WFPK is giving away a couple of tickets to see The Dave Matthews Band and Willie Nelson at Slugger Field On August 1. Winners will be announced on April 10.

With any luck, it’ll be warm enough on April 23 for fans to hang at the Waterfront for some free music from The Whigs, Wild Sweet Orange and Griffin House, courtesy of WFPK 91.9 FM.

Jim James played an acoustic set with M. Ward at the 300-seat St. David’s Church in Austin while at SXSW. A recording for the session has turned up at Aquarium Drunkard

Nick at Backseat Sandbar has a review of theStars show at the Bomhard.

More on the Stars: over at the LEO Music Blog, Brent Owen has an interview with Stars’ bassist Evan Cranley

The Clear Channel deal continues to set standards for business oddness: the firm, plus Bain Capital and Thomas H. Lee Partners are suing the lenders who initially promised to lend the money necessary for the deal to happen. They are blaming it on “lender’s remorse.” There are several reports about this: Radio Ink is thorough.

Joseph Lord got the short straw for this week’s Velocity cover story, a look at two churches - Sojourn (930 Listening Room) and St. Francis of Assisi - currently booking live music and not just Christian music, either.

Elsewhere in this issue, Lord previews Stars

Nick at the Backseat Sandbar got down to the Glasswords on March 22 and caught the Ferdinand Fox/Bryan Scary show, There’s a review with pix here.

The Los Angeles Times has issued a front-page apology to rapper P. Diddy for the story alleging that Diddy was invoved with in a 1994 attack on Tupac Shakur. From the Times: “A Los Angeles Times story about a brutal 1994 attack on rap superstar Tupac Shakur was partially based on documents that appear to have been fabricated, the reporter and editor responsible for the story said Wednesday.”

The Smoking Gun website investigated and determined that the story was based on fabricated FBI documents, created by an “imprisoned con man and accomplished document forger.” That story is here.

Bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley is scheduled to headline Metro Louisville’s Forest Fest 2008 in Jefferson Memorial Forest on Saturday, May 17. Five groups will play in the forest’s Horine Section, beginning at 11 a.m, including Stone Hollow, Dozens of Dollars, Bluegrass 101 and Kentucky Sassafras, followed by Dr. Ralph Stanley, 81. The event is free. For more, log onto www.metro-parks.org.

The rumor mill has been abuzz about the Clear Channel deal for some time. Lately, the rumors have been running to the bad side, as the collapsing credit markets may have doomed the deal. It’s hard to know who to root for or against in this deal, given Clear Channel’s horrible rep among music fans. Private equity firms usually buy a company in order to break it up and sell of the parts, which wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing for Louisville radio listeners. Then again, to have a company of bean counters and financial gunslingers running the radio stations here would definitely be a downer.

Digital Music News has the story.