Steve Stills strums his Martin.
Photograph by Robert Knight.

Excerpted from Acoustic Guitar Magazine, September 1999, No. 81.

NEWS | EVENTS | NEW RELEASES | CONTESTS | CYBERNOTES | SEND NEWS

News RETURN TO TOP	C.F. Martin and Co. was recently featured on a special edition of Ted Koppel’s Nightline on ABC. "American Stradivarius" profiled Martin’s history and tracked the development and construction of the D-45SS, Stephen Stills’ special-edition guitar. Read the story and a Q&A with Stills and see video clips from the show by visiting http://more.abcnews.go.com/onair/nightline/nl9905121_guitars.html. As part of its mission to preserve remarkable material from independent labels, Smithsonian/Folkways has acquired the iconoclastic Fast Folk and Monitor record companies. Fast Folk took a risk on the early efforts of Lyle Lovett and Tracy Chapman, among others, and Monitor championed Eastern European classical musicians and international folk artists such as martyred Chilean Nueva Canción singer Victor Jara.
Events RETURN TO TOP	Join Doc Watson, Peter Rowan with Tony Rice, and the Nashville Bluegrass Band at Stompin' '99 in Buffalo Gap, West Virginia, the weekend of August 18–22. For more information call (877) 852-5800 or visit www.stompin99.com. The Acoustic Blues and Slide Guitar Workshop, to be held August 22–28 at the lovely campus of the University of California, Santa Cruz, features hands-on, 'round-the-clock learning with instructors Woody Mann, Bob Brozman, Martin Simpson, John Cephas, Orville Johnson, and Kristina Olsen. Call (516) 767-8718 or visit www.guitarseminars.com for more information. Kiss the Blarney Stone and take a musical tour of Ireland with frets wizard Mick Moloney, who hosts a series of two-week adventures featuring tromps through peat bogs and castles as well as music sessions with the finest local musicians and dancers. For information, contact Irish Folklore Tours, www.irishfolkloretours.com, (800) 848-4364. La Guitarra California classical guitar festival runs September 24–26 at Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo, California. The event features master classes, workshops, concerts with Antigoni Goni, James Edwards, and others, plus exhibitions of new and vintage instruments. To learn more, visit www.guitarfoundation.org/calend.html. The second annual Accent on Music Guitar Seminar meets September 20–26 in Portland, Oregon, and offers students a chance to study one-on-one with John Renbourn, Alex de Grassi, and Mark Hanson. Learn more at www.accentonmusic.com. Pickers of all persuasions will convene at the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas, September 16–19. In addition to the celebrated instrumental, songwriting, and band contests, workshops, and concerts, Hot Rize will host a special tribute to late, great guitarist Charles Sawtelle. Details are available at www.wvfest.com. Acoustic in Black Showcase, an all-acoustic live music forum for urban music is sponsoring a series of workshops, discussions, performances, and film screenings in Los Angeles September 10–12. For more information call (323) 298-0875 or visit the Web site at www.blackfridayfest.com.
New Releases RETURN TO TOP	Dominica: Creole Crossroads and Cajun and Creole Music I and II are among the riches from the seemingly inexhaustible Alan Lomax collection now available for the first time on Rounder Records. Jonatha Brooke, Suzanne Vega, Loudon Wainwright III, and others honor singers and songwriters from the epicenter of the folk scare on Bleecker Street: Greenwich Village in the ’60s (Astor Place). The tribute CD features songs originally made famous by Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, Judy Collins, and other usual suspects. Learn more and hear an audio clip at www.astorplace.com. "Everybody’s Talkin’" about The Many Sides of Fred Neil (Collector’s Choice/DRG), a two-disc reissue of songs written and performed by Neil, who penned the Midnight Cowboy theme and hits for Tim Buckley and the Jefferson Airplane, among others. The complete Elektra oeuvre of ’60s blues trio "Spider" John Koerner, Dave "Snaker" Ray, and Tony "Little Sun" Glover is now available on a series of CDs released by Red House Records.
Contests RETURN TO TOP	The John Lennon Songwriting Contest will award prizes to the best original compositions in a dozen categories including folk, world, jazz, country, and pop. Applications can be obtained at www.jlsc.com or by calling (888) 884-5572.
Cybernotes RETURN TO TOP	Jerry Garcia lives on at academic Deadhead David Dodd’s immense Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics Web site. Replete with enough lyric sheets, essays, footnotes, arcane references, illustrations, and general exegesis to keep even the most Dead-icated fans happy, the site resides at arts.ucsc.edu/gdead/agdl/. The Musicians and Instrument Makers Forum will host an interactive, online lutherie course called Building a Small Guitar or Baritone Ukulele, August 30–December 20. Get details, plans, and virtual chisels at www.mimf.com. Folk Web at www.folkweb.com is an online CD store for independent folk and acoustic artists and labels. Hundreds of artists are represented with biographies, images, links, and several sound samples from each CD. High-tech meets lo-fi at Off the Record’s www.otrvinyl.com, where you can look for rare and out-of-print LPs and 45s. Off the Record purveys all genres of music on vinyl, and the site has a searchable database and secure server.

 

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