On April 10, Indie rockers The Hold Steady played to a packed house at the Fox Theater here in Boulder.  Appealing to a mix of the young and hip and the grown-up and mellow, this group of rock and roll storytellers put on quite the high energy, low tech spectacle.  Whereas only the night before the Fox Theater had been aglow with BoomBox’s pink, purple, red, and blue lights, the closest thing to the Aurora Borealis that Boulder will ever see, for The Hold Steady the theater was bathed only in dull

ROTHBURY unveils the "2-Day Sat & Sun Ticket," a reduced rate ticket that allows access to the show on Saturday, July 4 and Sunday, July 5.  Also announced today, the lineup schedule for ROTHBURY 2009 headliners - The String Cheese Incident (their only 2009 performance) will top the bill on Friday, July 3; The Dead (their only summer appearance) will headline on Saturday, July 4; and Bob Dylan and His Band and Willie Nelson & Family will wrap up the weekend on Sunday, July 5.

Spring, 2009 JazzPrezzo proudly announces the release of The Blue Note Years: The Photography Of Francis Wolff and Jimmy Katz in celebration of the 70th Anniversary of Blue Note Records, the most important record label in the history of jazz.

The 10,000 Lakes Festival (10KLF) announces single day tickets will be made available for Saturday, July 25.  A limited number of single day 10KLF music-only festival tickets go on sale Friday, April 24, starting at $75 for general admission and $99 for general admission and overnight camping.

In 2004 the San Francisco rock outfit New Monsoon made a storied appearance at the famed Telluride Bluegrass Festival in Colorado, and blew away newcomers with their unique blend of West Coast rock, jazz, Latin, and West Asian sounds.  From that performance the band released their first live disc aptly titled Live at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival.

For the 6th time in as many years the Foundation's auction includes a section that directly benefits Rock the Earth.  Rock the Earth - the winner of the Jammy's 2008 Mimi Fishman Memorial Award for Community Service - is an organization that is dedicated to bringing about positive and beneficial environmental consequences on behalf of members of the music industry through the means of active litigation and negotiation.  The Foundation also continues its support of the Delta Gamma Center for Children with Visual Impairments.

The clock is ticking down the hours and minutes to MerleFest 2009, presented by Lowe's, which will begin its 22nd year of "Music, Moments and Memories" next Thursday, April 23, and wind up on Sunday, April 26, on the campus of Wilkes Community College in Wilkesboro, North Carolina.

The Northwest's premier acoustic music festival returns for its eighth year to beautiful Horning's Hideout in North Plains, Oregon, on July 17-18-19.  The family friendly event boasts three days of nearly all-acoustic music, culminating each night with main stage performances from musical hosts Yonder Mountain String Band, this year joined by special guest Danny Barnes (Danny Barnes with Bad Livers, Tim O'Brien Band).  Yonder Mountain String Band has been called the fastest growing acoustic band in history.

In December of 2004 I saw Béla Fleck & the Flecktones at the Water Street Music Hall in Rochester.  At that show Béla made a mention of his plans which at that time included traveling to Africa to research the roots of the banjo.  This intrigued me as I had just been to Morocco and seen banjos being played out in the square, a sight I was not expecting, and as I also have a large amount of family in Africa.