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March 27, 2008
Twangfest XII headliners announced
(NODEPRESSION.NET) -- Twangfest, the long-running "Americana, rock, pop and country festival" (as they describe themselves in their press release), has announced preliminary details of its 12th annual event, to be held June 4-7 in St. Louis, Missouri. Performers include:
Wednesday, June 4: Chuck Prophet, Ha Ha Tonka, MIles Of Wire at the Schlafly Tap Room
Thursday, June 5: Gourds, Charles Walker & the Dynamites at the Duck Room
Friday, June 6: Old 97's at the Pageant
Saturday, June 7: Waco Brothers at Off Broadway
More details will be announced soon; check out www.twangfest.com for updates.
Posted by Peter at 6:10 PM | Permalink
March 7, 2008
"Once" soundtrack reaches Billboard Top 10
(NODEPRESSION.NET) -- Fresh off the heels of Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova winning the Oscar for Best Song after they performed "Falling Slowly" on the Academy Awards telecast, the soundtrack to the movie Once jumped to #7 on the Billboard 200 top albums chart.
The soundtrack recently passed the 500,000-sales threshold for gold-record certification.
Hansard and Irglova -- who record and perform under the name Swell Season -- will hit the road for a month of dates in the United States this spring:
April 23: Orpheum Theatre, Phoenix, AZ
April 25: Coachella Festival, Indio, CA
April 26: Paramount Theatre, Oakland, CA
April 27: McDonald Theatre, Eugene, OR
April 28: Keller Auditorium, Portland, OR
April 30: Moore Theater, Seattle, WA
May 1: The Wilma, Missoula, MT
May 2: The Depot, Salt Lake City, UT
May 3: Ellie Caulkins Opera House, Denver, CO
May 5: Uptown Theatre, Kansas City, MO
May 6: The Pageant, St. Louis, MO
May 7: Orpheum Theater, Minneapolis, MN
May 8: Riverside Theatre, Milwaukee, WI
May 10: Royal Oak Theatre, Royal Oak, MI
May 11: Allen Theatre at Playhouse Square, Cleveland, OH
May 12: Brown Theatre, Louisville, KY
May 13: The Cobb, Atlanta, GA
May 15: Meymandi Concert Hall, Raleigh, NC
May 16: Toad's Place, Richmond, VA
May 17: Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, Baltimore, MD
May 19: Radio City Music Hall, New York City, NY
May 20: Tower Theatre, Upper Darby, PA
June 13: Bonnaroo Festival, Manchester, TN
June 16: Overture Arts Center, Madison, WI
June 17: Chicago Theatre, Chicago, IL
June 18: Chicago Theatre, Chicago, IL
June 22: Telluride Bluegrass Festival, Telluride, CO
Posted by Peter at 4:10 PM | Permalink
March 2, 2008
Jeff Healey, RIP
(NODEPRESSION.NET) -- He was blind, Canadian, and played guitar all wrong. Which, for a time, made Jeff Healey an international star -- nearly a superstar -- in the blues and rock worlds. In the end, the cancer which took his sight as a baby took his life at 41. He died Sunday, March 2, at St. Joseph's Hospital, Toronto, Canada.
It wasn't the same cancer, of course. Something called retino blastoma took his sight. By the time he was three he'd taken up the guitar, holding it flat on his lap, chording from the top (instead of the back) of the neck. He also became a serious and legendary collector of 78s -- blues, jazz, all kinds of music. Which meant for all the bombast he was capable of summoning, he also had a sense of what he was drawing on, and how to play with subtlety, as well.
After an appearance in the otherwise marginal film Road House Healey struck a deal with Arista, resulting in 1988's See The Light, a hit single called "Angel Eyes" and a Grammy nomination. The Arista era lasted two more albums, a pretty fair run on a label not known for nurturing the blues.
Live albums and two more rock discs followed, after which he turned to the classic jazz of the 1920s, 30s, and 40s. He added trumpet to his skill set, and played that and acoustic guitar in a band called Jeff Healey's Jazz Wizards. They cut three albums together, most recently It's Tight Like That, recorded live at Hugh's Room in Toronto in 2005, with British jazz legend Chris Barber sitting in.
His first blues/rock album of eight years, Mess Of Blues, will be released in Europe March 20, and in North America April 22. It's a joint project between the German label Ruf and the long-running Canadian imprint, Stony Plain.
Early last year, Healey underwent surgery to remove cancerous tissues from his legs, and, later, from both lungs. In the end, the disease won.
Healey leaves behind his wife Cristie, daughter Rachel (13) and son Derek (three), as well as his father and step-mother, and two sisters. Arrangement are pending.
Posted by Grant at 8:38 PM | Permalink