A Special Invitation

What:  Cultural Heroes –  A historic American civil rights museum exhibit honoring Bessie Smith, Marian Anderson, Paul Robeson,  Lead Belly, Woody Guthrie, Josh White and Billie Holiday, with a related thematic music and stories program by Josh White, Jr.

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

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Rhythm & Roots Festival Line-Up Announced

The 13th annual Rhythm & Roots Festival announces its spectacular all-star lineup for 2010.  Held at Ninigret Park in Charlestown, Rhode Island every Labor Day weekend, the festival has become a destination event drawing roots music and dance fans from all over the country.  This year the festival is held Sept 3-5, 2010. Ninigret Park is located at 4890A Old Post Rd, (just off Route 1), Charlestown, RI  02813.  For tickets and info:  www.rhythmandroots.com, 1-888-855-6940.  Hours:  Friday, 5:00 pm to midnight and noon to midnight on Saturday and Sunday.

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Finalized Line-Up for the 2010 Great Hudson River Revival

Inspired by Pete Seeger’s desire to clean up the river over forty years ago, the Great Hudson River Revival initially helped raise the funds to build the sloop Clearwater, which has since become a world-renowned floating classroom and a symbol of effective grassroots action. Today, Hudson River Sloop Clearwater is a non-profit organization that sails at the forefront of the nation’s environmental challenges. The revenue raised by the Revival goes to support Clearwater’s numerous educational programs and its work toward environmental and social justice—as well as keeping the sloop Clearwater afloat.

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.

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WhyHunger Marks 35th Anniversary, Chapin Award Honorees Announced

On Monday, June 21 at Gotham Hall in New York City, WhyHunger will celebrate its 35th anniversary by paying tribute to the 2010 WhyHunger Chapin Award honorees including the grassroots winners of the Harry Chapin Self-Reliance Awards. These awards will be given in recognition of their inspiring work and dedication on issues of hunger and poverty on a local, national and global level. The annual dinner will be hosted by three-time Grammy Award winner Tom Chapin.
Tickets can be purchased at www.whyhunger.org/dinner.

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King Sunny Ade and his African Beats Tour Cancelled

It is with great sadness that we announce the cancellation of the entire April/May 2010 North American tour for King Sunny Ade and his African Beats.

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.

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Carole King and James Taylor Present VIP Stage Seats

Carole King and James Taylor are offering fans the opportunity-of-a-lifetime, to see two musical icons up-close-and-personal with ‘intimate and in the round’ Stage Seats on their Troubadour Reunion Tour. The VIP Stage Seats were designed as tables for two surrounding the center stage performance. The innovative design recreates the intimacy of a vintage nightclub within the high-energy atmosphere of a modern arena performance–paying tribute to Carole King and James Taylor’s legendary 1970 performances at L.A.’s famed Troubadour club.

All VIP Stage Seat Packages benefit established charities, including the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Alliance for the Wild Rockies, which Ms. King and Mr. Taylor have long championed–plus more than 90 additional national and local charitable organizations. The VIP Stage Seat Packages are estimated to raise over $1 million for charity and are available for 37 of the Troubadour Reunion North American concerts.

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John Common & Blinding Flashes of Light Photo Contest

This is an open call for photographers of any age, background, skill level, and artistic point of view to participate in Beautiful Empty Photo Conspiracy – a music+photography collaboration. The goal of this project is simple: to use the release of a new record from an indie band as creative inspiration for more and different art, and through this collaboration, to bring the music and photography communities closer together.

Beautiful Empty Photo Conspiracy will be curated by Lucia De Giovanni, an award-winning photographer, internationally known photojournalist, and founder of MYPP, Mentor a Young Photographer Program. Participating artists will draw their inspiration from Beautiful Empty, the new record from John Common and Blinding Flashes of Light. Each photographer will use the music and lyrics from Beautiful Empty as their creative starting point and then do what they do best: make interesting, challenging, amazing, curious, beautiful art.

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Help Celebrate Record Store Day

Warner Bros. Records has announced that it will make a series of vinyl albums and singles available on April 17^th exclusively in honor of Record Store Day ­ a celebration of the unique culture surrounding over 700 independently owned record stores in the USA, and hundreds of similar stores internationally.

These very special exclusive releases are as follows:

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Neil Young’s Twisted Road Tour

Rock icon Neil Young will hit the road for his first solo concerts in many years on the Twisted Road tour, which begins on May 18^th and continues through June 8^th. As an even rarer treat for fans, Young will play solo in several of the region’s classic theaters, offering a program of his classic songs along with the special privilege of hearing brand new, as yet unrecorded songs for the first time. British folk legend Bert Jansch will open the shows.

Shows include the Louisville’s Palace Theatre on May 26^th, Atlanta’s Fox Theatre on May 29^th, the Spartanburg (S.C.) Memorial Auditorium on May 30^th, and Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium on June 1^st. Please see below for all dates. Tickets go on sale this Saturday, March 27^th, at 10 a.m. local time through Ticketmaster outlets. Complete information about the Twisted Road tour’s Southern dates is available at www.concertwire.com.

In addition, the concert film Neil Young Trunk Show will be released on Blu-Ray and DVD by Reprise Records later this year. The film is the second in director Jonathan Demme’s planned trilogy about the legendary rocker. Demme also directed the 2006 Young documentary Heart of Gold. Following that film’s premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, Rolling Stone called it “an unconscious, raw, in-the-moment concert movie that respects the immediacy of creativity and the creator.” Theatrical screenings are being held across the country this week.

Watch the trailer here:  http://www.trunkshowmovie.com

Neil Young’s Twisted Road tour dates are as follows:

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40th Anniversary of Earth Day Marked with The Climate Rally on The National Mall

Earth Day Network today announced that Sting, John Legend, The Roots, Bob Weir, Patrick Stump, Mavis Staples, Passion Pit, Q-Tip, Booker T and other artists will perform at The Climate Rally on The National Mall in Washington, DC on Sunday, April 25. Other environmental stewards and notable figures attending include Reverend Jesse Jackson, film director, James Cameron, Olympic gold medalist, Billy Demong, producer, Trudie Styler and author, Margaret Atwood.

In honor of the 40^th Anniversary of Earth Day, these influential musicians along with political, environmental, religious and civil-rights leaders will join with a massive audience of concerned citizens to call on Congress to pass an effective and equitable climate and clean energy bill in 2010.

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