Quick Q & A with Jon Shain
Jon Shain has developed and refined his own contemporary version of the Piedmont blues, a bouncy energetic style that developed in and around his adopted hometown of Durham, North Carolina and to which he was introduced while a history major at Duke University. After graduating in 1989, Jon decided to pursue a career in music and has been writing songs and honing his fingerstyle guitar playing skills ever since. A 2009 International Blues Challenge finalist, he tours regularly and will help close out the AcousticMusicScene.com showcase at this month’s Southeast Regional Folk Alliance (SERFA) Conference in Montreat, NC.
[To read Kathy Sands-Boehmer's Quck Q & A with Jon, click on the headline.]
Entry Deadline Nears for Mid-Atlantic Song Contest
September 15 is the submission deadline for entries in the 29th annual Mid-Atlantic Song Contest produced by the Songwriters Association of Washington.
[To read about the contest, 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.]
John McCutcheon to Keynote FAR-West Conference in October
Hundreds of performers, presenters, booking agents, radio programmers and others engaged in performing and promoting folk and acoustic music in the Western United States will gather in Eugene, Oregon, Oct.20-23, for the eighth annual Folk Alliance Region-West (FAR-West) Conference. The event will feature lots of acoustic music, networking, music business education, an exhibit hall … and very little sleep.
[To read an article previewing the conference, click on the headline.]
NY’s Borderline Folk Club Honors Si Kahn at Annual Picnic, Aug. 28
Hundreds of folk & bluegrass music lovers are expected to gather at the New City Volunteer Ambulance Corps (200 Congers Road, New City, New York) on Sunday afternoon, August 28, for the third annual picnic, singing party, and jam hosted by the Borderline Folk Music Club of Rockland County. The free event, for which people are expected to bring a cold potluck dish for six, is set for 12-6 p.m. in the outdoor grassy area adjacent to the parking lot.
[To read the full article and view a music video, click on the headline.]
Hazel Dickens, a Pioneering Woman in Bluegrass Music, 1935-2011
Hazel Dickens, a trailblazer for women in bluegrass music, who captivated audiences with her high, lonesome vocal style and was widely recognized for her contributions to music and for championing the cause of coal miners and working people, died on April 22 . She was 75.
[To read the full article, click on the headline.]
Artists Selected to Showcase at NERFA Mini-Conference, April 30
The following artists have been selected to perform short showcases during the Northeast Regional Folk Alliance (NERFA) One-Day Mini-Conference at the First Universalist Society in Franklin, Massachusetts (home of the Circle of Friends Coffeehouse) on Saturday, April 30: Burning Bridget Cleary, Michelle Cruz,
Jason Myles Goss, Brendan Hogan, Occidental Gypsy, Amy Petty, Radio Caroline, Hayley Reardon, Roy Schneider, and the Putnam Smith Trio.
[To read the complete article, click on the headline.]
McEuen and Moss Honored with 2010 Best of the West Awards
John McEuen, founding member of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, instigator of Will the Circle Be Unbroken -- which Rolling Stone called “The most important record to come out of Nashville” -- and producer of Steve Martin’s 2010 Grammy Award-winning bluegrass album, The Crow, received a 2010 Best of the West award on Oct. 23, during the Folk Alliance Region-West (FAR-West) Conference in Santa Clara, California. Also honored with a Best of the West award was Cloud Moss, founder and director of both the Kate Wolf Memorial Music Festival and the Sebastopol Celtic World Music Festival held in Northern California, who also has produced more than 30 other festivals during his career.
[To read the entire article, click on...
Liz Longley is Top International Acoustic Music Awards Winner
Liz Longley is the overall grand prize winner in the sixth annual International Acoustic Music Awards competition. The young singer-songwriter from Pennsylvania, who grew up listening to Joni Mitchell and Karla Bonoff, also captured first place in the competition’s Folk category for “When You’ve Got Trouble.”
[To read the entire article, click on the headline.]
Folk Alliance Region-West Conference Set for Nov. 6-8
Hundreds of performers, presenters, booking agents, radio programmers and others engaged in performing and promoting folk and acoustic music in the West – from Anchorage, Alaska to Phoenix, Arizona – are expected to converge on the Hyatt Regency in Irvine, California, November 6-8. The sixth annual Folk Alliance Region- West (FAR-West) Conference will feature three days of acoustic music, networking, music business education … and very little sleep.
[To read the entire article, click on the headline.] New York Songwriter Joe Crookston Earns Album of the Year Award
Joe Crookston, an Ithaca, New York-based singer-songwriter and guitarist, received the prestigious Album of the Year Award during the 21st annual International Folk Alliance Conference, Feb. 18, in Memphis, Tennessee. His 2008 recording, Able Baker Charlie & Dog, ended the year as the #1 most-aired recording by folk/acoustic radio DJs in the United States.
[To read the entire article, click on the headline.]
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