Short News Stories & Articles March 2000
[ AKUS CD Review | EWOB Festival | Britannia BG Band venue | Thoughts... ]
The Chord Change Hurdle #5 While I agree with my father, L.H. (Buddy) Zincone, Jr., as a rhythm guitarist and vocalist I feel I should add that it helped me to sing the song (or hum if there are no words) while trying to learn it and its chord progressions. "Matching" (playing by ear) the notes one sings to the chords being played not only helps teach the chord progression but enhances your "playing by ear" capability. I find that now, after 20 years of playing rhythm guitar, I can follow just about anything anyone plays, even if I've never heard it before, which is, I am sure, what my father was trying to teach me from the beginning. Molly Zincone Richards Write to c/o 1730 Beaumont Drive, Greenville, NC. 27858, USA CD Review: Alison Krauss: Forget About It Rounder RRCD 0465 Q: What do Helen Shapiro, Kiri Te Kanawa and Alison Krauss have in common? A: They all have pretty voices and none of them sings bluegrass. Well, Alison used to, but somewhere along the line the promise "We'll always have a banjo" got forgotten. Maybe she meant "We'll always have a banjo player" and in Ron Block she's got a good one on this album, though he only gets to sing and play acoustic guitar. And when the guitar hasto be identified as "acoustic", it's time to start worrying. However we do have piano, drums and accordion, and Dolly Parton on one track, so maybe no one will notice that there isn't a banjo. There are 11 tracks, and some good musicians, Jerry Douglas, Sam Bush and Dan Tyminski among them. I scanned through the tracks and the only one that grabbed me was Ron Block's Could You Lie. The rest would be right at home as background music in any Holiday Inn. If you are a dedicated Alison Krauss fan, you will want to add this album to your collection. But for the rest of us, the title of the CD says it all. Robert Clinton, Milton Keynes Write to Robert Robert is Editor of BBN (2000)
Reprinted with permission from the BBMA magazine BBN, Nov 1999. European World Of Bluegrass (EWOB) The EWOB is held from Friday 2nd June to Sunday June 4th. Around 45 European and maybe one or two USA performers will play there. Starts Friday 2.00 with a meeting of the IBMA's European BG Network & it's Directors, reps of national BG organisations (BBMA, NBMA, SBMA, etc,.) and European bandleaders. Other bluegrass people interested are invited to join. The music program is 16.00 - 24.00. Saturday program 10 a.m. - 24.00. Sunday 10.00 - 16.00. There will be workshops for banjo, fiddle, mandolin, guitar, bass, dobro, songwriting and bluegrass history (by Neil Rosenberg).
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to Dennis Schutt http://worldonline.nl/callisto/~nbma/ The New Britannia Band Venue: Aintree, Liverpool The Britannia Band, who recently closed their club at The Britannia Inn, Upholland, have found a new venue. (See Sessions page Peter Mackie writes: "Just to let you know our new venue seems to be going quite well. It's for all singers, instrumentalists etc., but mainly bluegrass music. We now have about 20 people attending - about 4 players and the rest listeners. We don't run it as a picking session - more like a concert with people getting up to do a couple of songs at a time, on their own or with backing from us if they want. "Some of the new people who have turned up have come from the country music scene, but they seem to be very knowledgeable and appreciative of bluegrass. Perhaps that's the answer for growth. Who knows?" Info: Tel: Pete Mackie (+44) 01704-870129 or Write to him The Musicians Resource Group (MRG) MRG has announced the creation of the first Independent Music Awards (IMAs). MRG created the IMAs to recognize excellence among musicians who record and release music on their own or through independent labels and distributors. Awards will be presented to top-ranking artists in 12 music categories including country/bluegrass. Producers, publishers and music journalists will review the preliminary round of entries to determine which recordings will advance to the finals. Finalists will then be evaluated by a panel of 3 celebrity artists per music category, drawn from an impressive roster. Award-winning recordings will be distributed nationally to press, labels and key industry representatives. Winners will also be featured in the 2001 edition of The Musician's Atlas. Artists who want to enter any of the IMA music categories for 2000 must submit materials by March 31, 2000. Entries must include a completed application, a CD or cassette and a $15 processing fee. Entry forms are available in the 2000 edition of The Musician's Atlas and online at http://www.MusiciansAtlas.com The website includes up-to-date information concerning all aspects of the program. Updates are also available by call the Independent Music Awards hotline at (800) 954-9321 Thoughts For The Next 2 Months... 1. Why do some pickers who have scaled the summit of technical excellence on the banjo, seem to obscure the melody of every song they play with all of the licks, riffs, dissonances, arpeggios, and other slick picking stuff that they have mastered? 2. There are Irish music sessions everywhere in the UK, but if a bluegrass pick is started, within a few weeks an Irish musician comes along, brings his mates the following week, and within a month or two the pick has turned into yet another Irish session! Why? Two bluegrass players were helping a friend fix panels to the walls of a room. The banjo player kept noticing that the bass player would often pull a nail out of his pouch and toss it over his shoulder instead of using it to nail the panel. So he asked the bass player "Why are you throwing those nails away?" The bass player explained. "If I pull a nail from my pouch and it's pointed toward me, I throw it away because it's faulty. If it's pointed toward the wall, then I use it to fix the panel." "You moron!" exclaimed the banjo picker "The nails pointed toward you aren't faulty! They're meant for the other side of the room!"
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