Eleventh Annual Native American Music Awards & Winners

Jan Michael Looking Wolf for Artist of the Year, Joanne Shenandoah & Michael Bucher’s Bitter Tears Sacred Ground for Best Compilation, Jana’s rendition of A Change Is Gonna Come for Song/Single of the Year,  Kevin Locke’s Earth Gift for Record of the Year, and American Idol Semi-finalist Charly Lowry for Best Video Among Those Honored

Niagara Falls, NY – On Saturday October 3, 2009 the Eleventh Annual Native American Music Awards (N.A.M.A.) was held at the Seneca Niagara Hotel & Casino in Niagara Falls infront of a packed house that featured consistently outstanding live music performances along with an emotionally charged  Hall of Fame induction in honor of the late Ritchie Valens.

Taking this year’s top honors are;  Joanne Shenandoah & Michael Bucher’s Bitter Tears Sacred Ground for Best Compilation, Jana Mashonee’s rendition of Sam Cooke’s, A Change Is Gonna Come with Derek Miller for Song/Single of the Year, Jan Michael Looking Wolf for Artist of the Year,  Skylar Wolf for Debut Artist of the Year, Will and Lil Jess for Debut Duo/Group of the Year, Kevin Locke’s Earth Gift for Record of the Year, and American Idol Semi-finalist Charly Lowry for Best Video for her long form video featuring her song, Movin On.

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Folk Alliance Lifetime Achievement Awards will be presented to Bob Dylan, Elizabeth Cotten, and The National Council for Traditional Arts

Folk Alliance Lifetime Achievement Awards will be presented to Bob Dylan, Elizabeth Cotten, and The National Council for Traditional Arts (NCTA) on the opening night of the 2010 International Folk Alliance Conference, February 17, 2010 in Memphis.

Early Bird Registration and Official Showcase Entry Deadline Nears for 22nd Annual International Folk Alliance Conference

(Memphis, Tenn.) Folk Alliance International is proud to announce that the recipients of the 2010 Elaine Weissman Lifetime Achievement Awards will be Bob Dylan, the late Elizabeth Cotten, and the National Council for Traditional Arts (NCTA). The annual awards will be presented on Wednesday, February 17 as part of the opening day of the 2010 International Folk Alliance Conference in Memphis, TN. Past recipients have included Pete Seeger, Mavis Staples, Earl Scruggs, Rounder Records, The Carter Family, Alan Lomax, The Newport Folk Festival, Woody Guthrie and many others including last year’s recipients Phil Ochs, Guy & Candie Carawan, and The Old Town School of Folk Music.

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Free Melody-Writing Software, Songwriting Course from SongDoor

The SongDoor 2009 International Songwriting Competition, in partnership with SongU.com, 16 Ton Studios, Hard Twist Music-BMI, MasterWriter, Spring Hill Studio Productions, Broadjam and Tanager Audioworks, will be giving every person who enters free melody-writing software and a free online songwriting course from SongU.Com. Entries are accepted online or by mail through November 15, 2009.

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Legends and Newcomers Highlight 8th Annual Americana Music Association Honors & Awards Show

Buddy Miller Pulls Near-Sweep Of Major Categories

Emmylou Harris, Justin Townes Earle, Jim Lauderdale, John Fogerty & Buddy Miller; photo: Erika Goldring

(September 17, 2009) – Acclaimed singer/songwriter/guitarist/producer Buddy Miller was the biggest winner at the 8th Annual Americana Music Association Honors & Awards Show Thursday night at the Ryman Auditorium, taking home trophies in almost every category for which he was nominated.

Performing in celebration of lifetime achievement awards were John Fogerty, Ray Benson and Asleep At The Wheel, and Sam Bush. John Prine and Nanci Griffith sang a duet in honor of recipient Jim Rooney. The AMA’s annual awards show, hosted by Jim Lauderdale, was also a showcase for both established artists and the next generation of stars, all contributing fresh material to the Americana music scene. Performers included Rodney Crowell, The Gourds, Raul Malo, The Flatlanders, Reckless Kelly.

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Taylor Guitars Offers Tips to Keep Your Guitar Safe When Flying

See Bob Taylor’s message about Dave Carroll and his Internet video, “United Breaks Guitars”

EL CAJON, Calif. – July 10, 2009 – To address the hazards commercial airlines pose to travelling with a guitar, Taylor Guitars is here to offer tips and tricks to keep your guitar safe as you travel (read PDF). While the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the American Federation of Musicians (AFM) came to an agreement to allow guitars to be considered as carry-on luggage in 2003, thousands of musicians can relate a personal tale of instrument mistreatment at the hands of any number of airlines.

With advice from the AFM, here are a few tips Taylor Guitars recommends:

Know the pertinent policies of the airline on which you are traveling. There are links to many of them on the AFM website, so print them out and take them with you. Many flight attendants do not know their own airline’s policy regarding carry-on guitars, so if you can calmly explain that your instrument is within their mandated guidelines, and actually show them those guidelines, you will be way ahead of the game.

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Ray Benson & Asleep at the Wheel to Be Honored with Lifetime Achievement Award

NASHVILLE, Tenn., July 10, 2009 — The Americana Music Association proudly announces Asleep at the Wheel will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award for Performance at the 8th Annual Americana Honors & Awards ceremony, presented by the Gibson Foundation, scheduled for September 17th at the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville Tennessee.

“I can’t think of a more deserving outfit for this award,” says the legendary Willie Nelson, himself a past award recipient of the AMA’s Lifetime Achievement for Songwriting. The band’s recent collaboration with Nelson, Willie and the Wheel, has garnered critical acclaim and is a fixture on the Americana charts since its release earlier this year. “Our Ray Benson will leave a mark,” adds Nelson.   “He’s been a lot of places, done a lot of things and recorded it all.”

Since 1969, the Austin-based band has released over twenty-five albums, charting more than twenty Billboard singles and winning nine Grammy Awards along the way. Led by founder Benson, Asleep at the Wheel is an institution: an ever-shifting lineup (over 80 members to date) of like-minded musicians united under Benson’s unwavering crusade to keep alive the sound of Western Swing. Some of the members have gone on to perform and record with artists such as Bob Dylan, Rod Stewart, Van Morrison, Ryan Adams and others.

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Musicians Hall of Fame & Museum Announces 2009 Musicians Hall of Fame Inductees

Nashville, TN – Three-time Grammy award winning guitarist and Grand Ole Opry member, Steve Wariner and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Member and 2009 Songwriting Hall of Fame Inductee, Felix Cavaliere, announced the names of those musicians who will be honored at the 2009 Musicians Hall of Fame & Museum Awards Show on October 12, 2009 at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville. The inductees include some of the most influential and highly regarded musicians, producers and arrangers in music, of the last half century:

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Ponderosa Stomp Foundation Teams Up with New York’s Lincoln Center

The Ponderosa Stomp Concert, a New Orleans musical tradition, highlights the world’s most authentic musicians of rockabilly, R&B, jazz, blues, garage, soul, funk, and swamp pop. The annual show has become a must-see event, functioning as a showcase for living musical history. The Ponderosa Stomp exists to acknowledge, pay tribute to, and teach the cultural significance of the unsung heroes and heroines of rock-n-roll, rhythm & blues and other forms of American roots music. The Stomp began when a group of like-minded friends began presenting shows at a small club; it has evolved into a multi-faceted musical, cultural and educational juggernaut. Events in New Orleans every spring include two jam-packed nights of music, a conference and symposium, film festival, record hop and now, a museum exhibit. Unsung Heroes: The Secret History of Louisiana Rock & Roll is currently on display at the Louisiana State Museum in historic Cabildo in the heart of the French Quarter, running through May 2010.

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The European Bluegrass Band Awards 2009

A promising young Swedish group called the Downtown Ramblers has just won the coveted #1 European Bluegrass Band Award at the European World of Bluegrass Festival 2009.

The EWOB Festival 2009 had another banner year: beautiful weather, record-breaking attendance, and as always, excellent bands from all over Europe, alongside guest artists from the USA and Canada. Our guests this year included White Mountain Bluegrass, Naomi Sommers with Phil Rosenthal, Mike Stevens & Raymond McLain (playing with JB’s Band), Tom Gray (also with JB’s Band), clawhammer banjo player Hunter Robertson, Fayssoux McLean Band, and the Phil Rosenthal Band.

EWOB 2009 is the apex of the EWOB Month, during which over 100 bluegrass-related festivals and concerts take place across Europe, our way of celebrating Worldwide Bluegrass Month. You can read much more about EWOB and the EWOB Festival 2009, and even listen to lots of great European bluegrass, by visiting our website: www.ewob.eu

THE EUROPEAN BLUEGRASS BAND AWARDS: An Idealistic Triumph for the Musicians

• The European Bluegrass Band Awards are decided in the most idealistic manner possible: voted only by the musicians playing at the EWOB Festival. This ensures that no one else can influence the course and development of European bluegrass — no jury of “experts,” no politics, and no regional audience, just the people who make the music, choosing among themselves a band they feel will best represent European bluegrass in the coming year. This is indeed an unusual system, but we are less interested in doing things the way other events run their awards, than in creating something better for our bands. EWOB is truly all about the music!

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Historic Site Slated to Become National Banjo Center

Piedmont Folk Legacies Receives Half-Million-Dollar Property Gift
Historic Site Slated to Become National Banjo Center

Piedmont Folk Legacies (PFL), Inc., a non-profit group based in Eden, North Carolina, has received a substantial gift of property appraised at $510,000 as a donation from D.H. Griffin of neighboring Greensboro and James Klemic of Charlottesville, Virginia. Extending along Warehouse Street in the heart of Eden’s Spray Industrial National Register Historic District, the site includes two striking early twentieth century textile mill buildings totaling 220,000 square feet. The gift is key towards the anticipated development of the National Banjo Center, an exhibition, performance, education and recording complex that would be dedicated to this uniquely American musical instrument.

According to PFL board member Hank Sapoznik, “Few musical instruments are more closely tied or hold greater significance to American history than the banjo. From its West African roots, to its birth in the seventeenth century Caribbean, and through its meteoric rise in nineteenth century American popular culture, the banjo is an iconic  instrument whose impact is woven into the cultural fabric of the American experience.”

Located approximately 35 miles north of Greensboro in Rockingham County, the small town of Eden has deep ties to America’s banjo legacy as the former home of Charlie Poole. Back when the town was known as Spray, Poole spent  much of his adult life working as a mill hand while his innovative, three-finger picking banjo style and string band recordings helped pioneer the country and bluegrass sound.

“This is where this should happen, where Poole walked the Earth,” declared PFL President Louise Price. “Our ultimate goal is to make sure that this music and this heritage stays alive.”

Piedmont Folk Legacies already honors this native son through its acclaimed Charlie Poole Music Festival. Now in its fourteenth year, the summer festival celebrates Poole’s international reputation with concerts and competitions in old-time and bluegrass music. Scheduled this year for June 12th through June 14th, the festival’s headline act will be Dom Flemons of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, an African-American string band. The annual Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to legendary African-American string band musician Joe Thompson.

While the Charlie Poole Music Festival is currently held at the Eden Fairgrounds, PFL’s dream is to one day host the event at the National Banjo Center. With this recent property gift, that dream just took a giant leap towards becoming reality.

Submitted by Dan Peck

See also “Plans for National Banjo Center in Eden Strumming Along”, with video.

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