North Carolina-based African-American string band Carolina Chocolate Drops' album Leaving Eden, the follow-up to its 2010 Grammy Award-winning Genuine Negro Jig, has climbed into the #1 spot on the Roots Music Report folk radio chart. Darrell Scott's Long Ride Home continues to top the roots country chart. [To view the current Folk and Roots Country Top 50 albums charts, click on the headline.]
Bernard Noel “Banjo” Barney McKenna, the last original member of the Irish folk band The Dubliners and widely considered the most influential banjo player in Irish music, died at his kitchen table on April 5 while having a up of tea with a musician friend, He was 72 and had just completed a UK tour with The Dubliners in March to help mark the group’s 50th anniversary. McKenna also performed at a Dublin funeral the night before he died. [To read the article in its entirety, click on the headline.]
Eight official showcase artists have been selected and final plans are being made for FARMette, a condensed one-day version of the Folk Alliance Region Midwest’s annual four-day conference. Slated for Saturday, April 28, 2012, from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m., at the historic opera house in downtown Fayette, Ohio, located on US 20,about 30 minutes west of Toledo, the event will feature an array of workshops, more than 20 ten-minute performance lane slots for artists, and two meals with open mics during them, in addition to eight 20-minute official showcases in the evening. [To read the full article, click on the headline.]
The roots and Americana-oriented Old Settler’s Music Festival returns to the Salt Lick BBQ Pavilion and Camp Ben McCulloch in Driftwood, Texas, April 19-22. Although now in its 25th year, the festival is not as well-known outside the state as some others in the Austin area – and that’s part of its allure. Old Settler’s Music Festival also takes place during what’s usually the height of Texas Hill Country’s bluebonnet and wildflower season. [To view a short preview of the festival, click on the headline.]
AcousticMusicScene.com is pleased to publish the monthly Top Albums and Songs charts compiled by Richard Gillmann from radio playlists submitted to FOLKDJ-L, an electronic discussion group for DJs and others interested in all folk-based music on the radio. In March 2012, Little Blue Egg, a collection of archived home and studio recordings that Tracy Grammer and her late partner Dave Carter made between 1997 and 2002, topped the albums chart for a second month. It was followed by Lay Down, Lay Low, the new album by Shenandoah Valley-based Americana roots outfit The Steel Wheels, which also sported four of the month's top 10 most-played songs -- including "Breaking Like The Sun" at #1. [To view the charts, click on the headline.]
True North recording Artists Bruce Cockburn and The Wailin’ Jennys were named as winners in the 41st annual Juno Awards (the Canadian equivalent of the Grammys). The awards were presented by the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (CARAS) in Ottawa over the weekend. [To read the full article, click on the headline.]
Nova Scotia-based singer-songwriter Rose Cousins' We Have Made A Spark topped the Roots Music Report folk radio chart for a third successive week, while Darrell Scott's album Long Ride Home remains #1 on the roots country chart. [To view the current Folk and Roots Country Top 50 albums charts, click on the headline.]
Earl Scruggs, a celebrated and highly influential banjo player, whose innovative three-fingered picking style helped to popularize the instrument, has joined that great bluegrass jam in the sky. Scruggs, who was a large presence in both the folk and country music worlds and was honored by both, died of natural causes on March 28 at a hospital in Nashville, Tennessee. He was 88. [To read the obituary in its entirety, click on the headline.]
Nova Scotia-based singer-songwriter Rose Cousins' We Have Made A Spark tops the Roots Music Report folk radio chart for a second week, while Darrell Scott's album Long Ride Home remains #1 on the roots country chart. [To view the current Folk and Roots Country Top 50 albums charts, click on the headline.]
The maddening crowds of summer won’t be there, but several hundred performing artists and others engaged in the music business are expected to converge on the historic Victorian-lined New Jersey seaside resort community of Cape May, March 30-31, for the fifth annual Singer-Songwriter Cape May conference. AcousticMusicScene.com co-creator Glen Roethel will be among the more than 150 showcasing artists, while editor & publisher Michael Kornfeld will be among the panelists discussing "Publicity, Marketing and Social Media for Independent Artists." {To read a short preview of the conference, click on the headline.]
Nova Scotia-based singer-songwriter Rose Cousins' We Have Made A Spark moves into the top spot on the Roots Music Report folk radio chart this week, while Darrell Scott's album Long Ride Home remains #1 on the roots country chart. [To view the current Folk and Roots Country Top 50 albums charts, click on the headline.]
Tracy Grammer— who has served as the “keeper of the flame” regarding her late partner Dave Carter’s songs — has released a new collection of archived and rediscovered home and studio recordings of the duo’s tunes. Entitled Little Blue Egg, the album topped the Folk DJ chart last month. In a recent chat with New Jersey-based singer-songwriter Sharon Goldman, Grammer shared her memories of Dave Carter’s creative process as well as his songwriting habits, advice and inspiration. Goldman’s article, written for Songwriting Scene, her blog for songwriters about songwriting, is re-posted here with permission. [To read the article, click on the headline.]
