Nominees Named for 55th Annual Grammy Awards
Nominees in more than 75 categories have been named for the 55th Annual Grammy Awards, to be broadcast live on CBS television stations from the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California on Sunday, Feb. 10, 2013. Mumford & Sons was among the top nominees with nods for Album of the Year, Best Americana Album and Best Rock Performance.
[To view the full article, including a list of nominees in the Roots Music Field, click on the headline.]
Chris Thile Awarded MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant
Chris Thile, 31, a multi-instrumentalist and composer best known for his role as virtuosic mandolinist and singer for the Grammy Award-winning progressive acoustic trio Nickel Creek and currently with the Punch Brothers, has been awarded a “Genius” grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. As a MacArthur Foundation Fellow, he will receive an unrestricted award of $500,000 over the next five years.
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International Bluegrass Music Awards Presented for 2012
The Gibson Brothers, winners of last year’s Vocal Group of the Year and Album of the Year awards, were named Entertainer of the Year during this year’s 23rd Annual International Bluegrass Music Awards show on Thursday night, Sept. 27, at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee. This ended a three year winning streak by Steve Martin & The Steep Canyon Rangers that had been preceded by another three-year streak by the popular duo Dailey & Vincent..
[To read the full article and learn of all the other winners and honorees, click on the headline].
Americanafest Draws Record Attendance
This year’s Americana Music Festival and Conference (Americanafest), which took place Sept. 12-16 in Nashville, TN, was the most successful one in its 13-year history – drawing record attendance and registrations, according tot the Americana Music Association.
The five-day celebration of American Roots-inspired music, featuring plenty of learning and networking opportunities, as well as a wide array of music showcases by up-and-coming and veteran artists, drew more than15,000 fans, 300 performing artists and more than 1,100 music industry professionals, according to the association.
[To read the full article and learn who the recipients of this year's Americana Honors and Awards are, click on the headline.]
Banjo Symposium at UNC-Chapel Hill, Aug. 25
“The Banjo: Southern Roots, American Branches” will be explored during s series of free lectures and panel discussions presented by The Southern Folklife Collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Library on Saturday, Aug. 25, 2012. The symposium, extending from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., will be followed in the evening with a 7:30 p.m. concert showcasing the banjo at the campus’ Memorial Hall featuring Tony Trischka, Riley Baugus with Kirk Sutphin, and Don Flemons of the Carolina Chocolate Drops.
[To read the full article, click on the headline.]
National Folk Festival on Hiatus in 2012
The National Council for the Traditional Arts, a Maryland-based nonprofit organization dedicated to the presentation and documentation of folk and traditional arts in the United States, which launched and has hosted annual multi-ethnic folk festivals since the 1930s, announced that the National Folk Festival will take a hiatus in 2012.
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Six Winners Named in 2012 Grassy Hill Kerrville New Folk Competition
Five songwriters and a songwriting duo have been named as winners in the 2012 Grassy Hill Kerrville New Folk Competition for Emerging Songwriters. Edie Carey (Chicago, IL), Nicolette Good (San Antonio, TX), Whit Hill (Nashville, TN), Korby Lenker (Nashville, TN), Alicia McGovern (Salt Lake City, Utah), and The Sea The Sea (a contemporary duo featuring Connecticut Sate Troubadour Chuck E. Costa and West Virginia's Mira Stanley) were selected from among 32 finalists who performed two songs each during the New Folk Concerts on May 26 and 27 as part of the Kerrville Folk Festival, an 18-day event that continues through Sunday, June 10, at the Quiet Valley Ranch in the Texas Hill Country.
[To read the full article, click on...
Richard Meyer, Singer-Songwriter and Fast Folk Editor, 1952-2012
Richard Meyer, a singer-songwriter who also was an integral part of the folk music scene in New York’s Greenwich Village during the 1980s and 1990s as a booker for the Speakeasy and longtime editor of Fast Folk Musical Magazine (1986-1997), died May 14, 2012 at age 59.
[To read the full article, click on the headline.]
Bluegrass Pioneer Everett Lilly, 1924-2012
Funeral services will be held on Sunday for Everett Lilly, one of the forefathers of bluegrass music, who died May 8 at his home in southern West Virginia. He was 87.
[To read the article in its entirety, click on the headline.]
Earl Scruggs, Pioneering Banjo Player,Bluegrass Legend, 1924-2012
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.]
Instruments May Soon be Allowed as Carry-ons on US. Airplanes
Provisions within a bill reauthorizing the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for the next four years, that was approved by large margins in both houses of Congress earlier this month, create a uniform national policy regarding musical instruments on airplanes.
[To read the full article, click on the headline.]
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