News – U.S. National – Page 13 – AcousticMusicScene.com

Dom Flemons of the Carolina Chocolate Drops (Jim Brock Photography)

Banjo Symposium at UNC-Chapel Hill, Aug. 25

Post published:August 15, 2012
Post author:Michael Kornfeld
Post category:Bluegrass & Beyond Conferences of Note News - U.S. National

“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

Post published:June 24, 2012
Post author:Michael Kornfeld
Post category:Festival Focus News - U.S. National

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. [To read the full article, click on the headline.]

Six Winners Named in 2012 Grassy Hill Kerrville New Folk Competition

Post published:May 30, 2012
Post author:Michael Kornfeld
Post category:Awards & Contests Festival Focus News - U.S. National

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 the headline.]

Richard Meyer (Photo by Teddy Lee)

Richard Meyer, Singer-Songwriter and Fast Folk Editor, 1952-2012

Post published:May 15, 2012
Post author:Michael Kornfeld
Post category:Featured News - Northeast U.S.News - U.S. National

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

Post published:May 11, 2012
Post author:Michael Kornfeld
Post category:Bluegrass & Beyond News - U.S. National

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

Post published:March 29, 2012
Post author:Michael Kornfeld
Post category:Bluegrass & Beyond News - U.S. National

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.]

The Civil Wars Win Two Grammy Awards

Post published:February 13, 2012
Post author:Michael Kornfeld
Post category:Awards & Contests News - U.S. National

The Civil Wars won two Grammy Awards February 12. Barton Hollow, the debut full-length album by the East Nashville, Tennessee-based singer-songwriter duo of Joy Williams and John Paul White was named Folk Album of the Year, while its title track was recognized as the Best Country Duo/Group Performance. [To read the full article, click on the headline.]

Instruments May Soon be Allowed as Carry-ons on US. Airplanes

Post published:February 9, 2012
Post author:Michael Kornfeld
Post category:News - U.S. National

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.]

Dick Kniss, Bassist for Peter, Paul and Mary, 1937-2012

Post published:January 31, 2012
Post author:Michael Kornfeld
Post category:News - Northeast U.S.News - U.S. National

A memorial services was held in Saugerties, New York on Sunday for Dick Kniss, a bassist who accompanied Peter, Paul and Mary for decades and co-wrote "Sunshine On My Shoulders” with John Denver. Kniss died Jan. 25 of pulmonary disease. He was 74. [To read the short article in its entirety, click on the headline.]

‘Phil Ochs: There But for Fortune’ Set to Air on PBS Stations

Post published:January 21, 2012
Post author:Michael Kornfeld
Post category:News - U.S. National

PBS Television's acclaimed American Masters' series of documentaries opens its 26th season with Phil Ochs: There But for Fortune this month. The revealing biography of a conflicted, truth-seeking troubadour who, with guitar in hand, stood up for what he believed in and challenged us all to do the same, premieres nationally on Monday, Jan. 23 at 10 p.m. (ET) on PBS stations (Check your local listings). [To read the article in its entirety, including reflections on Phil and the film from his sister, Sonny Ochs, click on the headline.]

Top Albums and Songs of 2011 (FOLKDJ-L)

Post published:January 4, 2012
Post author:Michael Kornfeld
Post category:Acoustic Radio Waves News - U.S. National

Alison Krauss and Union Station's Paper Airplane is the top album of the year and "Scarlet Town" from Gillian Welch's The Harrow and the Harvest, the #2 album, is the top song of 2011, based on radio playlists submitted to FOLKDJ-L, an electronic discussion group for DJs and others interested in all folk-based music on the radio. [To view the Top Albums and Songs charts compiled by Richard Gillmann, click on the headline.]

Warren Hellman, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Founder, 1934-2011

Post published:December 19, 2011
Post author:Michael Kornfeld
Post category:Bluegrass & Beyond Festival Focus News - U.S. National

Warren Hellman, a San Francisco-based financier and philanthropist who founded and funded the city’s nationally renowned Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival and toured earlier this year with his band, The Wronglers, died Dec. 18 from complications of leukemia. He was 77. [To read the full article, click on the headline.]