Down On The Corner

By Paul Moffett

• Initial Records annual music festival, Krazy Fest, which was slated for its seventh version on May 28-30 this summer, has been indefinitely postponed. According to the Krazy Fest site, "It may be completely dead and gone forever. We don't really know for sure at this point. We're trying to save it, but it's not looking good." For more information, logon to either www.krazyfest.com or www.initialrecords.com

• Down in Lexington, Michael Johnathon's "Woodsongs Old-Time Radio Hour" appears to be headed for television, as part of a new cable channel called BlueHighways Television, a network dedicated to Americana music and lifestyles. The BlueHighways network has been put together by Stan Hitchcock, a country musician who became the driving force behind Country Music Television (CMT) and the Americana Music Network. The theme of BlueHighways is ordinary people doing extraordinary things; in a sense, it's the extended cable version of "Travels With Charlie," featuring Charles Kuralt. The network currently has a test signal up on a transponder for cable operators to preview.

• Triangle Talent is producing the Kentucky Music Trail for a third season of concerts. The trail stretches from Berea to Ashland, traveling through the hometowns of several well-known performers found along U.S. 23, the route designated the Country Music Highway. For more information, logon to www.paramountartscenter.com, or www.macarts.com, Or call 800-225-8747.

• Earl Meyers, Longtime Louisville coordinator for the Nashville Songwriters Association, Int'l and co-founder of the old Louisville Area Songwriters Association, had a song selected in the top 15 at the NSAI's April 2004 Symposium for a Sony Song Contract. The song, "I'd Do Anything To Be Your Everything," was honored, but no cigar. However an independent pub. signed the song and a Georgia band named Phase III plans to put it on their first CD. Congrats, Earl.

• We hear from Johnny Doughnut that Jolly Mon's in Fern Creek has gone dark. Phooey. These days, clubs seem to open and close more often that Michael Jackson has nose surgery.

• First Quality Music, Inc. has signed up Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver plus J. D. Crowe and the New South as endorsing artists.

• The story about Bill Monroe's mandolin being sold to a Japanese investment firm that's been making the rounds in town was an April Fool's joke, according to Mike Bacayu of Bluegrass Anonymous. I guess it just seemed entirely too likely to be true...

• Louisville drummer extraordinaire and all-around nize guy Ray Rizzo has taken up the role of a moderator of the drum and percussion room for MARSH, Mixerman's new site on http://marsh.prosoundweb.com/. Mixerman is an "internet-famous recording engineer who writes about recording sessions"

Codas

• Frank "Crash D" Clay a.k.a. Frank White, 40, . died of a heart attack on April 6..Clay was a radio DJ for WLBJ 1570 AM and Hot 104.3 FM.

• Ralph B. Doak Sr. 86, died in Louisville on April 5. He played guitar for the "Touch of Country" band.

• Robert Stanley Domain, 66, died in Louisville on March 27. He was a musician and arranger for the WHAS Crusade for Children and was a member of the US Army's 113^th Army in Louisville and the American Federation of Musicians, Local 11-637.