernie Sanders 39
LET'S TALK SUPERDELEGATES
So, as we just saw, Superdelegates may change their votes as they please.
There is good reason to believe that by this summer's nominating convention in late July, many will decide to change.
Such things as Secretary Clinton's $100,000 to $333,000 per-couple fundraisers have been advertised as benefitting state party organizations and Democratic candidates up-and-down the ballot. In fact, nearly all the money (after being moved around) ends up in the H-arrow campaign. And the state parties and down-ballot campaigns are left with no money from big donors who are maxed-out and cannot be tapped again.
That might be okay if she had "coattails" that would carry those other candidates into office. But her unfavorability ratings are over 50 percent.
Meanwhile, Bernie Sanders is the ONLY candidate with a positive nationwide rating.
In campaign finance terms? His campaign collects millions of small donations — famously averaging $27 — from people who can be approached over and over for more small donations, with probable capacity to support those down-ballot campaigns, as well.
If Secretary Clinton's approval ratings continue to plunge and Senator Sanders continues to score upset wins as he did in West Virginia, Indiana, and earlier in Michigan, those Superdelegates are hardly in the bag for Hillary.
And — not as some smear, but as a developing reality — there is the growing possibility she could yet face damaging fallout, if not federal indictment, in the ongoing federal investigation being conducted by FBI Director James Comey with 130 agents and a non-interference pledge from the White House. Her campaign calls it "a security review" but it's clearly much more. It may be examining favors done by her US State Department for foreign and domestic financiers and industrialists who contributed to the Clinton Foundation. Don't think it can be dismissed as "dirty politics." It's serious.
Any or all these factors may become straws on the camel, or could become bombshells as voters in the remaining ten states head to the polls. So California and its massive number of Pledged Delegates matters both for its direct part in the additive total to nominate, and for its influence on those whose convention votes for the nominee can be cast as they think best. It's "yuge."
CALIFORNIA'S DELEGATE MATH
California's delegate haul represents almost 20 percent of the 2,383 delegates needed to secure the Democratic nomination and almost 12 percent of the 4,038 pledged delegates up for grabs in 2016.
Despite those percentages, actual numbers are quite squirrely.
In California's Democratic primary, 475 Pledged Delegates are at stake, more than any other state in the Democratic nominating process. But that number can become 528 Pledged Delegates, if the "20 percent bonus" formulas all work with the rather odd numerology of the state party's May and June machinations. (For our mathematician readers, the equation, and enough to discern the odd process, is at http://www.thegreenpapers.com/P16/D-Alloc.phtml ).
The Democrats also award those infamous Superdelegates in California. Initially, that was set at 70. It's now 73.
In California, both Democrats and Republicans award most of their delegates by congressional district. Even politically-savvy residents of California's state capital needed to have it explained.
“So you’re gonna essentially have 53 small campaigns around the state,” says Paul Mitchell, who runs one of California’s most respected political data companies. For example, he says, coastal Democrats don’t vote like inland Democrats. And in some districts, more people vote early by mail.
“Those kind of mechanical differences are gonna be extremely important when you’re talking about potentially somebody’s entire presidential campaign resting on being able to eke out a dozen delegates here, a dozen delegates there, going into the conventions.”
And another twist: Republican delegates are winner-take-all in each district; Democrats award delegates proportionally based on how well each candidate does. Both parties also award extra delegates based on the statewide vote. So now you see why Trump is all but anointed and why the Democratic Party contest is very much up for grabs — despite the media's calls for you to believe otherwise.
(Thanks to Ben Adler of KQED, Capital Public Radio, for those interview quotes.)
ONCE THE NUMBERS FINALLY ADD-UP
The nominee — either Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton — will be chosen by vote of the delegates at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, PA, happening July 25th-28th.
Donald Trump will officially become the GOP nominee at the Republican National Convention, held July 18-21, in Cleveland, OH.
Beyond the Democratic Convention? If Senator Sanders is not on the general election ballot in November, you'll hear from us again, with an analysis of third-party options.
BUT HOLD ON! THERE'S THAT "SOCIALIST!" THING
Okay, let's get real about that. Have you checked-out a book from the public library? Walked your dog in a city park? Driven on a freeway? Hiked a mountain trail? Spent a day at the beach? Gone camping in Yosemite or Sequoia or the High Sierras or Grand Canyon? Glad those places can't be bought by the rich and everyone else — including you — kept out, or charged more than you can afford?
Are you glad you can call the fire department to save your abode, or the cops if somebody is being beaten to a pulp?
Then you're a socialist. Period. Get over it. If you believe that people should not suffer or die from untreated injuries or diseases without losing their houses, or because they haven't got a lot of money, then you're a socialist. In fact, the way Jesus did things during his time on Earth, there really isn't any question. He was a socialist.
Besides, look where end-game cutthroat capitalism has gotten us. Taxpayer funded bailouts used to pay multimillion dollar bonuses to the bloated fatcats who broke the economy in the first place? Publicly owned beaches and forests and National Parks and freeways and libraries are a much better idea. So is health care for all and tuition-free public colleges and universities that enable people to improve themselves and make our society more competitive against highly educated foreign competitors.
In fact, the notion of a democracy with pure capitalism is impossible. The rich would buy-up everything, and where would you go? We'll take democratic socialism.
THE GUIDE DOES MAKE ENDORSEMENTS, YES, BUT MUSIC, NOT POLITICS...
We have no idea if this will bring us readers or cost us readers. It should do neither, but we are aware that it could. And that's fine.
The Guide is an arts journal. Throughout our history, we have reliably reported in detail and made countless endorsements — well, recommendations — on events to attend, music buy to buy, artists to watch (and listen to)...
We have kept you abreast of, and sometimes recommended, new gear, venues, workshops, ways to support music education, wonky topics liked by artists and music fans, and more. We've covered trends — critically, and we've certainly not always been complimentary. We've even issued warnings of some real stinkers.
But politics?
We've covered the historic and still vital role of folk music and advocated for its influence in civil rights, worker rights, gender equality, and protecting wild lands and cultural and historic sites. We've advocated for artists and activists who've gifted us with their legacies, and emphatically advocated for the role of music and the arts in our obligation to leave a meaningful legacy to the future. We've noted and honored sacrifices made by some as integral to that legacy. And that's arguably political.
Our tech and science coverage? Along with music gear tech and instrument tech, we occasionally get into some science and engineering topics that range from preserving art and old recordings to archaeology and saving the art and architecture of ancient monuments — whether or not they have 3,000-year-old mosaics of lute players.
We've written about taking guitars out to do dendrochronology graphs in the field from ancient trees. That's the science of documenting climate going back over 8,000 years using rings in living trees more than 4,000 years old, and dead ones lying alongside them. Which is political to someone whose creationist religious beliefs demand a 6,000 year-old-Earth that came with fossils "laminated in."
We even get to a little astrophysics, planetary exploration, and understanding threats to natural systems and safeguarding Mother Earth. And because one of the two major political parties in America expends so much ignorant hot air denying what science can so easily prove, that, again, makes our presentations political.
A cardinal tenet
We advocate for mindfulness by artists that they — you, and we — have influence, and use it wisely and intentionally. And political dimensions can sometimes be found there.
We're told from time to time by various folks that they have written lyrics after finding ideas and inspirations in some of our news and feature stories on these broadly ranging topics, and that always makes us proud.
While offering plenty of sage advice from music masters in their areas of expertise, plus more humble editorial positions, and sharing viewpoints about controversial arts-related topics, our purpose has always been to spread light rather than heat. Even in fields as passionate as the arts.
Thus, we have made plenty of recommendations and posited some cautions. We have been critical — sometimes scathingly critical — of trends that shouldn't be monopolizing all the attention of arts & entertainment media and seeking to take your money. And we have raved with joy and encouragement to support everything from revivals of styles and traditional instruments and long-lost musical genres to innovators who expand the appeal of Folk-Americana and today's new acoustic music, including accessible classical music.
We could go on, through our ongoing celebrations and recommendations of music festivals, film festivals, and landmark concerts, to exploring songs and lyrics that are changing the world, to making picks of new releases and rediscovered old ones. So there have been countless endorsements. We have celebrated famous, contextually famous, and obscure PEOPLE in the arts who have changed the world in big or small but important ways.
We have covered a great many topics in and out of music where our endorsements are implied if not specifically given.
But we have never endorsed a candidate for political office. Until now.
WE'RE ENDORSING BERNIE BECAUSE...
√ Most of the Guide's readership is in California. Our metrics, happily, do include a truly global audience, and that is part of why we keep doing this: to expand knowledge of the music and musicians and broaden their reach and appeal. We can do what we do because it all comes to us. California is crossroads and nexus for live performance, recording, tv, filmmaking, and so much more.
√ California is also the biggest treasure trove of delegates for each political party's nominating convention. Nearly always, California votes so late that it's over before the plodding march of primary elections reaches the Golden State. This time it matters here, and California can be the game-changer for Bernie Sanders.
√ There is a thoroughly meaningful battle for the heart and soul of the Democratic Party and the future of the progressive movement. Beyond the rhetoric and the maddening focus of big media on trivia and a few overblown aspects to the exclusion of everything else, this is serious.
√ Income inequality in America is a widening gulf and the disparity is accelerating. The banksters, bailed-out by the taxpayers after they broke the economy in 2008, have taken the lion's share of profitability in the US economy for themselves. The middle class is increasingly joining the struggling and impoverished classes.
√ Health care is still not affordably available to all. Ending America's bizarre, uniquely cruel system that requires an investor make a profit before a patient is treated? That is a chief priority for Bernie Sanders.
√ Campaign finance reform, in the wake of Supreme Court rulings, has become the essential requirement to defeat the growing corporatocracy and its plutocratic masters. Other candidates may call for overturning Citizens United. Bernie Sanders would do that and eliminate the cause of such outrageous court rulings by ending the doctrine of corporate personhood — the idea that a corporation is immortal and has never-ending rights of citizenship, even when it pays no taxes and cannot be executed for killing people.
√ College and university education is increasingly out of reach. He will enable state-sponsored colleges and universities to be tuition-free, and fully pay for it with a tax on Wall Street speculation (yes, the money manipulators DO spend that much).
√ The most fundamental tenet of the American dream — home ownership — is vanishing as those with money accumulate more and more rental properties and the rest of us are relegated to being their tenants. Senator Sanders programs to reverse runaway income inequality will give hard working families a chance again.
√ The military-industrial complex never provided the promised "peace dividend" after the Cold War ended. Projecting military power into never-ending regime changes and incursions in the Middle East and elsewhere assures its primacy in the federal budget. Only Senator Sanders wants to reverse that.
√ Even as our bridges, roads, dams, railways, waterways, interstate highways, airports, levees, electric grid — and fresh water, wastewater, and other essential utilities — age out, break, get bandaid repairs, rot, decay, and ultimately collapse, sometimes poisoning us in the process, only Senator Sanders will restore an FDR-style major public works / infrastructure program to replace hopelessly old with world-class new, like they have in Europe and Japan.
√ Our schools operate with high dropout rates and disgracefully inadequate arts and music education, holding classes in crappy portable buildings because there is no money. And it doesn't take an expensive child-development consultant to see those are related. Senator Sanders will fight the conservative demands for school curriculums determined by local religious-zealot school boards and modernize education for all, with college as the affordable goal.
GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE & ENVIRONMENT
All these alarming problems operate against a background of global climate change that costs us more and more money in emergency disaster relief each year, looms as an existential issue for human civilization, and is denied in its entirely by one major political party. One US political party, that is. The rest of the world isn’t that stupid. Senator Sanders, alone among the candidates, will fight to stop and reverse global climate change.
While both Democratic Party candidates addresses these issues, one — Secretary Clinton — sees them as things that must be approached with moderation and balance that will keep the dialog within the realm of the politically expedient do-able. Her support for trade policies that allow foreign entities to strike-down US laws and regulations established for environmental protection and worker health and safety is courting disaster. Senator Sanders would renegotiate those trade agreements.
The Earth's natural systems have no regard for anything we find a politically achievable compromise. Assimilative capacities for toxins and pollutants do not change because we insufficiently limit their dissemination or inadequately regulate them — or remove all regulatory constraints, as the Republican candidate wants to do.
The fact is, global amospheric carbon has now exceeded 400 parts per million (ppm), after atmospheric scientists have warned for years that we must never allow it to go over 350 ppm, which research and climate modeling shows is the tipping point. Now, because oceans are where much of it ends up, that excess carbon is causing acidification and oxygen depletion of sea water, with consequences of diminished capacity to sustain sea life, including human food stocks.
Everything is connected to everything else.
Preserving fisheries, riparian wetlands, feeding grounds along migratory flyways, or any specific endangered species, share the same necessity. It only works if required ranges are safeguarded to assure viable habitats as part of sustainable ecosystems.
Stopping a little excess carbon and setting aside or safeguarding a little of some rainforest or other vanishing habitat — to make us feel better — it doesn't cut it.
And that is a useful metaphor for all the things we must do to make a difference, vs. settling for "realistic" things that have the optics and the rhetoric. Moderate measures that are shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic and, ultimately, produce much ado about nothing.
PHILOSOPHY VS. POLICY
Let's take quick focus on some serious facts that define who is ready to be President.
• We are faced with a Republican Party candidate who denies climate change and wants all environmental regulatory authority suspended because it "interferes" with profitability. That's in addition to his xenophobia, ham-handed demeanor, and generally dangerous uninformed bloviating.
• We have corporate mainstream media who has given him over two BILLION dollars worth of free airtime because it's boosted their ratings.
• The same corporate mainstream media has — wholly without justification — anointed one Democratic Party candidate, Secretary Clinton, as the presumptive nominee to face the Republican candidate.
• Meanwhile, we have the other Democratic Party candidate who has always held office as an independent — Senator Bernie Sanders. Serving in both the US House of Representatives and the US Senate, he has caucused with the Democrats, while becoming the longest-serving independent in American history. The Democratic Party largrly purged itself of office holders who were not sufficiently supportive of military occupations and presences.
• Even while, along with Republicans, Democratic office-holders succumbed to big money donors and to their agendas, Bernie, alone, has always run for office funded by small individual contributions, and he's never had a superpac.
• Bernie Sanders has vowed to reverse the Supreme Court's disastrous Citizens United and McCutcheon decisions that gave big money a free hand to buy elections. He will reestablish the lost parts of the Voting Rights Act and shepherd passage of a new version of the lost Glass-Stegall Act to reign-in the banksters.
• He has vowed to break-up the opportunistic predators on Wall Street, and to make financial institutions and corporate freeloaders pay their fair shares to the betterment of the society that allows them to operate with so many advantages.
• Bernie Sanders has maintained his integrity. He has maintained consistent positions on major issues.
• Bernie has won 45 percent of all Democratic Pledged Delegates and has almost none of the Superdelegates. Sanders has won 19 states and taken-on the entrenched Democratic Party establishment in each one. He's not raging against the machine. He's trying to replace the machine that's addicted to, and responsive to, big money.
• He has been the most effective legislator in Washington, D.C., as the "amendment king," even in a time of paralysis and mindless obstructionism.
• As chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, he wrote and attained passage of the most comprehensive help for our military veterans since the post-WW II GI Bill.
• He is future-focused. That has earned him a "yuge" following of young voters who have, in recent years, registered independent, but rallied to his campaign.
• He is the only candidate who, as President, will work aggressively, categorically, comprehensively and thoroughly, to stop and reverse global climate change with a carbon tax on polluters and public investment in a rapid conversion to "green" energy.
For all these reasons and more, the Guide enthusiastically endorses Senator Bernie Sanders for President of the United States.
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Get registered to vote for the candidate of your choice. Registration for the California Primary closes May 23rd.
Whether you are a Democrat, a disgusted Republican, or neither, as long as you register either Democrat or "No Political Party Preference" by May 23rd, you can vote for Bernie Sanders on June 7th.
Feel the Bern.
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For more that compares the current mess to some haunting parallels in our history, please see:
https://www.laprogressive.com/1964-election/
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An abundance of music news and reviews, film festivals, arts events, gear reviews, and more, are in numerous recent editions. More on upcoming FESTIVALS and events is in the May 7 edition, available at a separate click.
Much more, soon, on additional topics.
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The Guide brings you frequent editions covering MUSIC NEWS, arts and industry events, and ticket alerts, available right here on the Guide's Blogspot site.
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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 forms. From the deepest roots to today’s acoustic renaissance, that’s our beat. We provide a wealth of resources, including a HUGE catalog of acoustic-friendly venues, and schedules and inside info on FESTIVALS and select performances in Southern California in venues monumentally large and intimately small and cozy. We cover workshops and other events for artists and folks in the music industry, and all kinds 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 bluegrass and pre-bluegrass Appalachian mountain music to all the roots of the blues and where the music is headed now.
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The Acoustic Americana Music Guide. Thanks for sittin' a spell.
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Saturday, May 7, 2016
Festival Season in Full Swing; MUSIC NEWS & More; May 7th edition, 2016...
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Topanga Banjo•Fiddle is a week away (it's Sun, May 15). But Festival season is already in full swing RIGHT NOW.
Plus, there are exceptional concerts this weekend, and a fun outdoor theatre event, tonight only. All that, a wonderful new DARRYL PURPOSE album, and more NEWS FEATURES, in this edition.
Note...
If you're headed for SANTA ANITA RACETRACK to catch the big screen live feed from the KENTUCKY DERBY and wager on th' ponies running hither an' yon? There's a fun FREE FESTIVAL in nearby Sierra Madre! So you can split the day and catch tunefulness, too. It's our # 1 feature.
Let's get started!
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Contents / in this edition...
1) FREE FESTIVAL THIS WEEKEND
2) BIG TIME FESTIVALS THIS WEEKEND & NEXT
3) SATURDAY WORKSHOP
4) OUTDOOR THEATER EVENT AT INDIAN MUSEUM / STATE PARK, IN THE DESERT, TONIGHT ONLY
5) CONCERT / GIG PICKS THIS WEEKEND
6) POLITICIANS HIJACKING MUSIC
7) IMPENDING CELTIC FESTS
8) MUST GOOD BANJOS BE HEAVY?
9) AUCTION ITEMS ANNOUNCED FOR "ADOPT THE ARTS" BENEFIT CONCERT, COMING MAY 12th IN HOLLYWOOD
10) ACCLAIMED SINGER-SONGWRITER DARRYL PURPOSE's "STILL THE BIRDS" RELEASED MAY 6th
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# 1 news feature...
FREE FESTIVAL THIS WEEKEND
The 54th annual "SIERRA MADRE ART FAIR" is May 7 & 8, from 9:30 am-6 pm Saturday and 9:30 am-5 pm Sunday. With plenty of live acoustic music, this quality event is sponsored by the Friends of the Sierra Madre Library,and is held in Memorial Park, 222 W Sierra Madre Bl, downtown Sierra Madre (about three miles above the 210 Fwy.
A little rain is predicted for Saturday afternoon, between 3 and 4; the morning should great, and there is no rain predicted Sunday.
Live Music is featured throughout the weekend in the band shell and on the southeast lawn.
Band Shell
Saturday:
• 11 am-1 pm Evan Marshall, Mandolin Maestro
• 2-4 pm Steve Trovato & Tim Kobza (Jazz-Rock-Country-Blues).
Sunday:
• 11 am-1 pm Liam Lewis & Zac Leger (Celtic-Americana fiddles, mandolin, guitar)
• 2-4 pm Shawn Oshmiansky presents International House of Jazz with guests David Naiditch and Tommy Davy.
Southeast Lawn
Saturday:
• 10 am-noon Luckpenny (Irish)
• 1-4 pm Bravo Celli (Cello Trio)
Sunday:
10 am-noon Banna Beag Mall (Irish)
1-3 pm Mark Heyes & Phil Salazar (Bluegrass).
Food vendors offer a variety of food & drinks. Scheduled: Taquito Lover, Korean BBQ, and the Gourmet Genie Food Truck. A Wine & Beer Garden is on the front lawn of the Park, open Saturday 11 am-6 pm and Sunday 11 am-5 pm.
The Friends of the Library has a booth selling their popular "sweet ‘quick breads" and the Sierra Madre Historical Preservation Society is selling their famous lemonade made with rangpur limes.
For the children, instructors from the Creative Arts Group have planned a craft activity called ‘Watercolors and Sunshine.’ Children will be using watercolors to create beautiful images of the sun.
80 artists, including 18 newly juried, display and sell their works of art. Mediums include oil paintings, jewelry, watercolors, glass, wood, metal, wearable art, photography, pottery, ceramics, mixed media and weaving.
Featured Artist this year is Sarah Moore. Her “Raven’s Jar” pottery piece appears on all post cards, posters, flyers, and other promotional materials. Her work is in booth # 4. The Fair this year is in honor and remembrance of Nancy Doyle, much accomplished and talented artist who participated in the Art Fair for over 20 years.
There's a Silent Auction where 35 artists have donated "lovely, one-of-a-kind pieces; you have an opportunity to bid on some really beautiful artwork" and support the Library.
All Proceeds from the Art Fair benefit the Sierra Madre Public Library. For more information call 626-355-7186. More at:
http://sierramadrelibraryfriends.org/the-54th-annual-sierra-madre-art-fair-may-2-3-2016/
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# 2 news feature...
BIG TIME FESTIVALS THIS WEEKEND & NEXT
You really didn't think you were nesting at home, did you? Topanga Banjo•Fiddle is a week away. But Festival season is in full swing NOW. (Plus, there are exceptional concerts this weekend, listed in a different section.)
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Here's THIS WEEKEND's festival action...
√ Annual "PARKFIELD BLUEGRASS FESTIVAL" through Sun, May 8, in Central California, at V6 Ranch, 70410 Parkfield Coalinga Rd, Parkfield 93451; 805-994-0929. Music by Bean Creek, Amber Cross, Sidesaddle & Co., Next Generation, Amaya Rose & the Gold Rush, Bluegrass Etc, Next Generation, Joe Craven & the Sometimers, Snap Jackson & Knock on Wood Players. Saturday sched. is 9:30 am-midnight.
√ Annual "GATOR BY THE BAY FESTIVAL" is a very big deal with multiple stages that continues through Sun, May 8, at 2326 India St, San Diego 92101; 619-234-8612; www.gatorbythebay.com. Music by (take a deep breath) Curley Taylor & Zydeco Trouble, Bonsoir Catin, Jeffery Broussard & The Creole Cowboys, Roy Rogers, Johnny 'V' Vernazza, John Nemeth, Sugaray Rayford, Curtis Salgado Blues Band, The 44's with Kid Ramos, Billy Watson & International Silver String Submarine Band, Sue Palmer & Her Motel Swing Orchestra, Bill Magee Blues Band, Robin Henkel, Motordude Zydeco, The Euphoria Brass Band, Joe Sans Fontenot Cajun Creole Band, David Sousa & Zydeco Mudbugs, Bayou Brothers, Billy Lee & the Swamp Critters, San Diego Cajun Playboys, Theo & Zydeco Patrol, Three Chord Justice, Gregory Page, Palominos, Manny Cepeda, Kimba Light, Todo Mundo, Todd Waits Pigpen. Voulez les bonne temps roulez! Runs Sat, 11 am-11 pm. (Also an adjunct evening dance in a nearby venue; see concerts & gigs listings.)
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Festivals AFTER this weekend...
√ Annual "LOS ANGELES OLD-TIME SOCIAL" runs Thu, May 12-Sat, May 14. Concerts, workshops, dances, in an immersion in the good time roots music that preceded bluegrass.
√ Annual "TOPANGA BANJO•FIDDLE CONTEST & FOLK FESTIVAL" Sun, May 15, at Paramount Ranch in Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, near Agoura. The best one-day folk fest anywhere. Full info at:
www.topangabanjofiddle.org
√ Annual "CLAREMONT FOLK FESTIVAL" Sun, May 22, is already SOLD-OUT.
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# 3 news feature...
SATURDAY WORKSHOP
BRUCE MOLSKY does a fiddle workshop Saturday morning, 10-11:30 am, at Fiddler's Crossing, 206 East F St, Tehachapi 93561; call for your spot, 661-823-9994.
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# 4 news feature....
OUTDOOR THEATER EVENT AT INDIAN MUSEUM / STATE PARK, IN THE DESERT, TONIGHT ONLY
It's a California State Park like no other. The Antelope Valley Indian Museum SHP, on Saturday, May 7, hosts an event that harkens back to what happened there in the 1930s.
The full evening, running 6-9 pm, includes food, a very rare chance to tour the museum at night, and the outdoor play. It's an encore performance of the Native themed production, "Owl and the Bear."
The event is a fundraiser for the Friends of the Antelope Valley Indian Museum. You can enjoy theater under the sky and support the museum.
"Owl and the Bear" is based on Ted Garcia’s version of a traditional Chumash story. The play is performed outdoors by local Antelope Valley kids at “Little Theatre of the Standing Rocks.” From 6 to 7 pm, the museum will be open. Food will be available for purchase from 6-9 pm, so you can enjoy dinner either before or after the play. The play starts at 7 pm. After the performance, the museum will reopen until 9 pm.
The museum highlights American Indian peoples of California, Arizona, and New Mexico. The history of theater at the museum dates back to 1932. Museum founder H. A. Edwards wrote an Indian pageant. It was performed outdoors, near the museum, annually from 1932 to 1935. Edwards’ drama students from Lincoln High School played the main roles, and local friends and neighbors played the secondary roles. Edwards named his outdoor stage "Theatre of the Standing Rocks." You'll know why when you see the dramatic natural landscape.
Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for kids age 6 to 12. Kids age 5 and under are free.
The museum is located at 15701 East Avenue M, near Lake Los Angeles. That's east of Lancaster, California.
From the 14 Freeway in Lancaster, go east on Avenue K to 150th Street East. Turn right and go south for two miles to Avenue M. Turn left and go east on Avenue M for 1 mile to the museum.
No pets allowed. For more information, phone the museum at 661-946-3055 (711 TTY relay service), or check the website at www.avim.parks.ca.gov
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# 5 news feature...
CONCERT / GIG PICKS THIS WEEKEND
Saturday...
√ ★★★ STRING FEVER plays Sat, May 7, 3 pm matinee, at the Coffee Gallery Backstage, 2029 N Lake Av, Altadena 92675; reservations a must, and only by phone (10 am-10 pm, 7 days) 626-798-6236.
√ ★★★ WITCHER, RECUPIDO, LEVITT & WITCHER plays Sat, May 7, 7 pm, at the Coffee Gallery Backstage, 2029 N Lake Av, Altadena 92675; reservations a must, and only by phone (10 am-10 pm, 7 days) 626-798-6236.
√ ★★★ SEAN WATKINS of Nickel Creek plays Sat, May 7, 7 pm, at the Museum of Making Music, 5790 Armada Dr, Carlsbad 92008; 760-438-5996.
√ ★★★ ALBERT LEE and JERRY DONAHUE play Sat & Sun, May 7 & 8, 8 pm, at McCabe’s Guitar Shop, 3101 Pico Bl, Santa Monica 90405; 310-828-4497.
√ ★★ MICHAEL CHAPDELAINE plays Sat, May 7, 8 pm, at Boulevard Music, 4316 Sepulveda Bl, Culver City 90230; 310-398-2583.
√ SHIP OF FOOLS plays their "Acoustic Songs of Depravity," Sat, May 7, 8 pm, at the Buchanan Arms Restaurant & Pub, 2013 W Burbank Bl, Burbank 91506.
√ ★★ INCENDIO plays the "Brogden Bay Concert Series," Sat, May 7, 8 pm, at Hillcrest Center for the Arts, 403 W Hillcrest Dr, Thousand Oaks 91360; 805-381-2747.
√ ★★ "GATOR BY THE BAY DANCE" is an adjunct to the festival, Sat, May 7, 9 pm-midnight, with MotorDude Zydeco, Curly Taylor & Zydeco Trouble, and Jeffrey Broussard & Kristi Guillory, at the Sheraton San Diego Hotel & Marina, 1380 Harbor Island Dr, San Diego 92101.
√ G BURNS JUG BAND plays Sat, May 7, 10 pm, at Black Cat Bar, 4246 University Av, San Diego 92105; 619-280-5834.
Sunday...
√ BLUEGRASS GHOSTS play the Sunday "Bluegrass Brunch" series, Sun, May 8, noon, at Cody's Viva Cantina, 900 Riverside Dr, Burbank 91506; 818-845-2425.
√ ★★★ BRUCE MOLSKY with PAULA BRADLEY & ALLISON DE GROOT play the "Da Camera Society" series in L.A. harbor, Sun, May 8, at 2:30, 3:30, & 5:30 pm, at Banning Museum Stagecoach Barn, 401 East M St, Wilmington 90744.
√ ★★ MOIRA SMILEY plus HONEY WHISKEY TRIO play "Brad Colerick's Cellar Sessions," Sun, May 8, 3 pm, at Old Oak Cellars, 2620 East Foothill Bl, Pasadena 91107. Signs on buildings are confusing; use the address.
√ ★★★ PETE ANDERSON, a legendary musician, play Sun, May 8, 3:30 pm, at Cody's Viva Cantina, 900 Riverside Dr, Burbank 91506; 818-845-2425.
√ JEFF BERKLEY plays Sun, May 8, 4 pm, for the FREE monthly "Red Rock Concerts Series" at Crown Books, 6100 Topanga Canyon Bl, #1340, Woodland Hills 91367. (Be sure you park at the correct mall.)
√ ★★ DIMITRIS "JIMMY" MAHLIS & JAMIE PAPISH play Sun, May 8, 7:30 pm; this is Greek and Middle Eastern Music, and these guys are very impressive. It's at Niroj Kurdish Cuisine, 30313 Canwood St, Agoura Hills 91301.
√ ★★★ ALBERT LEE & JERRY DONAHUE play Sun, May 8, 8 pm, at McCabe’s Guitar Shop, 3101 Pico Bl, Santa Monica 90405; 310-828-4497.
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# 6 news feature...
POLITICIANS HIJACKING MUSIC
We go through this every election cycle. Some office seeker — usually a Republican — is called out by a famous musician, band, songwriter, or combination of these folks. And it's always the same story: prominently playing hijacked music to promote a campaign.
Eight years ago it was Ann and Nancy Wilson, songwriting sister duo of the band Heart, who had to threaten a high-dollar lawsuit to make VP candidate Sarah Palin stop using "Barracuda" as her theme song. A few months ago, it was presidential candidate and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie hijacking a sizeable chunk of the Bruce Springsteen catalog. Just this year, Jeb Bush, Scott Waker, and Mike Huckabee are among those called out who, having all been elected as governors, should have known better, but apparently didn't.
But if we get started on all the history, we'll be here awhile. So let's get to the now.
The problem derives from painfully stupid music licensing. The rules must be changed. Right now, anyone — including a politician — can buy a blanket license for all the material in a catalog, and arguably use it at their rallies. It's a short stretch to crafting their identity with music by someone they don't know and have never met. And now we have pseudo campaign theme songs / campaign soundtracks, and artists and songwriters wondering, WTF?
That's just plain wrong. The context in which your music is used? It's at least as definitive to your identity as to the politician playing it. No one can do that to advertise a product. You have negotiation and refusal rights for your music to sell soy sauce, software, soap, and tampons. So what's the difference with a politician who can brand you with your music at least as much as your music can brand them?
Well, as a specific thing you CAN do, that exists. The problem is the flip side — that you can't always play it that way. Because there's that nebulous territory that you think ASCAP or BMI or SESAC has covered for you, until you see a particularly repulsive politician's rally where they're playing your song.
Even when a campaign pays for a blanket license — and many don't even do that — artists can only do four things:
• be flattered by it.
• grimace and bear it.
• send a cease and desist order.
• threaten, then enact, a lawsuit.
These should all be replaced by just one thing: soecifically license it. Or not.
Instead we get a surprised, or horrified, artist spending money calling their publicist to issue a statement, after learning the hard way that their songs are promoting some politician.
Unless that politician is, say, Bernie Sanders, who is endorsed by two-thirds of Crosby, Stills & Nash and licensed to use their music.
Otherwise? Expect embarrassment, resentment, a sudden contingent of fans that are really disorienting, and inevitably, some encounter with vitriol.
Or, if you're the one needing tunefulness to pump-up crowd excitement? You might think you're a clever exploitive politician and steal from a dead guy.
Donald Trump just committed that sacrilege. Having been told by everybody from Neil Young to the Rolling Stones to cease and desist using their music at his rallies? He's now using the music of someone who can't object, because he's dead.
But there can be no doubt that departed artist would condemn Trump's lack of ideology, Trump's characteristically opportunistic ways, and condemn them every way he could, if he were here to do it.
That artist wasn't just a champion of most of what Trump has badmouthed.
That artist wasn't simply a passionate voice for protecting the planet — musically and as an activist, testifying before Congress, serving on a Presidential commission, active on the boards of many nonprofit environmental organizations.
That artist was the first one, not just from music, but all the arts, to play such a major role and mobilize the popular consciousness about caring for our little blue planet. And leading that awakening wasn't limited to his role in the U.S. — he played that role worldwide and was celebrated by the U.N. for doing it.
You see, the ever-exploitive, opportunistic predator with the uncontainable ego, the bloviator who not only doesn't know when to shut-up, but who can't and won't shut up — when what he most needs to do is listen, which he won't — the guy so arrogantly rich that he takes whatever he wants because he believes himself entitled to it — all those things that are Donald Trump? At his campaign rallies, the SOB is now playing the music of John Denver.
Y'know, Bill & Taffy Danoff have co-writes on "Take Me Home, Country Roads," the song Trump was using as a campaign singalong that made the global tv broadcast. Adding to Trump's two-billion dollars (and counting) in free media promotion for his campaign. Free coverage that includes phoners with him that pre-empt scheduled programs.
Of course, Trump, the man who can't ever be wrong about anything, has been blasted by plenty of artists whose music he has hijacked. Most recently by Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones, for hihacking "Start Me Up" as his de facto campaign theme song. Like any predatory opportunist devoid of moral compass or conscious, Trump just moves on to another Borg-like assimilation of somebody else's music.
But — not having learned his lesson when he briefly stole James Taylor's music — Trump is back to messing with folk music again. The music of an artist who can't tell him what he thinks of him and his climate-change denial, xenophobia, racism, arrogance, and general odiousness.
But arrogance is always a gateway to stupidity. We suspect it's also the route to the John Denver Estate, which carefully protects the late artist's music from exploitation and use by individuals or causes the fair-haired country boy would have found objectionable.
And as we mentioned, there's also Bill Danoff and Taffy Nivert Danoff, co-writers whose voices and instrumentation are on that most recent famous recording that Trump has plundered. We hope those two cloud up and rain all over him.
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# 7 news feature...
IMPENDING CELTIC FESTS
Just quickly, so you can get your kilt pressed and your bagpipes tuned (wait: those things can be TUNED?)
√ Annual "SCOTTISH FEST USA" is Sat & Sun, May 28 and 29 (part of Memorial Day Weekend) at the OC Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa. Tix and schedule are now online:
www.scottishfest.com
√ Annual "IRISH ARTS FAIR" is Sat & Sun, Jun 18 & 19 (Father's Day Weekend) at El Dorado Regional Park in Long Beach. Tix, and schedule filling-out online:
www.irishfair.org
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# 8 news feature...
DO GOOD BANJOS NEED TO BE HEAVY?
Our friends at Deering offer this as "Banjo Shopping Advice." We present it as part of our series on all things banjo and fiddle to get you ready for the Topanga Banjo•Fiddle Contest & Folk Festival, coming Sunday, May 15. Where you can Deering in their booth; the instruments they make in the hands of contestants, jammers, recreational music-makers and pros all over the site; and the Guide's founding editor doing his stage emcee duties.
See you there. Meantime, enjoy.
(BARRY HUNN, author of this feature, is Worldwide Sales Manager for Deering Banjos, a position he's held for 18 years. He has over 40 years in the music industry. He has taught five-string finger picking at the Univ. of Idaho and performed with many iconic artists, including EARL SCRUGGS, DOC WATSON, THE MAMAS & THE PAPAS, DANNY O’KEEFE, and more. He developed Deering's “TWO FINGER METHOD” to show non-musiciand that they can play the banjo. Several music historiand credit him with selling more American-made banjos than any person, ever.)
By Barry Hunn
Beginning and intermediate banjo players who are shopping for their first professional level banjo often ask the question, “do good banjos need to be heavy?” The answer lies in understanding what the parts of the banjo do to create the tone or the voice of the banjo.
Contrary to popular belief, the resonator of the banjo, while adding a pound or two to a banjo, is not the primary source of the weight that creates these questions.
Everything is a Recipe
The tone of a musical instrument is created by a combination of ingredients. The resulting weight of any instrument is not from a desire to make something heavy but to use ingredients that create a specific tone or voice for an instrument. This is true of violins, guitars, banjos and every other instrument.
The Banjo Ingredients
Bell bronze cast tone rings, like Deering’s -06- tone ring, are designed to pronounce, increase and enhance midrange frequencies which tend to give a banjo a “punchy” or strong midrange sound. This pronounced midrange helps the banjo “cut through” or be heard above other instruments.
Lighter and more hollow brass tone rings like the Vega tubaphone or Vega Senator tone rings have softer more subdued midrange frequencies, but have good low frequencies and reasonably good high frequencies which makes them sound rounder or fuller.
These have been used by folk singers, plectrum banjo players and some jazz players as solo instruments because their depth enhances a singer’s voice.
However, just because a tone ring is heavy, it does not automatically create the punch of the -06- tone ring. A case in point is the Deering Twenty-Ten brass tone ring that is featured on the Deering Eagle II banjos. It weighs almost the same as the -06- tone ring, but because of its design, it does not have the pronounced “punch” in the midrange frequencies. The midrange frequencies are flatter and the high frequencies are very strong. This unique tone comes from the alloy used and part of this comes from the shape of the tone ring.
A wood tone ring, like Deering’s John Hartford model banjo, has a very flat midrange but does not have the pronounced midrange “bump” of the -06- tone ring. This gives the wood tone ring, though it is lightweight, a strong midrange without the high-frequency enhancement that comes from the brass or bronze tone ring.
It doesn’t have the “brightness” of a brass or bronze tone ring, but the midrange is clear and easy to record and can either stand out or blend in with other instruments beautifully. Its inherent clarity or “well defined” tone allows it to “cut through,” but it does so without the brightness of a bronze or brass tone.
Tone rings like the -06- or the Twenty-Ten weigh about 3 pounds, give or take a few ounces. A Vega Tubaphone tone ring like the one featured on the Vega #2 banjo is probably closer to 2 pounds. A Vega Senator tone ring or a Hartford tone ring made of wood is probably closer to one pound or perhaps even a pound and a quarter.
The Other Weight in a Banjo
The one-piece cast zinc flange that is found on many modern banjos (like the Deering Sierra, Deluxe, Calico, GDL, etc.) weighs in the neighborhood of about 3 pounds.
There are other flange styles like bracket shoes with individual platelets or light brass tubes with thin brass plates or light brass tubes with spring steelclips (like Deering’s pop on resonator attachment).
The heavy one-piece flange is musically inert. It is designed this way so that it does not vibrate with a sound of its own. This would interfere with the sound of the tone ring vibrations and the rim and even the neck. But since it’s attached to the banjo, it does increase the mass of the pot assembly and therefore does tend to increase the sustain of the banjo. This is in addition to providing a foundational attachment for the bracket hooks.
Bracket shoes, also made of zinc alloy, are usually screwed to the rim with machine screws that are tightened from the inside of the rim. The zinc keeps them from vibrating, and they are also a foundational attachment for the bracket hooks. However, they are very lightweight, so their contribution to sustain is very limited.
The Sum of the Parts
When most customers ask why good banjos are so heavy, it is virtually always in response to picking up a modern resonator banjo with a one piece zinc flange and a resonator. Since a bell bronze tone ring is about 3 pounds, and a one piece flange is about 3 pounds, that’s 6 pounds just in those two parts.
Legends of professional banjos weighing 25 or 50 pounds are exaggerations.
A modern banjo with a bell bronze tone ring and a one piece flange usually weighs no more than 12 to 14 pounds, depending on the design of the tailpiece, the tension hope, the armrest, and the wood used in the neck, rim, and resonator. Still, 12 pounds is heavier than most acoustic guitars or violins, so the contrast makes the difference seem greater than the reality.
Not Every “Good” Banjo is Heavy
Most bluegrass banjo players prefer banjos that have a bell bronze tone ring (like the Deering -06- tone ring). So, bluegrass players have learned to recognize that a “good” banjo has a heavy tone ring and a heavy flange and weighs 12 to 14 pounds.
Many jazz and Dixieland jazz players consider a “good” banjo to be built with Tubaphone tone rings and other lightweight tone rings which translate to banjos that weigh 8 to 10 pounds.
Folk players like the Kingston Trio and Pete Seeger have traditionally considered longneck banjos with Tubaphone tone rings to be “good” banjos which weigh in the 8 pound range.
Many claw hammer players prefer open-back five-string banjos with no tone ring at all: they just want the head stretched over a Maple rim. These banjos might only weigh 5 to7 pounds, and yet they are considered “good” banjos.
The Tone is the Goal
A “good” banjo is not necessarily heavy any more than a “good” pizza crust must be thick. The tone of the banjo is determined by the choice of the tone ring, the flange design, the tailpiece design, the wood used in the rim, the neck, and the resonator, and one of the most important ingredients: precision craftsmanship. A great tone ring, not correctly fitted, will make a very mediocre sounding banjo.
Traditional and Nontraditional Choices
A 12 pound resonator banjo with a bell bronze tone ring and a one-piece zinc flange is usually, but not always, chosen by banjo players who play bluegrass music. This is often considered a “good” banjo.
A 6 pound open back banjo with no tone ring and no flange is often, but not always, chosen by banjo players who play old-time “claw hammer” style banjo.
I have met claw hammer players who loved playing 12 pound resonator banjos, and I have met fingerpicking bluegrass players who enjoyed playing lighter weight open back banjos.
The Art of You
If possible, choose a banjo with your ears and your hands and not with someone else’s predetermined ideas. Who among us would tell Leonardo da Vinci “put some teeth in that Mona Lisa smile”.
Choose the banjo based on your ideas. You are, after all, the artist.
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Originally published May 6, 2016, at:
http://blog.deeringbanjos.com/good-banjos-need-to-be-heavy/
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# 9 news feature...
AUCTION ITEMS ANNOUNCED FOR "ADOPT THE ARTS" BENEFIT CONCERT, COMING MAY 12th IN HOLLYWOOD
Since the systematic defunding of arts and music programs in public schools nationwide, school districts that value and want programs for their students have had to innovate. In the LAUSD, one such innovation — and one uniquely suited to work in a city with a huge population of famous music-makers — is the "Adopt the Arts" Benefit Concert and its auction of donated instruments from famous players.
It happens Thursday, May 12, at the Henry Fonda Theatre, 6126 Hollywood Bl, in Hollywood.
Live auction were announced late this week. And it was issued in all caps:
MUSIC LUMINARIES TO HONOR AND PERFORM WITH 2016 ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES GLENN HUGHES & ROBIN ZANDER
RED CARPET (6 PM)
CONCERT BEGINS (7:30 PM)
ADOPT THE ARTS PROCEEDS CREATE MUSIC AND ARTS PROGRAMS IN LAUSD SCHOOLS
One auction item: a METALLICA guitar signed by the band. Keep reading.
ADOPT THE ARTS will launch a live benefit concert and live auction for LAUSD elementary schools. Music luminaries will gather to perform with and honor 2016 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees GLENN HUGHES (Deep Purple) and ROBIN ZANDER (Cheap Trick) for their contributions to American art and culture. Proceeds from the concert and auction will be donated to ADOPT THE ARTS music programs in LAUSD elementary schools (see VIP ticket/donation below).
Tickets are on-sale now at http://www.axs.com/events/308980/glenn-huges-robin-zander-tickets?skin=thefonda.
Comedian HAL SPARKS will be a part of the night's festivities.
Musicians confirmed to perform include ADOPT THE ARTS founder MATT SORUM (Guns N' Roses, Velvet Revolver, Hollywood Vampires) along with GEEZER BUTLER (Black Sabbath), STEVE JONES (Sex Pistols), COREY TAYLOR (Slipknot), GILBY CLARKE (Guns N' Roses), BILLY DUFFY (The Cult), DEAN DELEO & ROBERT DELEO (Stone Temple Pilots), STEVE LUKATHER (Toto), CHAD SMITH (Red Hot Chili Peppers), FRANKY PEREZ (Apocalyptica), STEVIE SALAS (Mick Jagger), PAUL III (Tina Turner, Disreputable Few), DAMON FOX (Big Elf and The Cult,) and DJ MORTY COYLE.
The Auction
Between live performances, guests will enjoy a live and silent auction featuring some of the following items from ADOPT THE ARTS supporters:
• ADOPT THE ARTS: Two Signed Concert Event Guitars (signed by all musicians above).
• SHEPARD FAIREY: Fine Art piece, "Black Sabbath," Print on metal (retail $3000.00).
• WOODY GUTHRIE: Signed Canvas Screen Print, 18' X 24" (numbered, edition of 450)
• 2010 IGGY POP Signed Raw Power Screen Print, 18' X 24" (numbered, edition of 650)
• 2010 BLACK SABBATH Signed Silver Black Crescent Print 18' X 24" (numbered, edition of 125) 2013 (www.obeygiant.com)
• METALLICA: Guitar signed by the band Metallica.
• SLASH: Guitar signed by Slash (Slash Featuring Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators, Guns N' Roses).
• JOE PERRY: Guitar signed by Joe Perry (Aerosmith, Hollywood Vampires).
• BRIAN MAY: Guitar signed by Brian May (QUEEN).
• DAVE GROHL: Guitar signed by Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters).
• JOURNEY: Guitar signed by Journey, Paul Reed Smith Se14 played by Neal Schon.
• MAROON 5: Guitar signed by the band Maroon 5.
• ELTON JOHN/DAVEY JOHNSTON: Signed guitar from Davey Johnston, legendary Elton John guitarist.
• MATT SORUM: Three signed Guns N' Roses drumheads signed by Matt Sorum (Guns N' Roses).
• PRINCE: Color print photo of Prince from rock photographer Gene Kirkland (signed). (www.genekirklandphotography.com)
• JOAN JETT & CHEAP TRICK: VIP Meet and Greet package at Los Angeles concert, August 23 at The Forum.
• CROSBY, STILLS, NASH & YOUNG: 1974 box set.
• RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE: deluxe box set.
• AFRICAN SAFARI: All-inclusive eco-luxury African safari trip.
• LAGUNA MONTAGE: Two-night luxury hotel stay and lunch with drummer Matt Sorum (Guns N' Roses).
• SAMMY HAGAR: signed cook book, two bottles of Bum Rum and two t-shirts.
• JOHN VARVATOS: Four 4.2 oz colognes, "Vintage," "Artisan," "Dark Rebel," "Artisan Acqua." One pair of Aviator sunglasses (retail $295.00). Signed copy of John Varvatos' limited edition book, "Rock In Fashion" (retail $495.00). Weekender duffle bag (retail $1595.00).
• KLIPTSCH SPEAKER SYSTEM: Kliptsch Designer Speaker System (Retail $1,500).
• ZALEMARK (jewelry): Sterling 925 Silver: Crayola Colored Inspired Ladies Bracelet set 5.24 cts Natural African Amethysts & White Sapphires (Retail $ 1494.00). Sterling 925 Silver: Crayola Colored Inspired Ladies Ring set with 9mm Princess Cut Natural Madera Citrine & 1.10cts of White Sapphires (Size 7, Retail $ 1632.00). Sterling 925 Silver: Set of 5, Crayola Colored Inspired Ladies Stackable 5 bracelets set (Made in Italy) with magnetic clasps (Retail $ 1215.00).
__________
Ticket prices for the ADOPT THE ARTS event are below and all donations are tax deductible:
• GA/Standing room - $40 Tickets
• Balcony seating - $75
• Special floor seating - $125
And there are expensive options:
Meet & Greet tables & tickets -SOLD OUT!
VIP TABLES - $2500 (2 left)
Floor Tables - $1500 (2 left)
All tix are on-sale now and can be purchased at :
http://adoptthearts.org
and at:
http://www.axs.com/events/308980/glenn-huges-robin-zander-tickets?skin=thefonda.
ADOPT THE ARTS (www.adoptthearts.org) is a Los Angeles-based charity co-founded by musician Matt Sorum and activist Abby Berman, and actively supported by artists like actress Jane Lynch (founding board member). The organization works to preserve arts programs in U.S. public schools.
To raise awareness, ADOPT THE ARTS honors individuals who've had a long-lasting impact on music culture and who inspire young musicians to follow in their footsteps. The ADOPT THE ARTS advisory board includes: SLASH, JOHN STAMOS, BILLY BOB THORTON, STEVE STEVENS, JULIETTE LEWIS, DANNY MASTERSON, SHEPARD FAIREY, ADRIAN YOUNG and GINA GERSHON.
According to Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), there are still not enough teachers, equipment or instruments for every child to receive an arts education of any kind. As in many school districts around the country, LAUSD has been slowly eroding its commitment to arts education, reducing the budget incrementally. The LAUSD district also estimates that 80% of its student body is living at or below the poverty line, which means the vast majority of these elementary school children will not have access to the arts outside of school.
"I'm extremely honored to be accepting an award from such an admirable charity, Adopt the Arts," explains GLENN HUGHES. "Matt Sorum has gone to great lengths to help create a program for children to have musical instruments in their lives and in turn to provide love and harmony in our lives. I'm humbled and grateful. See you at the event at the Henry Fonda Theatre in Hollywood on Thursday, May 12. I'm really looking forward to performing for you all, let's make it a magical night."
"All of my career I've been involved in promoting the arts in elementary schools and I'm proud to be part of Adopt the Arts Honors," adds ROBIN ZANDER. My thanks goes out to the foundation and I hope that fans everywhere will come and join us for a successful evening of fun, music and fundraising. See you there."
"Adopt the Arts was born out of the frustration for my own children losing education in the arts," explains ADOPT THE ARTS co-founder Abby Berman. "When the system is failing, we have to take action. With influential people like my co-founder Matt Sorum adopting schools, we can preserve this valuable component to childhood development, which is also known to boost test scores. Because Federal and State funding is falling short, the responsibility is upon us as concerned parents and citizens to ensure we're raising a new generation of healthy and well-rounded individuals."
ADOPT THE ARTS Chair and Co-founder Matt Sorum adds, "We're starting in our own backyard here in Los Angeles, and we'll continue to adopt schools across the nation. We believe that music and art are universal and necessary languages that unite us all, regardless of our backgrounds."
www.adoptthearts.org
https://www.facebook.com/adopt.the.arts
https://twitter.com/AdopttheArts
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# 10 news feature...
ACCLAIMED SINGER-SONGWRITER DARRYL PURPOSE's "STILL THE BIRDS" RELEASED MAY 6
"Yes, Darryl Purpose sounds like James Taylor. And, yes, he has an amazing backstory... These songs are so good they eclipse all that. Purpose has a rare flair for writing memorable mellifluous melodies, and on 'Still the Birds' he pairs them with marvelous lyrics by Paul Zollo, who has written a rhyming dictionary and shows it by pairing 'Halloween' with 'gabardine.' Purpose's folksy tunes enchant thanks to their surprising twists, such as the octave-and-a-half leap in the chorus of 'When Buddha Smiled at the Elephant.' Elsewhere he sings about gangs, devotion, Dylan Thomas, and wars today and two centuries ago. Keep this up, and someday folks will say James Taylor sounds like Darryl Purpose." — Steve Wine, Associated Press.
"Fascinating, ingratiating, controversial, interesting, deep and somewhat off-center…" — Frank Roberts, Virginian-Pilot.
Before we share or say more? The proof is always in the listening. Preview DARRYL PURPOSE's "STILL THE BIRDS" at:
https://soundcloud.com/darryl-purpose/sets/stillthebirds/s-2hbFs
Out now on Blue Rock Artists is songwriter-singer DARRYL PURPOSE’s "STILL THE BIRDS," his 7th solo release. Produced by Billy Crockett at Blue Rock Studios in Wimberly, TX it features 11 songs co-written by Darryl Purpose and L.A. musician, songwriter, and photographer Paul Zollo.
Purpose does the vocals and plays the acoustic guitar. Joining him in the studio were a stellar lineup. There's Roscoe Beck on bass (Leonard Cohen, The Dixie Chicks, Robben Ford); Eric Darken on percussion (Jimmy Buffet, Carrie Underwood); Daran DeShazo on electric guitar; Grammy-winning accordion and keyboard player Joel Guzman; and Billy Crockett.
"STILL THE BIRDS" features a duet with Eliza Gilkyson (“The Meaning Of My Love”), with additional guest vocals by Jonathan Byrd, Carrie Elkin, Matt Nakoa, Betty Soo, and others.
The 11 songs on "STILL THE BIRDS" paint compelling vignettes exploring the human condition — the tension between dark and light, despair and hope, vulnerability and triumphs. There's a Vietnam draft-dodger coming unhinged ("Hours in a Day"); the gangs of L.A. ("Evergreen Avenue"); twists on literary icons Dylan Thomas ("Prince of the Apple Towns") and Edgar Allen Poe ("Baltimore"); to Buddha ("When Buddha Smiled at the Elephant"); the Civil War ("Shiloh"); and the redemption of love ("Everywhere At Once"). Zollo's tales explore the tension amidst triumph and vulnerability.
The songs on the album are as unique and diverse as the stories from Darryl’s kaleidoscopic life. An internationally-acclaimed touring musician, Darryl is also a member of the Blackjack Hall of Fame. He’s walked across the country for peace, been banned from casinos on six continents, played the first stadium rock concert with Santana and Bonnie Raitt in the former Soviet Union, studied with global spiritual leader Thich Nhat Hanh, and co-founded The Second Strings Project, an organization that has delivered over 20,000 sets of strings to musicians of third world and developing countries.
Exactly how many musicians can start out their story with, "I left home as a teenager and became a professional gambler"-? There really is only one…. Darryl Purpose.
Before Darryl started touring, during a period of playing open mics and showcases around L.A., he found himself in a tough situation. "I cashed a couple of checks for a 'friend' that I owed a favor to, and ended-up getting arrested for laundering drug money. I didn't have great boundaries with the law in those days."
He was facing eighteen years mandatory sentence (he would have been getting out about now) until the prosecutors figured out that he wasn't a big time criminal and reduced the charge. They sentenced him to three months in a halfway house. During the intake meeting there, they told Darryl that this was a work-release program, and that he could go home during the day if he had a job. Thinking quickly, he told them he was a nationally-touring singer-songwriter, and he would have to go home during the day and work on his career. So he did, and in that three month period he found himself a record label and a booking agent, and started touring nationally.
He was now a professional songwriter and musician. “That brush with the criminal justice system lead to my career” he says.
Starting in 1996, Darryl clocked in thousands of miles, playing for tips, sleeping in his truck, and basically getting his music out there any way he could. By 2004, and about 1500+ shows later, he had played many of the top venues in North America and Europe and had released 6 albums that all did well on folk radio. Then in 2004, “I won a couple million dollars within a few months and bought a house in my favorite place in the world - Nederland, Colorado, where I still live.”
All of which he says rather casually.
That winning year changed his life in many ways, including being able to concentrate more on his music.
Darryl likes to say that luck is a residue of design — and he has been crafting his own luck for some time now, out of whatever wreckage has come his way. Though he always wanted to be small, the universe gave him acromegaly, a disease of excess growth hormone. So he went big, and lived his life for the story.
DARRYL PURPOSE's "STILL THE BIRDS" had taken flight and is available now.
"Darry Purpose's music hits all the vital areas; the heart, the mind and the gut." — Michael Tisserand, Gambit Weekly.
Recommended.
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More music news is in numerous recent editions. More on upcoming FESTIVALS and events is in the April 16 edition, available at a separate click.
Much more, soon, on additional topics.
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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 forms. From the deepest roots to today’s acoustic renaissance, that’s our beat. We provide a wealth of resources, including a HUGE catalog of acoustic-friendly venues, and schedules and inside info on FESTIVALS and select performances in Southern California in venues monumentally large and intimately small and cozy. We cover workshops and other events for artists and folks in the music industry, and all kinds 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 bluegrass and pre-bluegrass Appalachian mountain music to all the roots of the blues and where the music is headed now.
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The Acoustic Americana Music Guide. Thanks for sittin' a spell.
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Topanga Banjo•Fiddle is a week away (it's Sun, May 15). But Festival season is already in full swing RIGHT NOW.
Plus, there are exceptional concerts this weekend, and a fun outdoor theatre event, tonight only. All that, a wonderful new DARRYL PURPOSE album, and more NEWS FEATURES, in this edition.
Note...
If you're headed for SANTA ANITA RACETRACK to catch the big screen live feed from the KENTUCKY DERBY and wager on th' ponies running hither an' yon? There's a fun FREE FESTIVAL in nearby Sierra Madre! So you can split the day and catch tunefulness, too. It's our # 1 feature.
Let's get started!
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Contents / in this edition...
1) FREE FESTIVAL THIS WEEKEND
2) BIG TIME FESTIVALS THIS WEEKEND & NEXT
3) SATURDAY WORKSHOP
4) OUTDOOR THEATER EVENT AT INDIAN MUSEUM / STATE PARK, IN THE DESERT, TONIGHT ONLY
5) CONCERT / GIG PICKS THIS WEEKEND
6) POLITICIANS HIJACKING MUSIC
7) IMPENDING CELTIC FESTS
8) MUST GOOD BANJOS BE HEAVY?
9) AUCTION ITEMS ANNOUNCED FOR "ADOPT THE ARTS" BENEFIT CONCERT, COMING MAY 12th IN HOLLYWOOD
10) ACCLAIMED SINGER-SONGWRITER DARRYL PURPOSE's "STILL THE BIRDS" RELEASED MAY 6th
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# 1 news feature...
FREE FESTIVAL THIS WEEKEND
The 54th annual "SIERRA MADRE ART FAIR" is May 7 & 8, from 9:30 am-6 pm Saturday and 9:30 am-5 pm Sunday. With plenty of live acoustic music, this quality event is sponsored by the Friends of the Sierra Madre Library,and is held in Memorial Park, 222 W Sierra Madre Bl, downtown Sierra Madre (about three miles above the 210 Fwy.
A little rain is predicted for Saturday afternoon, between 3 and 4; the morning should great, and there is no rain predicted Sunday.
Live Music is featured throughout the weekend in the band shell and on the southeast lawn.
Band Shell
Saturday:
• 11 am-1 pm Evan Marshall, Mandolin Maestro
• 2-4 pm Steve Trovato & Tim Kobza (Jazz-Rock-Country-Blues).
Sunday:
• 11 am-1 pm Liam Lewis & Zac Leger (Celtic-Americana fiddles, mandolin, guitar)
• 2-4 pm Shawn Oshmiansky presents International House of Jazz with guests David Naiditch and Tommy Davy.
Southeast Lawn
Saturday:
• 10 am-noon Luckpenny (Irish)
• 1-4 pm Bravo Celli (Cello Trio)
Sunday:
10 am-noon Banna Beag Mall (Irish)
1-3 pm Mark Heyes & Phil Salazar (Bluegrass).
Food vendors offer a variety of food & drinks. Scheduled: Taquito Lover, Korean BBQ, and the Gourmet Genie Food Truck. A Wine & Beer Garden is on the front lawn of the Park, open Saturday 11 am-6 pm and Sunday 11 am-5 pm.
The Friends of the Library has a booth selling their popular "sweet ‘quick breads" and the Sierra Madre Historical Preservation Society is selling their famous lemonade made with rangpur limes.
For the children, instructors from the Creative Arts Group have planned a craft activity called ‘Watercolors and Sunshine.’ Children will be using watercolors to create beautiful images of the sun.
80 artists, including 18 newly juried, display and sell their works of art. Mediums include oil paintings, jewelry, watercolors, glass, wood, metal, wearable art, photography, pottery, ceramics, mixed media and weaving.
Featured Artist this year is Sarah Moore. Her “Raven’s Jar” pottery piece appears on all post cards, posters, flyers, and other promotional materials. Her work is in booth # 4. The Fair this year is in honor and remembrance of Nancy Doyle, much accomplished and talented artist who participated in the Art Fair for over 20 years.
There's a Silent Auction where 35 artists have donated "lovely, one-of-a-kind pieces; you have an opportunity to bid on some really beautiful artwork" and support the Library.
All Proceeds from the Art Fair benefit the Sierra Madre Public Library. For more information call 626-355-7186. More at:
http://sierramadrelibraryfriends.org/the-54th-annual-sierra-madre-art-fair-may-2-3-2016/
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# 2 news feature...
BIG TIME FESTIVALS THIS WEEKEND & NEXT
You really didn't think you were nesting at home, did you? Topanga Banjo•Fiddle is a week away. But Festival season is in full swing NOW. (Plus, there are exceptional concerts this weekend, listed in a different section.)
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Here's THIS WEEKEND's festival action...
√ Annual "PARKFIELD BLUEGRASS FESTIVAL" through Sun, May 8, in Central California, at V6 Ranch, 70410 Parkfield Coalinga Rd, Parkfield 93451; 805-994-0929. Music by Bean Creek, Amber Cross, Sidesaddle & Co., Next Generation, Amaya Rose & the Gold Rush, Bluegrass Etc, Next Generation, Joe Craven & the Sometimers, Snap Jackson & Knock on Wood Players. Saturday sched. is 9:30 am-midnight.
√ Annual "GATOR BY THE BAY FESTIVAL" is a very big deal with multiple stages that continues through Sun, May 8, at 2326 India St, San Diego 92101; 619-234-8612; www.gatorbythebay.com. Music by (take a deep breath) Curley Taylor & Zydeco Trouble, Bonsoir Catin, Jeffery Broussard & The Creole Cowboys, Roy Rogers, Johnny 'V' Vernazza, John Nemeth, Sugaray Rayford, Curtis Salgado Blues Band, The 44's with Kid Ramos, Billy Watson & International Silver String Submarine Band, Sue Palmer & Her Motel Swing Orchestra, Bill Magee Blues Band, Robin Henkel, Motordude Zydeco, The Euphoria Brass Band, Joe Sans Fontenot Cajun Creole Band, David Sousa & Zydeco Mudbugs, Bayou Brothers, Billy Lee & the Swamp Critters, San Diego Cajun Playboys, Theo & Zydeco Patrol, Three Chord Justice, Gregory Page, Palominos, Manny Cepeda, Kimba Light, Todo Mundo, Todd Waits Pigpen. Voulez les bonne temps roulez! Runs Sat, 11 am-11 pm. (Also an adjunct evening dance in a nearby venue; see concerts & gigs listings.)
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Festivals AFTER this weekend...
√ Annual "LOS ANGELES OLD-TIME SOCIAL" runs Thu, May 12-Sat, May 14. Concerts, workshops, dances, in an immersion in the good time roots music that preceded bluegrass.
√ Annual "TOPANGA BANJO•FIDDLE CONTEST & FOLK FESTIVAL" Sun, May 15, at Paramount Ranch in Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, near Agoura. The best one-day folk fest anywhere. Full info at:
www.topangabanjofiddle.org
√ Annual "CLAREMONT FOLK FESTIVAL" Sun, May 22, is already SOLD-OUT.
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# 3 news feature...
SATURDAY WORKSHOP
BRUCE MOLSKY does a fiddle workshop Saturday morning, 10-11:30 am, at Fiddler's Crossing, 206 East F St, Tehachapi 93561; call for your spot, 661-823-9994.
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# 4 news feature....
OUTDOOR THEATER EVENT AT INDIAN MUSEUM / STATE PARK, IN THE DESERT, TONIGHT ONLY
It's a California State Park like no other. The Antelope Valley Indian Museum SHP, on Saturday, May 7, hosts an event that harkens back to what happened there in the 1930s.
The full evening, running 6-9 pm, includes food, a very rare chance to tour the museum at night, and the outdoor play. It's an encore performance of the Native themed production, "Owl and the Bear."
The event is a fundraiser for the Friends of the Antelope Valley Indian Museum. You can enjoy theater under the sky and support the museum.
"Owl and the Bear" is based on Ted Garcia’s version of a traditional Chumash story. The play is performed outdoors by local Antelope Valley kids at “Little Theatre of the Standing Rocks.” From 6 to 7 pm, the museum will be open. Food will be available for purchase from 6-9 pm, so you can enjoy dinner either before or after the play. The play starts at 7 pm. After the performance, the museum will reopen until 9 pm.
The museum highlights American Indian peoples of California, Arizona, and New Mexico. The history of theater at the museum dates back to 1932. Museum founder H. A. Edwards wrote an Indian pageant. It was performed outdoors, near the museum, annually from 1932 to 1935. Edwards’ drama students from Lincoln High School played the main roles, and local friends and neighbors played the secondary roles. Edwards named his outdoor stage "Theatre of the Standing Rocks." You'll know why when you see the dramatic natural landscape.
Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for kids age 6 to 12. Kids age 5 and under are free.
The museum is located at 15701 East Avenue M, near Lake Los Angeles. That's east of Lancaster, California.
From the 14 Freeway in Lancaster, go east on Avenue K to 150th Street East. Turn right and go south for two miles to Avenue M. Turn left and go east on Avenue M for 1 mile to the museum.
No pets allowed. For more information, phone the museum at 661-946-3055 (711 TTY relay service), or check the website at www.avim.parks.ca.gov
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# 5 news feature...
CONCERT / GIG PICKS THIS WEEKEND
Saturday...
√ ★★★ STRING FEVER plays Sat, May 7, 3 pm matinee, at the Coffee Gallery Backstage, 2029 N Lake Av, Altadena 92675; reservations a must, and only by phone (10 am-10 pm, 7 days) 626-798-6236.
√ ★★★ WITCHER, RECUPIDO, LEVITT & WITCHER plays Sat, May 7, 7 pm, at the Coffee Gallery Backstage, 2029 N Lake Av, Altadena 92675; reservations a must, and only by phone (10 am-10 pm, 7 days) 626-798-6236.
√ ★★★ SEAN WATKINS of Nickel Creek plays Sat, May 7, 7 pm, at the Museum of Making Music, 5790 Armada Dr, Carlsbad 92008; 760-438-5996.
√ ★★★ ALBERT LEE and JERRY DONAHUE play Sat & Sun, May 7 & 8, 8 pm, at McCabe’s Guitar Shop, 3101 Pico Bl, Santa Monica 90405; 310-828-4497.
√ ★★ MICHAEL CHAPDELAINE plays Sat, May 7, 8 pm, at Boulevard Music, 4316 Sepulveda Bl, Culver City 90230; 310-398-2583.
√ SHIP OF FOOLS plays their "Acoustic Songs of Depravity," Sat, May 7, 8 pm, at the Buchanan Arms Restaurant & Pub, 2013 W Burbank Bl, Burbank 91506.
√ ★★ INCENDIO plays the "Brogden Bay Concert Series," Sat, May 7, 8 pm, at Hillcrest Center for the Arts, 403 W Hillcrest Dr, Thousand Oaks 91360; 805-381-2747.
√ ★★ "GATOR BY THE BAY DANCE" is an adjunct to the festival, Sat, May 7, 9 pm-midnight, with MotorDude Zydeco, Curly Taylor & Zydeco Trouble, and Jeffrey Broussard & Kristi Guillory, at the Sheraton San Diego Hotel & Marina, 1380 Harbor Island Dr, San Diego 92101.
√ G BURNS JUG BAND plays Sat, May 7, 10 pm, at Black Cat Bar, 4246 University Av, San Diego 92105; 619-280-5834.
Sunday...
√ BLUEGRASS GHOSTS play the Sunday "Bluegrass Brunch" series, Sun, May 8, noon, at Cody's Viva Cantina, 900 Riverside Dr, Burbank 91506; 818-845-2425.
√ ★★★ BRUCE MOLSKY with PAULA BRADLEY & ALLISON DE GROOT play the "Da Camera Society" series in L.A. harbor, Sun, May 8, at 2:30, 3:30, & 5:30 pm, at Banning Museum Stagecoach Barn, 401 East M St, Wilmington 90744.
√ ★★ MOIRA SMILEY plus HONEY WHISKEY TRIO play "Brad Colerick's Cellar Sessions," Sun, May 8, 3 pm, at Old Oak Cellars, 2620 East Foothill Bl, Pasadena 91107. Signs on buildings are confusing; use the address.
√ ★★★ PETE ANDERSON, a legendary musician, play Sun, May 8, 3:30 pm, at Cody's Viva Cantina, 900 Riverside Dr, Burbank 91506; 818-845-2425.
√ JEFF BERKLEY plays Sun, May 8, 4 pm, for the FREE monthly "Red Rock Concerts Series" at Crown Books, 6100 Topanga Canyon Bl, #1340, Woodland Hills 91367. (Be sure you park at the correct mall.)
√ ★★ DIMITRIS "JIMMY" MAHLIS & JAMIE PAPISH play Sun, May 8, 7:30 pm; this is Greek and Middle Eastern Music, and these guys are very impressive. It's at Niroj Kurdish Cuisine, 30313 Canwood St, Agoura Hills 91301.
√ ★★★ ALBERT LEE & JERRY DONAHUE play Sun, May 8, 8 pm, at McCabe’s Guitar Shop, 3101 Pico Bl, Santa Monica 90405; 310-828-4497.
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# 6 news feature...
POLITICIANS HIJACKING MUSIC
We go through this every election cycle. Some office seeker — usually a Republican — is called out by a famous musician, band, songwriter, or combination of these folks. And it's always the same story: prominently playing hijacked music to promote a campaign.
Eight years ago it was Ann and Nancy Wilson, songwriting sister duo of the band Heart, who had to threaten a high-dollar lawsuit to make VP candidate Sarah Palin stop using "Barracuda" as her theme song. A few months ago, it was presidential candidate and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie hijacking a sizeable chunk of the Bruce Springsteen catalog. Just this year, Jeb Bush, Scott Waker, and Mike Huckabee are among those called out who, having all been elected as governors, should have known better, but apparently didn't.
But if we get started on all the history, we'll be here awhile. So let's get to the now.
The problem derives from painfully stupid music licensing. The rules must be changed. Right now, anyone — including a politician — can buy a blanket license for all the material in a catalog, and arguably use it at their rallies. It's a short stretch to crafting their identity with music by someone they don't know and have never met. And now we have pseudo campaign theme songs / campaign soundtracks, and artists and songwriters wondering, WTF?
That's just plain wrong. The context in which your music is used? It's at least as definitive to your identity as to the politician playing it. No one can do that to advertise a product. You have negotiation and refusal rights for your music to sell soy sauce, software, soap, and tampons. So what's the difference with a politician who can brand you with your music at least as much as your music can brand them?
Well, as a specific thing you CAN do, that exists. The problem is the flip side — that you can't always play it that way. Because there's that nebulous territory that you think ASCAP or BMI or SESAC has covered for you, until you see a particularly repulsive politician's rally where they're playing your song.
Even when a campaign pays for a blanket license — and many don't even do that — artists can only do four things:
• be flattered by it.
• grimace and bear it.
• send a cease and desist order.
• threaten, then enact, a lawsuit.
These should all be replaced by just one thing: soecifically license it. Or not.
Instead we get a surprised, or horrified, artist spending money calling their publicist to issue a statement, after learning the hard way that their songs are promoting some politician.
Unless that politician is, say, Bernie Sanders, who is endorsed by two-thirds of Crosby, Stills & Nash and licensed to use their music.
Otherwise? Expect embarrassment, resentment, a sudden contingent of fans that are really disorienting, and inevitably, some encounter with vitriol.
Or, if you're the one needing tunefulness to pump-up crowd excitement? You might think you're a clever exploitive politician and steal from a dead guy.
Donald Trump just committed that sacrilege. Having been told by everybody from Neil Young to the Rolling Stones to cease and desist using their music at his rallies? He's now using the music of someone who can't object, because he's dead.
But there can be no doubt that departed artist would condemn Trump's lack of ideology, Trump's characteristically opportunistic ways, and condemn them every way he could, if he were here to do it.
That artist wasn't just a champion of most of what Trump has badmouthed.
That artist wasn't simply a passionate voice for protecting the planet — musically and as an activist, testifying before Congress, serving on a Presidential commission, active on the boards of many nonprofit environmental organizations.
That artist was the first one, not just from music, but all the arts, to play such a major role and mobilize the popular consciousness about caring for our little blue planet. And leading that awakening wasn't limited to his role in the U.S. — he played that role worldwide and was celebrated by the U.N. for doing it.
You see, the ever-exploitive, opportunistic predator with the uncontainable ego, the bloviator who not only doesn't know when to shut-up, but who can't and won't shut up — when what he most needs to do is listen, which he won't — the guy so arrogantly rich that he takes whatever he wants because he believes himself entitled to it — all those things that are Donald Trump? At his campaign rallies, the SOB is now playing the music of John Denver.
Y'know, Bill & Taffy Danoff have co-writes on "Take Me Home, Country Roads," the song Trump was using as a campaign singalong that made the global tv broadcast. Adding to Trump's two-billion dollars (and counting) in free media promotion for his campaign. Free coverage that includes phoners with him that pre-empt scheduled programs.
Of course, Trump, the man who can't ever be wrong about anything, has been blasted by plenty of artists whose music he has hijacked. Most recently by Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones, for hihacking "Start Me Up" as his de facto campaign theme song. Like any predatory opportunist devoid of moral compass or conscious, Trump just moves on to another Borg-like assimilation of somebody else's music.
But — not having learned his lesson when he briefly stole James Taylor's music — Trump is back to messing with folk music again. The music of an artist who can't tell him what he thinks of him and his climate-change denial, xenophobia, racism, arrogance, and general odiousness.
But arrogance is always a gateway to stupidity. We suspect it's also the route to the John Denver Estate, which carefully protects the late artist's music from exploitation and use by individuals or causes the fair-haired country boy would have found objectionable.
And as we mentioned, there's also Bill Danoff and Taffy Nivert Danoff, co-writers whose voices and instrumentation are on that most recent famous recording that Trump has plundered. We hope those two cloud up and rain all over him.
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# 7 news feature...
IMPENDING CELTIC FESTS
Just quickly, so you can get your kilt pressed and your bagpipes tuned (wait: those things can be TUNED?)
√ Annual "SCOTTISH FEST USA" is Sat & Sun, May 28 and 29 (part of Memorial Day Weekend) at the OC Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa. Tix and schedule are now online:
www.scottishfest.com
√ Annual "IRISH ARTS FAIR" is Sat & Sun, Jun 18 & 19 (Father's Day Weekend) at El Dorado Regional Park in Long Beach. Tix, and schedule filling-out online:
www.irishfair.org
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# 8 news feature...
DO GOOD BANJOS NEED TO BE HEAVY?
Our friends at Deering offer this as "Banjo Shopping Advice." We present it as part of our series on all things banjo and fiddle to get you ready for the Topanga Banjo•Fiddle Contest & Folk Festival, coming Sunday, May 15. Where you can Deering in their booth; the instruments they make in the hands of contestants, jammers, recreational music-makers and pros all over the site; and the Guide's founding editor doing his stage emcee duties.
See you there. Meantime, enjoy.
(BARRY HUNN, author of this feature, is Worldwide Sales Manager for Deering Banjos, a position he's held for 18 years. He has over 40 years in the music industry. He has taught five-string finger picking at the Univ. of Idaho and performed with many iconic artists, including EARL SCRUGGS, DOC WATSON, THE MAMAS & THE PAPAS, DANNY O’KEEFE, and more. He developed Deering's “TWO FINGER METHOD” to show non-musiciand that they can play the banjo. Several music historiand credit him with selling more American-made banjos than any person, ever.)
By Barry Hunn
Beginning and intermediate banjo players who are shopping for their first professional level banjo often ask the question, “do good banjos need to be heavy?” The answer lies in understanding what the parts of the banjo do to create the tone or the voice of the banjo.
Contrary to popular belief, the resonator of the banjo, while adding a pound or two to a banjo, is not the primary source of the weight that creates these questions.
Everything is a Recipe
The tone of a musical instrument is created by a combination of ingredients. The resulting weight of any instrument is not from a desire to make something heavy but to use ingredients that create a specific tone or voice for an instrument. This is true of violins, guitars, banjos and every other instrument.
The Banjo Ingredients
Bell bronze cast tone rings, like Deering’s -06- tone ring, are designed to pronounce, increase and enhance midrange frequencies which tend to give a banjo a “punchy” or strong midrange sound. This pronounced midrange helps the banjo “cut through” or be heard above other instruments.
Lighter and more hollow brass tone rings like the Vega tubaphone or Vega Senator tone rings have softer more subdued midrange frequencies, but have good low frequencies and reasonably good high frequencies which makes them sound rounder or fuller.
These have been used by folk singers, plectrum banjo players and some jazz players as solo instruments because their depth enhances a singer’s voice.
However, just because a tone ring is heavy, it does not automatically create the punch of the -06- tone ring. A case in point is the Deering Twenty-Ten brass tone ring that is featured on the Deering Eagle II banjos. It weighs almost the same as the -06- tone ring, but because of its design, it does not have the pronounced “punch” in the midrange frequencies. The midrange frequencies are flatter and the high frequencies are very strong. This unique tone comes from the alloy used and part of this comes from the shape of the tone ring.
A wood tone ring, like Deering’s John Hartford model banjo, has a very flat midrange but does not have the pronounced midrange “bump” of the -06- tone ring. This gives the wood tone ring, though it is lightweight, a strong midrange without the high-frequency enhancement that comes from the brass or bronze tone ring.
It doesn’t have the “brightness” of a brass or bronze tone ring, but the midrange is clear and easy to record and can either stand out or blend in with other instruments beautifully. Its inherent clarity or “well defined” tone allows it to “cut through,” but it does so without the brightness of a bronze or brass tone.
Tone rings like the -06- or the Twenty-Ten weigh about 3 pounds, give or take a few ounces. A Vega Tubaphone tone ring like the one featured on the Vega #2 banjo is probably closer to 2 pounds. A Vega Senator tone ring or a Hartford tone ring made of wood is probably closer to one pound or perhaps even a pound and a quarter.
The Other Weight in a Banjo
The one-piece cast zinc flange that is found on many modern banjos (like the Deering Sierra, Deluxe, Calico, GDL, etc.) weighs in the neighborhood of about 3 pounds.
There are other flange styles like bracket shoes with individual platelets or light brass tubes with thin brass plates or light brass tubes with spring steelclips (like Deering’s pop on resonator attachment).
The heavy one-piece flange is musically inert. It is designed this way so that it does not vibrate with a sound of its own. This would interfere with the sound of the tone ring vibrations and the rim and even the neck. But since it’s attached to the banjo, it does increase the mass of the pot assembly and therefore does tend to increase the sustain of the banjo. This is in addition to providing a foundational attachment for the bracket hooks.
Bracket shoes, also made of zinc alloy, are usually screwed to the rim with machine screws that are tightened from the inside of the rim. The zinc keeps them from vibrating, and they are also a foundational attachment for the bracket hooks. However, they are very lightweight, so their contribution to sustain is very limited.
The Sum of the Parts
When most customers ask why good banjos are so heavy, it is virtually always in response to picking up a modern resonator banjo with a one piece zinc flange and a resonator. Since a bell bronze tone ring is about 3 pounds, and a one piece flange is about 3 pounds, that’s 6 pounds just in those two parts.
Legends of professional banjos weighing 25 or 50 pounds are exaggerations.
A modern banjo with a bell bronze tone ring and a one piece flange usually weighs no more than 12 to 14 pounds, depending on the design of the tailpiece, the tension hope, the armrest, and the wood used in the neck, rim, and resonator. Still, 12 pounds is heavier than most acoustic guitars or violins, so the contrast makes the difference seem greater than the reality.
Not Every “Good” Banjo is Heavy
Most bluegrass banjo players prefer banjos that have a bell bronze tone ring (like the Deering -06- tone ring). So, bluegrass players have learned to recognize that a “good” banjo has a heavy tone ring and a heavy flange and weighs 12 to 14 pounds.
Many jazz and Dixieland jazz players consider a “good” banjo to be built with Tubaphone tone rings and other lightweight tone rings which translate to banjos that weigh 8 to 10 pounds.
Folk players like the Kingston Trio and Pete Seeger have traditionally considered longneck banjos with Tubaphone tone rings to be “good” banjos which weigh in the 8 pound range.
Many claw hammer players prefer open-back five-string banjos with no tone ring at all: they just want the head stretched over a Maple rim. These banjos might only weigh 5 to7 pounds, and yet they are considered “good” banjos.
The Tone is the Goal
A “good” banjo is not necessarily heavy any more than a “good” pizza crust must be thick. The tone of the banjo is determined by the choice of the tone ring, the flange design, the tailpiece design, the wood used in the rim, the neck, and the resonator, and one of the most important ingredients: precision craftsmanship. A great tone ring, not correctly fitted, will make a very mediocre sounding banjo.
Traditional and Nontraditional Choices
A 12 pound resonator banjo with a bell bronze tone ring and a one-piece zinc flange is usually, but not always, chosen by banjo players who play bluegrass music. This is often considered a “good” banjo.
A 6 pound open back banjo with no tone ring and no flange is often, but not always, chosen by banjo players who play old-time “claw hammer” style banjo.
I have met claw hammer players who loved playing 12 pound resonator banjos, and I have met fingerpicking bluegrass players who enjoyed playing lighter weight open back banjos.
The Art of You
If possible, choose a banjo with your ears and your hands and not with someone else’s predetermined ideas. Who among us would tell Leonardo da Vinci “put some teeth in that Mona Lisa smile”.
Choose the banjo based on your ideas. You are, after all, the artist.
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Originally published May 6, 2016, at:
http://blog.deeringbanjos.com/good-banjos-need-to-be-heavy/
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# 9 news feature...
AUCTION ITEMS ANNOUNCED FOR "ADOPT THE ARTS" BENEFIT CONCERT, COMING MAY 12th IN HOLLYWOOD
Since the systematic defunding of arts and music programs in public schools nationwide, school districts that value and want programs for their students have had to innovate. In the LAUSD, one such innovation — and one uniquely suited to work in a city with a huge population of famous music-makers — is the "Adopt the Arts" Benefit Concert and its auction of donated instruments from famous players.
It happens Thursday, May 12, at the Henry Fonda Theatre, 6126 Hollywood Bl, in Hollywood.
Live auction were announced late this week. And it was issued in all caps:
MUSIC LUMINARIES TO HONOR AND PERFORM WITH 2016 ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES GLENN HUGHES & ROBIN ZANDER
RED CARPET (6 PM)
CONCERT BEGINS (7:30 PM)
ADOPT THE ARTS PROCEEDS CREATE MUSIC AND ARTS PROGRAMS IN LAUSD SCHOOLS
One auction item: a METALLICA guitar signed by the band. Keep reading.
ADOPT THE ARTS will launch a live benefit concert and live auction for LAUSD elementary schools. Music luminaries will gather to perform with and honor 2016 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees GLENN HUGHES (Deep Purple) and ROBIN ZANDER (Cheap Trick) for their contributions to American art and culture. Proceeds from the concert and auction will be donated to ADOPT THE ARTS music programs in LAUSD elementary schools (see VIP ticket/donation below).
Tickets are on-sale now at http://www.axs.com/events/308980/glenn-huges-robin-zander-tickets?skin=thefonda.
Comedian HAL SPARKS will be a part of the night's festivities.
Musicians confirmed to perform include ADOPT THE ARTS founder MATT SORUM (Guns N' Roses, Velvet Revolver, Hollywood Vampires) along with GEEZER BUTLER (Black Sabbath), STEVE JONES (Sex Pistols), COREY TAYLOR (Slipknot), GILBY CLARKE (Guns N' Roses), BILLY DUFFY (The Cult), DEAN DELEO & ROBERT DELEO (Stone Temple Pilots), STEVE LUKATHER (Toto), CHAD SMITH (Red Hot Chili Peppers), FRANKY PEREZ (Apocalyptica), STEVIE SALAS (Mick Jagger), PAUL III (Tina Turner, Disreputable Few), DAMON FOX (Big Elf and The Cult,) and DJ MORTY COYLE.
The Auction
Between live performances, guests will enjoy a live and silent auction featuring some of the following items from ADOPT THE ARTS supporters:
• ADOPT THE ARTS: Two Signed Concert Event Guitars (signed by all musicians above).
• SHEPARD FAIREY: Fine Art piece, "Black Sabbath," Print on metal (retail $3000.00).
• WOODY GUTHRIE: Signed Canvas Screen Print, 18' X 24" (numbered, edition of 450)
• 2010 IGGY POP Signed Raw Power Screen Print, 18' X 24" (numbered, edition of 650)
• 2010 BLACK SABBATH Signed Silver Black Crescent Print 18' X 24" (numbered, edition of 125) 2013 (www.obeygiant.com)
• METALLICA: Guitar signed by the band Metallica.
• SLASH: Guitar signed by Slash (Slash Featuring Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators, Guns N' Roses).
• JOE PERRY: Guitar signed by Joe Perry (Aerosmith, Hollywood Vampires).
• BRIAN MAY: Guitar signed by Brian May (QUEEN).
• DAVE GROHL: Guitar signed by Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters).
• JOURNEY: Guitar signed by Journey, Paul Reed Smith Se14 played by Neal Schon.
• MAROON 5: Guitar signed by the band Maroon 5.
• ELTON JOHN/DAVEY JOHNSTON: Signed guitar from Davey Johnston, legendary Elton John guitarist.
• MATT SORUM: Three signed Guns N' Roses drumheads signed by Matt Sorum (Guns N' Roses).
• PRINCE: Color print photo of Prince from rock photographer Gene Kirkland (signed). (www.genekirklandphotography.com)
• JOAN JETT & CHEAP TRICK: VIP Meet and Greet package at Los Angeles concert, August 23 at The Forum.
• CROSBY, STILLS, NASH & YOUNG: 1974 box set.
• RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE: deluxe box set.
• AFRICAN SAFARI: All-inclusive eco-luxury African safari trip.
• LAGUNA MONTAGE: Two-night luxury hotel stay and lunch with drummer Matt Sorum (Guns N' Roses).
• SAMMY HAGAR: signed cook book, two bottles of Bum Rum and two t-shirts.
• JOHN VARVATOS: Four 4.2 oz colognes, "Vintage," "Artisan," "Dark Rebel," "Artisan Acqua." One pair of Aviator sunglasses (retail $295.00). Signed copy of John Varvatos' limited edition book, "Rock In Fashion" (retail $495.00). Weekender duffle bag (retail $1595.00).
• KLIPTSCH SPEAKER SYSTEM: Kliptsch Designer Speaker System (Retail $1,500).
• ZALEMARK (jewelry): Sterling 925 Silver: Crayola Colored Inspired Ladies Bracelet set 5.24 cts Natural African Amethysts & White Sapphires (Retail $ 1494.00). Sterling 925 Silver: Crayola Colored Inspired Ladies Ring set with 9mm Princess Cut Natural Madera Citrine & 1.10cts of White Sapphires (Size 7, Retail $ 1632.00). Sterling 925 Silver: Set of 5, Crayola Colored Inspired Ladies Stackable 5 bracelets set (Made in Italy) with magnetic clasps (Retail $ 1215.00).
__________
Ticket prices for the ADOPT THE ARTS event are below and all donations are tax deductible:
• GA/Standing room - $40 Tickets
• Balcony seating - $75
• Special floor seating - $125
And there are expensive options:
Meet & Greet tables & tickets -SOLD OUT!
VIP TABLES - $2500 (2 left)
Floor Tables - $1500 (2 left)
All tix are on-sale now and can be purchased at :
http://adoptthearts.org
and at:
http://www.axs.com/events/308980/glenn-huges-robin-zander-tickets?skin=thefonda.
ADOPT THE ARTS (www.adoptthearts.org) is a Los Angeles-based charity co-founded by musician Matt Sorum and activist Abby Berman, and actively supported by artists like actress Jane Lynch (founding board member). The organization works to preserve arts programs in U.S. public schools.
To raise awareness, ADOPT THE ARTS honors individuals who've had a long-lasting impact on music culture and who inspire young musicians to follow in their footsteps. The ADOPT THE ARTS advisory board includes: SLASH, JOHN STAMOS, BILLY BOB THORTON, STEVE STEVENS, JULIETTE LEWIS, DANNY MASTERSON, SHEPARD FAIREY, ADRIAN YOUNG and GINA GERSHON.
According to Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), there are still not enough teachers, equipment or instruments for every child to receive an arts education of any kind. As in many school districts around the country, LAUSD has been slowly eroding its commitment to arts education, reducing the budget incrementally. The LAUSD district also estimates that 80% of its student body is living at or below the poverty line, which means the vast majority of these elementary school children will not have access to the arts outside of school.
"I'm extremely honored to be accepting an award from such an admirable charity, Adopt the Arts," explains GLENN HUGHES. "Matt Sorum has gone to great lengths to help create a program for children to have musical instruments in their lives and in turn to provide love and harmony in our lives. I'm humbled and grateful. See you at the event at the Henry Fonda Theatre in Hollywood on Thursday, May 12. I'm really looking forward to performing for you all, let's make it a magical night."
"All of my career I've been involved in promoting the arts in elementary schools and I'm proud to be part of Adopt the Arts Honors," adds ROBIN ZANDER. My thanks goes out to the foundation and I hope that fans everywhere will come and join us for a successful evening of fun, music and fundraising. See you there."
"Adopt the Arts was born out of the frustration for my own children losing education in the arts," explains ADOPT THE ARTS co-founder Abby Berman. "When the system is failing, we have to take action. With influential people like my co-founder Matt Sorum adopting schools, we can preserve this valuable component to childhood development, which is also known to boost test scores. Because Federal and State funding is falling short, the responsibility is upon us as concerned parents and citizens to ensure we're raising a new generation of healthy and well-rounded individuals."
ADOPT THE ARTS Chair and Co-founder Matt Sorum adds, "We're starting in our own backyard here in Los Angeles, and we'll continue to adopt schools across the nation. We believe that music and art are universal and necessary languages that unite us all, regardless of our backgrounds."
www.adoptthearts.org
https://www.facebook.com/adopt.the.arts
https://twitter.com/AdopttheArts
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# 10 news feature...
ACCLAIMED SINGER-SONGWRITER DARRYL PURPOSE's "STILL THE BIRDS" RELEASED MAY 6
"Yes, Darryl Purpose sounds like James Taylor. And, yes, he has an amazing backstory... These songs are so good they eclipse all that. Purpose has a rare flair for writing memorable mellifluous melodies, and on 'Still the Birds' he pairs them with marvelous lyrics by Paul Zollo, who has written a rhyming dictionary and shows it by pairing 'Halloween' with 'gabardine.' Purpose's folksy tunes enchant thanks to their surprising twists, such as the octave-and-a-half leap in the chorus of 'When Buddha Smiled at the Elephant.' Elsewhere he sings about gangs, devotion, Dylan Thomas, and wars today and two centuries ago. Keep this up, and someday folks will say James Taylor sounds like Darryl Purpose." — Steve Wine, Associated Press.
"Fascinating, ingratiating, controversial, interesting, deep and somewhat off-center…" — Frank Roberts, Virginian-Pilot.
Before we share or say more? The proof is always in the listening. Preview DARRYL PURPOSE's "STILL THE BIRDS" at:
https://soundcloud.com/darryl-purpose/sets/stillthebirds/s-2hbFs
Out now on Blue Rock Artists is songwriter-singer DARRYL PURPOSE’s "STILL THE BIRDS," his 7th solo release. Produced by Billy Crockett at Blue Rock Studios in Wimberly, TX it features 11 songs co-written by Darryl Purpose and L.A. musician, songwriter, and photographer Paul Zollo.
Purpose does the vocals and plays the acoustic guitar. Joining him in the studio were a stellar lineup. There's Roscoe Beck on bass (Leonard Cohen, The Dixie Chicks, Robben Ford); Eric Darken on percussion (Jimmy Buffet, Carrie Underwood); Daran DeShazo on electric guitar; Grammy-winning accordion and keyboard player Joel Guzman; and Billy Crockett.
"STILL THE BIRDS" features a duet with Eliza Gilkyson (“The Meaning Of My Love”), with additional guest vocals by Jonathan Byrd, Carrie Elkin, Matt Nakoa, Betty Soo, and others.
The 11 songs on "STILL THE BIRDS" paint compelling vignettes exploring the human condition — the tension between dark and light, despair and hope, vulnerability and triumphs. There's a Vietnam draft-dodger coming unhinged ("Hours in a Day"); the gangs of L.A. ("Evergreen Avenue"); twists on literary icons Dylan Thomas ("Prince of the Apple Towns") and Edgar Allen Poe ("Baltimore"); to Buddha ("When Buddha Smiled at the Elephant"); the Civil War ("Shiloh"); and the redemption of love ("Everywhere At Once"). Zollo's tales explore the tension amidst triumph and vulnerability.
The songs on the album are as unique and diverse as the stories from Darryl’s kaleidoscopic life. An internationally-acclaimed touring musician, Darryl is also a member of the Blackjack Hall of Fame. He’s walked across the country for peace, been banned from casinos on six continents, played the first stadium rock concert with Santana and Bonnie Raitt in the former Soviet Union, studied with global spiritual leader Thich Nhat Hanh, and co-founded The Second Strings Project, an organization that has delivered over 20,000 sets of strings to musicians of third world and developing countries.
Exactly how many musicians can start out their story with, "I left home as a teenager and became a professional gambler"-? There really is only one…. Darryl Purpose.
Before Darryl started touring, during a period of playing open mics and showcases around L.A., he found himself in a tough situation. "I cashed a couple of checks for a 'friend' that I owed a favor to, and ended-up getting arrested for laundering drug money. I didn't have great boundaries with the law in those days."
He was facing eighteen years mandatory sentence (he would have been getting out about now) until the prosecutors figured out that he wasn't a big time criminal and reduced the charge. They sentenced him to three months in a halfway house. During the intake meeting there, they told Darryl that this was a work-release program, and that he could go home during the day if he had a job. Thinking quickly, he told them he was a nationally-touring singer-songwriter, and he would have to go home during the day and work on his career. So he did, and in that three month period he found himself a record label and a booking agent, and started touring nationally.
He was now a professional songwriter and musician. “That brush with the criminal justice system lead to my career” he says.
Starting in 1996, Darryl clocked in thousands of miles, playing for tips, sleeping in his truck, and basically getting his music out there any way he could. By 2004, and about 1500+ shows later, he had played many of the top venues in North America and Europe and had released 6 albums that all did well on folk radio. Then in 2004, “I won a couple million dollars within a few months and bought a house in my favorite place in the world - Nederland, Colorado, where I still live.”
All of which he says rather casually.
That winning year changed his life in many ways, including being able to concentrate more on his music.
Darryl likes to say that luck is a residue of design — and he has been crafting his own luck for some time now, out of whatever wreckage has come his way. Though he always wanted to be small, the universe gave him acromegaly, a disease of excess growth hormone. So he went big, and lived his life for the story.
DARRYL PURPOSE's "STILL THE BIRDS" had taken flight and is available now.
"Darry Purpose's music hits all the vital areas; the heart, the mind and the gut." — Michael Tisserand, Gambit Weekly.
Recommended.
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More music news is in numerous recent editions. More on upcoming FESTIVALS and events is in the April 16 edition, available at a separate click.
Much more, soon, on additional topics.
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The Guide brings you frequent editions covering MUSIC NEWS, arts and industry events, and ticket alerts, available right here on the Guide's Blogspot site.
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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 forms. From the deepest roots to today’s acoustic renaissance, that’s our beat. We provide a wealth of resources, including a HUGE catalog of acoustic-friendly venues, and schedules and inside info on FESTIVALS and select performances in Southern California in venues monumentally large and intimately small and cozy. We cover workshops and other events for artists and folks in the music industry, and all kinds 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 bluegrass and pre-bluegrass Appalachian mountain music to all the roots of the blues and where the music is headed now.
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The Acoustic Americana Music Guide. Thanks for sittin' a spell.
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Sunday, May 1, 2016
True Storytelling: a May 1st, long ago... when people actually DID things (not virtual things)...
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Saturday's FULL EDITION has today's festivals
— including today's 26th Annual "DYLANFEST"
— plus concerts, music news and feature stories, and more. It's right here at a separate click.
This edition? It's a special. A story of May 1st.
The Guide brings you storytelling festivals and events. Being based in journalism, we don't get opportunities to do much storytelling here. Unless the story is true. Presto and voila.
So we're sharing a fun true story of a time when people actually got out and DID THINGS. Real things. Like building the Empire State Building as the tallest in the world, and opening it on May 1st, 1932.
Being that it's a tale of May 1st sweetens it, because it's a much longer-standing worldwide celebration of two things:
• an ancient blessing of nature's abundance as Spring hits its stride — "Mayday;" and,
• a centuries-old celebration as "Workers' Day," or a similar title, which nutty Americans decided was some communist thing because Russia has long been among those who celebrates it.
__________
Today, our society deludes ourselves with the idea that "work" is sitting on one's derrier gazing for prolonged intervals into glowing screens.
That's the right place to contrast too much that's "fake" with the VERY REAL of going out to make or experience LIVE MUSIC (!)
It's the Guide's most oft visited theme.
The REAL is going out to actualize one's activism, to do, to interact, to learn, to advocate, to experience, to make things better.
__________
Does our story of May 1st cover all that? Well, no. But May 1st occasions the opportunity to read and go forth energized by its fun.
__________
Does this sound a bit like one of those Garrison Keillor admonitions? Well, okay. Except his are works of fiction.
Either can bring motivational, inspirational, hope-to-help-you-make-others thoughtful, let's-change-the-world aspect. It's also a story that's a whole lot of fun.
Because ...
Physically DOING exciting things — instead of "virtual" things — was what everyone did more recently than, say, thirty or forty years ago. Before all discretionary time got devoured in Cyberia. Used to be that people actually went places, smelled the scents of flowers in the air, the sudden close pass of a honeybee, the gentle rush of a breeze in a tree where birds sing, the gentle raindrops... the sound of crawfish shells bouncing off the railroad ballast (wait for it)... and when you went somewhere, you interacted with those who lived there.
In our tale, they brought important and real historical objects along, to show and to share. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s preacher's robe and vestments. Jamie Wyeth's portrait of JFK. George Washington's working copy of the U.S. Constitution as the founders were crafting it. Lincoln's stovepipe hat and his personal lawbooks. The 1904 automobile that won the first transcontinental race. Not pictures on a little screen. The real stuff.
Native American heritage was represented. Those who endured the slave ships and survived and endured and overcame. European immigrants. Asian immigrants. Latinos, Eastern Europeans, Pacific Islanders. Iconic objects important to each of these groups and their positions. The first U.S. Patent models. The Louisiana Purchase Treaty. The originals. So much more.
It happened only once, taking it all to the 48 contiguous states, bringing appreciation and imparting tangible memories.
And, well, it seems its crew even brought things beyond what anyone expected.
And that's our story of 40 years ago today.
Best of all, it is a tale with a train, AND from a very special time of celebration and excitement when America needed it as badly as any time we've ever needed something — anything real — to restore our spirit.
It was, in terms of the ability to actually do it, made possible by generations of people doing REAL work, in the construction and maintained presence of the nation's railroad network. Something which enabled all kinds of work to be done — including the journey of one unique train. Enjoy.
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(A DISTANT) MAY 1st... ABOARD THE AMERICAN FREEDOM TRAIN
Set the wayback machine. We’re doing this in the present tense. It's forty years ago today: May 1, 1976. It's the Bicentennial of the founding of the U.S., and the only project observing it that's nationwide in scope, is well into its journey.
Dubbed the American Freedom Train — AFT for short — it's a one-of-kind cutting-edge multimedia museum-and-beyond on rails, dramatically pulled by one of three vintage, massive steam locomotives. Which engine you get, based on where you are.
It's a chance for ordinary citizens to see key artifacts and experience pivotal moments from their country's history and heritage, right in their own hometowns. In the immediate wake of Vietnam, Watergate, '60s assassinations, hard-won civil rights struggles, the pride of going to the Moon but once again left with a hollow sense that it isn't going to mean anything, the nation hasn't gotten its poop in a group in time to celebrate its 200th birthday, and it isn't clear it wants to.
The American Freedom Train is proving otherwise. It's taken the West Coast, Midwest and Plains states by storm, after beginning in the East.
As night falls today, May 1, 1976, the AFT has just completed its final display day in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, its 79th city. Now the crew sits aboard the train, its doors secured and boarding ramps, concessions wagons and field paraphernalia packed-up and ready to go. But this night, the crew sits pensively, unsure whether a very special delivery will arrive in time.
Suddenly, bouncing wildly over the rutted field through the rain, it's headlights of a full-size station wagon, a locally-supplied courtesy-car. Its driver seems on a drunken sailor course to avoid puddles that might be mud bogs. It's erratically racing for the train's car number 110, the Exit Car.
The long station wagon wallops to a stop below the big baggage door. Its occupants jump out even as — over the onboard generators' roar — two blasts are heard on steam locomotive 4449's steamboat whistle. The signal for stay clear: this train is leaving NOW. Frenzy. A rapid transfer — hurling and throwing — it's all being caught, up there on the train, without loss. The crew is feeling surprised satisfaction at their prowess. All aboard: a great many brown paper shopping bags, each stapled at its top. And a whole lot of canned beer. Jax Beer from New Orleans, perhaps, but no chance to read the label. it's flying aboard in a blur. And the train has started moving.
Somehow, all the cargo, plus personal gear and the young crew, all make it up through that baggage door into the train. The station wagon is left running with lights on and keys in the ignition. The wipers are on. It disappears into the distance as the train rounds a slight curve. The train's advance person, acting in the opposite role, will have to get it.
Those brown paper bags have mostly disappared aft to the Preambles for crew who chipped-in there. Remaining portions are opened tout suite, dispensing crawfish for the Exit Car contingent.
All of it originated 60 miles away, other side of the Atchafalaya. It's a take-out special from the annual big festival of crawfish and Cajun and zydeco revelry that most of the crew, while hosting AFT visitors, missed that weekend down in Breau Bridge.
Aboard the train, consumption of crawfish has ensued. Tentatively at first, since few really know how. Jay Bumpus, whose self assurance always conveys a natural knack for anything, quickly gets everyone qualified. Bobby Skillman, raised in Baltimore on Chesapeake blue crabs, adapts rapidly. Remember these two.
Others catch on to the Bumpus crawfish-eating coaching as he chides, "Don't throw that away — you need to crack it open with your teeth. Hey! You didn't suck everything out of there! You're missing the best part!"
All of which is received with hillarity and instructional value.
On board, Sunday is rapidly becoming the wee hours of Monday. The AFT is out of Baton Rouge and soon in the middle of nowhere, en-route to its next exhibition, in New Orleans.
The train is moving especially slow on this ride. Low-lying spongy ground doesn't invite rapid conveyance of a 26-car train chockful of historical treasures.
But the rain has stopped, clouds mostly gone, and the moonlit swamp makes disposal of crawfish shells simple — with the Bumpus assurance that "the gators will eat and appreciate them." And that big open baggage door is the broad side of a barn that's not there.
The Exit Car's open baggage door, being a fishbowl for gawkers while still in Baton Rouge, gets closed and reopened several times. Each cycle, things accumulate inside. Finally, the door stays shut. Either it's a tad chilly for somebody, or it's too many bugs drawn inside by the light. Or something. It's a small accommodation amidst shared distraction and gastronomical exploration. Whatever the impetus, the door rolls shut just as the Spanish moss-draped magnolias, poking out of the swamps, are getting fairly dense and interesting with the Moon brilliant on the patches of still waters.
The tracks are probably skirting the banks of Lake Pontchartrain. But the Exit Car contingent doesn't know. They're deep in the throes of their All-Board Crawfish Festival, complete with cassette tape recorder playing Beau Jocques or Clifton Chenier or Doug Kershaw or somebody's Cajun music they've never heard but really like.
Meanwhile, the fiery spiced crustaceans necessitate prodigious quantities of beer to cool the palate. That's surely true in whatever other parts of the train are participating in parallel. Isn't it?
But aboard the Exit Car, demolished exoskeletal structures begin to appreciably accumulate by that closed sliding baggage door. Better make that, the used pile from the fresh brown bags is reaching into quite a heap. And since none of that is being cast overboard any longer, all those empty beer cans are following a similar in-car trajectory, pumping up the volume of the pile. It's now sort of a linear berm along the closed door. What archaeologists seek as broken pottery shards and ancient meal remnants from the fall of some civilization.
Of course, ingesting spicy food raises the temperature. So excess clothing starts to shed. The youthful crew's usual train-ride-in-the-Exit-Car mode — assembling a communal warren of sleeping bags — is soon populated with underwear bedecked denizens. Their faces are smeared with Louisiana hot sauce. Bellies full of crawfish, cornbread hush puppies, sweet potato pie — and beer. Ears distantly aware of Cajun music and Willie Nelson's new "Red Headed Stranger" tape, alternating on the cassette player, it's tired batteries slowing the tempo.
It's taken hours to break open and eat all that crawfish. And fight the spicy fire. There's more? Such exausting enterprise. Fade to black.
The Exit Car doesn't have any windows. When the AFT sets-up at a display site, this car is there as the place to get the visitors out of the train before they wander into two cars of big diesel-powered electric generators.
Two of those four generators are always on. Always. Meaning, they prevent you from hearing much of anything that's outside, so you need to roll-open the big door and look.
If you ride a train all the time, you can sleep when it moves. If something changes, you wake up. And there is a realization among the Exit Car's crawfish-indulging ferroequinologists that the train has stopped moving. And now there seems to be a bullhorn or something out there somewhere, but you can't make it out over the generators.
The intrepid Jay Bumpus reckons he should determine night or day and location. Clad only in his boxers, he grabs the lock lever and throws the two-armed thrust needed to propel the sliding door, voicing a playful "Open Says-me."
Whereupon daylight blindness strikes; as a clattering and hollow clunking rain of empty beer cans and crawfish fragments depart the car, accelerated by gravity onto the tracks' gravel ballast, steel rail, and freshly-installed concrete sidewalk. Surrounding the base of the brand-new spiffy New Orleans Superdome.
Where the welcoming ceremony is underway with the mayor of NOLA, governor of Louisiana, dignitaries, luminaries, functionaries, and two senior management bosses of the American Freedom Train. The official aspects — the tableau thousands have come to see — supplanted by a cacaphonous clatter advertising the open door's raised dais of boxer shorts. It begins to pivot the tv cameras — as giant as battleship turrets in 1976 — from the intended scene to the latter spectacle.
It's the moment in life when cacophonous horns instantly blare inside your head.
A leaping Bobby Skillman is on it in a flash, reaching the door, crushing the last empty transient can or two, as it slams shut with the salvation of a loud metallic thud. Total elapsed time the door is open? A six or seven second lifetime.
Ahead here in New Orleans, in the shadow of the Superdome, the rest of the day is maintainence. The steam locomotive crew will do an al fresco annual heavy servicing and inspection regimen — to federal standards — that warranted a roundhouse 20 years earlier, in steam days.
All that will consume the arrival day and May 3-9, 1976, when the train sends thousands of thrilled visitors through the exhibits aboard its display cars. Most will say the moving rubber sidewalks — "the belts" — "went too fast."
Then New Orleans, the 80th host city, will be in the history books. Many more stops lie ahead, including a three-month foray all the way up into New England again. Before the train closes forever in the final minutes of 1976, completing its 138th display site in Miami, Florida.
In January, 1977, Jimmy Carter will be inaugurated as President of the United States, and the steam locomotive will begin its trip home to Portland, Oregon, where it had been rescued from being stuffed-and-mounted in a park, and rebuilt to do the work — all the way to Washington, D.C., and eventually, Miami.
But as May begins and the pile of trackside detritus is swept-up in New Orleans, the American Freedom Train has eight months to go.
And the belts will go too fast, to the very end. But there'll never be another clattering rain of crustaceans and aluminum to accompany a dedication ceremony like the one outside Louisiana's brand-new Superdome the morning of May 2nd, 1976. Voulez les bon temps roulez.
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
Music news, FESTIVALS, and events are in the UPDATED edition originally published April 16 and available at a separate click.
Much more, soon, on other topics.
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
The Guide brings you frequent editions covering MUSIC NEWS, arts and industry events, and ticket alerts, available right here on the Guide's Blogspot site.
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
Direct to the current editions /
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: . Tiedtothetracks (at) Hotmail (dot) com
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Contents copyright © 2016, 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 forms. From the deepest roots to today’s acoustic renaissance, that’s our beat. We provide a wealth of resources, including a HUGE catalog of acoustic-friendly venues, and schedules and inside info on FESTIVALS and select performances in Southern California in venues monumentally large and intimately small and cozy. We cover workshops and other events for artists and folks in the music industry, and all kinds 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 bluegrass and pre-bluegrass Appalachian mountain music to all the roots of the blues and where the music is headed now.
.
The Acoustic Americana Music Guide. Thanks for sittin' a spell.
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Saturday's FULL EDITION has today's festivals
— including today's 26th Annual "DYLANFEST"
— plus concerts, music news and feature stories, and more. It's right here at a separate click.
This edition? It's a special. A story of May 1st.
The Guide brings you storytelling festivals and events. Being based in journalism, we don't get opportunities to do much storytelling here. Unless the story is true. Presto and voila.
So we're sharing a fun true story of a time when people actually got out and DID THINGS. Real things. Like building the Empire State Building as the tallest in the world, and opening it on May 1st, 1932.
Being that it's a tale of May 1st sweetens it, because it's a much longer-standing worldwide celebration of two things:
• an ancient blessing of nature's abundance as Spring hits its stride — "Mayday;" and,
• a centuries-old celebration as "Workers' Day," or a similar title, which nutty Americans decided was some communist thing because Russia has long been among those who celebrates it.
__________
Today, our society deludes ourselves with the idea that "work" is sitting on one's derrier gazing for prolonged intervals into glowing screens.
That's the right place to contrast too much that's "fake" with the VERY REAL of going out to make or experience LIVE MUSIC (!)
It's the Guide's most oft visited theme.
The REAL is going out to actualize one's activism, to do, to interact, to learn, to advocate, to experience, to make things better.
__________
Does our story of May 1st cover all that? Well, no. But May 1st occasions the opportunity to read and go forth energized by its fun.
__________
Does this sound a bit like one of those Garrison Keillor admonitions? Well, okay. Except his are works of fiction.
Either can bring motivational, inspirational, hope-to-help-you-make-others thoughtful, let's-change-the-world aspect. It's also a story that's a whole lot of fun.
Because ...
Physically DOING exciting things — instead of "virtual" things — was what everyone did more recently than, say, thirty or forty years ago. Before all discretionary time got devoured in Cyberia. Used to be that people actually went places, smelled the scents of flowers in the air, the sudden close pass of a honeybee, the gentle rush of a breeze in a tree where birds sing, the gentle raindrops... the sound of crawfish shells bouncing off the railroad ballast (wait for it)... and when you went somewhere, you interacted with those who lived there.
In our tale, they brought important and real historical objects along, to show and to share. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s preacher's robe and vestments. Jamie Wyeth's portrait of JFK. George Washington's working copy of the U.S. Constitution as the founders were crafting it. Lincoln's stovepipe hat and his personal lawbooks. The 1904 automobile that won the first transcontinental race. Not pictures on a little screen. The real stuff.
Native American heritage was represented. Those who endured the slave ships and survived and endured and overcame. European immigrants. Asian immigrants. Latinos, Eastern Europeans, Pacific Islanders. Iconic objects important to each of these groups and their positions. The first U.S. Patent models. The Louisiana Purchase Treaty. The originals. So much more.
It happened only once, taking it all to the 48 contiguous states, bringing appreciation and imparting tangible memories.
And, well, it seems its crew even brought things beyond what anyone expected.
And that's our story of 40 years ago today.
Best of all, it is a tale with a train, AND from a very special time of celebration and excitement when America needed it as badly as any time we've ever needed something — anything real — to restore our spirit.
It was, in terms of the ability to actually do it, made possible by generations of people doing REAL work, in the construction and maintained presence of the nation's railroad network. Something which enabled all kinds of work to be done — including the journey of one unique train. Enjoy.
+ + + + + + +
(A DISTANT) MAY 1st... ABOARD THE AMERICAN FREEDOM TRAIN
Set the wayback machine. We’re doing this in the present tense. It's forty years ago today: May 1, 1976. It's the Bicentennial of the founding of the U.S., and the only project observing it that's nationwide in scope, is well into its journey.
Dubbed the American Freedom Train — AFT for short — it's a one-of-kind cutting-edge multimedia museum-and-beyond on rails, dramatically pulled by one of three vintage, massive steam locomotives. Which engine you get, based on where you are.
It's a chance for ordinary citizens to see key artifacts and experience pivotal moments from their country's history and heritage, right in their own hometowns. In the immediate wake of Vietnam, Watergate, '60s assassinations, hard-won civil rights struggles, the pride of going to the Moon but once again left with a hollow sense that it isn't going to mean anything, the nation hasn't gotten its poop in a group in time to celebrate its 200th birthday, and it isn't clear it wants to.
The American Freedom Train is proving otherwise. It's taken the West Coast, Midwest and Plains states by storm, after beginning in the East.
As night falls today, May 1, 1976, the AFT has just completed its final display day in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, its 79th city. Now the crew sits aboard the train, its doors secured and boarding ramps, concessions wagons and field paraphernalia packed-up and ready to go. But this night, the crew sits pensively, unsure whether a very special delivery will arrive in time.
Suddenly, bouncing wildly over the rutted field through the rain, it's headlights of a full-size station wagon, a locally-supplied courtesy-car. Its driver seems on a drunken sailor course to avoid puddles that might be mud bogs. It's erratically racing for the train's car number 110, the Exit Car.
The long station wagon wallops to a stop below the big baggage door. Its occupants jump out even as — over the onboard generators' roar — two blasts are heard on steam locomotive 4449's steamboat whistle. The signal for stay clear: this train is leaving NOW. Frenzy. A rapid transfer — hurling and throwing — it's all being caught, up there on the train, without loss. The crew is feeling surprised satisfaction at their prowess. All aboard: a great many brown paper shopping bags, each stapled at its top. And a whole lot of canned beer. Jax Beer from New Orleans, perhaps, but no chance to read the label. it's flying aboard in a blur. And the train has started moving.
Somehow, all the cargo, plus personal gear and the young crew, all make it up through that baggage door into the train. The station wagon is left running with lights on and keys in the ignition. The wipers are on. It disappears into the distance as the train rounds a slight curve. The train's advance person, acting in the opposite role, will have to get it.
Those brown paper bags have mostly disappared aft to the Preambles for crew who chipped-in there. Remaining portions are opened tout suite, dispensing crawfish for the Exit Car contingent.
All of it originated 60 miles away, other side of the Atchafalaya. It's a take-out special from the annual big festival of crawfish and Cajun and zydeco revelry that most of the crew, while hosting AFT visitors, missed that weekend down in Breau Bridge.
Aboard the train, consumption of crawfish has ensued. Tentatively at first, since few really know how. Jay Bumpus, whose self assurance always conveys a natural knack for anything, quickly gets everyone qualified. Bobby Skillman, raised in Baltimore on Chesapeake blue crabs, adapts rapidly. Remember these two.
Others catch on to the Bumpus crawfish-eating coaching as he chides, "Don't throw that away — you need to crack it open with your teeth. Hey! You didn't suck everything out of there! You're missing the best part!"
All of which is received with hillarity and instructional value.
On board, Sunday is rapidly becoming the wee hours of Monday. The AFT is out of Baton Rouge and soon in the middle of nowhere, en-route to its next exhibition, in New Orleans.
The train is moving especially slow on this ride. Low-lying spongy ground doesn't invite rapid conveyance of a 26-car train chockful of historical treasures.
But the rain has stopped, clouds mostly gone, and the moonlit swamp makes disposal of crawfish shells simple — with the Bumpus assurance that "the gators will eat and appreciate them." And that big open baggage door is the broad side of a barn that's not there.
The Exit Car's open baggage door, being a fishbowl for gawkers while still in Baton Rouge, gets closed and reopened several times. Each cycle, things accumulate inside. Finally, the door stays shut. Either it's a tad chilly for somebody, or it's too many bugs drawn inside by the light. Or something. It's a small accommodation amidst shared distraction and gastronomical exploration. Whatever the impetus, the door rolls shut just as the Spanish moss-draped magnolias, poking out of the swamps, are getting fairly dense and interesting with the Moon brilliant on the patches of still waters.
The tracks are probably skirting the banks of Lake Pontchartrain. But the Exit Car contingent doesn't know. They're deep in the throes of their All-Board Crawfish Festival, complete with cassette tape recorder playing Beau Jocques or Clifton Chenier or Doug Kershaw or somebody's Cajun music they've never heard but really like.
Meanwhile, the fiery spiced crustaceans necessitate prodigious quantities of beer to cool the palate. That's surely true in whatever other parts of the train are participating in parallel. Isn't it?
But aboard the Exit Car, demolished exoskeletal structures begin to appreciably accumulate by that closed sliding baggage door. Better make that, the used pile from the fresh brown bags is reaching into quite a heap. And since none of that is being cast overboard any longer, all those empty beer cans are following a similar in-car trajectory, pumping up the volume of the pile. It's now sort of a linear berm along the closed door. What archaeologists seek as broken pottery shards and ancient meal remnants from the fall of some civilization.
Of course, ingesting spicy food raises the temperature. So excess clothing starts to shed. The youthful crew's usual train-ride-in-the-Exit-Car mode — assembling a communal warren of sleeping bags — is soon populated with underwear bedecked denizens. Their faces are smeared with Louisiana hot sauce. Bellies full of crawfish, cornbread hush puppies, sweet potato pie — and beer. Ears distantly aware of Cajun music and Willie Nelson's new "Red Headed Stranger" tape, alternating on the cassette player, it's tired batteries slowing the tempo.
It's taken hours to break open and eat all that crawfish. And fight the spicy fire. There's more? Such exausting enterprise. Fade to black.
The Exit Car doesn't have any windows. When the AFT sets-up at a display site, this car is there as the place to get the visitors out of the train before they wander into two cars of big diesel-powered electric generators.
Two of those four generators are always on. Always. Meaning, they prevent you from hearing much of anything that's outside, so you need to roll-open the big door and look.
If you ride a train all the time, you can sleep when it moves. If something changes, you wake up. And there is a realization among the Exit Car's crawfish-indulging ferroequinologists that the train has stopped moving. And now there seems to be a bullhorn or something out there somewhere, but you can't make it out over the generators.
The intrepid Jay Bumpus reckons he should determine night or day and location. Clad only in his boxers, he grabs the lock lever and throws the two-armed thrust needed to propel the sliding door, voicing a playful "Open Says-me."
Whereupon daylight blindness strikes; as a clattering and hollow clunking rain of empty beer cans and crawfish fragments depart the car, accelerated by gravity onto the tracks' gravel ballast, steel rail, and freshly-installed concrete sidewalk. Surrounding the base of the brand-new spiffy New Orleans Superdome.
Where the welcoming ceremony is underway with the mayor of NOLA, governor of Louisiana, dignitaries, luminaries, functionaries, and two senior management bosses of the American Freedom Train. The official aspects — the tableau thousands have come to see — supplanted by a cacaphonous clatter advertising the open door's raised dais of boxer shorts. It begins to pivot the tv cameras — as giant as battleship turrets in 1976 — from the intended scene to the latter spectacle.
It's the moment in life when cacophonous horns instantly blare inside your head.
A leaping Bobby Skillman is on it in a flash, reaching the door, crushing the last empty transient can or two, as it slams shut with the salvation of a loud metallic thud. Total elapsed time the door is open? A six or seven second lifetime.
Ahead here in New Orleans, in the shadow of the Superdome, the rest of the day is maintainence. The steam locomotive crew will do an al fresco annual heavy servicing and inspection regimen — to federal standards — that warranted a roundhouse 20 years earlier, in steam days.
All that will consume the arrival day and May 3-9, 1976, when the train sends thousands of thrilled visitors through the exhibits aboard its display cars. Most will say the moving rubber sidewalks — "the belts" — "went too fast."
Then New Orleans, the 80th host city, will be in the history books. Many more stops lie ahead, including a three-month foray all the way up into New England again. Before the train closes forever in the final minutes of 1976, completing its 138th display site in Miami, Florida.
In January, 1977, Jimmy Carter will be inaugurated as President of the United States, and the steam locomotive will begin its trip home to Portland, Oregon, where it had been rescued from being stuffed-and-mounted in a park, and rebuilt to do the work — all the way to Washington, D.C., and eventually, Miami.
But as May begins and the pile of trackside detritus is swept-up in New Orleans, the American Freedom Train has eight months to go.
And the belts will go too fast, to the very end. But there'll never be another clattering rain of crustaceans and aluminum to accompany a dedication ceremony like the one outside Louisiana's brand-new Superdome the morning of May 2nd, 1976. Voulez les bon temps roulez.
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
Music news, FESTIVALS, and events are in the UPDATED edition originally published April 16 and available at a separate click.
Much more, soon, on other topics.
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
The Guide brings you frequent editions covering MUSIC NEWS, arts and industry events, and ticket alerts, available right here on the Guide's Blogspot site.
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
Direct to the current editions /
MOBILE-DEVICE-FRIENDLY
editions load quickly at
.
www.acousticamericana.blogspot.com
.
<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>
.
CONTACT US at / send Questions / Comments to: . Tiedtothetracks (at) Hotmail (dot) com
.
<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>
Contents copyright © 2016, Lawrence Wines & Tied to the Tracks. All rights reserved.
<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>
.
♪ 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 forms. From the deepest roots to today’s acoustic renaissance, that’s our beat. We provide a wealth of resources, including a HUGE catalog of acoustic-friendly venues, and schedules and inside info on FESTIVALS and select performances in Southern California in venues monumentally large and intimately small and cozy. We cover workshops and other events for artists and folks in the music industry, and all kinds 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 bluegrass and pre-bluegrass Appalachian mountain music to all the roots of the blues and where the music is headed now.
.
The Acoustic Americana Music Guide. Thanks for sittin' a spell.
.
<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>
.
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