East Tennessee’s most important cultural heritage sites are partnering to provide the Statehood Day Heritage Festival on Saturday May 31 and Sunday June 1. The sites include places of historical significance in the exciting journey of Tennessee becoming the 16th state in 1796. They include Ft. Loudoun, the Sequoyah Birthplace Museum, James White Fort, Marble Springs, Ramsey House, Mabry-Hazen House and the Blount Mansion.

Each site will be providing special activities to commemorate events leading to our Statehood including: historical reenactments, Native American living history, live music colonial cooking, and frontier arts and crafts demonstrations. All events will be free and open to the public.

Contact Blount Mansion at 865-525-2375 or Ft. Loudoun at 423-884-6217 for more information

Nobody else will, either.

In related news, Tom Waits is coming to town, and there are several reports of Elvis sightings on Market Square.

Hope everyone's having a good Wednesday.

<shameless promotion>

We've launched a new feature on knoxnews.com today. Songs of Appalachia profiles interesting musical folk around the region. We started the series with Charlie Acuff.

View the video and a timeline of music in the region.

If you have any feedback or suggestions for future profiles, please email the producer Lauren Spuhler.

</shameless promotion>

Looking for a neat place for lunch?

I just found out that the porch musicians of the Museum of Appalachia will be meeting for lunch at the restaurant and then jam for 60-90 minutes on Friday afternoons. There is a small restaurant on the grounds where you can enjoy some old-fashioned country cooking. That is on my list of things to do. The musicians will be jamming in the gift shop. I have been to the museum, gotten some music and was overwhelmed with the folk art. Give yourself a treat on Friday. There are some pictures from the collection on the Museum of Appalachia page on Art Museum Touring.com (Link...). The museum is one mile east at Exit 122 on I-75 (north from Knoxville).

Sherrie

Despite promoters' denials of earlier rumors, the UK Daily Mirror reported yesterday that Led Zeppelin will headline this year's Bonnaroo Festival in Manchester TN, June 12-15.

UPDATE: KAG has more speculation and anecdotal evidence.

You are cordially invited to the Ribbon Cutting and Grand Opening of New Harvest Park on the site of the former Farmers Market property, 4700 New Harvest Lane, on Thursday, October 25, 2007 from 5:00 p.m. until ?

Everyone is welcome - tell your friends and neighbors about this great new community resource. Bring your children and let them enjoy the new playground! There will be music provided by The Bluegrass Five and the Knoxville Area Dulcimer Association.

The new park is almost 43 acres and has several unique design features, including a "splash pad" shaped like a riverboat and a playground designed to look like a farm. There is a community building and a covered picnic/amphitheater area, as well as walking trails.

We plan to start a "park Vols" program and want to continue to add features and amenities to the park. Please contact me if you are interested in being a volunteer or have a donation or park idea. Remember - this is YOUR park!

Hope to see you there!

Lisa Starbuck
Northeast Knox Preservation Association

Directions: From I-640, take the Washington Pike exit (8), and turn northwest. Travel three-tenths of a mile and turn right on Washington Pike. Go one-half mile and turn left onto New Harvest Lane.

I had a very culturally fulfilling day today, in an East Tennessee sense, and I'll blog about more of it tomorrow. But I just wanted to mention that Music Row of Maryville is just about the coolest place I've ever been. Where else can you go and watch dozens of musicians of all ages - and I mean ALL ages, from 10 to 90 - improvise, play, perform and chat for free. Yes, you must appreciate East Tennessee music, which means bluegrass and traditional country music.

The Lonesome Coyotes will be appearing at the Knoxville Museum of Art, Friday, August 3rd, 5:30PM as part of the Alive After Five series. Admission is $4 for KMA members, $8 for non-members. There will be food and cash bars.

CMT has a new blog. It's slick, polished and well written, with some dispatches from touring artists, reviews, videos, and more. Check it out.

Glenn and Helen interview Hector Qirko about music and life. The podcast is available in several formats at the link.

Link...
This article by Dr. Edward Rhymes originated on the Black Agenda Report.
Link...
It is one of the most intelligent discourses I've read about the recent controversy over rap music and violence. In fact, though radical, the Black Agenda Report expresses views us white folks seldom get to hear from "the people" themselves. The authors on this site tend to be a bit academic, but that's great, because they actually present good arguments for their points of view. Because of ingrained, historical seperatism in our country, most of us only get to understand the black community's thinking through white-owned, mostly conservative (and mostly racist-driven) news. Not really knowing many black people tends to limit our undertsanding of the Black community. We tend to lump that group together in a way that is often completely distorted. A broad mind should want to peer into its own dark cave corners if it seeks to be illuminated. The Black Agenda Report does just that for me. This article really probes our concern that Black rap music is violent and causing our all our kids to glorify sex and crime.

Dr. Rhymes points out the existing duplicity quite nicely.

"My assertion was, and remains to be, that the mainstream media and society-at-large, appear to have not so much of a problem with the glorification of sex and violence, but rather with who is doing the glorifying. In it I stated that "if the brutality and violence in gangsta rap was truly the real issue, then shouldn't a series like The Sopranos be held to the same standard? If we are so concerned about bloodshed, then how did movies like 'The Godfather,' 'The Untouchables' and 'Goodfellas' become classics?"

Rhymes is not a defender of violence.

"Young people, for better or worse, are looking for and craving authenticity. Now, because this quality is in such rare-supply in today's society, they gravitate towards those who appear to be "real" and "true to the game." Tragically, they appreciate the explicitness without detesting or critically deconstructing what the person is being explicit about."

He says White men have been crooning about violence for years, but few people took them to task.

"The exaltation of drugs, misogyny and violence in music lyrics has a history that predates NWA, Ice Cube, Ice T and Snoop Dogg. Elton John's 1977 song "Tickin," was about a young man who goes into a bar and kills 14 people; Bruce Springsteen's "Nebraska," featured a couple on a shooting spree, and his "Johnny 99," was about a gun-waving laid-off worker; and Stephen Sondheim's score for "Assassins," which presented songs mostly in the first person about would-be and successful presidential assassins.

Eric Clapton's "Cocaine" and the Beatles' "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" (LSD) as well as almost anything by Jefferson Airplane or Spaceship. Several songs from "Tommy" and Pink Floyd's "The Wall" are well known drug songs. "Catholic girls," "Centerfold," "Sugar Walls" by Van Halen were raunchy, misogynistic, lust-driven rock refrains.

Even the country music legend Kenny Rogers in his legendary ballad, "Coward Of The County," spoke of a violent gang-rape and then a triple-homicide by the song's hero to avenge his assaulted lover. Marilyn Manson declared that one of the aims of his provocative persona was to see how much it would take to get the moralists as mad at white artists as they got about 2LiveCrew. He said it took fake boobs, Satanism, simulated sex on stage, death and angst along with semi-explicit lyrics, to get the same screaming the 2LiveCrew got for one song. Manson thought this reaction was hypocritical and hilarious.

Hmm...somehow I never really thought about that...

Hope everyone is having a good time...

Blue Note jazz tent? Now that's so cooool!

Hey, how did Bonnaroo get its name anyway?

Link...

One of the advantages of having your CD library all ripped to a digital library is playing with cool toys like The Filter.

It works with Windows Media Player to analyze your library and create automatic playlists based on selected songs. (There are also Mac/iTunes and Nokia versions.) You launch The Filter, highlight a song or two you like in Windows Media Player, send them to The Filter, and it automagically creates a playlist of similar/related songs from your library.

It's like your own personal DJ bot and a whole new way to listen to your music in a "smarter" way than just putting your player on random play. The playlists it creates are pretty interesting and entertaining.

It also connects to their website and pops up a window with info about your selected artist and suggestions for other similar albums you might like, which of course you can purchase and download from the eMusic store. I'm not clear on what all it uploads to their site from your PC other than a list of songs in your library, but it looks mostly harmless.

It's a little confusing to get it all setup and working, but it's a fun toy to play with and helps you "rediscover" forgotten stuff in your music library.

(You can see some examples of what it generated for me after the jump. The first song on each is the one selected to generate the playlist. I have it set to put 99 songs on each playlist, the first 25 are shown. No snarky remarks on what an old geezer I am, please!)

Perhaps not new to you but new to me.

The Stone Coyotes. Wow!

Link...

Check out The Ghost of Vicksburg.

Looking for a mid-week diversion from all the Fear and Loathing and dysfunction with, bonus, an opportunity to support local literary and musical excellence? Well, here you go:

The April "Homecookin'" edition of the Writer's Block performance series at Knoxville Museum of Art will feature RB Morris, who will perform solo versions of material from his forthcoming CD, "Empire."

The show is 6:30 - 8 p.m. Wednesday in the KMA auditorium, an amazing little listening room adjacent to the big room. Doors open an hour before showtime.

Admission to the 170-seat room is $7. There's a table loaded with free Panera snacks in the big room. This is an excellent opportunity to support the pretty special Writers' Block program that was started a few years back by host Karen E. Reynolds.

More details from the communique after the jump...

The National Association of Recording Merchandisers and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame have named the all-time 200 Definitive Albums. The top 10 are:

1. BEATLES – SGT. PEPPER’S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND
2. PINK FLOYD – DARK SIDE OF THE MOON
3. MICHAEL JACKSON – THRILLER
4. LED ZEPPELIN – LED ZEPPELIN IV
5. U2 – JOSHUA TREE
6. ROLLING STONES – EXILE ON MAIN STREET
7. CAROLE KING – TAPESTRY
8. BOB DYLAN – HIGHWAY ‘61 REVISITED
9. BEACH BOYS – PET SOUNDS
10. NIRVANA – NEVERMIND

The Hall of Fame list is here. Here's the interactive Definitive 200 website.

We made a rare stop by Blockbuster over the weekend, and I noticed they had the Dixie Chicks documentary "Shut Up and Sing", which I had not seen yet. It was labeled a "Blockbuster Exclusive", but it has since been released for sale (on Feb. 20th).

If you haven't seen it yet, do so at your earliest convenience. It covers a lot of ground, including free speech, the current political climate, the creative process, the music business, and the lives of three lovely, talented and strong women.

At the end of the documentary they are kicking off their 2006 concert tour to promote their new album "Taking the Long Way". There's a scene where they turn down a $26 million guaranteed sponsorship for their tour because they wanted to control their message (which is mainly the music) and be flexible to make adjustments as necessary. Natalie Maines says in another scene "we have to figure out what kind of artists we are." One of the final scenes shows them telling the band it might be rough and they will have to cut some corners. (Ed. note: The Wall Street Journal predicted financial disaster.)

Since then, their 2006 tour ranked as the 25th overall moneymaker, grossing over $23 million. They were #6 on the Top 10 Country Tours and they aren't even a country act any more. As it turns out, they didn't have to leave much on the table to stick by their principles and do it their way.

And of course, everyone knows about their five 2007 Grammy awards, including Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Country Album, and Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group.

"Taking the Long Way" is currently #2 on Amazon and #8 on the Billboard Top 200 (after debuting at #1 and staying on the charts for 39 weeks reaching triple-platinum status.) It was #3 on SoundScan's Top 10 Country Albums of 2006.

Wow, just saw this guy Robert Randolph on Austin City Limits. If you missed it, check for a rerun. I was vaguely familiar with him, but this show was awesome.

He sings and plays high-energy blues/rock/jam steel guitar, and he's the real deal. And so is his band, the Family Band. At one point on this show he had three other lap/pedal steel players on stage with him (his mentors from church) and it rocked.

AC should get this guy to Knox Vegas. (Edit: He already did.) I checked the interwebs, and I see he's playing at a music fest in Live Oak FL in April (13th and 14th) with the Allman Bros. as headliners. Might be worth a trip to the Sunshine State.

By way of NiT, here's the "leaked" Bonnaroo lineup.

Read the explanation of how the info was discovered. This seems to happen a lot. A while back someone was "poking around" a Nikon website in a similar manner and "found" the specs for a new Nikon camera that "accidentally" got published before they were supposed to.

I always wonder how "accidental" these "leaks" are and how is it that random internet surfers are able to just "stumble across" such info v. how much help they might "accidentally" be getting from marketing/PR types.

But I guess it can happen. Either way, it creates a lot of buzz. See, I'm typing about Bonnaroo right now!

UPDATE: The offical initial lineup is here. More artists to be announced.

Lucinda Williams will be performing at the beautiful Tennessee Theater Saturday, April 21st. Click here for tickets and info.

There are lots of other cool shows coming up at the Tennessee Theater and the Bijou. (Sorry, Taylor Hicks is sold out!) Check the AC Entertainment Concertwire for updates and info.

UPDATE: Better hurry and get tickets for Lucinda Williams. The good seats are already selling out. The best I could do was center secton row S.

Is that some folks can make a damn good case for not allowing the mentally ill access to firearms. Today's Year #26.

And, in commemoration of the event, I'm linking a great Guardian review of the recent flick about Lennon's harrassment by Hoover's goons...which is worth reading, if only for the Spike Milligan comparisons.

One of the my best memories of the 1982 World's Fair was the music all over the grounds, and some of the most memorable concerts were performed by the US Air Force's Airmen of Note.  If you like Big Band Jazz, do yourself a favor and visit this site.  There are MP3's from six CD's available for free download.  Store 'em on the drive, open with iTunes, squirt 'em into the iPod, enjoy.

By way of Ars today came an article that Visa will no longer allow consumers to use AllofMP3.  If you are not familiar with AllofMP3 they are a Russian website that sells MP3's DRM-free (no copy protection) for very, very cheap.  Full CD's go for $2-$5 dollars US.  They have been around for years and are a constant thorn to the RIAA which wants to control all sales of digital music by enforcing DRM on every song.  This leaves consumers with a song that works on an iPod or Windows Media Player, but not both.  The myth that DRM helps anyone (and I mean anyone) is for another post.

My sweetie gave me Bob Dylan's "Modern Times" for my birthday. This is the Dylan album you can play for people who never dreamed they would like Dylan. Load "Spirit On The Water" on your iPod for a wedding reception and it will sound perfectly at hime.

The arrangements and song structures are listener friendly, the producer (Dylan, under the Jack Frost pseudonym) has a knowing hand, and Dylan makes the effort to sing like he's happy to get these good songs off his chest.

The band is a cosmopolitan bluesy-Western mix. Some of it sounds like "Highway 61" and half the time I expect the band to break into "Johnny B. Goode." The lyrics range from the apocalypse-light "The Levee's Gonna Break'":

If it keep on rainin', the levee gonna break / Everybody saying this is a day only the Lord could make
Put on your cat clothes, mama, put on your evening dress / Few more years of hard work, then there'll be a 1,000 years of happiness

to "Someday Baby", which shows Dylan's mastery of blues style and would make a foolproof cover:

You can take your clothes / put 'em in a sack
You goin' down the road / baby and you can't come back
Someday baby, you ain't gonna worry / po' me any more

You also get Newmanesque throwaways like "Well, the world of research has gone berserk / Too much paperwork." The only clinker is "Workingman's Blues #2." Burn a CD without that track and you've got the most satisfying Dylan disk in ages. There's also an interesting literary link, with Dyan borrowing some of his lines from a 19th century Southern poet named Henry Timrod.

Related

• Complete album lyrics
  

• Rolling Stone interview with Dylan before "Modern Times" release

• NY Times: Who's This Guy Dylan Who's Borrowing Lines From Henry Timrod?

• Dylan, Nimrod, and Me

• Wikipedia entry for Henry Timrod

It's a beautiful day and there's still time to make it out to downtown Maryville for the Foothills Fall Festival. There are plenty of arts and crafts, food, music, and fun for all ages.

We went over yesterday afternoon for a stroll around the arts and crafts booths. This is a fairly high quality show with lots of nice pottery, weavings, paintings, photography, and more, an not much of the flea market buy/sell junk.

We checked out the new Capitol Theater, which has been transformed into a coffee shop and art gallery featuring owner Heath Claiborne's paintings. The theater shows an occasional film, and is available for private functions. Roy's Records is also open for one last time, and it was the first time I've been in there since I was a teenager. It's like a museum in there. In fact, they ought to leave everything just like it is and make it a museum.

In addition to the arts and crafts and the food court on Broadway, there is a kid's fun zone setup over in the greenbelt park between Harper St. and the library, and a concert stage setup over behind the courthouse. We thought about going Friday night to see Buddy Guy, but it was too cold and the tickets weren't cheap. This evening's headliners are Little Big Town and Randy Travis.

More pictures after the jump...

Our pal Andy Axel sent us a great new CD called "One Opens Up" by Sigmon. I've given it a few listens, and I like it a lot. It's smart, grown-up, expertly crafted, sometimes edgy sometimes trippy pop that engages your sensibilities instead of assaulting your senses.

There are songs about life changes ("Leaving Day", "Angels in White") that are refreshingly hopeful and without the usual regret or bitterness. Well, except maybe "Feels like a Finger", not sure about the sentiment of that one. There's also social commentary ("Millennium Man") and philosophical introspective ("Possibility", "Between the I's) with a little spirituality thrown in ("My Real Address").

I hate to compare an artist to others ("sounds like" always seems to get me in trouble) so I'll just note that Sigmon's music has lots of subtle and fun influences spanning decades of styles. It "sounds like", well, Sigmon. If you like what you hear on XM's Cafe or maybe The Loft, you'll probably like this. North Georgia based Sigmon is a remarkably talented singer, songwriter and instrumental performer, who wrote, produced, arranged, and performed almost everything on the album. Check it out.

FOR MORE INFO: Visit Matthew Sigmon's website, where you can listen to samples, learn more about the artist, and buy the CD. Bonus: you can also get it at I-Tunes.

Hello. In the thought that a few readers might find this of some interest, I am posting a link to a website I am working on called Knoxville Band Flyers. Which kind of speaks for itself. Thanks for the indulgence.

Link...

A lot of hard words have been exchanged over the last five years.

One of the bitterest, to my mind, is the idea that the world divided into distinct streams of thought on 9/11/2001.

"Pre-9/11 thinking" was supposed to be naive, destructive, and unpatriotic.

So here's some pre-9/11 thoughts for the end of 9/11/2006, courtesy of The Neville Brothers. They bring forth the words of Bob Marley, Curtis Mayfield, and John Newton (whose story of "Amazing Grace" evokes the spirit of Jesus Christ, another Pre-9/11 Thinker).

The Neville Brothers, Woodstock 1994, "Amazing Grace/One Love/People Get Ready."