Americana

..WORD JUST IN that the #1 downloaded CD in the world is JAMES LEE STANLEY & JOHN BATDORF's new "ALL WOOD & STONES II," their acoustic reimagining of Rolling Stones hits, part deux. Catch them playing the whole album live, Thursday at the Talking Stick in Venice, or Friday at the Coffee Gallery Backstage in Altadena. Read the extensive write-up in the 8 pm Friday listing, in this edition.. --------. FESTIVALS....Yes, this weekend brings superb MUSIC FESTIVALS:• SWINGIN’ ON A RIFF BIG BAND JAZZ FESTIVAL (May 23-26, in L.A.) • SCOTTISH HIGHLAND GAMES (May 25 & 26, Costa Mesa) • SIMI VALLEY CAJUN & BLUES FESTIVAL (May 25 & 26, Simi Valley) • TOPANGA DAYS FESTIVAL (May 25-27, in Topanga)+All are in the Guide's current FULL EDITION, and much more about these fine events (and others) will be along Thursday.. --------. THIS edition brings youNEWS: Competition Winners -- Topanga Banjo•Fiddle Contest+PLUS:Great WEB RADIO tonight, andLATE ADDITIONS to the LIVE MUSIC scene, through Friday.. --------. NEWS:.Winners of the competitions:53rd annual "TOPANGA BANJO•FIDDLE CONTEST & FOLK FESTIVAL" ..All were determined, announced, and awarded Sunday at Paramount Ranch in Agoura Hills, California. But that was late, and many attendees missed it. Here's the full compilation of all the winners in each category. The Guide adds our congratulations to each of these devoted musicians..Note that categories exist for entrants did not register. A "Beginning" category (for example) may not be here because entrants registered at higher levels..."BAND" Category:.1. The Bluegrass Hoppers, Los Angeles 2. String Project L.A., Culver City 3. TED, Long Beach.."TRADITIONAL BANJO -- ADVANCED" Category:.1. Scott Linford, Los Angeles 2. Chris Lauer, Lompoc 3. Christopher Murphy, San Diego.."TRADITIONAL BANJO -- INTERMEDIATE" Category:.1. Laura Osborn, Glendale 2. Michael Ostgaard, San Clemente 3. Mark Thompson, Buena Park.."BLUEGRASS BANJO -- ADVANCED" Category:.1. Quinton Fults, Fountain Valley 2. Sean Conlon, San Pedro 3. Ken Leiboff, Newbury Park.."BLUEGRASS BANJO -- INTERMEDIATE" Category:. 1. Betsy Brandel, Seal Beach 2. Lee Cotter, Chatsworth 3. Aaron Wardell, Ventura.."BLUEGRASS BANJO -- BEGINNING" Category:.1. Christy Saute, Reseda 2. Mason Unthank, Santa Clarita 3. C. Jean Pearlstein, Valley Village.."FIDDLE -- ADVANCED" Category:.1. Tony Ludiker, Valley Village 2. Grant Wheeler, Los Angeles 3. Laurie Kost, Pacific Grove Honorable Mention: Aisha Rigert, Lancaster.."FIDDLE -- INTERMEDIATE" Category:.1. Amaya Rose Dempsey, Paso Robles 2. Jordan Ezquerro, Rancho Santa Marguerita 3. Mari Haig, Dana Point.."FIDDLE -- BEGINNING" Category:.1. Elijah Kaak, Pomona 2. Luisa Bryson, Los Angeles 3. Christine Lee, Canyon Country.."MANDOLIN -- ADVANCED" Category:.1. Jonathan Trawick, Vancouver, WA 2. Joseph D’Amico, Los Angeles 3. Pamela Croft, Castaic 4. Andrew O’Neal, Ojai.."FLAT-PICKING GUITAR -- ADVANCED" Category:.1. Robert Rosen, Los Alamitos 2. Jonah Warschaw, West Hills 3. Mark Heyes, Agoura 4. Jeffrey Riggs, Sherman Oaks.."OTHER -- INSTRUMENTS" Category:. 1. “Jerry Scott” Edelnant, of Northridge, for Finger-Style Guitar2. Samantha Harvey, of Ventura, for Accordion3. Craig Lincoln, of Woodland Hills, for Finger-Style GuitarHonorable Mention: Chuck Lawhon, of Huntington Beach, for Mountain Dulcimer.."SINGING" Category:.1. Travelin’ Light, Santa Clarita 2. Sabrina & Craig, Woodland Hills 3. Homesick Elephant, Los Angeles Honorable Mention: Harmonistas, ClaremontHonorable Mention: Phoebe Bridgers, Pasadena.."BEGINNING INSTRUMENTS -- TRADITIONAL BANJO, FLAT-PICKING GUITAR, MANDOLIN (inclusive)" Category:.1. Anya Sturm, of Santa Monica, for Flat-Picking Guitar2. Michael Cavanaugh, of Mission Hills, for Flat-Picking Guitar3. Samantha Harvey, of Ventura, for Mandolin.."BEST BACKUP GUITAR" Category:.1. Tony Ludiker, Valley Village 2. Jonathan Trawick, Vancouver, WA 3. Laura Osborn, Glendale Honorable Mention: Evan Anderson, Orange.."OTHER BACKUP INSTRUMENTS" Category:.

Lizzie and the Yes Men are Lizzie Holdforth, Andy Goodman, Keir Greenaway, Brendan Bailey. The quartet are currently tracking their next release, produced by Mystery Jets frontman William Rees, and performing dates in London.

Portland based singer-songwriter Ashleigh Flynn latest CD, A Million Stars is her fourth studio recording on her own label Home Perm Records, the album was produced by Chris Funk (The Decemberists) and includes a cameo appearance from friend and admirer Todd Snider. The albums release has being in part fan-funded by a successful Kickstarter campaign, originally from Kentucky, marries the styles from her home-state and current east coast home into a classy collection of country-folk tinged originals that are well worth checking out including the title track of the album about “Cattle Annie and Little Britches who dressed as men, lived on the lam, and ran whiskey as outlaws in the late 1800’s and Prohibition Rose a jazz numbers about an “elusive racketeer with nerves of steel who ran opium dens and speakeasies in Portland during the Prohibition” Homepage

..Everything in Washington, D.C. isn't caught in Congressional constipation. The Kennedy Center announced Tuesday that the 2013 "Mark Twain Prize for American Humor" will be awarded to actress, comedian and bestselling author Carol Burnett. .That's relevant for us, because she actually began her career as a comedic songstress..Burnette became a national phenomenon the first time around, even making the cover of Life Magazine, when she wrote and sang a song about being in love with a nationally-prominent bureaucratic diplomat. He was Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, easily the most boring man in America. (Dulles International Airport is named for him.).The public roared with laughter at Burnette's song. She performed it live on TV and radio, and a recording was popular on radio for weeks. .A regular spot on TV's "Garry Moore Show" followed for her, then plenty of other high-profile work before she landed her own "Carol Burnette Show" on CBS. It ran more than a decade, with her stellar on-camera team of Vicki Lawrence, Harvey Korman, and Tim Conway, and epitomized the television sketch-music-dance variety show at its zenith. Conway always rehearsed the lines written for him, then improvised, cracking-up Korman and sometimes Burnette, whose improvised responses and facial reactions were audience favorites..Some of the bits from that show are in the pantheon of the great. If you've never seen Burnette's send-up of "Gone with the Wind," wearing Scarlett O'Hara's dress made from the drapes, go find the bit on YouTube. It's creative comedic genius..So, how did she greet news of the award? Burnette lost no time commenting (in a statement), "I can't believe I'm getting a humor prize from the Kennedy Center. It's almost impossible to be funnier than the people in Washington.".Tickets to attend the event in D.C. are horrendously expensive. But, fitting for Carol Burnette, we'll all be able to watch free, on TV... =÷=÷=÷=÷=÷=÷=÷=÷=÷=÷=÷=÷=÷=÷= Entire contents copyright (c) 2013, Lawrence Wines and Tied to the Tracks. All rights reserved. =÷=÷=÷=÷=÷=÷=÷=÷=÷=÷=÷=÷=÷=÷=..Check the other two current feature stories, each at a separate click, and the FULL edition of LIVE MUSIC EVENTS, available right here (also at a separate click). There's news of the coming weekend's FESTIVALS, plenty of concerts and club gigs, and events waaaay beyond this week....

..Each time an icon of roots Americana passes, we hear that an era is over. But is that true? We may miss the presence and humor and shared life experiences of an Earl Scruggs, but plenty of survivors -- including some very youthful ones -- remain with us, devoted to the esoteric licks and styles and catalog of tunes and songs of every famous lost icon..There's far more reason to worry about something else more subtle than an individual death, but more threatening in terms of our musical culture and legacy and whether it really might be vanishing. .We should note that roots music has never been a big commercial force, so the hundreds of kids picking banjo at the Topanga Banjo Fiddle Contest & Folk Festival really don't care that some insipid TV show like "American Idol" won't come calling. We don't concede that it couldn't be economically important, if Big Music hadn't become the exclusive domain of a very narrow genre..The real worry is the loss of artistry and diversity within what once was -- for one brief, shining moment -- a broad spectrum of all that was considered the purview of popular music, and the accessibility of that lost world of popular music to creative inclusion..We take up this topic because THE DOORS' keyboardist RAY MANZAREK died Monday of cancer. And that got us thinking that his passing is yet another loss that includes both the musician and the fact that what he achieved in a previous time is not open to anyone today..Manzarek's signature riffs characterized the music of the Doors in such songs as "Light My Fire," "Break on Through to the Other Side," L.A. Woman," and many more that shared late '60s and early '70s airwaves with Bob Dylan, the Beatles, The Mamas & the Papas, the Byrds, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez, Simon & Garfunkle, Crosby Stills & Nash, Ravi Shankar, and more. .No time had been like that era of music radio, and none has, since. Music was open, there were no genre police, and no one set himself up to play stifling gate-keeper. .Now, even "classic rock" radio stations do not use playlists of that era. You're lucky to hear 20% of what enriched the airwaves of the time they claim to celebrate..It's significant that much of the music of that era has been belatedly embraced as Folk-Rock and even Folk-Americana, though that was unthinkable at the time: Billy Joel's "Piano Man;" Jim Croce's "I've Got a Name;" Gram Parsons' entire catalog; Eric Clapton's reintroduction of American blues to America (and to some extent, the same thing by the Rolling Stones)..All the artists we have named so far could routinely share a single afternoon of broadcast time, circa 1972 or '73 -- on the same mainstream radio station -- with Stevie Wonder's "Superstition," Elton John's "Rocket Man," Don McLean's "American Pie," John Denver's "Rocky Mountain High," James Taylor's "Fire and Rain," Arlo Guthrie singing Steve Goodman's "City of New Orleans," and bands like Bread, Jefferson Airplane, and Kenny Rogers & the First Edition -- and the Eagles, and Chicago, and Blood Sweat & Tears, and the Allman Brothers Band, and America -- and with a rich offering from wonderful women artists, including Linda Ronstadt, Olivia Newton-John, Minnie Ripperton, Maria Muldaur, Nicollete Larson, Emmylou Harris, Ann & Nancy Wilson of Heart, and oh so very many more, including those we already mentioned in this piece..And yes, we will belabor the point that ALL these bands and artists could be heard on the same mainstream radio stations on the same deejays' air shifts, and that was just a typical take-it-for-granted broadcast day..Where is the like of it today -- male or female artists, or bands, or collaborative ensembles? There's no shortage of Berklee or Julliard or Musicians Institute grads, and we just saw the dedication and devotion of some very young players competing on traditonal instruments at the annual contest on Sunday. Are we considering all the factors? Creativity is hopefully not a diminishing co

The blues is deceptively simple, a framework really, upon which can be laid gold and silver, curlicues and cold hard insistent riffs, you know, the kind that lay down the law. I was on Bleecker Street in NYC a few weeks back at a club called Terra Blues, populated by Brit, German, and French tourists. It was exactly what you would expect from a downtown Greenwich Village Blues bar, way too small, way too many people, but the music washed over you with its heat and sensuality. The blues haunted me as a teenager. It hinted at the mysteries, of love and heartbreak, joy and sorrow. Because of that, I especially cherish the time I spent living in the south and getting to travel the Delta, furthering my understanding of where the blues came from. In April, I visited Louisiana State Penitentiary, which is bordered on three sides by the Mississippi River. I was there for the Angola rodeo, which was a trip unto itself. I will tell you about that soon. It is not a place you would want to try to escape from, bloodhounds on your trail. On the plane flying down to NOLA, I couldn't wait to feel the earth under my feet. Today, we offer a tune replete with the moss of the delta in its DNA, “Watching The Sun Go Down” from Kevin Gordon. I got to watch Kevin play this week, as he came to Hill Country Live in NY for a performance on Thursday. I can tell you it is great to have a home for his music in NYC, with so much Delta influence, as will it should be for this Louisiana native now living in Nashville. Music Fog captured this version of “Watching The Sun Go Down” at Americana Fest in 2011. -Jessie Scott

The significance of Northern Rock in the UK is likely not to have got much news coverage in the US, after all they had their own financial problems to deal with, so this is not a album attacking the UK financial fuck-ups (though there is the odd profanity in the songs). If you’re not familiar with the music of Eastbound Jesus via their excellent debut release Holy Smokes then theirs is a blend of alt-country, americana, bluegrass and country with a New York roots rock twist. Northern Rock follows in the footsteps of Holy Smokes combining stompers, hollers, laid back laments and irresistible foot tappers, the six-piece Greenwich based band are Adam Brockway (guitar), Carl Anderson (drums) Anderson (banjo) Dylan Robinson (guitar), Dave Wright (bass) and Zack Infante (lap steel, guitar, mandolin) all six members contribute to the vocals, recommend you kick back, crack open the JD and have a listen. Eastbound Jesus – Katie Belle Homepage Twitter