Down On The Corner

By Paul Moffett

Big Doin's at KCA. The Kentucky Center for the Arts has announced a series of personnel and program changes. Executive Vice President Michael Durham has been given the task of creating the Kentucky Network, a cooperative collection of performing arts centers throughout the state. The first official act of the Network was the expansion of the KCA's Creative Connections program to the RiverPark Center in Owensboro. Funded by the GE Fund, this program gives teachers and students opportunities to work with professional artists and integrate performance into the curriculum.

Lonesome Pine Special Artistic Director / Producer Richard Van Kleeck has been promoted to Assistant Vice President and Director of Programs and will coordinate promotion with Director of Marketing Marilyn Settergren. Van Kleeck has directed the Lonesome Pine Specials since 1983, building an international reputation for LPS during that time.

The current Vice President of Development, Tim King, will become Vice President of Development and Programs, Jennifer Lennon will move from her current position as Development Administrator to Director of Development and Community Relations.

• Yer Girlfriend Breaks Up. While this is not news to listeners of Laura Shine's radio shows of WFPK or to fans of her band, Yer Girlfriend, the news is that Yer Girlfriend is disbanding after eight years. A final performance is/was scheduled for June 30.

Some of the members are already working on a new group and more news will, no doubt, be forthcoming.

• Blangk is also breaking up. Blame it on school. Look for their last show sometime in August.

• The 1996 Harvest Showcase is seeking artists. Snail & Rocket has announced the 1996 Harvest Showcase artist submissions. Selected artists will have the opportunity to perform 40-minute sets before record industry professionals and local music fans.

Over the past three years the "Harvest Showcase" has raised over 6-tons of food for the Kentucky Harvest organization.

A compact disc containing recorded material by artists performing in the showcase will be released in the fall of '96.

If you are interested in performing, send one original song on cassette with your name, address, phone number and contact person to: Michael Lee/Harvest Showcase, 520 S. 4th Ave., Suite 300, Louisville, KY 40402. The deadline is July 30, 1996.

• Triangle Talent has added Maria Gill as Vice President in the Corporate Event Planning Division. Gill had an extensive career in corporate planning and communications with such firms as UPS Airlines, Banc One, and Lego Corporation.

• The Illustrated History of Louisville's Slamdek Record Company 1986-1995 is now available. The book details all the records released by Slamdek, plus recording notes and photos from lots of the sessions. Buy and it look for your name and picture or somebody you know. But get it and be surprised. From Initial Records., POB 251145, West Bloomfield, MI 48325 or call: 616-349-0402.

• Ray Yates and Brian Curella have released their fifth CD. Yates and Curella specialize in commercial background music. Their company, formerly Media Jam is now Media Beat and their library of CDs has been renamed the Flying Hands Production Music Library.

• The winners of the 1996 Coors Light / QMF Rock & Roll All Star Band have been announced. Here's the lineup: Female Vocalist – Dana Smith of Fat Passion; Male Vocalist – Tommy Miller of Trip; Lead Guitarist – Ron Watchmaker of Silo; Rhythm Guitarist – R. D. Miller of the Merry Pranksters; Bassist – Ed Snead of the Merry Pranksters; Drummer – Adam Wells of Smack Dab; Keyboardist – Al Strickland of Crazy Heart; and Saxophonist – Mark Watson of the Jim Wilson Project.

Congratulations to the winners. Go hear the band on Wednesday, July 3, at the Phoenix Hill Tavern.

• Musician's Guide for 1996. Musician Magazine has been publishing The Musician's Guide to Touring and Promotion since 1991. The 1996 edition is now available. It can be found at most book and music stores or by mail at: Musician's Guide, 1515 Broadway, 15th Flr., New York, NY 10036.

• Music At Dawn of Civilization. Louisville composer Shirl Jae Atwell has written a dance suite called "Lucy," which is a speculation on the daily life of the hominid Lucy, whose skeleton was discovered in Africa by Donald Johnson in 1974. Atwell's had no luck getting any dance troupes interested in the piece, however, so she's going to have a recording made of the it, as performed by the Louisville Festival Symphony, whose members also play in the Louisville Orchestra.

Clear on that? You can go hear a live performance at the Macauley by the recording orchestra on July 25. Call 584-1932 for more information.

• The Louisville Musician's Union, AFM Local 11-637, awarded its "Musician of the Year Award," for 1995 to the late Keith Stonecipher at a ceremony in Willow Park on Sunday, June 23. The plaque was presented to his wife, Patricia Stonecipher, and to their children and grandchildren. The award honors the longtime band leader and trumpet player. His primary group was the Keith Stonecipher Orchestra and he also ran the Dixeland All Stars, a popular Dixieland band.

• URLs du jour. No doubt, there'll have to be a separate listing soon for all the various web site addresses we get, but for now, a mention. Vassar Clements has a web site at http://mbus.com/vassar. You can find out more than you ever wanted to know (as is almost always the case with Web sites) about Clements, including a tour schedule, sound clips, goodies to buy and more goodies to buy. If you order a CD on-line, Vassar will autograph it.

• Louisville Songwriter Tanya Savory was a winner in the 25th Kerrville Songwriting Competition, it was announced on May 26. Two of the final judges were Sarah Hickman and Lucinda Williams. Savory is currently on tour in the South and has a second album due out in late September.

• Our columnist Alan Rhody also just returned from Kerrville and said he had a large time. No doubt, considering the number of players there, including Bloomington, Ind., singer/songwriter Carrie Newcomer.

• The Hurstbourne corridor from Shelbyville Road to Taylorsville Rd. is now home to several music stores, including one new one already open and another in the works. In addition to Music-Go-Round and Baldwin Piano in the Taylorhurst Center, and Conrad Music on Hurstbourne near Shelbyville Rd., Ed Hudgins of Dixie Music has opened Planet Music in the storefront previously occupied by Kinko's in Plainview.

The fifth store set to open has not yet been announced.

Club Changes

• Big Heavy's Blues and Dance Club, 233 E. Market has closed, according to several players who need replacement gigs. No additional information was available at the time of this writing.

• Bull's Eye has opened in the site last occupied by CL's Lounge on Del Rio Pl. The building was home for several years to Yogi's. The new owner is Brenda Weibble, owner of the Maple Inn Again.

• The Cherokee, 1047 Bardstown Rd., a.k.a. Tewligans has closed for the last time, at least if Paul Curry and Elaine Ford are to be believed. Curry wrote a long piece in his latest issue of the Burt Fan Club Newsletter and Ford edges mighty close to libel in a diatribe against Terry Payne, Cherokee's last manager, in Hard Times. There may be a pool hall there soon.

Key Changes

• Lonard W. "Lonnie" Peerce, age 72, died on May 31. Peerce was a fiddler, violin maker and bluegrass musician. He formed the Bluegrass Alliance in 1968 and led the group until it disbanded in 1977. The group went through various configurations and included, at various times, musicians who went on to bigger things in the music business. Among these were Danny Jones; Dan Crary; Sam Bush, Tony Rice; and Courtney Johnson. (See item below.)

• Courtney Johnson, age 56, died on June 5 in Cave City, KY. Johnson was a banjo player with Sam Bush in Poor Richard's Almanac, Bluegrass Alliance and Newgrass Alliance. He and Curtis Burch left Newgrass to form Barren County Revival and was replaced by Bela Fleck.

Johnson was well-respected for his physical style of playing and had fans among banjo enthusiasts, including Hot Rize' Peter Wernick and John Hartford, who called him "very innovative, very much into playing all different kinds of music."

• Peter Gregory Jobson, was born May 11,. 1996, to Linny Simkin and Jeff Jobson. Jeff Jobson is a Louisville videographer and Simkin is a singer-songwriter.