World Music Central’s list of musicians, scholars and music industry professionals who left us in 2008.
Jimmy Carl Black, 70, musician and singer. Mr. Black was a drummer and vocalist best known for his membership in the group The Mothers of Invention with Frank Zappa. Mr. Black was also a member of the groups Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band and The Grandmothers. His discography includes Ella Guru The First Album, Strange News from Mars with Jon Larsen, Tommy Mars and Bruce Fowler and The Jimmy Carl Black Story with Jon Larsen.

With two feet planted firmly in bluegrass, Claire Lynch’s interests and versatility take her comfortably into country, Americana with a tinge of jazz, swing, and blues in her compositions and her performances. Her career, spanning thirty-five years, includes stints with several bands and working as a house singer/songwriter with Universal-Polygram where her name appears on 160 projects, if I’m counting right. She’s been nominated for a couple of Grammies and was named IBMA Female Vocalist of the Year in 1997. Many of her songs are immediately familiar to bluegrass fans as is her youthful, clear, and expressive voice. Her signature songs include the recent hit “The Day that Lester Died,” “Hills of Alabam’”, and the yearning “Kennesaw Line.” Her version of “Wabash Cannonball” gives the entire band a chance to strut its stuff while always staying true to the great country original made famous by Roy Acuff.

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Quite possibly the most prestigious musical event today, the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival has hit the big 4-0 and in turn, has outdone itself in booking nothing less than the cream of the crop. The 2009 lineup is incredibly diverse, both stylistically and chronologically, and will take music from jazz, pop, rock, soul, gospel, folk, salsa, blues, R&B, funk, and lots of music rooted in Louisiana, such as Cajun and zydeco. The event is scheduled to take place the weekends of April 24-26 and April 30-May 3 and it's a wonder how they've managed to cram hundreds of artists into a mere seven days. There are so many artists that one wouldn't know where to start unless they have a specific genre in mind. So for now, let's extract some of the rock bands that will be playing.

Although an official schedule has yet to be released, the lineup has been broken up between the two weekends. During the first weekend, Dave Matthews Band will be featured as one of the headliners (sadly, sans the original sax player). Wilco, who strangely drew in a larger crowd than Rage Against the Machine at Lollapalooza, will undoubtedly be received with open arms.  Read more »

The independent event production team, Across-the-Way Productions, just announced exciting additions to the already colorful initial lineup for their celebrated annual music and arts festival, FloydFest. Now in its 8th incarnation, the festival will take place July 23-26, 2009 in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of southwest Virginia. Since its inception in 2002, FloydFest organizers have prided themselves in providing a safe and welcoming ground for a global community forum, and musical showcase steeped in Appalachian roots.

Below is a press release by Jim Walsh of Big Hassle Media regarding the 20th Annual Warren Haynes' Christmas Jam.  This year was said to have gone swimmingly and raised an outstanding amount of money to benefit Habitat For Humanity.  Asheville, NC received a lineup of artists that few other musicians other than Haynes could conjure up.  The festival featured a selection of musicians from some of the most historic rock n' roll groups, including John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin and of course, Haynes' original group, The Allman Brothers Band.  Here's what Walsh had to say about the event:  Read more »

Planet Bluegrass put off its Telluride Bluegrass Festival lineup announcement until after Christmas, but it rolled out an exciting preliminary lineup for RockyGrass 2009, which runs July 24-26 at the Platnet Bluegrass Ranch in Lyons CO.

With about two-thirds of the lineup named, the top headliners so far are Steve Earle & The Bluegrass Dukes, Hot Rize with Red Knuckles & The Trailblazers, Del McCoury Band and Earl Scruggs with Family & Friends. Not at all bad. There are also a bunch of descernable themes running through the program.

Hard-core bluegrass is represented by younger traditional bands like Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper and Danny Paisley & The Southern Grass in addition to Scruggs and McCoury. New grass experimentalism is also well expressed with Mike Marshall, Darol Anger, Three Ring Circle and California.

Claire Lynch, Darrell Scott and Tim O'Brien join Earle in the lineup as distinctive songwriting voices. The Kruger Brothers and Swedish stringband Väsen represent international influences, while Bearfoot, Sarah Jarosz and The High 48s signal that there is a youthful spirit coming up through the ranks.  Read more »

The winter months are usually a somber time for the jam band community, seeing as festivals like High Sierra, 10K, and Wakarusa don't roll around until the summer. These next couple months, however, seem to hold a lot more jam rock-centered festivals than in previous winters. It's sometimes nice to vamp on the same chord progression for an extended period of time and let the music build over it. All music is repetition, but this aspect provides equilibrium for many people. Some folks, whether they be Deadheads or not, are still very much rooted in the improv-based 60's rock n' roll scene. Many feel a connection to this type of music for different reasons, be it the counterculture, the drugs, or the peace and love vibe (although this hasn't been present in some of today's concert events). People of all ages are drawn to events like these to both be entertained and to take part in a mutual exchange of musical energy between their favorite bands and thousands of other fans. A common misconception is that a festival of this caliber implies an attempted Woodstock recreation with masses of tye-died flower children, but nowadays, the term jam band encompasses far more than Wah-driven psychedelia. Plus, many aren't held on farms or in parks. If you couldn't make it to Warren Haynes' Christmas Jam or Caribbean Holidaze, here are some upcoming jam band festivals that might catch your fancy...  Read more »

Tickets for 2009's Langerado Music Festival will be available this Friday, December 12. A weekend pass for the festival, taking place March 6-8, are starting at $120, or you can buy individual day tickets for $75 a piece. Unlike most other concert tickets, there is no additional charge. Children under 8 get in free with an adult ticket buyer. Early-bird tickets are limited, though, and prices only go up from there. The tickets will be shipped out the third week in February.

Now in its seventh year, Langerado has moved from its old home at the Big Cypres Indian Reservation in Fort Lauderdale. It will now relocate to dowtown Miami's Bicentennial Park, just a couple weeks prior to the Ultra Music Festival, held in the same venue. With the attendance growing seemingly exponentially on a yearly basis, the venue change may prove to be a deal-breaker, seeing as how downtown Miami certainly isn't lacking in people.  Read more »

Every year I rave about the great lineups set for the Kate Wolf Memorial Music Festival, the laid-back northern California event honoring the late, great California singer-songwriter. This year is shaping up no differently after the festival's initial lineup announcement this week.

The lineup includes Three Girls and Their Buddy (Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin, Shawn Colvin and Buddy Miller), Richard Thompson, Mavis Staples, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Dave Alvin & The Guilty Women, Railroad Earth, Riders in the Sky, Chris Smither and more. There will also be a musical tribute to festival hero Utah Phillips including the late songwriter's son Duncan Phillips and friends.

That's a strong roots lineup for most any festival, and especially impressive at a only moderately well known regional folk festival. As I have written before, if you are anywhere near to Menocino County in June, this is one festival not to miss. The 2009 festival takes place at Black Oak Ranch in Laytonville CA on June 26-28. Holiday pricing is in effect now. For more information.