The 13th Annual San Francisco Bluegrass & Old-Time Festival began yesterday and runs through February 19. Musical performances, dances, workshops and jam sessions abound, along with a Saturday night old-time square dance. [To read the article, click on the headline.]
A wide array of Irish, Scottish, Cape Breton, Appalachian and other Celtic and Celtic-inspired music and dance is on tap during Boston’s annual Celtic Music Fest (BCMFest), Jan. 6-7, 2012. The grassroots, musician-run, family-friendly winter Celtic music festival takes place at three venues in Harvard Square that are all within easy walking distance of one another – a change from previous years when not all the events took place in Cambridge. [To read the full article, click on the headline.]
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.]
The Americana Music Association’s 12th annual Americana Music Festival and Conference, Oct. 12-15, is expected to draw some 1,000 artists, label executives, managers, agents, music publishers, music retailers, producers, promoters, music journalists and other industry professionals to Nashville this week for several days of learning, networking and musical entertainment.. Those numbers may swell to more than 15,000 as fans come out to experience the Festival’s musical events – including nighttime musical showcases and the professional trade association’s 10th Annual Honors & Awards show. [To read a short article previewing the event, click on the headline.]
The Newport Folk Festival, which, earlier this year, returned to its original roots as a nonprofit event, has taken another step that organizers say will help ensure that it “remains a significant, viable, and influential institution for years to come.” To further advance the dialogue with both established and emerging artists, the Newport Festivals Foundation, Inc. announced the creation of its Newport Folk Festival Board of Advisors. Named to the panel were Gillian Welch, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Jim James of My Morning Jacket, Colin Meloy of The Decemberists, and Ben Knox Miller of The Low Anthem. [To read the full article, click on the headline.]
The 24th annual Celtic Classic highland games & festival is set for September 23-25 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Presented by the nonprofit Celtic Cultural Alliance, the free event is a celebration of the Irish, Scottish and Welsh cultures and heritage and will feature four stages of continuous entertainment. {To read the full article, click on the headline.]
avid Amram, Roy Book Binder, David Bromberg, Arlo Guthrie, Levon Helm, Jorma Kaukonen, Tom Paxton and Tom Rush are among the music luminaries slated to perform during the 50th annual Philadelphia Folk Festival, August 18-21, 2011. Joining them at the Old Pool Farm in Upper Salford Township, near Schwenksville, Pennsylvania, for the longest continually running festival of its kind will be a number of up-and-coming touring artists like Dan Bern, Justin Townes Earle, David Wax Museum, the Canadian female duos Dala and Madison Violet, and Philly’s own Hoots and Hellmouth, as well as many other locally-based artists. [To read the full article, including comments from veteran folk-DJ, festival co-founder and emee Gene Shay, click on the headline.]
Four artists have been selected as finalists in the Avalonfest’s annual performing songwriter competition for 2011: Doug Brouder (Gettysburg, PA), Kyle Carey (Portsmouth, NH), Kathy Moser (Stanhope, NJ) and Sarah Pinsker (Baltimore, MD). [To read the entire article, click on the headline.]
AcousticMusicScene.com will host song swaps and mini-showcases during the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, July 22-24, and the Huntington Folk Festival, August 6. Both festivals take place in New York State. {to view the entire article, including schedules, click on the headline.]
A couple of music festivals of note in the Northeast take place during the first weekend in July -- one along the cobblestoned streets of the old whaling port city of New Bedford, Massachusetts, the other at the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts in Katonah, New York. [To read the article, click on the headline.]
Twenty-four artists/bands have been selected from among hundreds of applicants to perform in the Falcon Ridge/Grassy Hill Emerging Artists Showcase during the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival on Friday afternoon, July 22, 2011, from noon to 4:30 p.m. They are Brooke Annibale, Blair Bodine, Brittany Ann, Ellen Bukstel, Lori Diamond and Fred Abatelli, Friction Farm, Bulat Gafarov, Sharon Goldman, Jason Myles Goss, ilyAIMY, Layah Jane, Devlin Miles, Louise Mosrie, My Brothers Banned, Occidental Gypsy, Karyn Oliver, Pesky J. Nixon, Grace Pettis, Paul Sachs, Putnam Smith, Split Tongue Crow, Suzie Vinnick, Gail Wade, and The Whispering Tree. [To view the entire article, click on the headline.]
Black 47, Enter the Haggis, Joshua tree, The Makem & Spain Brothers, The Prodigals, The Screaming Orphans and Derek Warfield and the Young Wolfe Tones are among the artists slated to grace the main stage during the 21st annual Boston Irish Festival. Set for Friday evening June 17 through Sunday evening, June 19, in Canton, Massachusetts, the festival also will feature Irish dancing, films, sports, art, food, an O’Connell Street Marketplace, book readings and sales, genealogy research, and children’s activities. A number of other local and touring artists also will perform during the event. [To view the entire article, click on the headline.]
