Excerpted from Acoustic Guitar magazine, December 2000, No. 96.

News RETURN TO TOP	Singer-songwriter Will Diehl plans to donate 50 percent of his MP3.com earnings from September and October to The Hunger Project, a NY-based multinational organization devoted to ending chronic hunger worldwide (www.thp.org). Diehl is starting his donation run with five songs in the top 40 of MP3.com’s acoustic charts. Woody Mann is conducting a series of one- and two-day weekend workshops in Manhattan, focusing on fingerstyle blues, ragtime, and jazz guitar techniques. The workshops cover all levels—from near beginner to professional—and are limited in size from 10 to15 students each. Workshop descriptions and details are available at www.woodymann.com. David Crosby has spearheaded Stand and Be Counted, a four-hour documentary chronicling the rise and success of music-related activism for social change. This project, which debuted August 21 and 22 on The Learning Channel, includes performances and interviews with more stars—actors, comedians, and musicians—than the largest of the summer constellations. Proceeds raised from Stand and Be Counted will benefit UNICEF.
Events RETURN TO TOP	MerleFest, to be held April 26-29, 2001, in Wilkesboro, North Carolina, will be broadcast on the Web this year at www.merlefest.org. Among those celebrating the music of the late Merle Watson and his flatpicking father, Doc, are Dolly Parton, Earl Scruggs, Peter Rowan, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Tony and Larry Rice, Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, and Nickel Creek. Besides a roster of top-notch troubadours, MerleFest features the Chris Austin Songwriting Contest and Songwriters’ Coffeehouse, in which selected registrants share the stage with singer-songwriters performing at the festival. For more information, phone (800) 343-7857.
In Memory	Famed guitar collector Scott Chinery passed away on October 24. The self-made millionaire had one of the world's largest collections of new and vintage guitars. Several years ago Chinery and Tom Bacon collaborated on a book entitled The Chinery Collection, a volume that profiled 250 exquisite guitars from the collection. Chinery also commissioned a number of custom archtops by two dozen of the world's finest living luthiers for his "Blue Guitar Collection," a project conceived as a tribute to the legendary James D'Aquisto. Read more about the Chinery collection online at www.chinery.com/index3.html. Below, the D'Aquisto Blue Guitar from the Chinery collection. Trailblazing Brazillian guitarist Baden Powell passed away on September 26 in Rio de Janeiro. The influential stylist blended jazz, classical, and samba threads to create a vital new guitar music noted for its passion, virtuosity, and and invention. He was 63 at the time of death. Read a full obituary in the January 2001 issue of Acoustic Guitar.
Contests	The Winfield flatpicking and fingerpicking contests were held September 14–17 at the annual Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas. This year’s champion flatpicker is Robert Shafer of Elkview, Virginia, who chose a Martin 000-28VS as his prize. Scott Fore of Radford, Virginia, scored the second-place prize—a Collings D2H—in his first appearance at Winfield, and Jason Fowler, from Toronto, Canada, took third place and a Taylor W-10 dreadnought. The fingerpicking winner was Pete Huttlinger of Nashville, Tennessee, who chose a rosewood Larrivée LV-10 as his prize. Julian Smith of Bowdon, Georgia, took second place and a Taylor W-14-C Grand Auditorium. Mary Flower of Englewood, Colorado, garnered third place and a Gallagher Ragtime Special
New Releases RETURN TO TOP	Merle Travis’ daughter Pat Travis Eatherly has published A Scrapbook of My Daddy, Merle Travis, a large-format, 140-page paperback bonanza for fans of the thumbpicking legend. To purchase, send $24.95 plus $3 for shipping to Pat Travis Eatherly, 3424 Overton Park W., Fort Worth, TX 76109-2504. Budding songsmiths, as well as old pros with writer’s block, will want to clear a spot next to their rhyming dictionary for Rikky Rooksby’s comprehensive book How to Write Songs on Guitar (Miller Freeman, [800] 848-5594, www.books.mfi.com). The Doc Watson Guitar Instrumental Collection, 1964–1998 (Sugar Hill) and Keith Whitley’s Sad Songs and Waltzes are definitive new retrospective collections by two of bluegrass and country’s most-loved practitioners. Read our expert reviews of new acoustic-guitar oriented CDs take from the pages of Acoustic Guitar magazine. Visit the archives and read reviews of scores of great acoustic CDs.
Cyber Notes RETURN TO TOP	Mick Fleetwood, founding member and skin basher of Fleetwood Mac, has teamed with auction pioneer Ted Owen to create www.fleetwoodowen.com, a site peddling high-end memorabilia to the highest bidder. An initial offering of "specialist" guitars is slated for December. Explore Acoustic Guitar’s new online Custom Guitar Gallery at www.acousticguitar.com. More than 200 of the world’s best luthiers are profiled with images, bios, contact information, prices, and more. Fans of old-time music should check out the Old-Time Music Homepage at www.oldtimemusic.playhear.com. This extensive resource offers valuable historical information, biographical sketches of key players, discographies, a calendar of upcoming events, and news from the old-time music community. Rockabilly enthusiasts can click around the clock at the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. Go to www.rockabillyhall.com to catch the latest news and read artist bios, reviews, and articles about this revitalized genre. Need some help with an Acoustic Guitar lesson? Check out the new Lessons section in the Guitar Talk forums at www.acousticguitar.com. Ask questions, post tips, and get advice from the experts at A.G. about our book, magazine, and online lessons.

 

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