OUR SIDE OF TOWN:
A Red House Records 25th Anniversary Concert
with Jorma Kaukonen, Robin & Linda Williams and Guy Davis
Saturday, June 28, 7:30 p.m.
The Birchmere
3701 Mt. Vernon Ave., Alexandria, VA
(703) 549-7500

Sponsored by WAMU’s Bluegrass Country and the Americana Music Association!

ST. PAUL, MN — WAMU’s Bluegrass Country and the Americana Music Association (AMA) proudly join Red House Records in presenting Our Side of Town: A 25th Anniversary Concert with Jorma Kaukonen,  Robin & Linda Williams and Guy Davis at The Birchmere (3701 Mt. Vernon Ave., Alexandria) on Saturday, June 28th at 7:30 p.m.  Featuring some of the hottest Americana talent on the scene today, the night is sure to be one to remember with unique performances and special door prizes, including passses to the 2008 Americana Music Festival and Awards Show taking place September 17-20 in Nashville, TN.  Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased through Ticketmaster.  For more information about the concert, contact The Birchmere at (703) 549-7500 or visit http://www.birchmere.com.

Guitar legend Jorma Kaukonen is a member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and a founding member of The Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna.  Released last year on Red House, his latest solo CD Stars in My Crown continues the American roots journey he began on his Grammy-nominated album Blue Country Heart, mixing country blues, gospel and bluegrass.  A perfect fit with Jorma’s down-home sounds, Americana songwriting veterans Robin & Linda Williams have been bringing their “no-frills, boiled-down country” (Houston Press) to audiences for three decades.  Their latest release Radio Songs featured the best live performances from the duo’s last 20 years on the popular public radio show A Prairie Home Companion.  The duo has played at festivals and theaters across the country and has appeared on Austin City Limits, The Grand Ole Opry, Mountain Stage and PBS’ Great Performances series.  In 2005, they were featured in Robert Altman’s feature film A Prairie Home Companion.  While Robin & Linda started off as musicians, Guy Davis began in the theater.  Now known as one of the key members of the black string revival, he has become a world-renowned guitarist, banjo player, harmonica player, singer and storyteller.   His latest Red House release Skunkmello was named by Mojo as the #4 blues album of 2006 and was hailed as “the most outstanding blues album of the last few years,” receiving a rare 5-star review in the jazz magazine DownBeat.  Together Guy, Robin & Linda and Jorma will cook up a tasty evening of blues, bluegrass and country music that will leave you full and satisfied.

In conjunction with Red House’s yearlong celebration, the Grammy-winning label released a special new CD called Our Side of Town: A Red House Records 25th Year Collection, which will be available for sale at the June 28th event along with special edition men’s and women’s t-shirts.  This album shows the colorful landscape of the place that is home to today’s finest acoustic artists—Jorma Kaukonen, Robin & Linda Williams, Guy Davis, Lucy Kaplansky, Storyhill, Ray Bonneville, The Wailin’ Jennys, Greg Brown,  Jimmy LaFave, Lynn Miles, Cliff Eberhardt, John Gorka, The Pines, Eliza Gilkyson, Peter Ostroushko, Bill Staines and Meg Hutchinson, the latest addition to the Red House roster.  A finely woven collection of some of the staff’s favorite recent performances, it is a perfect snapshot of the label in its 25th year.
For more info about Red House Records and its 25th Anniversary, please visit http://www.redhouserecords.com.  To set up interviews with the performing artists or Red House Records’ new president Eric Peltoniemi, call Ellen Stanley at (651) 644-4161.

“It came about last year,” Craig, 29, explained. “I was talking to my publicist, Kirt Webster, and he had mentioned it to me.  He said, ‘Send me a couple of pictures and maybe we can get you in it.’  I didn’t make it last year.  This year Kirt called back and said, ‘Still interested?’ ‘Yeah, love to!’”

Craig flew from his home in St. Augustine, Fla., to Nashville during Country Radio Seminar for the photo shoot. “A couple weeks later, I got a call from the photographer and he said I made the cover.”

He appears nude in the magazine, “but it’s done tastefully.”  “My mom is OK with us since I am not baring the full nudity,” he said with a laugh. “I got her permission before I did it.  I grew up in a Southern Baptist church, I couldn’t upset those people too bad.  My wife has had aspirations to be in Playboy, so it was a joke a couple of years ago: ‘I’ll see if you make the cover of Playboy before I make in on the cover of Playgirl. Now it’s happening, and it’s kind of funny.”

Craig hopes the publicity will help his career.  He was signed to Category 5 Records, but the label shut down.  “I’ve been writing a lot, and I’m independently releasing a single over the summer,” he said.  “With the help of Playgirl, hopefully we’ll find a label that wants to work with us.”

The July/August issue also features photos of Keith Urban, Darryl Worley, and Jason Meadows and interviews with Clay Walker, Tory Gentry, and Trent Willmon.

“Definitely in Playgirl, you get to see things that aren’t available anywhere else,” Playgirl contributor Christine Fontana said.  “We have a lot of fun with the questions.  We get to talk about love and relationships and we get to be a little edgier.”

(Story by Beverly Keel/Tennessean)

May 27, 2008

Country singer Jo Dee Messina and actor Joshua Morrow (CBS's "The Young and the Restless") have joined SECRET TALENTS OF THE STARS, the weekly celebrity talent show that will reveal the unknown talents of 16 well-known personalities, premiering LIVE, Tuesday, April 8 (10:00–11:00 PM, ET/tape delayed PT) on the CBS Television Network. 

Messina will train with choreographer Dave Scott ("Step Up") to perform an urban dance, blending hip hop and step, with a supporting troupe, while Morrow will train with extreme juggler Marcus Monroe to choreograph an edgy rock & roll juggling act, backed by a live band.  Both will premiere their specific talents on Tuesday, April 15 (10:00–11:00 PM, ET LIVE, tape delayed PT), when they will compete against Bridget Marquardt (Playboy Playmate/radio DJ), who will soar as a bungee trapeze artist with former masters of Cirque du Soleil, and Roy Jones, Jr. (boxing champion), who will rap.  Viewer votes will determine TWO Semi-Finalists to move on to the next round.

"I am so excited to be a part of this show.  I get a chance to do something I love and don't have the opportunity to do that often.  My real competition in the show is with myself, I just want to nail it!" adds Jo Dee Messina.

SECRET TALENTS OF THE STARS is produced by Magic Molehill Productions, Inc., in association with Robyn Nash Productions and Don Weiner Productions.  Robyn Nash and Don Weiner are executive producers.

Riders In The Sky will be awarded an honorary membership by the Society for American Music in San Antonio during a performance with the San Antonio Symphony on Friday, February 29, 2008 during its annual conference.

For thirty years, Riders In The Sky have been keepers of the flame passed on by the Sons of the Pioneers, Gene Autry and Roy Rogers, reviving and revitalizing Western music. And while remaining true to the integrity of the genre, they have themselves become modern-day icons by branding it with their own legendary wacky humor and way-out Western wit, and all along encouraging buckaroos and buckarettes to live life “The Cowboy Way!”

Riders In The Sky are stars of the stage, screen, the Grand Ole Opry, National Public Radio, XM Satellite Radio, Saturday morning TV, and are the only exclusively Western artist to have won a Grammy Award. They truly are "America's Favorite Cowboys!"

The Society for American Music presents an honorary membership each year to a well-known, prominent figure who has made important contributions to the field of American music. John Graziano, President of the Society for American Music, comments:

"For the past thirty years, Riders in the Sky have concertized and recorded, presenting the traditional songs of the American west. That their success has continued for three decades is proof of the joy their performances of these songs and ballads bring to American audiences. For me, their excellent recordings provide a welcome continuity of the songs I learned and sang growing up."

Dale Cockrell, Professor of Musicology and American and Southern Studies at Vanderbilt University, and author of Happy Land: Musical Tributes to Laura Ingalls Wilder , notes that

"Riders In The Sky have kept fresh and vivid America's love of the Western frontier and of the music that came from it. As a result, few musicians of our time have been so warmly embraced for so long. We honor them for first honoring us."
Riders In The Sky will be on hand on Friday, February 29 at a special session from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. at the organization's annual conference, held this year at the Historic Menger Hotel.

The Society for American Music was founded in 1975 to promote the study and performance of American music. Originally named the Sonneck Society, in honor of Oscar G. T. Sonneck (1873-1928), the first critical scholar and bibliographer of American music, and the second chief of the Music Division of the Library of Congress, the Society changed its name in 2000. Since its inception, the Society has named 29 honorary members who reflect the diversity of American music, including Howard Hanson, Gilbert Chase, Lou Harrison, Gerard Schwartz, Bill Monroe, Frederick Fennell, John Cage, Leonard Slatkin, Oscar Peterson, and Thomas Hampson. Honorary members are recognized at the annual conference and receive the regular publications of the Society for life. More information about the Society may be found at www.american-music.org.

An unknown recording of Western Swing legend Bob Wills has been discovered that has never been released to the public. Austin resident Dwight Adair, owner of www.bobwills.com learned of the recording's existence through an email message sent to him by a Bob Wills fan and former musician Gary Frietag of Florida . Mr. Frietag revealed to Mr. Adair that the recording was made on a reel-to-reel tape deck by a musician friend, Ray Riggs, also of Florida . Mr. Riggs made the recording in a hotel in Fresno , California , in 1949/50 when Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys were appearing there. Mr. Riggs has kept the tape recording, for all these years, hoping to find the appropriate person(s) or organization to which he could entrust the recording for posterity.

Mr. Riggs states, “I tried to contact the Wills estate but never heard back from them. So I just kept it, hoping that someday it would see the light of day.”

It's been over fifty years since the recording was made.

“I was dumbfounded when I learned of the recording,” Mr. Adair says. “To think this recording has existed all these years and has never been released is absolutely amazing.”

Mr. Adair, who possesses a large collection of Bob Wills's recordings and memorabilia, immediately began negotiating with Mr. Riggs for the right to release the recording on www.bobwills.com

“I knew there were thousands of Bob Wills fans all over the world that would want to listen to the recording and would be as excited as I am about the find,” he says. “The recording is of Bob Wills telling his life story, in his own words, of how his career developed. It's about half an hour long and it is certainly Bob Wills's voice, answering questions asked by Ray Riggs and elaborating about his feelings for the music he created.” The rare recording is available for downloading off the website, Adair says.

“I asked Bob if anyone had ever recorded him telling his life story and he said, ‘no, no one had ever asked him before'” Mr. Riggs says. “And he agreed to let me to bring my tape recorder to a hotel room later that night. I still can't believe he was kind enough to let me record him. I can remember it like it was yesterday.”