News – U.S. National

Nominees Named for 56th Annual Grammy Awards

Nominees in more than 80 categories have been named for the 56th Annual Grammy Awards, to be presented at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California on Sunday, Jan. 26, 2014. Of particular interest to readers of AcousticMusicScene.com are the nominees in the American Roots Music Field. Among them, Sarah Jarosz and Steve Martin & Edie Brickell received nods in two categories. [To read the full article, click on the headline.]
AcousticMusicScene.com Creator Runs for Folk Alliance International Board

AcousticMusicScene.com Creator Runs for Folk Alliance International Board

Folk Alliance International members are casting votes this month for one or more -- up to five -- individuals to serve on the nonprofit organization’s board of directors. Among the candidates is Michael Kornfeld, editor and publisher of AcousticMusicScene.com. Currently in his third term on the board of FAI’s largest regional affiliate and the president of a volunteer-run nonprofit presenting organization on Long Island (NY), Kornfeld advocates broader representation of FAI’s constituencies on its governing board. [To read the article in its entirety, click on the headline.]
'Nashville 2.0: The Rise of Americana' Airs on PBS

‘Nashville 2.0: The Rise of Americana’ Airs on PBS

The burgeoning Americana music scene is the focus of Nashville 2.0, a new hour-long music documentary that airs on PBS television stations across the U.S. on Nov. 22. The special, which may be viewed as a primer of the genre, features performances by a number of well-known roots music artists and emerging artists who are transcending traditional boundaries and putting their own contemporary stamp on long-established genres like country, folk, bluegrass, blues, roots rock, R&B, rockabilly, folk-rock and honky-tonk that have inspired what is broadly known as Americana today. These are interspersed with filmed interviews with some of these artists as well as select music journalists and historians. [To continue reading the article, click on the headline.]
Dom Flemons to Leave Carolina Chocolate Drops

Dom Flemons to Leave Carolina Chocolate Drops

Dom Flemons, a founding member of Carolina Chocolate Drops, has announced that he is leaving the Grammy Award-winning African-American string band following a final round of shows with the group in December. [To read the full article, click on the headline.]
IBMA Presents Awards for 2013

IBMA Presents Awards for 2013

The Gibson Brothers were named Entertainer of the Year during the 24th Annual Bluegrass Music Awards show on Thursday night, Sept. 26, at Memorial Auditorium in Raleigh, North Carolina. It was the second straight year that the quintet from upstate New York received the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA)’s top honor. [To read the entire article and see who else received awards and honors, click on the headline.]
2013 Americana Music Awards Presented

2013 Americana Music Awards Presented

Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell were named Duo/Group of the Year, while their 2013 release, Old Yellow Moon, was named Album of the Year , during the annual Americana Music Honors & Awards on Sept. 18 at the Historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee. [To read the article in its entirety, click on the headline.]
Sid Selvidge,1943-2013

Sid Selvidge,1943-2013

Sid Selvidge, a Memphis-based singer, guitarist and cultural treasure, and an ardent champion of blues and roots music, who helped launch and served as executive producer of the internationally syndicated Beale Street Caravan radio program, died May 2 at Methodist University Hospital. He was 69 and had been battling cancer. [To read the full article, including reflections from singer-songwriter Amy Speace, who toured with Selvidge in 2010, click on the headline.]

Remembering Richie Havens, 1941-2013

I wasn’t at Max Yasgur’s Farm in 1969 when Richie Havens impressed throngs of people at the Woodstock festival. I was just a youngster then. But I did get to hear him up close and personal in the late 1970s at my alma mater, Huntington High School, in Huntington, New York. He was performing in the auditorium, along with Harry Chapin, at one of the late singer-songwriter’s many benefit concerts. Richie joined his fellow Brooklyn NY-born folksinger in heaven or wherever kindhearted gentle souls go, on April 22, after suffering a heart attack at home in Jersey City, New Jersey. He was 72. [To read the full article, click on the headline.]
Grassy Hill Kerrville New Folk Finalists Named

Grassy Hill Kerrville New Folk Finalists Named

Thirty-two songwriters have been named as finalists in the 2013 Grassy Hill Kerrville New Folk Competition for Emerging Songwriters. Chosen from among more than 700 submissions from throughout the U.S. and Canada, the finalists will perform the two songs they submitted during the New Folk Concerts slated for Saturday and Sunday afternoons, May 25 and 26, as part of the Kerrville Folk Festival. [To read the full article, click on the headline.]
Winners Named in 55th Grammy Awards

Winners Named in 55th Grammy Awards

Mumford & Sons received the coveted award for Album of the Year for its sophomore release, Babel, during the 55th Annual Grammy Awards on Feb. 10, 2013. The live televised broadcast from the Staples Center in Los Angeles featured performances by the rootsy British indie folk-rock band and acoustic folk-rockers The Lumineers, among others. Most of the winners in more than 75 categories were announced during ceremonies held earlier in the day. [To read an article that includes a listing of winners in the American Roots Music Field and select other categories, click on the headline.]
Top Folk Albums of 2012 (FOLKDJ-L)

Top Folk Albums of 2012 (FOLKDJ-L)

Little Blue Egg by Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer was reportedly the most-played album on folk radio during 2012, according to 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. Little Blue Egg also features the year's most-played song, "Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key." [To view the Top Folk Albums of 2012 chart, click on the headline.]

Frank Christian, Singer-Songwriter and Guitarist, 1952-2012

Frank Christian, a gifted New York City-based guitarist and singer-songwriter, best known for his song “Three Flights Up” that appeared on Nanci Griffith’s Grammy Award-winning Other Voices, Other Rooms album, died December 24. He was 60. [To read the full article and see a video clip, ciick on the headline.]