With just 5 days until Colorado's second annual Mile High Music Festival, today festival organizers announce the weekend's performance schedule.  Five stages will host 50 bands during the two-day festival, with music beginning at 11:15 am each day and going until 2 am on Saturday and 12:30 am on Sunday. Mile High Music Festival has also unveiled the 2009 Site Map.  Visit www.milehighmusicfestival.com for complete details and to purchase tickets.

On Friday, July 3rd, The Dead Guise, one of the Bay Area’s best Grateful Dead cover bands played a wonderful two-set concert at The Starry Plough that drew quite the crowd.

Although I am no stranger to Grand Rapids, I had never attended a show at the Intersection until the Rothbury Pre-Party.  There is no more appropriately named venue to host such a dynamic collaboration of talent.  EOTO, Ultraviolet Hippopotamus and Herm Productions is quite the trio to kick off the Rothbury Music Festival.

As I make my annual pilgrimage to my 6th Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, I cannot help but see the nostalgia in the place that is so familiar for many reasons. It starts with the car ride, where I feel like I can drive forever because I cannot wait to pass those Bonnaroo toll booths that symbolize a sense of accomplishment and enlightenment that is about to take place. The way I see it, I now have 96 hours of church to fill my soul until next year.

This Wednesday, July 1st, will mark an important one year point for Fort Collins band Tickle Me Pink. Just short of twelve months ago on this date in 2008, Tickle Me Pink were to celebrate the release of their first album on Indie label Wind-Up Records, but instead found themselves alongside many fans mourning the sudden death of 22 year old guitarist/bassist Johnny Schou.

For the first time ever, the 10,000 Lakes Festival (10KLF) is offering single day tickets for every day of the event, held July 22-25 in Detroit Lakes, MN.  Offering smaller helpings of a big event, music fans can now sample 10KLF for as low as $85 per day, catching dozens of their favorite artists live outdoors while experiencing the Soo Pass Ranch’s pristine natural beauty without having to commit to the entire four-day event.

The day Michael Jackson died was a particularly beautiful one, here in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Blue skies, just enough clouds, and uncharacteristically low humidity greeted the audience along with the stunning natural scenery of the Ginter Botanical Gardens, in Richmond, Virginia.

On Sunday, the Boulder Theater simmered with genuine blues bravado, the kind that clings to the air with an intoxicating presence. The source of this beautifully hazy down-home sound came in the form of guitarist and vocalist Robert Cray.

Going back to my high school days growing up in Iowa, I specifically remember the first time I heard Phish.  I was with a group of friends (guys I am still in touch with today) riding around on a hot summer day on our way to what had become almost a daily sand volleyball session.  A buddy popped in the Picture of Nectar CD and told us we were in for a real musical treat.  Some band from the East with a simple but oddly spelled name.

Truly integrating two disparate musical genres into a third doesn’t occur all that often.  And when it does, it’s often lopsided in favor of one genre – over another.  It’s unbalanced, and noticeably so.  But when an organic musical marriage does happen, it can be like dynamite.  Happily, such is the case for Asheville, North Carolina’s Toubab Krewe.