The print edition of the September 2006 issue of Louisville Music News, featuring the Big Diggity, has arrived and will be distributed beginning tomorrow, August 31. The printer was running a bit behind as happens on occasion. The online version will be available Friday, September 1.

An Australian engineer has created a self-playing violin – just like the one that rose up out of the cabinet in “Under the Yum Yum Tree” – only this one really plays. It’s programmed via a MIDI file and here’s a news item from Australia with an interview and video. Take a look.

Guitar players don’t always have the best ideas about what kind of instruments they’d like to build and play. Take a look at some of the weirder ones at http://www.musicgadgets.net.

The Louisville jazz band Liberation Prophecy scored the cover of the Courier-Journal’s Scene magazine today. Jeffrey Lee Puckett did the honors on the write-up. Read it here..

Once again, I discover that the components of the Classified Ads were not functioning properly – it seems to have been a button issue. It’s all fixed (cross my fingas) and to celebrate, I’ve added a box with the five most recent ads to the front page.

Here’s a video of a cutting contest to leave you feeling inadequate as a player: Victor Wooten vs. drummer Steve Smith. Take a look here

If you are a blues fan – or even just a music fan – then you’ve seen the famous photo of bluesman Robert Johnson, all tricked out in a suit and hat, holding his guitar. The photo was a studio shot and it’s this photo that has led Moments In Time, a seller of historical [...]

The Rolling Stones will present a concert at Churchill Downs on September 29. Approximatley 50,000 tickets will be sold, ranging in price from $60 to $300 – with no general admission.
Tickets will go on sale on Monday, August 14 at 10 a.m. via Ticketmaster.

The Louisville Youth Orchestra will hold auditions for young orchestral musicians (through age 21) from September 8 through 12.
Interested musicians should contact Melody Welsh-Buchholz at 502-896-1851 or www.lyo.org,

The Louisville Courier-Journal notes that Jorge Mester will be the Music Director of the Louisville Orchestra. Mester held that position from 1967 to 1979. The appointment is temporary; the Orchestra board will continue to search for a permanent Music Director.

Read the entire story here.