Andrew Adler has a long feature on Robert Bonfiglio, who will be playing harmonica with the Louisville Orchestra this week.
Adler also has a write-up on the Louisville Leopard Percussioniss, who were just featured in an HBO documentary.
Country megastar Garth Brooks famously ‘retired’ to watch his kids grow up, declaring that he would return to the stage after that. Now he’s back, a bit earlier than planned, giving out interviews and generally making himself visible. He must have seen those CD sales numbers …. The Courier-Journal has an interview from the L. A. Times
You know that the guys in My Morning Jacket have “made it” when just releasing the title of their new CD is news. The title - no song list - is Evil Urges and the news was reported on pitchfork.com, where they still don’t understand that group names take a singular verb.
As usual, J. L. Puckett’s weekly Digital Downloads column is hidden away in the “What Women Should Buy” section of the Saturday Courier-Journal (a.k.a. Scene). He writes about Yellowcard, Janet Jackson and Bigelf
The Phoenix Hill Tavern is adding yet another ‘roof’ to one of it’s bars - the Deck Bar, this time. just so smokers can fire up ‘outside’ in comfort. The roof will be retractable and cover only part of the Deck bar, in order to fit within the guidelines of the “No Smoking” ordinance. Other bars have adopted similar strategies to accommodate smokers, usually by establishing an outside area with some kind of cover - often plastic - with portable heaters. PHT is just taking the matter one giant step further. The Courier-Journal has a long story about it.
JK McKNight is one promotin’, publicizin’ dude. He’s taken his Forecastle Fest up the ladder to major status (at least in Louisville) and now he’s doing a big event to promote the big event. Tomorrow at Headliners, McKnight and Production Simple have a show which a.) promotes Forecastle and b) raises money for BMXer Jimmy Levan, who was injured fairly serious in a competition a while back and, of course, had no insurance. The groups on the schedule include Band Of Horses, Cass McCombs, VHS or Beta, Catfish Haven and Early Day Miners. J. L. Puckett at the C-J has a feature story. The show is SOLD OUT.
As a side note (in the usual Louisville fashion) Jimmy Levan’s mother, Karen LeVan, is a songwriter and longtime member of the old Louisville Area Songwriter’s Cooperative.
The FCC has given its unanimous approval to the sale of Clear Channel Communications to Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as private equity firms tend to buy large companies and then sell off the assets, which, in the case of Clear Channel, could be nothing but a plus. FQMB has more details.
The Writers Guild of America has decided not to picket the Grammys show, which means that it will happen, though who will appear seems to remain undecided. More at deadlinehollywood.com
It’s the deepest, darkest, coldest part of January and the touts for live music show it: the local ‘alternative’ media (other than LMN, of course) are 0 for 2 in the Louisville music department. They must all be watching the stock market tank….