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The Johnny Cash Project, an online global collective art project and visual testament to the life and career of Johnny Cash, “The Man In Black,” celebrates its official launch today, with over 5,000 frames submitted to the dynamic website in the three weeks since the site’s soft launch.

The highly interactive website celebrates American VI: Ain’t No Grave, Johnny Cash’s final studio recording, produced by Rick Rubin. The Johnny Cash Project sets out to engage fans of the beloved musical icon from around the world in an unprecedented collaborative project: the creation of an ever-evolving music video for the title track of the album.

“Chris told me about this great art project he had in mind, but needed an iconic artist for it to work,” said Rick Rubin.  “His description of it sounded so new and unusual, that I was interested just to get to see it!  While I think he had originally intended to work with a living artist, I suggested Johnny Cash; he thought about it and realized that Johnny’s passing changed the meaning of the project for the better, and The Johnny Cash Project was born.”

The project’s goal is to empower fans to create a living portrait and a dynamic tribute to Cash that will never be viewed the same way twice.  The website offers a single image template, and using a custom drawing tool, invites visitors to share their visions of Johnny Cash by designing their own frames, which will then be strung together and played in sequence over the song. The portraits create a moving, ever-evolving homage to the beloved musical icon.  As new visitors to the site discover and contribute to the project, the hope is that Cash’s living portrait will continue to transform and grow. The site soft-launched three weeks ago, and has been populated by talented artists and eager Johnny Cash fans with no publicity at all. It has received nearly 75,000 visitors from 150 countries. The quality of the submissions is a testament to the level of artists the site is attracting. It is truly a communal art project. While the video can now be viewed in full, the submissions continue to come in with increasing frequency as visitors create and watch rapidly evolving versions of the video.

Ain’t No Grave is an album deeply rooted in themes of mortality, resurrection, and everlasting life. When Milk and Rubin began collaborating on the Johnny Cash Project, they were focused on highlighting these concepts.

“Johnny’s spirit truly lives on – not just through his musical catalog — but in the hearts of all the people around the world he has touched so deeply,” said the project’s creator and director Chris Milk. “The Johnny Cash Project is the visual manifestation of all that love coming together, not just to produce a music video, but to show how Johnny’s enduring spirit continues living on inside of all of us.”

American VI: Ain’t No Grave, released on February 26, 2010, is the sixth and final installment of Johnny Cash’s critically acclaimed American Recordings album series.

Submitted by Sunshine Sachs

Where:  Fisk University, 1000  17^th Avenue, Nashville, TN

Concert & Lecture:  Little Theatre of Fisk University

Museum Exhibit:  Aaron Douglas Gallery at the John Hope Franklin Library

Date: Concert Program – Sunday, May 2, 2010 at 4:00 pm.  Exhibit runs through June 30th

Dear Friends,

Josh White, Jr. and Doug Yeager are extremely proud to be working with the renowned sculptor Alan LeQuire in one of our nation’s most important historical museum art projects Cultural Heroes.  LeQuire has spent seventeen years creating 36 high busts of seven American artist/activists he believes put their careers on the line while inspiring the civil rights movement of the 1920s, 30s and 1940s with their music and force of personality – Bessie Smith, Marian Anderson, Paul Robeson, Lead Belly, Woody Guthrie, Josh White and Billie Holiday.

Josh White, Jr., a Tony Award winning actor, educator, activist and Grammy nominated recording artist, became a child star in 1944 while performing with his father.  He has had the rare opportunity to have known and worked with all of the Cultural Heroes except Bessie — though he feels he has known her through the stories his parents told him.  With his Cultural Heroes Program, Josh gives his unique perspective into the lives of each of his Heroes, while dedicating to each a song identified with their life and career in advancing the human rights struggle.

Submitted by Douglas Yeager Productions

Debuting this year­as host band­is Horace Trahan & the New Ossun Express. Trahan, who has been described as the best young traditional accordion player to come along in his generation, got his start playing Cajun music with the legendary D.L. Menard and Felix Richard. After switching to zydeco, and stirring up a whole lot of flack along the way, he took a hiatus from playing altogether.  Now back stronger than ever, Horace and his band members are making their first appearance ever outside Louisiana.  Horace might not be known outside his home state, but Rhythm and Roots aims to change all that.  This red-hot band will be firing up the Main Stage and dance floor all weekend long.

Headlining on Saturday and making their only New England appearance is the legendary band, The Texas Tornados.  The Tornados recently reformed at the urging of Shawn Sahm, who incredibly channels the singing of his late father, and founding member, Doug Sahm.  The Tornados have a brand new CD – their first original recording since 1996.  Esta Bueno, released in March, was begun in 2006 and features the late Freddie Fender who died later that year.  The current Tornados lineup features all the remaining members including Flaco Jimenez and Augie Meyers.  A one-of-a-kind all-star jam will take place on Saturday night with the Tornados and members of Marcia Ball’s band and Johnny Nicholas & the Texas All-Stars.

Burning up the stage on Sunday will be Robert Randolph & the Family Band.  Randolph, known for his jaw dropping pyrotechnics on the pedal steel guitar, is inspired by Stevie Ray Vaughan, Earth, Wind & Fire, and Sly & the Family Stone.  With the band’s very first album, they attracted the attention of Eric Clapton and subsequently toured with him.  In 2003, Randolph was listed on the Top 100 Guitarists of All Time list by ROLLING STONE.   He is also currently appearing as Bo Diddley in the new movie , “Who Do You Love?” The band is currently working on their 4th album with famed producer T Bone Burnett (Crazy Heart).

This year’s lineup keeps on sizzling with Dave Alvin & the Guilty Women.  2006 Grammy winner Alvin has been roaming the highways of American music for over a quarter century both with roots rock stars, The Blasters and his own solo projects which mined the depths of country, folk and blues.  A mainstay during much of this journey has been his electrifying band, The Guilty Men.  Following the death of Dave’s best friend and Guilty Men accordionist Chris Gaffney in 2008, Alvin decided to move in an exciting new musical direction.  In October 2008 he stepped onto the stage of the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in San Francisco with an all-star, all-female group.   The set with what was later dubbed The Guilty Women was so thrilling that they were besieged to make a record.  Their enthralling mix of blues, folk, R&B, rockabilly and more will debut on the Main Stage this year.

An exciting addition to this year’s festival, Little Freddie King (aka Fread E. Martin), has been playing the blues for 50 years.  A regular at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Fest, this master bluesman drives the crowd wild even with an 11 am set.   A Mississippi native who transplanted to New Orleans, his hard living was filled with shootings, stabbings, jail sentences, all night rambling and plenty of hard work.   He has been playing his rural electric blues in the lowest bowels of New Orleans’ now devastated Ninth Ward for years. His cracked, heavily lived-in voice delivers an old style R&B feel, and his gnarling nasty chords recall the heyday of Lightning Hopkins and John Lee Hooker, with whom he toured Europe for the first time.  His 2005 CD, You Don’t Know What I Know was #1 on the Red Licks blues listing in England.  His new CD, a live performance at the Thirsty Ear Festival was released last month entitled, Gotta Walk With Da King.

Geoff Muldaur & the Texas Sheiks formed in the face of adversity – to give artistic diversion to the late Stephen Bruton, who was ailing with cancer. The CD was one of the last 2 projects that Bruton completed before his death in 2009. When Muldaur made the call, they all came:  Johnny Nicholas (Asleep at the Wheel), Bruce Hughes (Jason Mraz, Poi Dog Pondering, The Resentments), Cindy Cashdollar (Rick Danko, Levon Helm, Asleep at the Wheel, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison), Suzy Thompson (California Cajun Orchestra), and special guest “sheik emeritus,” Jim Kweskin, Muldaur’s Jim Kweskin Jug Band partner.  Recently featured on National Public Radio, the band offers masterful new versions of Delta blues, Western Swing, and ragtime music.

Unique is the word for many of the artists this year and Bonerama is no exception.  Just awarded Best Rock Band of 2009 at the Big Easy Awards in New Orleans, they bring the brass band concept to places unknown with their fusion of rock, funk and power brass.  They deliver both originals and covers of songs like Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze” and Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid,” doubling guitar riffs with multiple trombones. Those who have seen it call it an “immensely exciting” experience.

The Danny Barnes Trio rounds out the debuting artists on this year’s lineup.  Banjo player Barnes (Dave Matthews, Bad Livers) is widely regarded as one of the most innovative and genre-bending artists of his craft with his inventive take on bluegrass, country, folk, rock and jazz.  He will be spotlighted in an upcoming National Public Radio feature.

Many of the most popular Rhythm & Roots artists will also be back this year: Marcia Ball, Uncle Earl, Donna the Buffalo, Steve Riley & the Mamou Playboys, Johnny Nicholas & the Texas All-Stars (featuring Joel Guzman & Al Gomez), CJ Chenier & the Red Hot Louisiana Band, Red Stick Ramblers, Jeffery Broussard & the Creole Cowboys, Ed Poullard & Preston Frank, Magnolia, Planet Zydeco and Hot Tamale Brass Band.  Occidental Gypsy Jazz Quartet also returns after garnering many new fans with their debut at the festival in last year’s workshop tent.

A special early bird discount price is in effect until June 30th for full weekend passes with camping.  Camping is limited to 1500 so advance purchase is recommended.

Submitted by Full House Promotions

Pete Seeger & the Power of Song gets us underway on Saturday, June 19 on the Rainbow Stage. Also featured on this stage throughout the weekend are famed singer-songwriters Steve Earle and Shawn Colvin, contemporary music star Joan Osborne; Westchester County native David Bromberg and his quartet, Keller Williams, “newgrass” sensation Railroad Earth, Donna the Buffalo, Toshi Reagon, The Felice Brothers, sacred steel guitar family band The Lee Boys, and Hazmat Modine, a global blues band based in NYC.

Appearing on the Hudson Stage will be Steve Forbert, Rhett Miller, Jonatha Brooke, Mike Doughty, Dan Bern, Lucy Kaplansky, David Amram, Canadian duo Dala, Milton, Sara Watkins (Nickel Creek), Sarah Lee Guthrie & Johnny Irion and the Tao Seeger Band.

New for this year is the renamed “World Dance Stage” with a bigger dance floor and bands from around the globe.  The mission for the stage is audience participation.  The diverse roster features many different dance music styles and wonderful artists including Zydeco greats Buckwheat Zydeco, and C.J. Chenier & the Red Hot Louisiana Band; Quebecois Cajun group Le Vent du Nord; Celtic artist and fiddle player of Riverdance Eileen Ivers; Contra Dance bands Nightingale and Jay, Molly & Peter; Brooklyn based Eastern European brass band Slavic Soul Party; Haitian drumming and dance ensemble Bonga & The Vodou Drums of Haiti; Columbian folkloric dance band Folklore Urbano; West African Balafon troupe Kakande and from New Orleans, The Subdudes and funk-soul band Brother Joscephus & the Love Revival Revolution Orchestra.

Pete Seeger will be performing at various junctures during the two-day festival including performances with two different kids groups.

The Revival is full of unique experiences. Story Grove, with professional storytellers and Circle of Song (audience participatory singing) keeps alive these unique and long-standing traditions. Performers at Story Grove include The Storycrafters, Dave Conover, Robert DeMayo, Bob Reiser, Nancy Marie Payne, Anne Shapiro & Tom Callinan and Bobaloo Basey. At Circle of Song we have Marva P. Clarke and Kim Harrisleading gospel sings, the Dirty Stay Out Skifflers, the Edukated Fleas, Hope Machine, Captain Killian & Crew, Mel & Vinnie, Eric Russell, Evy Mayer, Steve Stanne, Stout and Matt Turk.

Other programming that sets Clearwater apart from other festivals include Arm-of-the-Sea Theater (mask and puppet theater), the Rude Mechanical Orchestra (30-odd-piece New York City radical marching band and dance troupe), the Walkabout Clearwater Chorus (celebrating their 25th anniversary in 2010) and more.

As always there will be plenty of family oriented programming including the Family Stage, juggling, roving artists, face painting plus lots of other activities and vendors for kids. Appearing on the Family Stage will be Pete Seeger & Tomorrow’s Children, Sarah Lee Guthrie & Johnny Irion, David Amram, Elizabeth Mitchell & You Are My Flower, Kim & Reggie Harris, Jay Mankita, Grenadilla, Nancy Tucker, Roger the Jester, Dog on Fleas, Uncle Rock, Linda Richards and Dan Einbender.

There’s also a Juried Crafts Fair with over 40 Crafters and folk artists with quality hand-made items, demonstrations and workshops and a Green Living Expo Tent where you can learn about products, services, concepts and technologies that can inform your lifestyle and business choices.

The sloop Clearwater and the schooner Mystic Whaler will be conducting sails throughout the weekend as well as rides being offered on smaller boats.

The Discovery and Tideline tents will feature Clearwater’s original hands-on environmental education programs and Hudson River research. The Environmental Action Tent will highlight Clearwater’s watershed and environmental justice initiatives in cities up and down the Hudson River Valley.

Keeping with tradition, the entire festival is wheelchair accessible and most stage programming is staffed with American Sign Language interpreters.

The 2010 Great Hudson River Revival will take place on Saturday and Sunday, June 19 and 20 at Croton Point Park in Croton-on Hudson, NY. Tickets range from $40 (early bird) to $80 (gate).  Tickets are available atwww .ClearwaterFestival.org or 845-418-3596

Submitted by Clearwater Festival

• May/June issue: The May/June 2010 issue has been canceled. Information will be posted on our website when news about a resumption in publishing Dirty Linen is known.
  A new customer service phone number in California has been set up. All subscription and back issue orders, address changes, and questions about your subscription or other order should be directed here. 1-866-702-7778. Press “2” for Dirty Linen, then “1” for Customer Service. The office is open from 9am to 5pm Pacific Time. (Noon to 8pm Eastern Time.)
• Change in editors: Longtime Dirty Linen editors Sue and Paul Hartman have left the Visionation family of publications.

WhyHunger-Chapin Award Honorees Announced
Pete Seeger
Growing Home
Nick Ashford & Valerie Simpson

Honorary Dinner Co-Chairs
Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT)
Paul Williams, ASCAP

Pete Seeger is the recipient of the 2010 WhyHunger Chapin Award. In 1936, musician, singer, songwriter, folklorist, activist, environmentalist and peace advocate Pete Seeger heard the 5-string banjo for the first time, and his life – and ours – changed forever. Thirty-five years ago Pete, along with Harry Chapin and Tom Chapin, performed the very first benefit concert to raise money for World Hunger Year. Since then, Pete’s music has provided a soundtrack to all our milestones – from losing Harry to celebrating his life with the Special Congressional Gold Medal to marking joyous anniversaries like this – our 35th Anniversary celebration. Pete taught us to think globally and act locally. Through his music and life, Pete focused the world’s attention on poverty, hunger, racism, the environment, waterways, war and peace. Executive Director Bill Ayres says “Pete Seeger is a living legend and an A merican musical icon. He is also a man who has always stood for the hungry, the poor and the oppressed. It is for all of those things that we are proud to honor him at our 35th Anniversary Dinner.”

Growing Home (Chicago, IL) provides job training for homeless and low-income individuals in Chicago through a social enterprise business based on organic agriculture. They provide experiential learning opportunities and employment in the horticulture field as well as a unique job readiness curriculum that helps reintroduces participants back into the workforce. Founded in 1992, the organization strives to create a sense of community and connection through farming. Growing Home’s founder, the late Les Brown, wrote “Our organic farming program is a way for [people] to connect with nature – to plant and nurture roots over a period of time. When you get involved in taking responsibility for caring for something, creating an environment that produces growth, then it helps you build self-esteem.” The organization’s groundbreaking programs in job training and fostering the creation of green economies has earned them a Harry Chapin Self-Reliance Award.

Ashford and Simpson, 2010′s ASCAP-Harry Chapin Humanitarian Award recipients, are one of the most successful songwriting duos in the history of pop music and have earned 22 gold and platinum albums over the course of their career. When Nickolas Ashford moved to New York from Detroit in pursuit of a theater career in 1964, he was homeless. He met Bronx native Valerie Simpson at White Rock Baptist Church where she was performing with the Harlem Church’s choir. Nick joined the choir, beginning their award-winning collaboration. But hit songs like “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” and “Your Precious Love” weren’t enough. In the tradition of WhyHunger cofounder Harry Chapin, the duo steeped themselves in humanitarian projects. They performed at Live Aid in 1985 and Nelson Mandela’s 70th birthday. Val is on the ASCAP Board of Directors and is a spokesperson for the Speaking of Woman’s Health organ ization. Nick serves on the Board for George Faison’s Firehouse Theatre. They regularly perform at charity events, such as Atlanta’s 24th Annual Mayor’s MASKED Ball; and in support of the United Negro College Fund.

Honorary Dinner Co-Chairs

Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) has been an active part of WhyHunger and its work since the beginning. Along with Harry Chapin, he served on the Presidential Commission on World Hunger. For more than 25 years, he has served on WhyHunger’s Board of Directors and Advisory Board. In 2000, WhyHunger honored Leahy with its first Lifetime Achievement Award.

Paul Williams is the President and Chairman of the Board of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). He is an Oscar, Grammy and Golden Globe winning Hall of Fame songwriter who has written many modern standards.

Submitted by Shore Fire Media

On March 26th 2010 a tragic car accident took the lives of two members of the African Beats, talking drummer Gabriel Ayanniyi and percussionist Omo Olope, who were en-route to a video shoot for a forthcoming recording. When the US Embassy refused to grant visas to replacement members in a timely manner, there was confusion about the possible courses of action.At the same time, it became clear that the artist and the band had neither recovered from the impact of the tragedy, nor were they able to find consensus on how to move forward with normal touring.

As a result, the North American April/May 2010 tour has been canceled until such a time as King Sunny Ade and his group have sufficiently regrouped and are ready to face the rigors of an International tour again.

We offer our heartfelt condolences to the band and the families of the deceased. On behalf of the artist and his band we extend our apologies to all who will be disappointed by their inability to perform in North America this year.

Submitted by Rock Paper Scissors, Inc.

GAT frontman Vince Herman, who grew up in West Virginia, comments: “Great American Taxi sends our thoughts out to the families and communities affected by the mining disaster at the upper big branch mine. We hope that their unconquerable Appalachian spirit and families can help them navigate these difficult times. The country and the world share in their grief. We need coal.  We need our miners to be safe. We need understanding on all sides of this contentious issue of our national energy policy. We would like to make Taxis’ tribute to that Appalachian spirit available as a download here and suggest a donation to the WV council of churches to assist  the families of our fallen brothers. Let’s all come together and honor the families who have paid that ultimate price for our energy needs and hope that this is the last such disaster we must face.”

In the past five years, Great American Taxi has become one of the best-known headliners on the jam band circuit, their uninhibited sound a swinging concoction of swampy blues, progressive bluegrass, funky New Orleans strut, Southern boogie, honky tonk, gospel and good old fashioned rock ’n’ roll. That loose, anything-can-happen feel is the hallmark of Reckless Habits, the band’s second album, which was recorded in Loveland, Colo., with producer Tim Carbone (from Railroad Earth) bringing the feel of an onstage performance to the recording process. The new album was released through Thirty Tigers on March 2, 2010.

Blurt called Reckless Habits “a giddy combination of boogie, blues, bluegrass, nu-grass and honky-tonk, it’s as readily infectious and genuinely freewheeling as its eclectic content might imply. Hopefully this Great American Taxi will continue to take listeners along for similarly spirited rides in the future.”  Country Standard Time called it  “a well rounded album that fully pays homage to Gram Parsons and his vision of a cosmic American sound that incorporates all the pages of the American Roots songbook.”

When banjo player Mark Vann of Leftover Salmon died of cancer in 2002, that band dissolved. Salmon singer/guitarist/mandolinist Vince Herman had a few rough years and survived a broken neck before joining keyboardist Chad Staehly for a superstar jam to benefit the Rainforest Action Group in Boulder in March 2005. “We put together a dream band of the best local musicians for a one-off gig,” Herman recalls. “It worked so well we had to do it again, and again, and again.” And so Great American Taxi was born. The current lineup includes Herman, Staehly, guitarist Jim Lewin, bassist Brian Adams and drummer Chris Sheldon.

Submitted by Conqueroo