The Practice Room

Tony Rice

The lineup for the 34^th annual Telluride Bluegrass Festival has been announced, and among the many great acts on the bill is “A Very Special Performance by Tony Rice with Alison Krauss & Union Station.” The subhead is “An Evening of Material from Tony’s 35 year career.” A little more digging reveals that this VSP will happen several times in 2007. Besides Telluride, the matchup will perform April 21 in Chattanooga, April 22 in Louisville, and April 28 at Merlefest in Wilkesboro, Tennessee. (God forbid they’d play anywhere I can actually get to.)

In case you don't recognize the name, Tony Rice is the world’s king flatpicker. He was a student of Clarence White and inherited his teacher’s D-28 when White passed away in 1973. With David Grisman he exploded the idea of what a string band was capable of, blending swing and jazz with bluegrass and creating the first big innovation in acoustic guitar jazz since Django Reinhardt. He’s still rooted in bluegrass and traditional American music, but his melodic, harmonic and rhythmic thinking is miles away.

Go see him.

[TJH]

King Honored

On December 15 President Bush awarded B.B. King the nation's highest civilian award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. It was a long way to come for a man born more than eighty years ago in one of the poorest parts of the country, the Mississippi delta. He joins a short list of legendary musicians who have received the award, including Aaron Copland, Irving Berlin, Ella Fitzgerald, Marian Anderson, Pablo Casals and Duke Ellington.

The Presidential Medal of Freedom was established in 1945 by President Truman. It is one of the two highest awards (the other is the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor) that can bestowed on a civilian by the United States government. In 1990, King received the U.S. National Medal of Arts, which is the highest award given to artists and arts patrons by the government.

[TJH]

Plans

"Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men's blood."
   - Daniel Burnham

Hey, Mr. DJ! Hello? Hello?

The Future of Music Coalition has released a report documenting the effects of radio station ownership consolidation on musicians and the public. The report claims that station ownership consolidation has led to fewer choices in radio programming and has harmed the listening public and those working in the music and media industries. 

Key points included in report:

• The top four radio station owners have almost half of the listeners; the top ten owners have almost two-thirds of listeners. 
• The "localness" of radio ownership – ownership by individuals living in the community -- has declined between 1975 and 2005 by almost one-third.
• Just fifteen formats make up three-quarters of all commercial programming. Moreover, radio formats with different names can overlap up to 80% in terms of the songs played on them.
•   Niche musical formats like Classical, Jazz, Americana, Bluegrass, New Rock, and Folk, where they exist, are provided almost exclusively by smaller station groups. 
•  Across 155 markets, radio listenership has declined over the past fourteen years, a 22% drop since its peak in 1989.  

Ahmet Ertegun 1923-2006

…John Coltrane, Ray Charles, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Aretha Franklin, Joe Turner, Otis Redding, Clyde McPhatter, Crosby Stills & Nash, Cream, The Allman Brothers, The Spinners, Roberta Flack, Bette Midler, Jewel, Charles Mingus, Ornette Coleman, Ruth Brown, The Drifters, The Coasters, LaVern Baker…

More American Beauty

We talked about the American Beauty project a few weeks ago. To recall, it’s a bunch of interesting folks playing all the songs from Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty in two free concerts at the World Financial Center Winter Garden, 220 Vesey Street, New York, New York. Now the set list is available. (Strictly speaking, you already knew the set list – that’s the whole point. What’s really available is the list of who’s playing what.)

The list is as follows:

Workingman's Dead - Saturday, January 20 at 8:00pm:

Uncle John's Band - Ollabelle with Larry Campbell
High Time - The Holmes Brothers
Dire Wolf - Larry Campbell with Teresa Williams and Rob Barraco
New Speedway Boogie - Catherine Russell
Cumberland Blues -The Klezmatics
Black Peter - Jim Lauderdale with John Leventhal, Brandon Ross and friends      
Easy Wind -Tim O'Reagan (the Jayhawks)
Casey Jones - Railroad Earth
Plus instrumental interludes by: Tony Trischka and Andy Statman

American Beauty - Sunday, January 21 at 8:00pm:

Box Of Rain - Toshi Reagon
Friend Of The Devil - Mark Eitzel
Sugar Magnolia - Jim Lauderdale and friends
Operator - Jorma Kaukonen and friends
Candyman - Jay Farrar (Son Volt)
Ripple - Dar Williams and Dan Zanes
Brokedown Palace - Ollabelle with Larry Campbell
Till The Morning Comes - Espers
Attics Of My Life - Larry Campbell with Teresa Williams and Rob Barraco

Plus instrumental interludes by: Andy Statman, Tony Trischka, and Sex Mob

The host is John Schaefer, also the host of WNYC's innovative music talk show "Soundcheck," which features live performances and interviews with a variety of guests, and “New Sounds,” a nightly odd-music radio show that by itself is a reason to live in New York, as if there weren’t already a million others.

[TJH]

Wounded warriors

BBE Sound Inc., parent company of guitar manufacturer, G&L, has presented a pair of G&L Tribute Series guitars to the Armed Services YMCA on behalf of the Camp Pendleton Wounded Warrior Center. The Center is a temporary barracks for injured troops who’ve left the hospital but are still unable to return to active military duty. It is here that Marines undergo further medical care, physical therapy and counseling.

New Cooder

Ry Cooder has a new album coming out in March. His last one, Chavez Ravine, was about the effect on the Mexican community in Los Angeles of the building of the Dodgers’ baseball stadium in the 1950s. It reached No. 2 on Billboard's Top World Music Albums chart and No. 4 on Top Latin Albums, and was nominated for a Grammy for best folk album. It probably also didn’t make much money.

The new one, My Name is Buddy, is about the adventures of a cat. (Hey, it worked for Andrew Lloyd Webber.) Musicians on hand include Pete and Mike Seeger, Van Dyke Parks, the Chieftains' piper Paddy Moloney, mandolin player Roland White, Stefon Harris and Norteno accordionist Flaco Jiminez.  

WorkshopLive Offers Holiday Gifts to New Subscribers

New subscribers to WorkshopLive will receive special holiday gifts for signing up. Depending on the subscription type, new members will receive fretboard posters, chord charts, CDs, strings, guitar straps, tuners, amplifiers and more.

To learn more about our promotion, go to our pricing page.

Artist of the Month: Timothy Phelps - December 2006

Artist of the month of December 2006 is Timothy Phelps. His photographs are on display in the WorkshopLive exhibition room on the 2nd floor.

Timothy Phelps is a professional graphic designer and photographer. He has photographed all over the United States-including Yellowstone National Park and Glacier National Park-but specializes in nature photography in New England. On display will be many photos as well as some fine art and graphic design pieces.

For nearly 8 years, Tim has been the Art Director for Workshop Arts Publications, National Guitar Workshop, and DayJams-all affiliated with WorkshopLive. For these companies, he has designed books, brochures, and national advertising as well as edited and authored DVD/book packages utilizing WorkshopLive's video lessons.