Down On The Corner

By Paul Moffett

Last month, I just plain failed to mention that the International Bluegrass Music Association will hold it's annual World of Bluegrass events in Louisville on October 13-20. The Bluegrass Trade Show will be held at the Galt House in downtown Louisville. Other venues necessary for this week-long event will be arranged for over the course of the next couple of months.

The IBMA decided to move the events from Owensboro because of continuing problems with the Executive Inn Rivermont, the city's only convention hotel.

Sad for Owensboro, good for Louisville. For one brief, shining moment, there will be bluegrass once again in downtown Louisville.

Sniff.

Our cover subject, Shannon Lawson and the Galoots, will be doing an in-store at the H. M. V. store in the Mall St. Matthews on February 15 at 4:00 p.m. No charge, live music. Can life get any better?

While on the subject of H. M. V., on February 8, Union Tree will also do an in-store. This trio has a sound that falls in the general area of Fairport Convention, Richard Thompson's early band.

Several new releases by locally based acts arrived this month, notably, the sophomore project by My Own Victim, "No Voice, No Rights, No Freedom," on Century Media Records, arrived promising unadulterated aggression. I can hardly wait – to send it to our metalhead columnist Laura.

For several days, the 5-CD changer in the LMN office has been loaded with nothing but recordings by Louisville acts. This has not always been possible, even discounting questions of preference and taste. Now, there are quite a few more CDs that could replace those in the changer and it would still be an all-Louisville selection.

Gitcher Blues While They're Hot Dept. Blues, America's comfort music, is the logical genre to bring to a stage for a MERF fund-raiser. Make it Stevie Ray's on February 11, with a lineup of Louisville blues stalwarts (See the MERF ad for the schedule.) and it's a great deal for $5.

Clean off those bookshelves and take the books to the Kentucky Opera. Better yet, call 'em and they'll pick them up. Their book sale will be April 3-6 at Trinity High School Alumni Hall, but before then, they'll need those books. Call 584-4500 for info.

Tim Krekel is doing well in the songwriting department. "Cry On the Shoulder of the Road" has been released as a single by Martina McBride. In addition, Aaron Tippin is recording "Cold Gray Kentucky Morning," which is also on the 1996 Harvest Showcase CD, Are You Hungry for Music?By Krekel and the Groovebillies.

Looking a little ahead, the Louisville Dulcimer Society will have their Eleventh Annual Ohio Valley Gathering at the Harley Hotel in Lexington on March 21-23. Deadline for registration is February 19, so restring that dulcimer and call 812-945-9094 for info or contact Maureen Sellers at MaureenSel@AOL.com.

Songwriter Jeff Walter, a former LASCer, picked up first place in the Austin Songwriters' Group's Song Competition 1996, with "Baby Ain't a Baby Anymore," a song he co-wrote with Austin songwriter Olin Murrell.

Speaking of former members of the Louisville Area Songwriters' Cooperative, Mary Lou Stout Dempler has joined the staff of Ursuline School of Music and Drama as a guitar teacher.

Club Changes

The Village Pub has been sold. The new name will be Bordertown Night Club. The new owners are Tom and Beth Hodge. The grand opening is set of February 12.

The club will be open Monday-Friday 5 p.m. – 3 a.m., Sat. 7 p.m. -- close. Closed Sundays. The food service will be expanded.

Live music will be country and western with some dance music. The Hodges plan theme nights and lots of promotions. They will stick with local bands for now, but might book bigger acts in the future.

The Express Casino Lounge has opened in Hikes Point, in the building last occupied by Bobby McGee's, just across the parking lot from Louisville Pizza Company. Old-timers will recall that the building was the home of the Pink Pussycat A-Go-Go Etc.

New owner Dennis Gray plans to bring music into the Lounge that would fit into the Toy Tiger, ranging from local to national acts. Current plans include bringing in Drivin' & Cryin' and LA Guns. An original music Wednesday night is also in the works.

Call 456-0770 for more information.

Codas

Townes Van Zandt, 52, died of an apparent heart attack in Nashville, Tenn. on January 1, 1997, following hospitalization for hip surgery. Van Zandt was a songwriter and performer. See Alan Rhody's and Jean Metcalfe's articles on page 24.

Harold "Sticks" McDonald, 73, died in El Cajon, Calif. on January 11, 1997. McDonald was a drummer and former member of Pee Wee King's "Golden West Cowboys" and "Sticks McDonald and The Dixie Dudes." He was a native of Covington, Ky. and a member of the American Federation of Musicians Local 11-637.

Foree Harris Wells, Jr, 60, died January 8, 1997, in Louisville. Wells was a blues guitarist, member of the American Federation of Musicians Local 11-637 and Louisville native who spent some time in Memphis playing with B. B. King, Bobby "Blue" Bland, Little Milton Campbell and Roscoe Gordon. Wells was anticipating the release of his first CD, It's a New Day Brother, recorded for the Rooster Blues label of Mississippi. He was a founder and treasurer of the Kyana Blues Society and received the KBS' Sylvester Weaver Award of achievement and perpetuation of the blues.

See Keith Clements' blues column, I Got A Mind to Ramble, on page 10 for more about Wells.

Camilla Wilde Gettle, 75, died on January 3, 1997, in Louisville. She was a musician and former leader of the Camilla Wilde Band.

David Wayne Montgomery, 37, died on January 3, 1997, in Louisville. Montgomery was a sound and light technician.

Col. Tom Parker, 87, died on January 21 in Las Vegas. Parker was Elvis' manager.

The Rev. Leroy Weaver, 67, died on January 21, 1997. He was a forner singer of the Soul Stirrers, Five Blind Boys and the Religious Five.