News Capsules for the Acoustic Community
There’s now one less online outlet for independent artists and for people to discover them. Whole Wheat Radio, which exposed lots of people to lots of fine independent music through its website and webcast for eight years, is history. Jim Kloss, its founder and director, called it quits on Oct. 20. [To read the entire article, click on the headline.]
Amber Rubarth, a 28-year-old, Brooklyn NY-based singer-songwriter, is the grand-prize winner in the 2010 Mountain Stage NewSong Contest. The international finals for the noted performing songwriter contest -- presented by the live performance radio show and produced by the independent music organization NewSong Music -- took place on Friday afternoon, October 22, at the World Financial Center’s Winter Garden in New York City. John Platt, host of “Sunday Breakfast” on New York’s WFUV, served as emcee for the event. [To read the entire article, click on the headline.]
Dailey & Vincent were named Entertainer of the Year for the third consecutive time during the 21st Annual International Bluegrass Music Awards show on Thursday, Sept. 30, at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee. The duo also was named Vocal Group of the Year for the third consecutive time and received a second Album of the Year award for Dailey & Vincent Sing the Statler Brothers, a bluegrass tribute to the legendary country music quartet. [To view the entire article and a list of other winners, click on the headline.]
Irwin Silber, a longtime editor of Sing Out!, who co-founded the folk music magazine with Pete Seeger, musicologist Alan Lomax, and others in 1950, died on Sept. 8 in Oakland, California. He was 84 and had suffered with Alzheimer’s disease. [To read the entire article, click on the headline.]
Ryan Bingham was the big winner during last night’s Ninth Annual Americana Music Association Honors and Awards Show at the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee. The 29-year old singer-songwriter was named Artist of the Year and won Song of the Year honors for “The Weary Heart,” the theme from the film Crazy Heart. [To see the names of all the winners and read the entire article, click on the headline.]
In another sign of the tough economic times in which we are living and, specifically, the decline in print media, Paste Magazine has suspended publication. [To read the article, click on the headline.]
"A star has fallen; a really bright one." A memorial service is set for Sunday, Aug. 29, in Santa Barbara, California for Kenny Edwards, a driving force behind the American folk-rock movement of the 1960s and 1970s. He died on Aug. 18 at age 64. A guitarist’s guitarist, Edwards was a co-founder of the Stone Poneys and Bryndle and also collaborated with many other musical luminaries. Singer-songwriter, guitarist and AcousticMusicScene.com co-creator Glen Roethel remembers him fondly. [To read Glen's tribute to Kenny Edwards, click on the headline.]
Pinecastle Records, a major player in bluegrass music for the past two decades, shut down in February. Its owner and president, Orlando, Florida businessman Col. Tom Riggs, was experiencing serious health issues, and his family opted to close the label and focus on his health. This left artists in limbo, with their recordings quickly going out of print. Earlier this month, Dr. Lonnie Lassiter, a bluegrass music lover and friend of the Riggs family, assumed ownership of the label and tapped two of its former executives – Ethan Burkhardt and Matt Hood – to head up the new venture. [To read the entire, article, click on the headline.]
Mitch Jayne, bass player and front man for the influential bluegrass band The Dillards, passed away Aug. 2 after being diagnosed with cancer recently. Although The Dillards toured and recorded for decades, helping to expose the world to the music of the Ozarks, they are best known for their recurring appearances on CBS-TV’s “The Andy Griffith Show,” in which they played The Darling Boys, a family of mountain musicians. The Dillards were inducted into the Bluegrass Hall of Fame last year. [To read the full article, click on the headline.]
Although he was best known as the longest-serving member of the United States Senate, Robert C. Byrd, who died Monday at 92, also was an old-time and bluegrass fiddler. On July 27, Virginia-based County Records plans to reissue a bluegrass album recorded by Byrd, who represented West Virginia for more than half a century in the Senate and also served as the chamber’s majority leader for 11 years. [To read the entire article, click on the headline.]
Nashville, Tennessee-based singer songwriter Robby Hecht emerged as the winner of the 2010 Telluride Troubadour Competition yesterday afternoon and will perform on the main stage during the 37th Annual Telluride Bluegrass Festival tonight. His 15-minute set will be sandwiched in between performances by Yonder Mountain String Band and Bela Fleck, Zakir Hussain and Edgar Meyer. The roots-oriented music festival, which takes place amid Colorado’s rugged San Juan Mountains and coincides with the Summer Solstice, continues through Sunday. [To read the entire article, click on the headline.]
Sonicbids, the website designed to help artists leverage the power of the Internet to manage their electronic press kits (EPKs) and find and book gigs, has acquired ArtistData, an online publishing platform that more than 25,000 musicians use to update and manage their gig-related information across the Web. [To read the entire article, click on the headline.]
