The 15th annual Wintergrass music festival, featuring a mix of straight-ahead bluegrass, newgrass and beyond performances and workshops by nationally touring and regional artists, is set for February 19-22 at four locations in downtown Tacoma, Washington. [To read the entire article, click on the headline.]
American folk music icon Pete Seeger, whose songs have helped to provide a musical backdrop for many of the historical movements of the past 50-plus years, will join other musical luminaries in performing during “We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial” in Washington, D.C. on Sunday. Jan. 18. [To read the entire article, click on the headline.]
Winners in the eighth annual Independent Music Awards were announced this month. Produced by Music Resource Group, publishers of The Musician’s Atlas, the Independent Music Awards feature more than 50 music and design categories and were open to any indie-label release or self-produced, self-distributed recording released between July 1, 2007 and Sept. 30, 2008. [To read the entire article, click on the headline.]
Submissions are now being sought for the 17th annual Chris Austin Songwriting Contest, hosted by MerleFest. Open to aspiring songwriters, who derive no more than 50% of their income from songwriting or music publishing, the contest deadline is February 18. Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Jim Lauderdale chairs a volunteer panel of Nashville songwriters, publishers and other music industry professionals, who will judge entries based on originality, lyrics, melody and overall commercial potential. [To read the entire article, click on the headline.]
Westchester County, New York-based contemporary folk singer-songwriters and musicians Kelly Flint, Susan Kane and The YaYas perform on Wednesday evenings in January as part of an ongoing multimedia celebration of acoustic music known as “WoodSongs at the Movies.” In addition to Clearview’s Bronxville Cinemas, the series also takes place at theaters in Babylon, New York; Montclair and Hackettstown, New Jersey; and Wayne, Pennsylvania. [To read the entire article, click on the headline.]
“Woody’s Children,” Bob Sherman’s folk radio program that airs Sundry afternoon from 4-5 p.m. on WFUV in New York, marks its 40th anniversary in January, while “The Session,” an hour-long Celtic music program that Ron Olesko hosted from the studios of WFDU in New Jersey, bowed out Jan. 2 after a nine-year run. [To read the entire article, click on the headline.]
Detailed listings for more than 100 concerts, open mics and jam sessions slated for January through the first week of February 2009 in Brooklyn, Queens, Nassau and Suffolk counties appear in this installment of AcousticMusicScene.com’s Long Island AcoustiCalendar. [To see the listings, click on the headline.]
Miss Tess, a Boston, Massachusetts-based singer-songwriter and guitarist, whose music includes a smattering of jazz, blues and Americana, has been named “Outstanding Folk Artist of the Year” in the Boston Music Awards. The Low Anthem, a Providence, Rhode Island-based Americana-folk group, was named “Best New Act of the Year,” while Guns and Glory, a honky-tonkin’ four-piece Americana outfit, was named “Outstanding Americana Act of the Year” for the second year in a row, as well as “Local Act of the Year.” Award-winners were announced in 26 categories earlier this month. [To read the entire article, click on the headline.]
Winners in the 2008 USA Songwriting Competition have been announced. Brooklyn, New York-based singer-songwriter Lucy Wainwright Roche captured first place in the folk category for “Snare Drum.” Boston, Massachusetts-based contemporary Celtic fiddler and composer Hanneke Cassel came in first in the instrumental category and won overall third prize in the competition for her song “A Shadow and a Thought.” Top honors for lyrics went to San Marcos, Texas-based Americana singer-songwriter Terri Hendrix for “If I Had a Daughter.” Los Angeles, California-based pop-rocker Jordan Zevon won the overall grand prize in the 13th annual competition. [To read the entire article, click on the headline.]
The potential impact of media and broadband policy and changes in federal copyright law on the music and technology communities will be explored and debated during the Future of Music Coalition’s second Policy Day. Slated for Wednesday, February 11, at National Geographic’s Grosvenor Auditorium in Washington, D.C., the day-long event -- sponsored by the national nonprofit education, research and advocacy organization --comes just weeks after the Obama Administration assumes power. [To read the entire article, click on the headline.]
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A wide array of Irish, Scottish, Cape Breton, Appalachian and other Celtic-inspired music and dance is on tap during BCMFest, Boston, Massachusetts’ annual grassroots, musician-run, winter Celtic music festival, Jan. 9-10, 2009. [To read the entire article, click on the headline.]
